Press translations [Japan]. Economic Series 0143, 1946-01-09.
Date9 January, 1946
translation numbereconomic-0689
call numberDS801 .S81
Persistent Identifier
ECONOMIC SERIES: 143
ITEM 1 Teachers' Consumers' Cooperative to Be Organized - Provincial Newspaper, Tokushima Shimbun (Tokushima) - 5 Jan 46. Translator: T. Mitsuhashi.
Full translation:
A consumers' co-operative (HISHO SOGO) for the improvement of teachers' life is being
organized and a committee composed of
representatives of middle schools, primary schools, adult schools, the Educational
Association, the Agricultural Production
Section of the Prefectural Office and the Agricultural Association has been established
for the purpose. The object of the
consumers' co-operative is the co-operative purchase of vital goods, assistance in
the renting of houses, and the setting up
of accommodations and entertainment for the recreation of teachers. The co-operative
will be composed of city sections and
town and village sections, serving districts, groups of towns and villages, or a single
town. Being small regional
organizations, these sections will assume the form of a consumers' association or
a co-operative association according to
their own choice, all based on the Industrial Association Law (SANGHY KUMIAI HO).
The Association may include also subordinate
officials and policemen, if desirable, and will have independent management. These
co-operatives will keep close contact with
the city, town and village authorities concerned, the Agricultural Association, and
the Fishery Association.
Moreover, it is still a matter of study whether regional associations should be combined
into district or prefectural
organizations, or be set up as minor branches of the Prefectural Branch of the Greater
JAPAN Educational Association
(DAINIPPON KYOIKUKAI KEMSHIBU), in order to maintain close relations with each other.
ITEM 2 Surplus Electric Power Must Be Active in Farm-Villages - Shortage in Sun-heat Can Be Electrically Supplemented - Two Yields A Year ARE Possible. - Sangyo Keizai (Tokyo) 7 Jan 46. Translator: T. Ukai.
Summary:
At present the utilization of electric power in JAPAN remains static and in the general
work of the people it shows no signs
of increasing, in spite of the fact that a huge amount of electric power, as much
as 20,000,000 to 30,000,000 kilo watt hours,
is daily wasted. The wasted power could be saved and utilized for starting numerous
plants in the production of daily
necessities, especially foods. There are probably no people who would have been refused
access to an abundance of electricity
and compelled instead to use its own manual laborer, as in JAPAN, where water power
rations can actually afford to supply
daily more than 80,000,000 kilo watt hours for general use.
One of the best examples of this waste is the existence of that petty farmer system
which is peculiar to JAPAN and has no
parallel in the world. Utilization of electricity is behind the times, though it must
be recognized that for good reason this
could not be avoided
ECONOMIC SERIES: 143 (Continued)
ITEM 2 (Continued)
in war time. Now that the war is over, however, we must consider this question and
make a point of electrifying our daily life
as well as the agrarian mode of living.
It is a matter of great satisfaction that a numbers of districts have taken up the
problem of electrification of farm-villages
as a permanent administrative policy. Electricity can be used to increase good production;
irrigation and drainage works can
be electrified, electrical equipment can replace oil machines; the land which yields
once a year can be made to yield twice a
year; electricity can also be utilized in inducing germination (budding) and in making
additions to the sun's heat in the
process of milling cereals; processes also of heating water and equipment for spraying,
weeding, etc can be electrified.
There are certain agricultural experts who are somehow reluctant and disagree with
electrification. The low standard of
electrification in agriculture is due to their small knowledge of electrification,
and they must be educated. It is very
desirable for a village unit to have at least one electrified common place of work
for processing and preserving food and for
clearing and sometimes milling wheat and rice. The preparation of bean paste takes
one year under the normal temperature, but
only two or three days when done by an electrical process. Fisheries can be also largely
electrified, that is, in drawing
nets, drying, refrigerating, smoking, etc.
The obstacle in redistribution. The unique industrial resource left for JAPAN after
the war is naturally water power. If we
intend to reestablish the foundation of industries, we must necessarily electrify
agriculture and fishing. We must renovate
the production methods and modernize the technical aspects of these industries. We
know that water power was fully utilized
during the war; consequently, a comparatively large amount of electrical equipment
must exist in munitious plants, etc,
waiting to be utilized. In this connection we strongly advocate a mass transporting
of electrical equipment from cities to
villages and at the same time the movement of laborers, electric technicians, etc,
thus completing the redistribution of
population and giving a sound basis for reestablishing industries in general. The
real obstacle of redistribution is
negligence in handling the electrical equipment yet to be found in munition factories,
especially in cities.
