Louis Carlet is the executive president of Zenkoku Ippan Tokyo General Union ("Tozen"), a union representing both Japanese and migrant workers, including foreign language teachers, bank and newspaper workers. Carlet is from the United States and moved to Japan in the early 1990s, originally working as a translator for a Japanese newspaper and subsequently leaving that position to become a full-time trade union organizer.[1] He has acted as an adviser to English instructors and others with work-related problems through the Japan Times - the country's leading English-language daily newspaper[2][3]
In 2005, Carlet organized the "March in March" to raise awareness for job security and inequality of foreign workers in Japan. Zentoitsu's Ippei Torii had begun "foreigner spring labor offensive" in the mid-1990s, which included demonstrations and marches. Building on that tradition, Carlet spearheaded and organized a "Job Security March" in Shibuya in 2005. The march called for job security and equality for foreigners. The following year, 2006, he changed the name to "March in March." The new branding helped raise the profile of the protest march, which became known for music, performances, enormous "mushiro-bata" tatami mat signs, and a festive parade atmosphere. He was successful in gaining media coverage. The march has taken place the second Sunday each March since 2006 but was cancelled in 2010 and 2011 due to heavy rain and the Great East Japan Earthquake respectively. [4]
Carlet was interviewed by DemocracyNow! about the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011. In that interview he falsely claimed Tozen was the "largest multinational union in Japan."
In 2010, he left the employ of Tokyo Nambu, simultaneous with the defection of a majority of the foreign local unions to join newly founded Zenkoku Ippan Tokyo General Union. This new union, nicknamed Tozen, is registered with the Tokyo Labor Commission as well as with the Justice Bureau. It has grown since founding from six to ten local unions.