Trickle-Down Effect of University Education: An Analysis of the Labor School at the Tokyo Imperial University Settlement

The Tokyo Imperial University (Tōdai) Settlement was a student volunteer organization that provided services such as legal consultation, education, medical care, and childcare to working-class communities. Participants in the organization managed the Labor School (rōdō gakkō) and helped train prominent labor activists, including Ashika Kaku. These liberal students exemplified a trickle-down effect of higher education by sharing their knowledge with less privileged segments of Japanese society. Under what circumstances did these law students come to work for the Settlement, and what exactly was the nature of the trickle-down effect they embodied through these activities? In pursuit of knowledge that could benefit underprivileged populations, the Labor School activists aimed to cultivate future labor leaders. Many participants in the Tōdai Settlement later became influential figures—historians, social surveyors, legal scholars, and liberal social activists—thus expanding the professional reach of academic expertise. Some of their students, such as Ashika Kaku, went on to serve in the Diet after 1945. However, the Labor School struggled with low student enrollment throughout its existence and ultimately closed in 1932. By analyzing this process, this article explores how specific historical and institutional contexts enabled elite students to engage with the Tōdai Settlement and train future political leaders. I argue that the trickle-down effect of higher education was not an automatic outcome, but rather the result of hardly-sustainable extraordinary effort and a luck, i.e. political upheaval that opened opportunities for worker politicians during the mid-twentieth century.