On May 17th this year the Equal Employment Opportunities Law was passed in Parliament. It was pushed through with no acknowledgement of women workers' demands. The new law will permit night work for women and change other articles concerning maternity protection', etc. that were guaranteed in the Labour Standard Law. Furthermore, the new law has no enforcement power to check on companies violating the provision on equal opportunities in employment, training and promotion.
The government has made many attempts previously to revise the Labour Standards Law. The reason for the women's defeat this time is the decline of the power of the labour movement.
Women workers who have fought against this revision have also voiced their anger at the expansion of Japanese corporations into Asian countries and their exploitation of other Asian women. They recognise that they were the same victims thirty years ago. The main feeling is one of frustration coupled with the realisation of the need to find the means to fight and to build solidarity with women in other Asian countries.
The following two articles are the research and analysis that I hope will assist in the sharing of information and experience and in the search of a common ground for cooperation between women workers in Japan and in other Asian Countries.
The first article looks at the industrialization process in Japan in relation to women's labour in both the pre-war and post-war period. These aspects of Japan reflect also the situation of women workers in the developing Asian countries in which rapid industrialization are now underway.
The second article consists of case studies which investigate the situation faced by Japanese and Asian women employed in the same multinational corporations in the textile and electrical industries.
Tono Haruhi
Tono Haruhi is a researcher specialising on women workers' question in Asia. worked with the Asian Women's Liberation Newsletter in Japan, and has done research for AMPO.
Industrialization in Japan and the Position of Women Workers: A Historical Review
Half of the women population in Japan over the age of 15 have been employed in the labour force since the outset of the country's industrialization. (Figure 1 shows the results of a census on the number of women workers and the areas in which they are employed.) Before World War II, around 60% of Japanese women worked in the primary sector in family businesses. 15% were employed in the secondary industry, mainly in textiles. In the tertiary sector women worked either in family business in the retail trade or as company employees. They also worked largely as domestic workers within the service industry. Their wages were very low, often because their work in family business was taken for granted. If they received wages at all, it was just enough to supplement the home economy. It was thus inconceivable, even for the women workers working in the manufacturing industry, to become independent.
Japan's industrialization was spearheaded by the textile industry for more than half a century. The bulk of the workforce in textiles was the young women workers who migrated to urban centres from all over the country to secure employment. They would work for a short period before returning home to marry and become farmers' wives. This unique category of workers, known as migrant wage labourers, was created against the background of rural poverty and a strict patriarchal system.
Farming households were then suffering from huge debts as a result of high taxes and rents, and subsequently women were forced to migrate to towns to work in factories. Their wages, however, were fixed at the level of rural day workers. Being expected to uphold the moral principles of the patriarchal system and direct their lives towards becoming good wives and wise mothers, these women formed an obedient and docile workforce which can be exploited easily. Rural areas were not only a source of cheap, docile workers but also provided the necessary safety valve whereby companies could send the workers back home, with no compensation, when recession hit.
The Textile Industry spearheaded the industrialization
Figure 2 shows the change in the number of men and women workers employed in the manufacturing industry in companies of over five employees, between 1909 and 1942. Before 1933, women outnumbered men, with 80% or 90% of women then employed in this sector and particularly in the silk industry. (Accurate figures for the period prior to this are not obtainable. These figures also do not include the women in smaller businesses and housewives engaged in the household industry, which supported the whole base of the textile industry.)
Table 1 shows more details of women employed in the textile industry - that they were concentrated in the silk-reeling and cotton spinning industries, on which Japan's industrialization and foreign trade were heavily dependent. The silk industry brought in the foreign currency required to buy raw materials like cotton and iron ore and the machines needed for developing the heavy industries. The cotton spinning industry was developed to prevent the outflow of foreign currency through the import of textiles from Britain — i.e. it was an 'import- substitution' industry.
Low paid women workers were then a valuable tool for Japan in its effort to catch up with the Wester forerunners in the international market.
The silk industry acquired its competitive power by introducing wage differentials by grading workers' skills. The silk reeling industry never developed into a modern manufacturing industry but remained in the form of small or medium-sized companies located in the rural areas. As the industry established itself as the biggest export-oriented industry, it went into its boom period in the 20's. Then the flourishing American economy was taking 90% of Japan's silk which by then brought in the greatest share of Japan's foreign currency.
Table 1 also shows the increase of employees in the industry in that period.
