AN INFORMATIVE I.L.O. PUBLICATION

Grey River Argus, 13 June 1933, Page 8

AN INFORMATIVE I.L.O. PUBLICATION

LABOUR CONDITIONS IN JAPAN. (By II.E.II.) Towards the end of May questions relating to textile and other goods produced by cheap labour in Japan were being asked in the House of Commons, and the President of the. Board of Trade replied that “the necessary steps were being taken to prevent unfair competition against British manufactures extending within the Empire.” How this is to be accomplished’ is not indicated. Air. John Sykes, of Hamilton, writing in the “Waikato Times” a few days prior to the questionings in the House of Commons, stated that a buyer of one of the largest wholesale firms (who placed an order for 2000 dozen of a certain lino of British goods and shortly afterward was shown a similar line of Japanese manufacture at half the price) had declared in effect that, if British goods were allowed in duty free and Japan had to pay the present tariffs, Britain could not compete with Japan. In view of these facts, publications making available reliable information in relation to the industrial conditions of the East should have a compelling interest for the countries where the higher standards of living are likely to be affected by the competition of countries with lower standards. In the compilation of this class of literature the International Labour Office (League ‘of Nations) at Geneva stands supreme. A RECENT 1.L.0. BOOK. A recent book issued by the 1.L.0., through the London publishing house of P. S. King and Son (and sold by Clarte), is entitled “Industrial Labour in Japan,” is stated in the preface—the first of a series of studies on Asiatic territories. An acknowledgment is made of the 1.L.0.’s gratitude to the competent departments of the Japanese Government for help given and documents made available in the preparation of the volume. Hence the facts presented will not be challenged. The authors of the volume in their intro-

ductory section review the rise of Japanese industry, and then proceed to deal with industrial relations, labour legislation and administration, conditions of work, unemployment and migration, and workers’ welfare, education, and co-operation. THE RIVAL ORGANISATIONS. 'The influence of western ideas (especially Socialist doctrines), elementary education, and urban concentration in facilitating the organisation of mass movements is stressed, as well as that of Capitalist economy which,

bringing into existence a large class of wage-earners, has transformed the old personal relationship between the Oya-kata and his dei-shi (at once pupil and worker) into an impersonal relationship between employer and employed. The organisations of Labour arc shown to be of slow growth and weak and insignificant, but wo read that the organisations of Capital constitute to-day by far the most powerful social element in Japan. A relatively small number of wealthy families control most of the basic industries, “and this concentration (noticeably accelerated after the wars with China and Russia and the Great War) has progressively increased until now not only the manufacture of goods but the supply of and trade in raw materials, the shipping trade, and banking itself has been absorbed by some halfdozen families.’’

THE CHILD SERFS OF JAPAN. Not the least interesting chapters of the book are those which deal with recruitment, employment, hours of work, and so on. “Recruitment” is the method employed to secure labour for the mills and other undertakings. In 1927 there, were 20,196 recruiting agents, and the number of workers recruited by these agents was 353,372. By 1930 the number of agents had fallen 14,420, by whom 268,372 workers were recruited. The recruitings for the respective industries were: Silk reeling. 215,810; cotton spinning 27,750; weaving 8,172; mining 7,040; civil engineering 5,778. Textile mills and factories other than those mentioned accounted for the balance. THE AGENTS’ METHODS. Thu agents go into selected areas, carrying with them attractively-illus-trated propaganda literature. Their equipment often includes a cinematographic apparatus to show pictures of factory life, and the agents describe this life and its advantages in glowing terms and quote wages which usually strike the country people as being very high in comparison with what they can earn for agricultural work. ‘Moreover, they (the agents) promise that part of the earnings of the recruited boy or girl shall be periodically remitted to the parents, and as a rule make the proposal that a lump sum of money shall be sent to parents who may be in need of cash. When a large amount of money has been borrowed by the parents, * the son or daughter whose employment is the guarantee for tho loan is virtually deprived of freedom, and is practically in the position of an indentured labourer. While there is- no- legal obligation for the to remain with the employer until the money borrowed has been paid back by so many months, or years, of work, there is, in fact, no other solution than to continue in the employment until tho loan is paid back.”

UNBREAKABLE BONDS. It is explained that, under this system of lending money to tho parents the debt is sometimes drawn up in such a way that, if any difficulties arise in the payment of the debt, the case would be brought before the court not of the village where the parents

