Re-organization of Labourers under the Process of Innovation in Japanese Ship-building Industry after the World War II.

DOI Web Site

Bibliographic Information

Other Title
  • 戦後日本鋼造船業における技術革新と労働力編成 : 雇用形態別構成を中心として
  • 戦後日本鋼造船業における技術革新と労働力編制--雇用形態別構成を中心として
  • センゴ ニホン コウ ゾウセンギョウ ニ オケル ギジュツ カクシン ト ロウドウリョク ヘンセイ コヨウ ケイタイ ベツ コウセイ オ チュウシン ト シテ

Search this article

Abstract

Development in the ship-building industry, the most conspicuous example among those of Japanese heavy and chemical industries especially since 1955, has been due- in spite of such other important factors as the technical heritage from the war-ship building, success in the introduction of the newest foreign technics or the financial assistance by the Government- in the first place to a heap of cheap but ingenious labour forces, the cardinal part whereof consists in the sub-let labourers and temporary employees. Now what a transformation has this labour relation undergone as insufficient supply in engineers and younger generation of labourers has been sharply felt since 1960 owing to the rapid economic growth? We can observe that, while the employment in form of temporary worker more or less comes to be abolished, this sub-letting of labour rather tends to be enlarged instead. Because from the entrepreneurial point of view it is absolutely necessry to take advantage of regulating the labour quantity by way of this employment form in front of a sharp business fluctuation remarkable in this branch. For instance, 324 ship-yards belonging to the largest enterprises group have kept from 1952 to 1964 a very constant amount of regular employees, 61,000-64,000; while the number of sub-let labourers fluctuated keenly, 8,000-52,000. On the other side, there exists another cause which maintains this type of labour relation. According to the statistics out of Tokyo-Yokohama industrial belt, these sub-let workers are paid with only 78% of the regular employees. This low-wage level, however, yet proves to be enviable compared with that of employees in the small-scaled industries, i.e. 61% of regular employees in big business. Thus these groups of labourers make up a large reservoir for sub-letting of labour, and they still remain in spite of a rapid innovation under such an antiquated labour relation, not yet organized into the trade unions.

Journal

  • The Journal of Agrarian History

    The Journal of Agrarian History 7 (2), 39-59, 1965

    The Agrarian History Society (Renamed as The Political Economy and Economic History Society)

Details 詳細情報について

Report a problem

Back to top