Tab. 1: Increase of employees in textile industry from 1909 to 1942
| Year | Silkreeling Plants | Cotton Spinning Mills | Cotton Fabric Mills | Total |
| 1909 | 182 | 72 | 62 | 423 |
| 1914 | 213 | 91 | 77 | 496 |
| 1919 | 278 | 147 | 133 | 746 |
| 1924 | 300 | 146 | 139 | 779 |
| 1929 | 385 | 142 | 103 | 840 |
| 1934 | 259 | 149 | 113 | 821 |
| 1939 | 180 | 133 | 75 | 860 |
| 1942 | 109 | 50 | 49 | 619 |
Source: 50 Years History of Statistics of Industry
The first mechanized cotton-spinning factory was established in 1882. More machines were imported from Britain and raw cotton from India. The women were working in two shifts helping the industry to become one of the most successful modern manufacturing industries, and play a vital role in Japan's industrial revolution. It was not long before imports of textile products from Britain was unnecessary. By the end of the 19th Century Japan was exporting cotton goods to Korea and China. Between 1885 and 1879, Japan's cotton production increased 32-fold.
The special demands brought on by World War I provided a great boost to Japanese industry. And with the halt of imports from the West, the heavy chemical industry developed at a tremendous pace and many other new industries took roots in this period. Production by private enterprise increased five-fold in this period. Figure 2 illustrates that the number of women workers increased from 560,000 to 870,000.
Fig. 2: Change of number of workers in manufacturing industry (of establishment with over 5 persons),
Source: 50 years History of Manufacturing Statistics
It was again the cotton spinning industry that was the centre of this boom period. Table 1 shows the increase of women workers at this time in the spinning and weaving industries - a two-fold increase in the latter. This was possible because of Japan's ability to fill in the gap in the Chinese market left by the European countries in the throes of war. This boom did not last long. By the early 1920's the spinning and weaving industries began to suffer from over-production and throughout the 1920's employment was stagnant. The crisis was overcome by retrenching workers and dumping products to China. The low-price cotton goods that was exported in mass to China had greatly damaged the local Chinese industry. To exacerbate the problem Japanese entrepreneurs began investing in Chintao and Shanghai, then under the military control of Japan. They employed Chinese workers at half or one third the wage paid to Japanese workers and made them work even longer hours. The size of these China-based companies also expanded. By 1940, 20% of all Japanese production equipment was located in China.
Japan's economic invasion was to become one of the targets for the movement for national liberation in China. Japanese military forces were often deployed to suppress strikes by Chinese workers. The Japanese entrepreneurs used the same kinds of labour control methods they employed inside Japan, including, for example, the dormitory system. At the same time they exploited Chinese labour practices.
Within Japan, Korean women were systematically being exploited, receiving even cheaper wages and in worse working conditions than Japanese women. In 1930, there were about 10,000 Korean women employed in the textile industry inside Japan.
The Miserable situation of Japanese Textile Workers
The whole problem faced by women workers in Japan is well exemplified in the history of the textiles industry. Most women workers were well under 20 years old and came from poor farming families. Various devices were employed to recruit workers as the labour shortage worsened. Recruiting agents were paid in relation to the number of workers they recruited. They would go to remote villages all over the country to advertise. They sold the idea that the girls would be able to eat good rice every day and save money for their marriage and family. They sold them dreams of living in the city. Contracts were made not with the girls themselves but with their parents. When the contracts were finalized, parents were given an advance payment, thus binding the girls to a particular company and agreement. The arrangements were more similar to traffic of human beings than modern employment.
Silk reelers worked more than 14 hours a day from early morning to night. Cotton spinners worked between 11 and 12 hours a day in two shifts. When the factory was busy they were forced to work up to 24 hours solid. This situation persisted until 1929 when a law prohibiting night work was introduced.
Breaks were short with 30 minutes for lunch. They had a holiday once or twice a month.
Daily life was hell, and wages of the women workers could buy only 2 kg of rice a day. This was about a half or sometimes a third of men's payment. Wages of course fluctuated with the ups and downs of the economy. To raise productivity, a system of rewards and penalties was implemented. Basic wages and efficiency-related payments were combined together. Women were forced to compete against each other for rewards. They had to somehow remit most of their meagre wages to their parents. Their wages were saved for them by the employers to prevent them from running away. This was known as the forced saving system' and savings were often confiscated.
Most of the women had to live in terrible conditions in dormitories, which were really just places to recover from exhaustion. The dormitories were situated on the factory site surrounded by high walls to prevent women escape. Their rooms were locked from the outside. Many women would be packed together in one big room with about 1.5 sq. meter per person. Bedding was shared by two women working different shifts. Dormitory matrons or house mothers controlled where they went, what they read and what they wrote in their letters. Their private life too was totally under the company's thumb.
Many women suffered continual sexual abuse from recruiters or supervisors. The bad conditions, the hard work, particularly night work, and the dismissal of many workers during recessions caused many women to turn to prostitution. It is believed that 30% of prostitutes in that period were former factory workers.
