A study on welfare measures of Mitsui Mining and its affiliated companies before World War II

based on the historical materials former owned by Mitsui Mining Company kept in the Mitsui Library

Abstract

We examined the improvement of miners housing and housing for employees of Mitsui Mining based on the historical materials former owned by Mitsui Mining and its affiliated companies kept in the Mitsui Library. Miners housing, which were misery in the Meiji era, had improved up to more than 30㎡ before World War II. Housing for employees, which had been supplied in accordance with the job class, had also successively improved mainly for the lower classes. At the Mitsui Mining, every office worked to improve the living environment. In Kawashiri district, Omuta City, company houses of Mitsui Mining had formed cityscapes collaborating with the land readjustment projects.