JAPANESE LABOR.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 July 1919, Page 6

JAPANESE LABOR.

THE V; AGES AND HOURS, rROGttESs in shipbuilding. The s.s. War Pilot, which was at LytIcltori a few days ago, is a Japanesebuilt ship launched from the Kawasaki Yards. Over those yards 'Mr. Adam M'Cay went with Mr. Kiyo.iii Kadota, chief foreign secretary of the Ka\Vasaki Dockyard Company. In the Sydney Sun Mr. M'Cay writes his impressions of the visit. His article oil the subject is most informative, and is written with clearness and without bins 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 shipbuilding' imposes that condition. At Kawasaki, us elsewhere, the purely Japanese work has gone energetically ahead -—Japanese capital, Japanese management, Japanese labor, all telling of Japanese expansion. The whole world knows what profits the ships have made after being built. Naturally, the question of wages and conditions of labor arose. On this matter 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 ot mature its own civilisation through a thousand years without some kind of industrial organisation. In every class of labor there 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 1910, say the official returns, a sliip"wright in Japan was paid an average of 00 sen per day. This would be c .al to about two shillings and twopence in English money, and the laborer would work seven days a week. But no wages quite so low are existent now in the skilled industries. At Kawasaki, at the present time, men work a ten-hour day, but everybody also works two hours overtime, so that twelve hours is the artisan's customary contribution to production. He works sevr-n days a week, and, according to his place in the yard, he may receive from 011 c and a half to two yen per day. A yen is 100 sen, and its present value is a little over two shillings and twopence. A first-class man in a shipyard, then, can earn 30s in 64 hours. As the value of a wage depends on the cost of living, it was necessary to ascertain how far the 30s wage exceeded a mere subsistence; and in this regard the calculation was made for me that a man with a wife and small family could get through on a sum representing as nearly as possible a pound a week. This, if you please, is not an olficial estimate, but is the figure suggested by an experienced director of labor in the great dockyard itself Mr. M'Cay learned from Mr. Kadota that, all tilings 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 or was the question put by M». M'Cay. "No," was the reply. "You can see for yourself that the men working here we not as strong as the men working in your own country. On the point of comparative skill, he was less inclined to make concession. A GOOD EMPLOYER. The Kawasaki Company prides itself en being a good employer, and its pay, as quoted above, contains overtime 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 inhuman. Nevertheless, such an employer as this dockyard must not be called a sweater, because its principle is not the sweating principle. Its'! conditions and pay are better than those of other factories 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 better." 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 Australian levil. In any country, only the mean employer thinks that the cheapest labor he can secure is the best he can find. There have been many rises in wages in Japan during the war, and if food, clothing, and shelter continue to advance in price there will be more. "Wages will not descend," Mr. Kadota said, "nor will Hie 14-hour day return. It was of no use." Even in this way might any Australian manager endorse an eight-hour principle. He went on: "There will be no ultimate objection in Japan to an eight-hour day; but it cannot arrive uni>l it is accompanied by an increased (ftiiiencv, Eight hours of work, if granted to-day would remove just so much per cent of the production Later on, the workmen may be trained to an eight-hour. speed, and then the eight-hour day will be natural."