Health was another problem. Many suffered from the bad ventilation and the high humidity, exhaustion and lack of nutrition. Stomach and lung diseases, particularly tuberculosis, were common. An investigation made in 1910 on request of the government, reported that one in five factory workers were suffering from tuberculosis when they returned home. One in forty died.
All the devices employed by companies were with the aim of completely binding the women to the factories. They propagated the idea that the management should be looked upon as parents, reflecting the traditional 'house system'. Outside working hours, companies arranged classes on elementary education, moral education, sewing, flower arranging, the tea ceremony, cookery, etc. All these activities were described as preparation for the making of a bride. The women were detracted from any consciousness of human rights. They were enveloped in the designs of the company to make them into "good wives and wise mothers".
The government, meanwhile, postponed all labour legislation that would protect workers, and suppressed the labour movement at the same time. The Factory Law of 1911 banned nightwork and long hours for women and children but exceptions were more often than not the rule. Prohibition of nightwork was enforced in 1929 but until then companies had had plenty of time to prepare themselves. A process of rationalization had begun, hand in hand with investment in the colonies, particularly in China, thus minimizing the effects of the labour laws that were implemented.
What form of protest against these conditions emerged from the women? In the early stages of industrialization the average length of service of women workers in the textile industry was only six months. This was because of women escaping from the oppressive working condition. This was one of the reasons for the constant need for recruiting. The first strike in Japan was organized by women silk reelers in 1886 but with a powerless labour movement in Japan, results of any such struggles were miniscule.
In 1912 the first nation-wide worker's organization, known as the 'Friendship Society', was established and in 1916 a women's section was set up. As strength of the workers' organisation grew, disputes in the textile industry became more and more widespread, especially approaching the thirties. 1930 was the peak year when economic depression resulted in mass dismissal of workers, rationalization and wage cuts. However, among the women workers, there was no significant protest or unionization. Living standards in the rural areas from where the women had been taken were extremely low so most women were not really surprised by the miserable conditions in the factories. Most migrant women workers were only working for a short period before they married and so acquired no consciousness of being independent workers. They looked upon their wages as only a supplement for the family income. Since even their private life was controlled by the management, it was almost impossible for them to organize. And even if they wanted to organise, discrimination against women was still inherent in union organizations. Women were certainly never expected to take leadership positions.
As Japan began its militarization, all labour movements that existed were suppressed and by 1934 were completely destroyed.
The Great Depression of 1929 hit the Japanese economy hard, attacking both the manufacturing industry and the agriculture. Women employed in the textile industry, particularly silk manufacturing, had to return to their rural homes. Many women were driven into prostitution at that time.
War and the advance of the Heavy-Chemical Industry
Heavy/chemical goods production between 1920 and 1930 made up only 30% of total industrial production. The light industry led the Japanese economy in this period. The production of textile industry alone exceeded the total production of the heavy/chemical industry.
However, following the depression in 1929, the textile industry relinquished its position as spearhead of Japan's industrialization to the heavy/chemical industry. Now male workers took over the helm of the promotion of Japanese economic advancement. Men workers outnumbered women workers for the first time in 1933 (see figure 2). The figure of 850,000 men workers in 1929 increased to 2,700,000 by 1942 - a threefold increase in 13 years. Of this increase, 90% was in the heavy/chemical industry, particularly in machine manufacturing.
By 1930 the government's intention was to overcome the Depression with heavy capital investment in the heavy/chemical industry, particularly munitions production. The military budget was expanded and the military forces increased.
A profile of employment in the latter half of the 1930s show employees in the heavy/chemical industry outnumbering those in the light industry. There was a severe labour shortage. The government forcibly brought in workers from the colonies. Hundreds of Koreans were brought over and forced to work in mines in the worst conditions. Towards the end of the war students and unmarried women were mobilized and forced to work for nothing in ammunition factories.
It is impossible to obtain official accurate figures on women employed in the arm industry but one figure quoted is 2,250,000 workers, 47% of which were women employed in the heavy/chemical industry. Working in the ammunition and machine manufacturing industries were 770,000 women.
At the same time, women still living with their family had to do all the work at home while the men were driven to fight in the war fronts.
The Post War High Growth and Women's Labour
Defeat in 1945 brought the American Occupation, the democratizing process and five major reform goals. The emancipation of women and the organization of labour unions and many other reforms sympathetic toward women and labour were brought in. Women were given the right to participate in government for the first time and the right to vote. The new Constitution and civil law abolished the 'house' system. Spouses were granted equal rights over responsibility towards children and the inheritance of property.
