US honors grassroots action: 30 yrs of supporting distressed foreigners in Japan (Pt. 2)
April 17, 2021 (Mainichi Japan)
Ippei Torii, left, is honored by the U.S. Department of State as a "hero in the fight against human trafficking," in Washington on June 19, 2013. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of State)
NAGANO -- Ippei Torii, 67, representative director of Solidarity Network with Migrants Japan (SMJ), a nonprofit organization that continues to support foreign workers, has no middle finger on his left hand.
In 1980, when he was in his 20s, he was working at a factory in Arakawa Ward, Tokyo, processing plastic into molds when a metal mold collapsed and he lost his finger. At that workplace, a colleague also suffered an accident on the job, but the company took no action and also tried to crush union activities. Torii consulted with a labor union that he could join individually, which led him to throw himself into the labor movement.