The third and largest action was notable for the union's months-long occupation of the Toho film studio, and their eventual removal by police backed by the United States Army.

[2] After the Japanese surrender, the Allied Occupation government enacted a campaign of liberalization in Japan, which included the return of freedom of expression, promotion of labor unions and democratization of the economy.

[10] The strike at Toho continued into November; but on November 13 the "Society of the Flag of Ten" — actors Denjiro Okochi, Kazuo Hasegawa, Susumu Fujita, Setsuko Hara, Hideko Takamine, Isuzu Yamada, Takako Irie, Toshiko Yamane, Ranko Hanai, and Yataro Kurokawa — alienated by the militancy of the main Toho union and wanting to return to work, formed another union and were joined by around 450 studio employees, including directors Kunio Watanabe and Yutaka Abe.

[10] The contracts offered by both union and management were based on Occupation government samples from the American auto industry and their contents were similar, and the two sides came to terms, ending the strike on December 3.

[14] In April Toho management announced the dismissal of 1200 employees, including 287 studio staff,[15] with the publicized aim of both cutting expenses and eliminating Communist members of the union.

[15] In response, the union issued a "manifesto of disobedience," and made calls for support throughout the country, attracting a "joint defense group" of around 3,000 sympathisers, including activists from the Japan Communist Party, Communist Youth League and Industry Labor Association, and North Korean Association, that helped to occupy the Kinuta studio on April 15, erecting barricades and closing the main gates.

[5][15] On May 1 Toho announced a one-month suspension of studio operations, froze funds for all active productions, and demanded the closing and return of facilities to company control, which the union refused.

[17] With the announcement coming on May Day, the unionists and their supporters sang songs, danced, held group discussions and marched around the lot.

Actors including Ryo Ikebe, Yuriko Hamada, Takashi Shimura, and Ichiro Ryuzaki contributed their fees from acting in films of other studios.

[19] While it is unclear who started the fire,[21][22] according to an Occupation report, it was extinguished by union members who prevented firemen from dismantling the barricades for fear that police would follow.

Two thousand policemen surrounded the studio, reinforced by a platoon of soldiers of the 1st Cavalry Division, three scout planes, and six armored cars and five tanks sent by the U.S. Eighth Army.

[23] However, the incident was initiated by the Eighth Army, which claimed Americans living in the vicinity were in danger and pressed for intervention by the Tokyo Military Government Team, which in turn instructed Toho to request police action.

[32] During the peak of the Red Purge after the outbreak of the Korean War, over a hundred employees at Shochiku, Daiei and Toho were fired as communists and blacklisted.

[33] The profits from A Woman's Life were used to fund the production of Street of Violence, directed by Satsuo Yamamoto, and the establishment of Shinsei Eigasha, which would serve as a precursor to an independent film movement in the 1950s.

However, he considered the firing of young, promising assistant directors during the strikes the beginning of the decline of the Japanese film industry, ill-equipped to deal with the eventual rise of television.