The History of Technological Developments of the Paper Industry in Japan

Part 2 : The Dawn of the Japanese Paper Industry

Abstract

In the latter half of the 19th century when the Meiji Restoration began, the paper industry in Europe and America had already put paper machine into practical use, and was developing a new technology of producing pulp from wood. Those technologies conjointly became a model of modern paper industry in the 20th century. When Japanese looked at paper mills in America dynamically manufacturing paper, they made up their minds to do it in Japan. But, things did not go well. After setbacks, they imported paper machines of medium size and manufactured paper with rags cooked in alkali under coaching of highly paid foreigners. The first one began operation in 1872. In a short period of time, Japanese learned know-how, dismissed them and amazingly made a copy of cylinder paper machine by themselves. The high ability of learning new things and a fairly good level of mechanical engineering in those days were a base for successive rapid progress.
Those who were credited at the dawn of the Japanese paper industry were young men who studied in foreign paper mills, such as Masanori Onodera and Ichiro Murata, and Joichiro Majima and Heizaburo Ohokawa who followed the formers. They were responsive to new technologies and introduced them positively to the industry, and their manner of diligence lasted throughout the pre-war period.
The next part will review the growth of the Japanese paper industry.