Keiei Shigaku (Japan Business History Review)

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The aim of this paper is to analyze the way to construct the production organization with Power room factory in the Bisai area. During the WWI, the demand for woolen fabric rapidly increased, so the weavers changed the main products from cotton fabrics or silk-cotton fabrics to woolen fabrics. At the same time, a lot of modern factories with power rooms were born. Since the 1920s, as western clothes spread in Japan, the demand for woolen fabrics has increased more and more. Therefore, Suzuki Kamajiro – an influential Textile manufacturer – executed the manufacturing a wide range of products by changing the products in accordance with the season.
In addition, Suzuki Kamajiro gave the female workers a role to produce different types of woolen fabrics and paid the salary in proportion to their production and the number of working days. The female workers were motivated to work longer and harder for receiving bonus. The Suzukama-factory recruiters hired female workers from rural areas in Gifu and Mie prefectures, and adapted them to a working environment of the factory by controlling their dormitory life and factory work. As a result, the female workers were trained as factory workers and came to contribute to the factory management. In this way, the Bisai area had developed dramatically as the main production center of woolen textiles in Japan.

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