Steel Works

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31195, 20 October 1966, Page 16

Steel Works

Sir, —In view of the imminent call for public money for the new steelworks, I would be grateful if you could let your readers know what the wage of a Japanese worker in the industry is now, in our currency. The industry is highly mechanised I believe, so 1 do not think we can say “Oh, but our organisation is much better.”—Yours, etc., P.O.W. October 10, 1966.

[Mr J. A. Pountney, advissory officer for the Japanese Embassy, replies: “The ‘Japan Statistical Yearbook,’ for 1965 gives the following average figure of an iron and steel worker: Age of worker. 34.8 years; duration of service, 9.5 years: monthly earnings, £48.1 (N.Z.). A word of explanation is perhaps necessary for the first two figures. The major steel industries have a long history of operation and son often follows father in the job, and spends his working life in the same company. Although possessing no iron ore of her own, Japan last year was the world’s largest exporter of steel, selling overseas in excess of 10,000,000 tons.]