Press translations [Japan]. Editorial Series 0033, 1945-11-30.

Summary:

To cope with the present food situation, the Government has decided to encourage the shipment of rice by enforcing the revision of the purchase price of rice from 92.50 yen to 150.00 yen per Koku, with payment to the producer of the difference between the original purchase price and the new price. There will also be a special distribution of about 50,000 tons of fertilizer, 100,000 koku of sake, farming implements, clothes and other daily necessities to those who have shipped their allotted rice in full.

This policy will, of course, be applied to the rice of the 1945 crop which has already been sold to the Government. The time of its enforcement, however, seems to be too late. Moreover, if the government should stick to its old-fashioned methods in adhering to hard and fast rules in enforcing the policy, it would not be able to achieve the expected results.

Many famers, before the Government enforced this policy, dealt in the black market and it is quite natural that they do not voluntarily as long as a big difference exists between the black market price and the Government's purchase price.

Of course, the authorities will take strict punitive measures against these illegal transactions. However, the sterner the Government attitude, the more the mental outlook of the farmer gets twisted creating more criminals among them. Consequently not much shipment of rice can be expected from them.

The Government ought to adopt a more effective policy. For that purpose, the authorities should examine the situation which forced farmers to deal with the black market and try to lead them in the right direction by getting rid of the roots of the trouble. The trouble is simple farmers deal with the black market because they can't get fertilizer, farming implements, clothing and other daily necessities. If they try to buy these things, they have to pay an exorbitant black market price. Therefore, if the Government solves this question, it need not worry so much about the shipment of rice. The present policy of the Government does touch on this point, but only perfunctorily and it is not effective at all.

EDITORIAL SERIES: 33 (Continued)

ITEM 1 (continued)

Accordingly, a fundamental solution for the problem can not be brought about unless the Government enables the farmers to have these basic necessities.

If I make this suggestion, someone may say that it is not fair to aid only the farmers while the nation in general is in trouble, Nevertheless, I think it is best to make a break in the deadlock of the whole nation's economy and try to increase the quantity of production and then gradually spread it out to the other groups.

The most important thing is, I think, to solve the food problem by increasing the production of food after building up the desire of farmers to produce by helping them in making a living. From this viewpoint, the Government must adopt more thorough going policies toward farmers. However, they need not be compulsory, but must be positive in order to compensate farmers for faithful shipment.

Summary:

This year's rice crop, estimated at 46,600,000 koku, will be lower in its actual yield. In spite of such a very roar crop, the Government as usual has said, "It was spoiled by frequent typhoons", without inquiring minutely about the causes. However, to what extent did the typhoons damage the rice plants? We wonder why the Government has not yet indicated that there might be other causes for such a poor crop, for we can decide on a plan of increasing food production only by inquiring minutely as to the causes of the bad harvest.

The normal crop of rice in JAPAN proper is about 62,000,000 koku. But the four-year overage output from 1941 to 1944 dropped to 60,000,000 koku. The crops were especially poor in both 1941 and 1944; in the former, 55,000,000 koku, in the latter, 57,000,000 koku. It was pointed out that though there might have been such causes as weather, labor and other bad conditions nevertheless it was the shortage of artificial fertilizer, above all, that caused these poor crops. Compared with these bad years, this year's crop is so poor as to have decreased by 9,000,000 koku. We are of the opinion that typhoons alone did not a cause the bad crop. The ammonia output was about 2,000,000 tons around 1929 and dropped to 560,000 tons in 1944. It is clear that that great shortage of ammonia has had decisive influence upon our rice fields.

It is needless to say that fertilizer is absolutely necessary for our intensive agriculture. We acknowledge that the Government, to increase food production, has been making efforts to secure artificial fertilizer. The authorities have made public a plan, stating that with the reconstruction of all war-damaged factories, they will produce 2,000,000 tons of nitrogenous manure before 1948 by converting artificial oil or compound metal industries into ammonia or lime-nitrogen industries. However, this plan, to be executed in 1947, will not solve next year's problem. How do the authorities intend to increase fertilizer production? What about the plan of increasing barley production next year? The farmers are complaining, "It's no use seeding without fertilizer."

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EDITORIAL SERIES: 33 (Continued)

ITEM 2 (Continued)

Regardless of how much arable land may be increased by clearing, the land cultivated can not be increased without fertilizer. Only by securing fertilizer can we increase production from 30 to 50 per cent with the present land. Therefore, the Government should be more serious in thinking about this problem. The authorities should make all efforts to supply fertilizer more richly and cheaply by concentrating such productive elements as equipment, material, labor, motive power and so on, and putting them under governmental management.

Full Translation:

On 21 November, the Labor Law Investigation committee of the Welfare Ministry decided upon the Labor Union Bill to be introduced. The bill, after discussion by the cabinet Council as a draft proposal, will be introduced into the 89th Extraordinary Session of the Diet. Its success or failure will fix the fate of our democracy. Therefore, the nation is properly very interested in it as well as in the Farm Land Reform Bill. Whether the democracy advocated by both the Progressive and the Liberal parties is genuine or not will be clarified in the coming Diet by the attitudes of both parties towards these two bills. If these bills die without going through the debating stage, the true value of the Diet, and of the Progressive, liberal and Social Democratic parties, and of the Government itself, will be in doubt, and they all must be prodded by the nation.

The contents of the Labor Union Bill, as worked out by the welfare Ministry, and depending apparently upon democratic principles, differ from the several bills introduced in the past. That is to say, the bill makes clear the basic principles of economic democracy, giving workers equal opportunity for reviving economy and developing culture by securing for them the rights of unity, and of improving themselves economically, socially and politically. We acknowledge much improvement in this bill's contents, for it excludes such Nazi ideas as "Work should be co-operative as in a family", "industrial patriotism", "labor for the empire"; these ideas try to conceal the opposition between capitalists and workers in the name of nationalism or the family system, The Labor Union Law should be made for the benefit of workers. Accordingly, excepting official unions, it should authorize the independent organization and unity of workers, By defining workers broadly, the bill did well to have permitted the entry of intellectual workers into a union. It is proper that the criminal law or other laws will not be applied to the acts of labor unions, and it is contrary to the spirit of the law that in our struggle (YOMIURI-HOCHI SHIMBUN strike) the leaders have been indicted and examined by the TOKYO Local Court on charges of interfering with business, unlawful occupation and invasion.

We think it proper that the original bill, based generally on the bill introduced by the Social welfare Bureau in 1925, has not limited member ship of qualified persons in unions because of their type of employment, and has included such stipulations as "collective bargaining for labor conditions"; "an employer cannot discharge an employee for being a unionist, and can neither employ nor discharge him because of non-participating in the union or seceding from it"; "the acknowledgment of the right of strike".

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EDITORIAL SERIES: 33 (Continued)

ITEM 3 (Continued)

Here, the establishment of a labor committee is worth notice. The committee is clearly an organ for arbitrating labor desputes. However, we cannot guarantee that it may not occasionally suppress the union or workers. Actually, such a thing will be overruled with the growth of unions. However, if the local groups, in the beginning, neglect to choose honest men, or let notorious brokers dominate, the committee will become very reactionary. The establishment of a Labor Court may be more authoritative, end it should be free of the Labor Union Law's provisions. The Law should not consist of regulations for control, but should protect or promote a healthy development of the Union. With the growth of unions, workers will be given a democratic viewpoint and will be disciplined politically. Workers organized by a labor union will become a vital democratic power. In this regard, we especially emphasize the political meaning of the bill, and expect it to pass without revision.

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