TEN YEARS’ WORK.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 140, 5 August 1911, Page 6

TEN YEARS’ WORK.

JAPANESE FACTORY LAWS. Alter ton years of woik on the subject, the Japanese Government has jasc laid before Parliament its pio]>;.£,ils for tiie protection of tne factory uOiV-e:s ot Japan, due Government desires to appiy tiie frill to all worksnaps and factories with more than ton win kors. This w ould .include 15, (26 factories and (119.1 m ivoikois. Tne Commissi'm which cliew up the iriii in too hist place restricted inspection to lactones of twenty worker s, and tne final compromise is likely to woik out at fifteen. Reihaps tiie most interesting part of the Government’s proposals is that which applies to women and children. If the Bill passes into law, children uqder twelve years ot agg ,\ml no longer be employed in the factories oi japan. i\o young niuij. or woman unuei hi teen years of ’ age* v. ill be allowed to work in oi j tuan twelve hours a day, a provision suggests’t.-nu these young people are o»ta worked at present, . ney wall also be projected nom night work. i lien again, young people under sixteen years or age ate lu enjoy two days’ lose in tne mentn, ana in tiie case of clay and night shift workers tne holidays will amount to four days. A day labourer will not be expected to woiiv tor more than six hours at a stretch without a break of half an hour, while in the course of. a tenJ'Otu s’ day he will oc able to claim an hour oil'. Another provision prohibits the employment ol gills and young people unuei lit teen on electrical nuiemneiy and in other dangerous trades. The law as far as it goes is an excellent one, and 'now that tiie Maiquis of ivaisui a inis’ come to terms with tiie SejyUkui, the strongest Parliamentary group in Japan, v.men opposed protection for workers, on tne ground that it laid a too heavy burden on industry’, there is every piospect of the Bill passing into law,.