The status and treatment of women workers saw a great improvement with the Labour Standards Law being introduced in 1947. The Labour Protection Law further guaranteed the right to organize, collective bargaining and the right to strike. Sexual equality and maternity protection for women was now being promoted. This meant equal pay for equal work, restrictions on overtime work and dangerous labour, prohibition of night work and working underground, six weeks maternity leave, menstrual leave, and reform of the dormitory system.
It is significant that democratization was imposed on Japan by the American occupation and was never fought for or evolved«through a natural social process. Despite the legal recognition of rights for women, the process of inbibing these rights into everyday life and consciousness has been a painfully slow one. The harsh reality of a defeated Japan were now showing its impact.
Labour conditions were severe and unemployment reached 13 million. The women workers who had supported the economy during the war were dismissed. In the first three months after the war, one and a half million women were laid off. They became the unpaid work force in family agricultural and retail business.
The war ended, the structure of Japanese industry changed, and the heavy and chemical industries declined. The Zaibatsu, the big business monopoly group was dismembered together with the military by the occupying forces. Light industry made a fast recovery with increase internal demand, particularly for textiles. Changes in the Asian and American markets however prevented it from gaining its pre-war vigour as a major export industry.
The ensuing economic crisis and the depression of 1949 meant further sacrificial dismissal of women. The crisis was thwarted, ironically, with the renewed military demand brought on by the outbreak of the Korean War in 1951. The special demands by the American military forces totalled $600,000,000 in 1949 and exceeded $800,000,000 in 1952 and 1953, making up two-third of the total export figures of Japan. The textile industry revived, women were rapidly reinstated. The post war years were declared to be at an end in 1956 and until the 1973 oil crisis, Japan had an average GNP growth rate of 10%. Women now faced with new problems.
High Economic Growth and Increasing Diversity of Female Labour
The high growth rate between 1955 and 1973 was dependent on inexpensive oil and the initial investments of private industry in absorbing technological developments from abroad. Rapid introduction of new technology since the late 60's and investment in modern facilities created demand for factory construction and new infra-structures. Heavy industry made up more than 60% of the manufacturing industry in the 60's and 70's. This affected foreign trade. Heavy-Chemical industry took an increasingly larger share in Japan's export and small appliances were replaced by motorcycles, ships, electrical goods, televisions and cars.^ Imports consisted mainly of petroleum and food.
Industrialization brought with it a revolution in consumption. There was a tremendous increase in national income, and spending power further stimulated economic growth. With the change in the industrial structure came a change in the women's labour market. The number of women engaged in the primary production industries, primarily agriculture, that had taken up 60% of all women workers, was now on a rapid downswing and by 1980 only 13.7% of women were working in the primary sector. Development of post war Japan was dependent on rapid industrialization rather than on agriculture. This development strategy demanded cheap, qualified labour in large quantity — people from the rural areas. Women and men again began to migrate from their villages after high school to work in the corporations. The male heads of farming households left their farms, at least in the quiet season. Agriculture was supported by the elderly and the housewives. However, later on, with the introduction of agricultural machinery, even housewives left the village and went to work in cities. Women who left their villages now, never returned, and would marry and settle in the cities.
The number of employees increased from 4.65 million in 1955 to 11.87 million in 1973 (roughly two and a half fold, see figure 3). The manufacturing industry was still taking one-third of the total labour force. Within the manufacturing industry in 1950's and 60's, women were mainly employed in textile, apparel, food processing. Especially notable was the rise in employment in the electric appliances industry.
An important feature of the post war employment structure was the movement of women into office jobs; by 1980 these women form the majority of the female work force, even more than factory workers.
Women graduates of high schools and two-year colleges were now in demand for the middle-level office work.
By the 1960's, so-called 'part-time' workers, mainly housewives, were to replace the young workers from the rural villages in the factories. Part-time workers could be home in time to cook dinner. They were paid much less than contract workers, and were denied insurance, annuity and retirement benefits. A factory could employ two part-time workers with the wage of one full-timer.
Tab. 2: Change of foreign trade by commodities
1974 and 75 saw the most accute depression suffered by the Japanese economy since the war, with negative growth of GNP at 2%. Then began the slow-growth period when a steady growth rate was maintained at around 5%. Export-oriented industry was to replace the investment in heavy industry as the spearhead of economic growth. (See Table 2)
The oil crisis affected severely the manufacturing industries that had been so dependent on cheap fuel to supply the huge facilities, particularly of the steel, petrochemical and aluminium industries. These industries have cut back on energy consumption, stream-lined their facilities and invested in overseas relocation, while the assembly industries, including automobile and electrical industries, continued to flourish with a boost in exports. High tech industries now form the centre of industrial activity and competition. The information and service industries are geared to the needs of this technological onslaught.
