Page:Japan by the Japanese (1904).djvu/503

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LABOUR
463

Under fourteen in the shops not run by motor:

Males
…          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …
4,137
Females
…          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …
11,994
Total
…          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …          …
16,131

Grand total=41,450.

Operatives may further be divided into two classes, day workers and boarding workers, the former residing in the vicinity of the workshops, and the latter those who have come from distant places, and are provided homes and board by the employers. The majority of the latter are women. It would be difficult to say just what proportion of each of these classes predominates, but it is in the fibre works of various sorts that the boarding system most obtains, some weaving establishments having as much as 70 to 80 per cent. of boarders.

For the purpose of convenient reference, the workshops and their products may be divided into the following five sections:

  1. Fibre, including raw silk, spinning, weaving, cord-making.
  2. Machine shops, including machine-making, shipbuilding, furniture-making, casting.
  3. Chemical workshops, including ceramics, gas, paper-mills, lacquering, leather-making, inflammable substances, artificial fertilizers, drugs, etc.
  4. Miscellaneous, including breweries, sugar-refining, tobacco manufacture, tea-curing, cleaning of grains, flour, lemonade, mineral water, confectionery, preserved fruits and vegetables, printing and lithography, paper-work, wood and bamboo ware, leather-ware, feather-ware, straw-plait ware, lacquer-ware, etc.
  5. Special workshops, including electricity and metallurgy.

Of the workpeople in the first section given in the foregoing sections, it is safe to say that the greater portion are female, the majority of whom are between the ages of fourteen and twenty. Those above that age constitute, perhaps, 40 per cent., with a small remainder below fourteen years, but for the most part not less than twelve.

In the second section the workpeople are mostly adult males, and where boys are employed they are seldom less than fifteen or sixteen years of age.

In the third section, and especially in glass factories, boy apprentices are employed at from twelve to thirteen years of age, and in rare instances as young as ten years. In this division, as represented by the paper-mills, not a few male and female children are employed, the youngest of whom is sometimes nine years old. This condition also obtains in tobacco manufacture.