Press translations [Japan]. Economic Series 0133, 1946-01-06.

Summary:

Ordinary consumers, who have wide experience with the unreasonableness and unfairness of government rationing, are rapidly forming co-operative societies and are seizing opportunities to abolish the official price system. However, most of them are failures and get the name "bubble co-operative society". The chief reason for this may be found in high costs and unskilled management.

Some, of course, are flourishing due to a large membership and a skilled management with years of experience, but they also have many troubles of their own. Each co-operative society is now confronted by the question of getting members, and desperate efforts are being made in this direction.

The KOBE Co-operative Society (KOBE SHOHIKUMIAI) began a movement to enroll members with the aim of securing 10,000. It asked the chiefs of the Town Associations (CHONAIKAI) and Neighborhood Associations for the participation of their groups. Its MAYA Branch has already secured the participation of a town group covering 1,000 houses.

One of the outstanding characteristics of these co-operative societies is that they are planning to make use of such existing systems as neighborhood associations or town associations, so that rationed goods from the central market will also be distributed through the co-operative society. Since it is very risky to handle fresh food, it has not been the custom of co-operative societies to do this, but with the present scarcity and high prices of fresh goods, co-operative societies have been compelled to handle it, and this fact is made use of to absorb new members.

The KOBE Co-operative Society is suffering from high prices and the difficulties of transportation. Nevertheless, it has given satisfaction to members by buying 2,500 kan of radishes from HAMAMATSU and selling them at 5.00 to 5.50 yen per kan which is cheaper by ten per cent than the dealer's price of 7.50 yen per kan. Oranges are being offered at 12 to l4 yen per kan. This co-operative society is making a success in this line of business by preventing less due to deteroration by means of skilled and experienced management.

The NADA Purchasing Association (NADA KOBAI KUMIAI) has succeeded in offering oranges to its members at the price of 13 yen per kan which compares favorably with the regular market price of l6 yen. But this association failed when it dealt in fish and suffered a loss of 80,000 yen.

The strong point in favor of co-operative societies is systematic and smooth distribution. According to certain quarters they have a bright future ahead of them, but must guard against the tendency to become

ECONOMIC SERIES: 133 (Continued)

ITEM 1 (Continued)

profiteering enterprises, as in the case of the Shinko Purchasing Association (SHINKO KOBAI KUMIAI). At any rate it is worthy of public notice to determine whether co-operative societies will develop into profiteering enterprises or become a part of labor unions with a communistic ideology.

Full translation:

As a forerunner in restoring small and medium industries, the restoration of the printing industry, in which 35 per cent of all printers have been forced out of business and in which 39 per cent of the equipment has been lost because of war damages, is being hurried along. Since the majority of the better printing shops have been damaged by the war, the printing industry has been in a state of disorder. They need printing machinery for the increasing number of publications, printing of new paper money, lotteries, documents, and material for the Allied Forces.

The Printing Industry Control Association (INSATSU SANGYO SOGOTOSEI KUMIAI) contemplated restoring war-damaged printing factories through War-Damages Countermeasure Committee (SENSAI TAISAKU IINKAI) which had been established at the end of December, 1945. They have had difficulties in finding building materials for their factories, lodgings and warehouses. Most of the better equipment in the printing industry was concentrated in TOKYO, OSAKA, NAGOYA, KOBE, and YOKOHAMA, and was destroyed during the war. The printing industry will face much difficulty in replacing this equipment. With regard to this problem commerce and industry authorities will work together in replacing material. They are now considering using other factories outside of the printing industry for this purpose. As to machinery, they contemplate manufacturing new printing machineries and repairing the old.

They are being aided in this by the JAPAN Printing and Bookbinding Machinery Association, which was established at the end of December, 1945. They are making use of the circulating capital, of the Commercial and Industrial Banking Office, since special capital from insurances has been frozen by MacAUTHUR's directive of 6 November, 1945.

Extracts:

Against two million and one half kilo watts of hydro-electric capacity and nine hundred thousand kilo watts of coal electric power, the actual demand for current since the end of hostilities has been fifty eight per cent of that of last year. This is apparently due to industrial inactivity caused by an uncertain economic future. A normal year would see the coal power plants in full swing this time of the year, because of a dearth of water.

With the exception of KYUSHU, CHUGOKU, and SHIKOKU, we can be optimistic about the supply of current, where water power is not abundant until April, because we will have plenty of water in rivers all over the country. Meanwhile JAPAN Electric-power Generating and Transmitting (NIPPON HASSODEN) Company generated two million kilo watts to meet the country's demand and to leave a substantial remaining supply. The demand for current has shown a twenty per cent increase, and the load

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Economic series: 133 (Continued)

ITEM 3 (Continued)

factor up the early part of December has shown a 56 per cent increase as compared with last year (TN 1945). This is however, only 58 per cent of the corresponding period in 1944. A table showing percentages of regional demand for the current during last December, compared with an assumed 100 per cent level for last September, and the relation in percents of the above to last year's corresponding month is shown as follows:

The increased demand for current since the end of the war is attributed first to household use, which has bean on an upgrade ever since the end of the war; second, to boiler use; third, to the artificial fertilizer industry and other industries. Despite the plentiful supply of electricity, the transmission of current has been bottlenecked by low capacity transformers and disorder in the distributing service.

The development of electric power is now under way. The Commerce and Finance Ministry, in an attempt to develop the country's electric power and to unify its frequency, allotted more than eighty sites all over the country for this purpose. The Ministry has carried out a technical investigation of eleven sites, which are shown in the following table:

Efforts have been made to transmit current between hydraulic and coal power regions. A transmission line with a capacity of 110,000 volts, spanning KAMMON Strait, was completed toward the end of the last year. With 20,000 volt lines running through the KAMMON tunnel, the line made available for transmission a current of 50,000 kilo watts to KYUSHU from CHUGOKU. Meanwhile, current transmission engineering works will be completed before long, with transmitting capacity of up to 70,000 kilo watts.

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ECONOMIC SERIES: 133 (Continued)

ITEM 3 (Continued)

The next projects under consideration are as follows: 1) An ultrahigh voltage transmitting wire, with a capacity of 220,000 volts, now under experiment, will take the place of the present wire between HOKURIKU and OKAYAMA (or HIROSHIMA). 2) Improvement of the wire between OKAYAMA (or HIROSHIMA) will be made so that a 150,000 volt current transmission will be possible. When the program has been completed, a 300,000 kilowatt current will be transmitted to CHUGOKU, and from there, 150,000 will be sent to KYUSHU. If coal power plants of the HANSHIN District are moved to coal mining centers in CHUGOKU and KYUSHU, transportation of half a million metric tons of coal will be saved annually.

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