The Waipukurau Press PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING TUESDAY, APRIL 3, 1934. LABOUR IN JAPAN

Waipukurau Press, Volume XXIX, Issue 82, 3 April 1934, Page 4

The Waipukurau Press PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING TUESDAY, APRIL 3, 1934. LABOUR IN JAPAN

In a circular issued by the Bank of New South Wales appears an interesting survey as to Labour conditions in Japan, viz.: “The standard of living in the Far East cannot easily be judged according to Western standards. Western people are too apt to judge the standard of living by the multiplicity of wants of the people. We find it hard to appreciate simplicity of wants and so, after considering, the standards of Eastern races, whose wants are simple, we are apt to exaggerate the poor conditions of these people. In a country like Japan, where conditions are changing so rapidly, it is unwise to generalise. As one would

expect in a country whose production standards are rising, the trend of average income is rising. The difficult position of the agricultural industries at present is causing hardship among the agricultural labourers, but factory workers fare better than agricultural labourers, and in general receive wages which are not to the needs which they feel it necessary to satisfy. Most factories in Japan house their employees, and reliable reports indicate that in most cases employees are well housed, healthy and contented. So long as industrialism offers Japanese employees opportunities for a higher standard of living than agricultural labourers enjoy, and this seems likely for some time in the future, the Japanese employer cannot be accused of sweating his employees. Opportunities for higher standards are likely indeed to encourage more elaborate and varied wants, and the normal trend will be in the direction of higher real wages, which may increase production costs.”