Women's labour was again proved to be a flexible force used to support these dramatic shifts. 430,000 women were retrenched in the 1974 recession (see fig. 3) from the manufacturing industries. First the part-timers, and then the middle-aged full-timers were forced into Voluntary retirement'. They would later join a part-time force somewhere else. The manufacturing industry which traditionally had employed the largest number of workers fell to the third place in employment. With some of the retrenched women gone into part-time jobs, women employment decreased by a total of 20,000 in this period.
Mechanization and computerization has resulted in more and more retrenchment. Cheap part-time women replace the regular workers in simple and repetitive jobs. Office automation has meant the displacement of many women and a big drop in recruitment of new high school graduates.
Despite these cutbacks, the number of women workers has increased as a whole since 1975 (see fig. 3) with an increase in part-timers in the tertiary sector, e.g. supermarkets, and the advances by women into the specialized or technical fields.
By 1982 part-time workers exceeded 20% of the work force. A part-timer is obstensibly one who works a maximum of 35 hours a week. Many work much longer hours than this but face the same insecurity of tow pay and no benefits. One in four women work as part-timers. This situation is reflected in the wage gap between men and women though the gap has narrowed during Japan's high growth period. In 1960, the earnings of women was 42.8% the wages of men; in 1978, it was 56.2%. The gap was to widen again in 1983 to 52.2% with the increase of part-time women workers.
Subsequently, as more women turned to part-time employment, the rate of organised women workers declined from 30% in 1960's to 23.1% in 1983. Part-time employment and the low unionisation among women have rendered the livelihood of women workers progressively more unstable.
But the number of women wanting to work is increasing. Women now constitute 35.5% of the total Japanese employees in Japan. The decline of their husbands' wages has forced many women to work as part-timers which form a peripheral labour force.
Fig. 3: Change of women employees, 1947-1983
The Japanese employment system is characterized by corporations employing senior high school graduates and offering them life employment, a wage system based on seniority and company based union. The simple and repetitive work was done by junior high school graduate women. As these women declined in number they were replaced by middle-aged married women — the part timers.
The post war disintegration of the rural communities and the "house system", the development of nuclear families, urbanisation and consumerism has led 90% of the Japanese families considering themselves to be middle-class. The recent obsession of "my-homism" has further contributed to sending married women into part-time jobs to upgrade their domestic situation. In the seventies, coupled with the increase of part-time workers has been the employment of women before marriage and then after their children grew up. This situation allows wages of women to be kept low and provides a safety valve during recession periods.
Despite the fact that women were nominally granted equality after the war, there have been consistent attempts to take away the protective measures concerning maternity, night work and overtime work. Women were fighting at the front of the labour movement after the war particularly for the right to maternity leave. Although the voice is still weak, the women's movement is beginning to question the part-time system, the assumed duties of women to raise the children for the future work force and taking care of their tired husbands, and forced 'voluntary retirement' of married women.
Women's sections within labour unions have been fighting hard for "the same number of nurseries as mailboxes". In Tokyo the number of nurseries increased sevenfold between 1960 and 1976. But nurseries are still severely lacking.
Movements to study and protest occupational diseases are now increasing. Inflammation of the arms and shoulders suffered by key punchers has now been recognised by the government as being directly attributable to work and a standard for work management has now been established.
The movement for equality in employment had lagged behind the struggle for maternity protection until 1965. One problem here was the lack of support by the male-oriented unions which meant that women had to confront the issues on the court. Some victories were won in the realms of discrimination in retirement age, unequal payment in banks, and discrimination in employment by broadcasting and publishing companies.
Government and corporate retaliated by opposing maternity protection as against see equality. If you want equality, in their view, protective measures should be withdrawn. This is what has been offered in the new law which the government feels qualifies it to ratify the UN Convention Against Sexual Discrimination. The impact of the new law is completely against the spirit of the Convention. Women will work increasingly either as 'part-time', cheap, disposable and unprotected workers or they will have to work the long hard hours presently suffered by the men.
Cuts in social welfare, particularly for the elderly, and the steep increase in nursery fees are carried out together with a propaganda campaign urging women to take on the responsibility of the "fulfillment of the home".
In the face of the new employment laws, many demonstrations and hunger strikes were held throughout Japan and protests were sent to the Labour Ministry but still on a very weak basis. The women argue that sexual division of domestic labour and childrearing does not support the government's ideology of "equality without protection." In order to bring about equality, protection should be extended to men, and not to be taken away from women.
The new laws have been passed however and Japan has fooled international opinion and ratified the UN Convention. The women will carry on their struggle, the main obstacle facing them the cute, diffident image demanded of potential wives.
