Press translations [Japan]. Economic Series 0063, 1945-12-13.

Summary:

The Soda Industry has increased greatly since 1931 by the products which are produced from the electrolysis in processing ammonium. The 77,000 metric tons of soda ash and 48,000 metric tons of caustic soda produced in 1930 have increased to 231,000 metric tons of soda ash and 340,000 metric tons of caustic soda at the present time.

Electrolysis produced three times as much soda ash as the former process (ammonium) and five times as much caustic soda as the former process. Since 1930, the best years of production have been 1939 for soda ash and 1938 for caustic soda. After the outbreak of the Greater East ASIA war, JAPAN showed a sharp decline in production. A production table for these years follows:

If these articles are used for payment of war reparations, is it not worthy of notice that the fibre industry, the chemical industry, and the plate glass industry will all be affected? The production figures for four factories using the solvey method follows:

ECONOMIC SERIES: 63 (Continued)

ITEM 1 (Continued)

The amount of Caustic Soda produced by the electrolysis method is as follows:

It is supposed that the present amount of products will be reduced by one third if made by the Solvay method and will be reduced by one half if made by the electrolysis method, if they are decreed to be war reparations products.

Summary:

It is reported that on or before 20 December the general election will take place to choose candidates of all railway commissions established as democratic organizations representing 500,000 railway transportation workers. These elections will be held in every office under the jurisdiction of the Railway Transportation Bureau and there will be an inaugural meeting of every railway commission by the end of March of next year. Although this commission seems to be the same as the Workers' Association of pre-war days, all workers dissatisfied with the commission's official status will now probably establish the Railway Servicemen's Labor Union independently, in view of the recent activities of the preparatory commission for the above establishment. Meanwhile, this movement for organizing the Railway Servicemen's Labor Union is now welcomed by the authorities concerned who recognize the importance of railway service in the reconstruction of a new JAPAN. Therefore, the independent Railway Servicemen's Labor Union is expected to be instituted before long.

Mr. TOYAMA, Chief of the Labor Management Bureau of the Transportation Ministry, made the following statement: Recently I have heard many opinions expressed by servicemen in regard to the labor union, and most of these opinions are quite reasonable. Now I hope to solve this problem by establishing the Railway Commission as soon as possible. I think that the authorities concerned will not hesitate to recognize this labor union, in that its mission is regarded as highly important in the construction of a new JAPAN. The connection between the Railway Commission and the Railway Servicemen's Labor Union will be decided in the long run by the committee members of the Railway "Commission".

Full Translation:

The Government plans to produce 20 million koku of wheat, barley and rye during next year, it has been learned. The 1946 production program of wheat and other grains, potatoes, sweet potatoes, marine products, and plans for the utilization of edibles heretofore unused were made known. On 8 December the Government submitted general plans to the committee of the Diet now in session of the agricultural Land Reform Bill.

The details are as follows: The total amount of wheat, barley and

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ECONOMIC SERIES: 63 (Continued)

ITEM 3 (Continued)

rye, which the Government plans to produce is 20 million koku, and the area assigned to raising these crops is 2,061,788 chobu. Sweet potatoes to be raised are estimated at 1,672,309,000 kan: and the land assigned to such cultivation is 5l2,96l chobu. This includes 488,000 chobu of already cultivated land. The amount of potatoes to be raised is 667,001,000 kan, and the land assigned for this cultivation is 297,041 chobu including 288,000 chobu of already cultivated land.

The Government aims to produce food to supplement the rice ration by grinding into flour hitherto unused products. This program includes 600,000 koku of sweet potatoes vines and leaves, 52,000 koku of mulberry leaves, 50,000 kan of nuts, 100 koku of starch sediments, 193,000 koku of sea weed, radish leaves and other similar products, aggregating in all one million kan.

The total amount of fish which the Government plans to catch next year is 1,238,000 kan. This comprises 1,102,000 kan of sea products to be caught[illegible]allng the coasts and in the waters of JAPAN proper, 38 million kan to be caught within the territorial waters, 62 million kan to be caught in the oceans, and 46 million kan to be produced by artificial cultivation.

The 1945 actual production of sweet potatoes is estimated at 1,316,479, 000 kan, which is about half of the scheduled amount of 2,700,000,000 kan. The actual spring and autumn production of potatoes is estimated to be 577,263,000 and 26,463,000 kan respectively, aggregating 603,726,000 kan. This shows a difference of 250 million kan since the amount anticipated was 850 million kan.

