The foundations of Japan

by J. W. Robertson Scott

The custom was, I understood, that the girls were kept on the factory premises except when they could allege urgent business in town. But they were allowed out on the three nights of the Bon festival. It was rare that priests visited the factories and there were no shrines there. The girls had sometimes "lessons" given them and occasionally story-tellers or gramophone owners amused them. The food supplied by some factories was not at all adequate and the girls had to spend their money at the factory tuck-shops. "Most proprietors," I was told, "endeavour to make part of their staff permanent by acting as middlemen to arrange marriages between female and male workers." The infants of married workers were "looked after by the youngest apprentices."

In another place I saw over a factory which employed about 160 girls, who were worked from 5:30 a.m. to 6:40 p.m. with twenty minutes for each meal. If a girl "broke her contract" it was the custom to send her name to other factories so that she could not get work again. The foremen at this establishment seemed decent men.

One who had no financial interest in the silk industry but knew the district in which this second factory stood said that "many girls" came home in trouble. The peasants did not like "the spoiling of their daughters," but were "captured in their poverty by the idea of the money to be gained." Undoubtedly the factory life was pictured in glowing colours by the kemban.

In a third factory there were more than 200 girls and only 15 men. The proprietor and manager seemed good fellows. I was assured that it was forbidden for men workers to enter the women's quarters, but on entering the dormitory I came on a man and woman scuffling. The girls of this factory and in others had running below their feet an iron pipe which was filled with steam in cold weather. On some days in July, the month in which I visited this factory, I noticed from the temperature record sheet that the heat had reached 94 degrees in the steamy spinning bays, where, unless the weather be damp, it was impossible, because of spinning conditions, to admit fresh air. I saw a complaint box for the workers. As in other factories, there was a certain provision of boiled water and ample bathing accommodation. Hot baths were taken every night in summer and every other night in winter. Here, as elsewhere, though many of the girls were pale and anaemic, all were clean in their persons, which is more than can be said of all Western factory hands. Work began at 4 a.m. and went on until 7 p.m. From 10 to 15 minutes were allowed for meals. The winter hours were from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

In this factory, as in others, there was a system of tallies, showing to all the workers the ranking of the girls for payment. The standard wage seemed to be 20 sen a day, and the average to which it was brought by good work 30 sen. There were thirty or more girls who had deductions from their 20 sen. Apprentices were shown as working at a loss. Once or twice a month a story-teller came to entertain the girls and every fortnight a teacher gave them instruction. When I asked if a priest came I was told that "in this district the families are not so religious, so the girls are not so pious." Two doctors visited the factory, one of them daily. Counting all causes, 5 per cent. of the girls returned home. The owner of the factory, a man in good physical training and with an alert and kindly face, said the industry succeeded in his district because the employers "exerted themselves" and the girls "worked with the devotion of soldiers." I thought of a motto written by the Empress, which I had seen at Ueda, "It is my wish that the girls whose service it is to spin silk shall be always diligent." Behind the desk of this factory proprietor hung the motto, "Cultivate virtues and be righteous."

The fourth factory I saw seemed to be staffed entirely with apprentices who were turned over to other factories in their third year. The girls appeared to have to sleep three girls to two mats. In the event of fire the dormitory would be a death-trap. I was told that there was an entertainment or a "lecture on character" once a week. The motto on the walls of this factory was, "Learning right ways means loving mankind."

I went over the factory which belonged to the largest concern in Japan and had 10,000 hands. The girls were looked after in well-ventilated dormitories by ten old women who slept during the day and kept watch at night. There was a fire escape. All sorts of things were on sale at wholesale prices at the factory shop, but for any good reason an exit ticket was given to town. The dining-room was excellent. There was a hospital in this factory and the nurse in the dispensary summarised at my request the ailments of the 35 girls who were lying down comfortably: stomachic, 12; colds, 7; fingers hurt by the hot water of the cocoon-soaking basins, 5; female affections, 4; nervous, 2; eyes, rheumatism, nose, lungs and kidneys, 1 each. The average wages in this factory worked out at 60 yen for 9 months. The hour of beginning work was 4:30 at the earliest. The factory stopped at sunset, the latest hour being 6:30. I was assured that of the girls who did not get married 70 per cent. renewed their contracts. A large enclosed open space was available in which the girls might stroll before going to bed. The motto of the establishment was, "I hear the voice of spring under the shadow of the trees." In reference to the new factory legislation the manager said that the hours of labour were so long that it would be some time before 10 hours a day would be initiated.[ ^[143]] This factory and its branches were started thirty years ago by a man who was originally a factory worker. Although now very rich he had "always refused to be photographed and had not availed himself of an opportunity of entering the House of Peers."

I visited several factories the girls working at which did not live in dormitories but outside. At a winding and hanking factory which was airy and well lighted the hours were from 6 to 6. At a factory where the hours were from 4:30 to 7 some reelers had been fined. Japanese Christian pastors sometimes came to see the girls, and on the wall of the recreation room there were paper gohei hung up by a Shinto priest.

I got the impression that the girls in the factories at Kōfu in Yamanashi prefecture were not driven so hard as those at the factories in the Suwas in Nagano. Someone said: "However the Suwa people may exploit their girls, we are able, working shorter hours and giving more entertainments, to produce better silk, for the simple reason that the girls are in better condition. We can get from 5 to 10 per cent. more for our silk." A factory manager said that it would be better if the girls had a regular holiday once a week, but one firm could not act alone. (The factories are working seven days a week, except for festival days and public holidays.)

With regard to the kemban, I was told in Yamanashi that many girls went to the factories "unwillingly by the instructions of their parents." It was also stated that the money paid to girls or their parents on their engagement was not properly a gratuity but an advance. I heard that the police keep a special watch on kemban. They would not do this without good reason.