Gordon reveals a complex history of contest and confrontation in the Japanese workplace. Beginning with Occupation reforms and their influence, Gordon traces worker activism and protest in the 1950s and ’60s, and how they gave way to management victory in the 1960s and ’70s.

The Wages of Affluence establishes, convincingly, that Japanese workers and managers are very human. This is a major achievement, and confirms Andrew Gordon's place as a truly outstanding scholar of Japanese labour history...The overwhelming richness of the written and interview material marshalled to discuss these questions makes compelling reading. Industrial relations history is deftly interwoven with the broader social and political context of the time. Indeed, the control for the workplace spilled over into the home, the streets, the courts and even the arena of international relations. Those wishing to understand the post-war remaking of Japan's political economy and society will find much of value in this book...This is a major contribution to our understanding of Japanese industrial relations, business and social history, which will justifiably find its way on to many course lists and bibliographies.
-- D. H. Whittaker Business History