Full Translation:

On 8 December the Government presented to the Diet the draft of a bill to revise the Salt Monopoly Law. The revision involves continuing the process of obtaining natural salt which has been allowed as a temporary measure during the war, but also in volves raising the selling price of this salt. Under the present law the Government can charge only 2.40 yen per koku in addition to its average purchase price. The Government's loss under such a system has now reached one billion yen a year. Therefore, the Government now is planning to shift this expense gradually to the consumers. The plan will be completed by 1949. When this program is completed the price of salt will become about 10 times the current price.

On the same day, the Government authorities, in answering an interpellation, estimated how much salt will be manufactured next year. According to this estimate, the salt production will reach 900,000 metric tons, of which the part produced by specialized salt manufacturers will reach 500,000 metric tons. This is all table salt. The rest is natural salt. The latter is composed of both the food and industrial salt.

Summary:

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ECONOMIC SERIES: 63 (Continued)

ITEM 5 (Continued)

Our aircraft industry has been directed by the Allied Headquarters to remove its equipment. The directive directly concerns sixteen company. Some of them have converted to civilian industry, but what are the converted companies going to do? In this connection, the Government has made an appeal to the Headquarters for some metigation of the directive, since otherwise the removal of equipment leaves companies no alternative but to close. It was particularly requested that aircraft companies which converted to civilian production be exempted from removal and also that some of the better equipment be allowed to be returned by such reconverted companies and not be considered part of the reparations.

In all JAPAN's industry, including aircraft, there were 763,576 machine tools in 1940, and 1,030,000, when the war ended. But 250,000 machine tools were damaged by air-raids. Consequently there are 780,000 at present. It can be safely reported that of the above figures there may be 150,000 or 200,000 machine tools in the aircraft industry. But this number may decrease to about 55,000, which will be used solely for body construction.

In conclusion, machine tools to be taken out will amount to 150,000 from civilian industry, and 240,000 from aircraft industry. It is clear that the directive intends, above all, to remove machine-tools from the ZAIBATSU's enterprises. Some of the ZAIBATSU aircraft enterprises have converted to civilian industry, and have received the approval of Headquarters, but the Government's appeal has been seriously considered by General Headquarters because our civilian industry will be very much affected by any action taken in this matter

Summary:

It was classified by the declarations of Ambassador PAULEY that 20 dockyards with all the equipment except that which may be used for repairing purposes by the Allied Forces will be used as war reparation and that out of these 20 those which are owned by the ZAIBOTSU will be taken especially. What will be the future of our shipbuilding? During World War I the highest record of shipbuilding in our country was about 600,000 tons, and the highest record during the last war as of 1944 amounted to over 2,809,000 tons including 230,000 tons of 244 ships over 100 tons each. At the time of the World War I, ships of superior quality were built, but during the past war, for the most part, inferior ships were built. Consequently, although the shipbuilding capacity of the World War II was two and one half times as much as that of the World War I there is not much difference in transportation capacity between the two. Now if we compare the three periods of 1935, before the CHINA Incident, l94l, and 1944, the following figures result:

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ECONOMIC SERIES: 63 (Continued)

ITEM 6 (Continued)

Also, the gross shipbuilding tonnage for 1935 was 132,000 tons for 44 boats, 234,000 tons for 79 boats in 194l, and 1,579,000 tons for 665 boats in 1944.

These were the actual conditions in our shipbuilding up to the present. Now if the dockyards belonging to the ZAIBATSU are taken for reparations six plants directly managed by MITSUBISHI Heavy Industry, two plants belonging to the MITSUI Dockyards and five plants belonging to the HITACHI Dockyards, will be included in these three factories of the JAPAN change, having some connection with the ASANO ZAIBATSU, and one factory of KAWASAKI Heavy Industries will be included. Putting all these together, there will be 17 taken. The decisssion on the remaining three may fall either upon the three plants of the KAWANTAMI Heavy Industries, or on two plants of the URAGA Dockyards and one plant of the FUJINAGATA Dockyards. The JAPAN Sea Dockyards and the NAGOYA Dockyards may share the same fate because of their close connection with the KAWANTANI Heavy Industries and the URAGA Dockyards, respectively. But there is the possibility that these will not be included in the 20. Also, there is the possibility that the repair centers of KOBE and YOKOHAMA which belong to MITSUBISHI Heavy Industries, the HITACHI Dockyards SAKURATIMA and INNOSHIMA repair centers, and the ASANO Dockyards will be excluded although they belong to the ZAIBOTSU, because of the nature of these centers and the geographical problem involved. There are 25 companies which belonged to the former Shipbuilding Control Association. Supposing that 20 repair centers are taken for the reparations, there will still remain some capacity for shipbuilding. Moreover, the declaration made by Ambassador PAULEY at a press conference that ships under 5,000 tons will not be touched, remains unaltered.

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