The National Union of General Workers (全国一般労働組合,, Zenkoku Ippan Roudou Kumiai, acronym NUGW) is a Japanese national labour union affiliated with the Zenrokyo (National Trade Union Council), which is itself one of the three main federations within the Japanese trade union structure.

The NUGW also acts as an umbrella organisation encompassing numerous smaller autonomous trade unions, including the National Union of General Workers - Tokyo South (also known as NAMBU), which represents Eastern Japan; the General Union, headquartered in Osaka, representing Western Japan, and the Fukuoka General Union, representing Kyushu; and the University Teacher's Union (UTU).

These unions are sub-divided into smaller chapters representing Japanese members in the publishing industries, whilst most non-Japanese members are employed in Eikaiwa (English-language teaching in Japan). ^{[citation needed]}

For the most part, union branches are based at vocational schools, conversation schools, and private and public high schools having representative branch unions at dozens ^{[citation needed]} of English language schools including Nova, GEOS, Berlitz, ECC and Interac.

Anyone who contacts NUGW can be invited to join the parent union as an "individual affiliate" and directed to the nearest branch appropriate to their needs, or can be helped to form their own union branch if they have the minimum of three members required to do so.

Membership dues to NUGW are 24,000 yen^{[citation needed]} This pays for the salaries of four staff members, lawyers' fees, printing, and mailing.^[1]

Union activities include raising awareness of problems faced by foreign workers in Japan due to fixed-term contracts, improving members bargaining power and informing foreign and Japanese members of their rights under Japanese labour law and showing them how to improve working conditions.^[2]

Activities include strikes,^[3] rallies and leafleting, filing injunctions and arguing cases at Labour Commissions and District Courts ^[4] on issues such as the non-enrollment of employees into National Health Insurance (shakai hoken), illegal outsourcing of Assistant Language Teachers by public schools (gyomu itaku), and unfair dismissals due to one-year contracts.

Representatives of the National Union of General Workers - Tokyo South have served as reporters to the United Nations rapporteur on the Committee to Eliminate Racial Discrimination and the General Union (Osaka) has official consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). ^[5]

The first March in March was organisd by Louis Carlet in 2005 to raise public awareness of worker and human rights abuses.^[2] The 2007 march took place in Shibuya, Tokyo, and attracted around 300, mainly non-Japanese, marchers. The march was organised by the National Union of General Workers Nambu Foreign Workers Caucus, Kanagawa City Union, Zentoitsu Workers' Union and Tokyo Occupational Safety and Wealth Center. The main aims of the march are to focus attention on issues for migrant workers in Japan, such as unfair dismissal, job security, equality regarding accidents in the workplace and health and pension compliance. ^[6]

• National Union of General Workers
• National Union of General Workers Tokyo South
• General Union (Osaka and Nagoya areas)
• General Union Fukuoka (Fukuoka area)
• Kanagawa City Union (Kawasaki, Kanagawa)
• Zentoitsu Union (Okachimachi, Tokyo)