FACTORY SLAVERY OF JAPANESE WOMEN

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 130, 26 February 1920, Page 2

FACTORY SLAVERY OF JAPANESE WOMEN

The conditions of the girl and woman workers in the Japanese factories mnio terrible reading for New Zealand women (states an exchange). The working time of the great textile factories is the 24-hour system. Labour is indentured from the country for a minimum period of three years, by which tiino it is 60 chained down Hint it must remain for further periods—if alive. The girls sleep in dormitories right on the promises, and are fed by tho factories. There are only two. shifts a day, because, unfortunately for the mill owners, there are only twenty-four hours a day. Thev operate from G a.m. to G p.m. Very simple; it needs no book-keeping. Tho week is of seven dnys, though there are certain holiday times. While one shift works the other sleeps; again a very siuiDlo arrangement; the same bedding does for both shifts. In again, out again. The labour is mostly composed of young girls of 12 and 15; none above 20. and some younger than 12. Then there is a terrible branch styled childIflhour. And the dividends are in tho rcsion of 50 to 70 per cent. ' It. is a- get-rieh-tiuiok system of soulless and incredib'.o exnloitntion. The factories are all alike. Little giTls, little girls, and again little girls i Every second week their daylight hours are spent in exhausted I sleep; at sunrise they go to sleep on the mat another girl has just left. Generations of such conditions of labour have left 'an indelible mark on the physique of the nation; the Japanese girl is' so small in stature and her face up to 18 years is so childish, tlii>t_ it seems as if the very babies were toiling through the weary midnight. Then there are little boys in match factories; in glass factories; child labour in industry after industry- In fact, Japan is one vast sweat-shop, where the children are ground into something anproaching the status of tho boast, of burden, and things are slow in altering for the better. Eleven years ago female operatives could be got for ild. n day. In 1916 they were receiving only Gd. to Sd. a day; those under 15 got id. and 5d., board and lodging included in all cases. Lately $ie wages ore being forced steadily upwards UiTOitgh the-spread of discontent nnd enlightenment. In August, 1918, there were "rice-riots" by the coolies. They took a direct notion poinf of view by touching the profiteer's soul, his pocketbook. They burnt his stocks. Very useless as far'as supplying bread was concerned, birt it forced the Japanese Government to step in and buy cheap vice for the starving millions. As showing the appalling horror of the situation and the apparently boneless nature of the problem; the following is extracted from the "Japanese Chronicle":-' "The number of women wno .ire recruited as factory workers Tenches 200,000 every year, but of these 120.000 do not return to the paternal roaf. Either they become, birds of passage and move from one factoiy to another, or go as maids In dubious tea-houses or «s illicit prostitutes. Among tho 80,000 women who return to their homes something like 13,000 are found to be sick, about 25 per cent, of them having contracted consumption. The death-rate from eonsnmptiin of female factor}- operatives is, as reported to the police, 8 per 1000, but the death-rate after their return home is 30 per 1000."