An analysis on the development of the Japanese silk industry during the inter-war period

1997 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 08630077
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Economic history
• Research Institution: KYUSHU UNIVERSITY (1997); Kagawa University (1996)
• Principal Investigator: HANAI Shunsuke Kyushu Univ., Fac.of Economics Assoc.Prof., 経済学部, 助教授 (70212149)
• Project Period (FY): 1996 – 1997
• Keywords: silk industry / inter-war period / Gunze / Katakura / sericulture / Ibaragi / Makabe / 真壁

Research Abstract

This research project aims at analyzing the structural factor for the development of the Japanese silk industry during the inter-war period. The results of the project are as follows.
1.Benefited from the help of Gunze Co., a lot of managerial documents of prewar Gunze Silk Manufacturing Co., which had grown to be among the top two firms in Japan as late as 1920, could be collected through this project. These managerial data, including unknown ones, would be of much use in answering two basic questions : why, unlike many other Japanese silk reeling entrepreneurs, did Gunze together with Katakura Company, another one of the big two, keep getting bigger in the size of the firm (the number of the basins) during the whole prewar period, and on what condition was the enlargement made possible?
2.Although the bulky and new managerial documents of the small or medium silk manufacturers couldn't be discovered, the managerial analysis focusing on the cause and the process to bankruptcy in the Great Crisis was advanced with the already collected data on Makabe Seishi Goshigaisha (Makabe Silk & Co.) in the Ibaragi prefecture.
Examining the role of the state for fostering the silk industry was also progressed through this project, focusing on the function of the prefectural authorities with the help of the silk and/or sericulture association.