When electrification is realized, five chobu could be cultivated by one household,
according to TAKABASHI, expert in the Power
Bureau (DENRYOKU KYOKU). He also states that in carrying out the complete electrification
of farm-villages, it is necessary,
at this juncture, to seriously consider how to raise productive capacity and the standard
of economic life as a whole, and not
to confine oneself to looking for short term failure or success. With five chobu of
land being cultivated by one household as
a result of electrification, the surplus population could be assigned to various works
of processing the products of
agriculture, fishery and industry. That would give rise to manufacturing industries,
and that in turn might give us reason to
expect a movement among farm-villages, demanding the socialization and redistribution
of electrical equipment in general.
ITEM 3 Ray of Hope for the Settlement of Food Import - Tokyo Shimbun - 7 Jan 46. Translator: R. Shibata.
Summary:
The reopening of foreign trade, especially imports of food, is most highly desirable
for breaking the present economic
deadlock. A
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ECONOMIC SERIES: 143 (Continued)
ITEM 3 (Continued)
directive was issued on 9 October, 1945 by SCAP permitting the importation of materials
necessary for our civilian life. It
should be noted that much headway has been made in a result of the understanding attitude
of SCAP. The greatest need in JAPAN
is, of course, food. The application presented by the Government to SCAP asks for
food imports in 1946 amounting to 3,390,000
tons. We can anticipate a considerable quantity to be imported, although, in view
of the present world food shortage, we can
easily appreciate that the entire amount is hardly to be hoped for.
Korean and Siamese rice and American and Canadian wheat are considered to be the
most hopeful at present. Above all, Korean
rice is the most promising, considering the time element. In KOREA, as is well known,
the rice-crop is so abundant this year
that there is an estimated surplus of 10,000,000 koku, and at the very least 6,000,000.
Our country is requesting 800,000
tons. In return, we are exporting about 70,000 tons of coal a month, and, we are ready
to send oranges, medical supplies and
other goods which KOREA needs. Trade will commence as soon as a mutual understanding
is reached between the MacARTHUR's
Headquarters and the occupation army in KOREA. As the control system was abolished
there after the end of the war, some
special system will be necessary for the collection of rice.
As for Siamese rice, we can not expect much, because it is to be exported to the
districts occupied by the British Army.
Though SIAM cannot supply as much as before, negotiations are under way, and we are
offering in exchange railway equipment and
other goods. We expect to import about 100,000 tons for this source. As yet there
is no prospect of our being able to import
goods from FRENCH INDO CHINA and FORMOSA. The wheat crop has failed badly in the southern
hemisphere this year. Even AUSTRALIA
is compelled to import, and we can only look to AMERICA and CANADA. We can particularly
expect much from the former because
our country has very good collateral in raw silk. AMERICA has already expressed her
willingness to export food in return for
raw silk. About 3,000 bales of raw silk had been shipped to AMERICA by the end of
last year, and 850,000 bales are stocked at
present. Anyway, it is clear that the possession of an exportable material gives grounds
for hoping that the question of
importing food may be favorably settled.
ITEM 4 Can We Be Optimistic About Coal Production? - Tokyo Shimbun - 8 Jan 46. Translator: T. Mitsuhashi.
Summary:
As announced by the Government, coal production has steadily increased since the
November bottom output. Nevertheless, we can
not be optimistic for there are still many fundamental factors to be solved. Though
the production increased to 700,000 metric
tons in December, the daily output per capita is no more than one-fifth to one-seventh
of the pre-war figure. Consequently,
the distribution of coal will be about l,050,000 metric tons in January 1946, including
410,000 metric tons to railway, 45,000
metric tons to shipbuilding, and 65,000 metric tons to ammonium sulphate industries.
The decreased production is due to the
shortage of food and houses for miners. The percentage of mine workers on their jobs
once dropped to 20 or 30 per cent in
HOKKAIDO, KYUSHU and JOBAN mines, because most workers went on buying tours for food.
It has recently improved to 60 or 70 per
cent.
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ECONOMIC SERIES: 143 (Continued)
ITEM 4 (Continued)
The present ration of rice is still insufficient for such heavily working miners;
thus their savings have decreased day by
day, as they have to buy food at black markets. Therefore, some miners are likely
to become black market dealers to get more
profits. Moreover, the supply of workers is greatly hampered by the shortage of houses
for miners. The sabotage by capitalists
is also a main cause of the reduced production. The labor unions have launched a campaign
to check such sabotage by
capitalists in order to guarantee the livelihood of the laboring class. The future
activities of the labor unions in various
mines will be something worth watching.
DISTRIBUTION "X".
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