Asian Women Workers in the Japanese Textile and Electronic Industries
Japanese investment overseas began as early as 1951. Until the end of the 60's, investment was small, only supplementing exports to the US and the EEC. As the shortage of labour in Japan resulted in higher wages at home, problems of pollution, sharp increases in land prices, and there was huge capital surplus, Japan boosted its investment abroad, primarily into the manufacturing industries. Thus, medium and small-scale electrical industries moved abroad, first to Thailand, Taiwan and South Korea. (See table la and lb)'
This trend was accelerated by the foreign currency crisis and a subsequent rise in the yen exchange rate. The first real boom in overseas investments was in 1972. During the slow growth period brought on by the oil crisis overseas investment also slow down except in Asian countries, and particularly in the development of natural resources. The raw material processing industry which was hit severely by increased oil prices began to cooperate with overseas manufacturers to lower its production costs. Aluminium, oil-chemicals, paper and pulp, iron and steel plants were all relocated overseas as part of the 'development-import' plan.
1978 saw a second boom in overseas investment to utilize cheap labour and expand market share. As a result, Asian countries have become more and more dependent on the Japanese economy, its investment and trade system.
Manufacturing investment in Asian countries makes up one-third of total Japanese manufacturing investment. Investment in the textile and electrical industries is declining but the Japanese textile and electrical multinational corporations maintain their importance in the process of industrialization in other Asian countries.
Hit by the oil crisis, many medium- and small-sized plants have withdrawn from South Korea and Taiwan but the giant corporations, such as Toray and Teijin in the case of textiles, and Matsushita, Sanyo and Toshiba in the electronics industry, restructured their overseas bases, developed into multi-national enterprises and utilised the international division of labour within their own companies to the utmost. The goods continue to be processed and assembled abroad, finished in Japan and then re-exported. Japan retains the high value-added stage of the production process in the country and moves the low value added stages of production to South East Asian countries.
Tab.la: Overseas Expansion of Japanese Textile Industry in Asian Countries (No. of Cases)
Tab.lb: Overseas Expansion of Electrical Machinery Industry in Asian Countries (No. of Cases)
The Employment Strategies of Textile and Electrical Enterprise
In Japan's high economic growth period the electrical industry began to compete with the textile industry for young unmarried women. Conditions of employment were slightly better in the electrical industry and textiles suffered a shortage of labour. With the promotion of mechanization and rationalization in both industries, there was a need to raise the productivity of the labour force and efforts made to attract young women workers into the industries. During the sixties, educational programme at senior high school level, a two-shift system in the factories and the dormitory system were methods employed by the industries to attract women workers. This proved effective in terms of recruiting and lengthening the period of employment of women and putting the machines to optimum use. (This kind of factory-schooling system still exists today in some Japanese companies.)
Textile and electric industries employed young women workers as their main work force in the repetitive jobs. These women workers were usually required to work in two shifts. Part-time workers were also employed in times of labour shortage. At the same time, these industries began to move their operation to other Asian countries and to employ women workers in these countries.
As these enterprises moved into South East Asia, women working in the textile industry in Japan began to decrease (see table 2) while those in the electrical industries increased, mainly in the form of part-time workers.
Tab. 2: No. of Employees of Textile and Electrical Machinery industries in Japan
To compare the conditions of women workers inside Japan with those of Asian women in the same corporation abroad, we choose to study one medium-scale electrical company, Shin-Shirasuna Denki Ltd. that moved into Taiwan in the middle of the 60's and is very typical of off-shore manufacturers. Toray is one of the biggest textile corporations and is a good example of strategic development into a multi-national corporation.
Case Study 1: Women workers in a Medium-scale Electrical Company
Shin - Shirasura Electric Ltd. produces radios, stereos, radio-cassette recorders, most of which is exported to the US and Europe. Its brand name is 'Silver'. Established in 1957, it expanded during the high economic growth period of Japan and now has many subsidiaries inside Japan and overseas which make up the Silver Group.
In the face of the recession in 1981, it has to retrench a large number of its work force. Inside Japan the part-timers were the first to go and overseas the Taiwanese women. The women dismissed in Japan were skilled and experienced workers whose average length of service had amounted to eleven years. They were to take the company to court three years later.
Action had been taken by workers in the company previously in 1964 in a big dispute over the introduction of a new wage system. The workers union struck and stopped production for 100 days. 60% of the 200-300 workers then were young women. During the struggle, however, a company union (known as the 'second union') was set up and the workers defeated. One of the main reasons for this defeat was that production was continued in Taiwan.
