JAPANESE LABOUR.

Taihape Daily Times, 28 July 1919, Page 5

JAPANESE LABOUR.

THE WAGES AND HOURS. PROGRESS IN SHIPBUILDING. The s.s. War Pilot, which was at Lyttelton recently, is a Japanese~built Ship launched from the Kawasaki Yards. Over these yards Mr. Adam McCay went with Mr. Kiyomi Kadota chief foreign secretary of the Kawa-. saki Dockyard Company. In the Sydney Sun Mr. McCay writes his improssions of that visit. His article on the subject is most informative, and is written with clear-ncss and without. bias of any sort. He states that the Kawasaki Dockyard Co. Ltd., like all other big companies of the same kind, is owned entirely by Japanese capital. The Government subsidy for Shiptnljlding imposes that condition. At Kawasaki, as elsewhere, the purely Japanese Work has gone energetically "Ih‘~‘ad“J3Danese capital, Japanese rnanagement, Japanese labour, all tellmg Of JaP3nOSO Dxpansion. The whole world knows what. profits the ships 11aVc- made after being built

Naturally the question of wages and conditions of labour arose. On this matter there there are published official returns, «but such tabulated statistics are a year or two behind, and in the past two years Japan has experienced a.sharp rise in wages, made necessary by the high prices of food. Unionism. as We know it in Australia, is in its toothless infancy in Japan, but a country does not mature its own civilisation through a thousand years Without some kind of organisation. In every class of labourthere are not unions, but guilds and the guild has some voice in seeking higher Wages when the cost of living rises, TWO AND TWOPENCE A DAY. In 1916, say the official returns, a shipwright in Japan was paid an average of 96 sen per day, This would be equal to about 2/2 in English money, and the labourer world work seven days a week. But no wages quite so low are existent “now in the skilled industries.

At K‘ax‘vasaki, at the present time,‘ men Work a 10-hour day, but every’body also works two hours’ overtime, .so that-/12‘ houl's"iS the artisan’s customary contribution to production. He Works seven days a. week and, according to his place in the yard, he may receive ‘ from one and a half to two yen a day. A yen is 100 sen, and its present value is little over *2/2_ .A firstclass man in a ‘shipyard, then, can earn 30/ in 48 hotfis.

HAs the value of the wage depends on the cost of living, it was necessary to ascertain how far the 30/ wages exceeded a mere subsisting afid in this regard the calculation was made for me, that a man w‘th a Wife and small fmily could get thrbugh ‘on :1 sum_ re-presen't‘ing as nearly as pos—sible 2. pound a wek. This, if you please is not an official estinl‘a.t'e, b'ut is the fig. ul-lie suggested by in the great dockyard itself. T

4, Mr. Mc_Cay learned from Mr. Kadota that all things considered, the shipbuilding cost in Japan Will remain lower than it is elsewhere. “Can it be suggested that the same result per man is obtained in Japan, as in Britain and Arnerica? was the question put by Mr. McCay. ‘ ' “No; was the reply_ “You ‘can see for yourself that the men WOl‘king_here are not as strong as the men Working in your own country.”

011 the point bf comparative skill’ he was less inclined to make concession. A GOOD EMPLOYER.

- The Kawasaki Company prides itlself on being a good employer, and its pay, as quoted above, contains overltime and a bonus. The artisan serves For a term of years, and in general the ,amount he receives is determined "by his length of service and the capacity ‘he has shown. In Australia his pay ,would be starvation, and the hours ‘he works would be regarded as in}human. Nevertheless such an employter as this dockyard must not be called 1a sweater, because its principle not ‘the sweating principle. Its conditions y and pay are better than those of other ifactories to which men are called, and {when questions were asked concerning strikes the answer was: “There ‘have been strikes, but not in these yards, because our conditions are the ‘betterf’ . Nor is management in Japan wedded to low~wage principles, ‘even though ‘Asiatic wages for a long time are bound to be far below the Australasian level. In any country only the mean employer thinks that the cheapest labour he can secure ‘is the best he can find. There have been '-many rises in wages in Jap>n during the war, and if food, clothing, and shelter continue to advancerin price there will be more_ “Wages wil not descend,”. Mr. Kadota said, “nor will the 14-hour day return. It Was of no use." He went on: “There will be no ultimate objection in Japan to an 8-hour day; but it cannot arrive until it is accompanied by an increased eificieney Eight hours of work. if granted to-day would remove just so much per cent. of the production Later on the workmen may betrained to an 8-hour speed and then the 8-hour day will be na--tural.’ ’ '