are living but of the town where the factory is situated* and, because the parents are usually in poor circumstances a,nd have no means of travelling to a distant"!'ownj even when legal action is taken against them, the ease is judged in their absence and as a rule to their disadvantage. WHAT AN INQUIRY REVEALED. An inquiry by the Tokyo Local Employment Exchange Board into the employment conditions of young girls in 1,204 silk filatures in 1924 revealed the fact that in 80.5 per cent, of the cases loans had been made, and that only IS per cent, of these workers had borrowed the money for their own needs; all the rest had been borrowed by their families. The amount of loans per head ranged from 1 yen to 480 yen. the average being 31 1-3 yen, equivalent to nearly 22 months’ wages. In 1928, the average indebtedness among I the girls employed in the silk filatures jin Yamanashi Prefecture was 23.49 yen. Under this system, it is pointed out, the girls under a debt, are virtually obliged to stay with the same employer until the debt'is liquidated. And this is not the whole of the story; for, as the report shows: “Most of the parents who have asked for one loan demand others, so that the girls have no opportunity of earning wages for their own use. Tn order to moot this difficulty they are willing to do overtime work at. rates far lower than those for regular work.” Furthermore: “There are many young girls who work without knowing how their loans are liquidated or without, the knowledge, of exactly how much they are being paid.” These facts would make it appear that many of the child workers of Japan stand in the relation of chattels which constitute the security for a bill of sale in perpetuity. “The loan system results in virtually depriving many workers of their individual liberty.” CONDITIONS OF APPRENTICESHIP. There is an informative and interesting section dealing with the origin and development of the Japanese trade unions and the period of political influences, together with some reference to political repressions; hut space will not permit me to deal with these aspects. The period of apprenticeship varies from two io seven years, and the. hours of work are from eight to ten per day. Special conditions are laid down by law regarding apprenticeship coni rads, but the object of tho legislation has not been attained largely, it is claimed, because it is not. possible to apply the same apprenticeship regulations in small workshops and large factories. Large amounts’of cheap goods for both home consumption, and export are manufactured in workshops where less than ten workers are employed under conditions that need regulation. “Toys, paper boxes, fans, bamboo articles, Japanese parasols and lanterns, paper patterns, straw braids, ribbons or tapes in cotton or silk, embroidery and hundreds of other small hand-made objects which constitute an important part, of Japanese export goods are manufactured in small workshops not covered by the Factory Act, and it is in those workshops that unregulated apprenticeship still prevails.”

HOURS OF WORK. There is a conflict of statistics relating to the working hours. The Labour Census figures for .1927 showed that the average hours worked in silk filatures were a fraction under 11 per day, and in cotton spinning and weaving slightly less than 10 per day. On the other hand, the Bureau of Statistics records 9 hours 32 minutes as the average worked in textiles in 1930, the reduction reflecting the result of tho abolition of night work in cotton spinning in 1929, which brought the working hours in this case from 10 to BA. The Labour Causus, 1927, shows that 8 per cent, of the cotton workers worked overtime, to tho average extent of 42 minutes a day in spinning and 48 minutes in weaving. During the last few years, however, there has been an increase in the number of i permits for overtime-working up to j two hours a day and for seven days a month. Most of tho permits were for the textile industry. Although the employment of young persons under sixteen and of women is prohibited from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., almost all cotton spinners have taken advantage of an exception which allows them’ to be worked until 11 p.m. The weekly rest day is not customary in Japan. Most firms give two days a month, with several holidays, such as New Acer’s Day and at mid-summer. In | 1927 most of the cotton spinners had j

four days’ rest a month, but fourfifths of the weavers had no more than two days. WAGE RATES. It is extremely difficult to gauge the Japanese standard of wages, which is raised or lowered, according to materials, season and market prices. Besides, the statistics themselves are confusing. In October, 1927, the average wages in factories given, in the monthly report were 17 per cent, higher for men workers and 14 per cent, higher for women and girls than the average wages given in the Labour Census report. The wages of most workers arc fixed by individual bargaining, and 11 supplementary wages”—overtime pay, special allowance, bonuses, and payment in kind —are an indispensable part of ,the -workers’ earnings. In the textile industries 86 per cent, of the workers receive part •of their wages in kind; almost all the ■silk filatures and cotton-spinning factories investigated paid their workers on a system of money wages combined | with wages in kind. In 1927 the average daily wages of the. 212,519 cottonspinning workers were 1.13 yen in monev, 0.14 yen in kind, a total of 1 — < yen. Among 15,892 paid wholly in money the average was 1.24 yen. In cotton weaving 27,693 workers paid wholly in money received 0.96 yen a day; 42,011 paid in money and kind received 0.94 yen in money and 0.17 yen in supplies, a total of 1.11 yen. The ven at par is 2s o}d. Provision is made for the infliction of penalties for variations from the standard of work arbitrarily set. for the worker, “and often the penalty is so high that the worker may receive a very small wage. ’ ’ WHY WAGES ARE LOW. One of the main reasons for the extremely low wages paid is lack of organisation. There are few collective agreements, for only about 7 per cent, of the workers arc organised. Of the female workers in the manufacturing industries in 1931 only 0.7 per cent, were members of trade unions. It is not, therefore, surprising to read that women’s wages in the years 1928-31 inclusive were much less than half the wages of the male -workers. About one-half of all factory workers in Japan are women and girls. In most factories wages are paid once or twice a month; but in some seasonal industries the workers are paid by the season. Men working in paper mills are often paid a so-called yearly wage for a. period lasting about ton months in the year. WAGES STEADILY PALLING. During recent years the wages of the Japanese workers have steadily declined, as is revealed in the following table which shows the average daily wages (in yen) in the various industries in the years 1928 and 1931:

It will be noted that in only three industries was there an advance in wages, and in these cases the increase was infinitesimal. The highest wages arc earned by the metal workers, mechanics in machine and tool manufacturing trades, leather and hide trades, gas works, and electrical trades; but in no case during 1931 did the average w’ages reach 6/- per day. Wages in the coal mines and printing industry average less than 3 z per day.

1928 1931 Textiles .. LU 0.S7 Ceramics .. 2.12 1.89 Metal .. 2.90 2.73 Machine and Tool . 2.78 2.60 Chemical . . 2.01 1.89 Paper . . 1.85 1.89 Leather, Bone, etc. .J 2. i 9 Wood and Bamboo . . 1.86 1.44 Food and Drink . . 1.60 1.61 Clothing . . 1.50 1.31 Construction .. 2.53 1.73 Printing and Bookbinding 1.80 1.97 Gas and Electricity 2.0.> Mines . . 1.76 1.45 |