During the period of industrialisation in Japan from the 1870s to the 1930s, the textile industry was Japan's largest manufacturing industry, and the country's major source of export earnings. It had a predominantly female labour force, drawn mainly from the agricultural population.This book examines the institutions of the labour market of this critical industry during this important period for Japanese economic development. Based on extensive original research, the book provides a wealth of detail, showing amongst other things the complexity of the labour market, the interdependence of the agricultural and manufacturing sectors, and the importance of gender. It argues that the labour market institutions which developed in this period had a profound effect on the labour market and labour relations in the postwar years.
Author(s): Janet Hunter
Edition: 1
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 336
Book Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 4
Contents......Page 5
List of figures and tables......Page 9
Acknowledgements......Page 10
Introduction: textile workers and Japanese industrialisation......Page 12
The rural connection: growth, distribution and gender......Page 20
The growth of the mechanised textile industries in prewar Japan......Page 42
Rural origins......Page 61
The making of textile workers......Page 100
The institutions of wage payment......Page 155
Changing the rules of the game: the role of the government......Page 201
Collusion and collaboration: collective action by employers and employees......Page 234
Textile work, families and villages......Page 281
A summing up......Page 308
Bibliography......Page 313
Index......Page 332