This was also the same time when many companies were confronted with a serious shortage of young workers. Shin-Sirasura Electric Ltd was to adopt three strategies to win the competition for export markets and the employment of cheap young women workers. The Company established four subsidiary small-scale companies in the remote rural areas, with a total work force of 200-300 employing mainly young women who had just finished junior high school.
In these companies it was forbidden to set up workers unions. Secondly, they employed part-time workers in their Nagoya factory, the base of the Shirasuna Group. Other companies began to follow this policy. Workers were attracted with phrases such as "clean factories, light work and pleasant background music." Part-time workers were to become the main work force in the form of obedient housewives. There was no union until 1981.
The third tactic was to expand overseas. The company established two factories in Kyushu, Japan, where labour is relatively cheap, in the early '70's, utilizing high technology equipment. The production Une was then extended to Taiwan, Malta, Singapore, Australia and the US. By the end of the '70's the two factories in Kyushu were computerized. In 1980, ¥100,000,000 was invested to computerize the factory in Taiwan. At this stage a serious recession hit the company and all factories in Japan, except those in Kyushu, were closed down in 1981 and '82 while the Taiwan factory began to profit from the benefits of computerization. Up to 1984 the subsidiary factories overseas closed down one after another. A total of 2,000 employees, i.e. 60% of the company's work force dismissed. 1800 of these workers were Taiwanese.
The struggle of Japanese Part-Time Workers
The part-time workers who brought the company to court comprised of 11 women and one man, all of whom were formerly employed in the Nagoya factory. They were suing the company for the ease dismissing them as part-time workers. Many of them had been instructing new full-time workers on the assembly line, in quality control and testing. The part-timers were only working 35 minutes a day less than the full-timers yet receiving half the wage (¥50,000 - ¥70,000 a month). On top of this, the full-timers received ¥400,000 as bonuses compared to the ¥60,000 received by part-timers.
61 part-time workers of the company formed a 'third union' in 1982. All three unions joined force in the same year for higher bonuses and fought against voluntary redundancy. The company, however, shut down the Nagoya factory in November. The management aimed at destroying the solidarity of the workers by a divide and rule policy. They maintained the employment for full time workers by shifting them to other factories and dismissing the part-timers. Two unions of the full-time workers accepted the policy of the management and called off their struggle. The factories in Kyushu and Taiwan were not unionized.
The Nagoya plant was closed down and the union of part-time workers, now isolated, had no other way forward but to go to the courts. Many were tired of fighting, had lost their confidence and found another job to support their families. The twelve remaining were demanding reinstatement of the workers, rectification of the wage system (with no discrimination against part-time workers) and the right to maintain a union. The court case began in 1983.
This was the first time that discrimination against part-time workers were brought to court and was therefore widely covered in the media, attracting huge public response. This was a relief for the women workers because the husbands and relatives were opposed to their action. They were accused of being communists by their neighbours. Gangsters hired by the company were calling them up and threatening that their families would be killed of they didn't withdraw their case. A support committee was established to raise funds. The committee now has 600 supporters. They had published a record of their struggle and sold this and other things through the supporters' network to raise money. All the money earned were used to support the needs of the twelve workers.
Many women workers were confronted with their roles as mothers and wives in the course of their fight and they are receiving little if any support from their husbands.
Their struggle began as a protest to their being at the bottom of the social class in Japan's economic advancement. During their struggle, these ordinary housewives have come to learn more about general social and political issues. They all say that they enjoy being able to think and act for themselves instead of just being told what to do by their husbands. Until now, their case is still in court.
Women Workers in Taiwan
At the same time, they came to learn that the company had a subsidiary in Taiwan and had heard that the products there were of a lower quality because of bad working conditions.
At the time of the Nagoya dispute, there were 2,650 women working in the subsidiary factory in Taiwan, 95% of the total. Their average age was between 16 and 17 and they received in average wage between ¥7,000 a month - one tenth that of the Japanese part-time workers. The Shirasura Group rents a dormitory in the Kaohsiung EPZ, and provides the workers with transport to and from the factory. Worker turnover was very high and is a problem which the Japanese personnel officers find difficult to cope with, as they were so accustomed to the diligent part-time workers in Japan. The management responds to this problem by reducing the length of the training period and categorize workers according to the job process they were doing. Workers have to sit with their names and numbers and work classification - length of service - in front of them at their tables. When their Japanese counterparts saw photos of the Taiwanese women in the factory, they found that the position of the light and tables, the uncomfortable chairs, were all the same conditions that they themselves had been subjected to. "These workers are all like us — like robots with numbers," one Japanese woman commented.
Around 1980 computerization was on trial in the Taiwan factory. Japanese investment in computerization and rationaliation in Taiwan has paid off. Previously high quality goods were being produced in Japan and the low added-value goods manufactured in Taiwan. Now the quality of Taiwanese products equals that of Japan. With rationalization the women work force was reduced by one-third while the same production level was maintained.
Women workers employed by Shin-Shirasuna Group are divided into part-timers, full-timers, workers in Taiwan. Without knowing each other, they have been manipulated by the management and have been played against each other, all to the advantages of the management.
Case Study 2: Women Workers in Toray - Overseas Expansion and the Changing Employment Structure in Japan
Toray has 54 subsidiary companies in 21 countries outside Japan, with 39 in the Asian region. Toray's overseas investment balance amounts to ¥50 billion and total gross sales from its overseas operations makes up one half of sales from domestic operations. (More details of Toray's overseas expansion can be found in another article by the same author entitled 'Asian Women as Victims of Overseas Expansion', in AMPO, Vol 16, nos 1-2).
In 1963 Toray moved to Thailand, in 1972 to South Korea and then to Indonesia. It has also established an investment base in Malaysia from which the company expands to Hong Kong, Thailand and Taiwan.
At present the number of Toray employees inside Japan is 14,000, 1500 of which are women workers, most of them office workers. The number of women employed had dropped dramatically with the recession of the synthetic fiber industry in 1965 and the micro-electronic revolution after the oil crisis. Unions have continually supported these lay-offs.
Meanwhile Toray employees overseas (mainly women) continued to increase reaching 20,000 by 1978. Most of the women workers have completed junior high school and are unmarried.
Wages are rarely above the minimum wage in each country. Workers work eight hours a day on a three shift system, including night work. This shift system is combined with the dormitory system, wherein all the methods to control workers are used in Japan are also practised.
To curb high turn-over rates of workers and to furnish stronger loyalty to the company, sports facilities, parties, and company tours are provided. In some countries schooling is offered. In Taiwan, forced saving system as practised in pre-War Japan is being used. If a worker decides to resign she has to give up her schooling and her wages confiscated. Now housewives are being increasingly employed in Taiwan, and it seems evident that eventually the part-time system too will be introduced in those countries where there is a shortage of young women workers.
The Labour Movement and Future Perspectives
In most Asian countries any labour movement activitiy is severely repressed by government. Yet some protests have broken out. 1974 saw historic simultaneous struggles in Toray's subsidiaries in Thailand and Indonesia during the period of violent anti-Japanese riots in those countries. More recently there have been strikes for higher wages and protests against unfair dismissals, with women workers playing a major role. In the Philippines three workers were shot dead in the strike at Polyamid, to which Toray belongs. Toray has adopted numerous ways to curb such activity, including the employment of labour-management specialists and calling in police and even military forces.
Workers in Thailand told the author that what they need the most is international support and solidarity from fellow employees of the multi-national corporation, particularly from workers in Japan. There is still, however, a great gap to be bridged between workers in different countries.
Toray is now going through another period of radical reorganization. Inside Japan it is developing new products in non-textile areas, shutting down other sections and retaining only the high quality, high value-added production. In the Asian countries they are producing low and middle quality goods utilizing old-type machines and cheap labour. They plan to close down, or at least scale down those plants that are bringing in relatively small profits. The next market is China where a huge market and supply of cheap labour is awaiting them. Needless to say, this dramatic reorganization will have far-reaching adverse effects on Asian workers.
The best thing that could happen is that the plants would be turned over to local ownership and the workers can retain their jobs. If the plants are completely shut down, however, as in Hong Kong, many workers will lose their jobs.
Meanwhile, the profits created by Asian women continue to contribute to the expansion and strengthening the power of Toray and other multi-national corporations.
Conclusion
There is a belief, almost a faith, amongst not only the authorities and entrepreneurs but amongst workers themselves, that in order to maintain the present prosperity in Japan, the economy must continue to grow. The 'faith' justifies the exploitation of Japanese women at work and at home, and the exploitation of Asian women which support the expansion of Japanese capital overseas. Since the oil crisis, Japanese politicians and businessmen alike have been designing strategies to integrate Asian economies into the Japanese economy. The Pacific Basin Initiative is now proving to be the second coming of Japan's pre-war Great Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. This new strategy goes hand in hand with Japan's 'Policy for the Consolidation of the Family', which has presented itself as a new challenge to Japanese women. Japan's economy is growing, yet all the problems and difficulties are left with the powerless. Both Japanese and other Asian women have and are being dominated, separated, divided and placed under the feet of Japan in its craze for economic expansion.
International solidarity is vital to create a situation where all can live together more fully, by overthrowing the present structure that separates men and women, and Japanese and other Asian peoples.