IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/koe/wpaper/1303.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Expansion and Transformation of the Export-Oriented Silk Weaving District: The Case of Fukui in Japan from 1890 to 1919

Author

Listed:
  • Tomoko Hashino

    (Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University)

  • Keijiro Otsuka

    (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies)

Abstract

The development of the Fukui silk weaving district was curious because it became the largest industrial district of habutae, or plain silk, fabric production in Japan within a decade after it began operations in the late 1880s. Initially, the production of habutae rapidly spread geographically from the capital city to surrounding areas in the same prefecture. Fukui introduced power looms beginning in the mid-1900s, which was the earliest among Japan fs silk weaving districts. Production was first dominated by small family firms, but later by factories employing 10 or more workers. Interestingly, Fukui fs emphasis on weaving habutae gradually shifted, and a range of more sophisticated products emerged during the later stages of the silk industry fs development in the district. This study attempts to explore the causes of the rapid expansion and transformation of the Fukui silk weaving district and the effects on the size, location, structure, and labour productivity of weaving firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Tomoko Hashino & Keijiro Otsuka, 2013. "Expansion and Transformation of the Export-Oriented Silk Weaving District: The Case of Fukui in Japan from 1890 to 1919," Discussion Papers 1303, Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University.
    • Handle: RePEc:koe:wpaper:1303
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.econ.kobe-u.ac.jp/RePEc/koe/wpaper/2013/1303.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Minami, Ryoshin, 1977. "Mechanical Power in the Industrialization of Japan," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(4), pages 935-958, December.
    2. Tanimoto, Masayuki (ed.), 2006. "The Role of Tradition in Japan's Industrialization: Another Path to Industrialization," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198292746.
    3. Stephen Broadberry & Bishnupriya Gupta, 2006. "The early modern great divergence: wages, prices and economic development in Europe and Asia, 1500–1800," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 59(1), pages 2-31, February.
    4. Khondoker Abdul Mottaleb & Tetsushi Sonobe, 2011. "An Inquiry into the Rapid Growth of the Garment Industry in Bangladesh," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 60(1), pages 67-89.
    5. Kaoru Sugihara, 2007. "The Second Noel Butlin Lecture: Labour‐Intensive Industrialisation In Global History," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 47(2), pages 121-154, July.
    6. Tomoko Hashino & Keijiro Otsuka, 2013. "Hand looms, power looms, and changing production organizations: the case of the Kiryū weaving district in early twentieth-century Japan," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 66(3), pages 785-804, August.
    7. Tomoko Hashino & Osamu Saito, 2004. "Tradition and interaction: research trends in modern Japanese industrial history," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 44(3), pages 241-258, November.
    8. Tetsushi Sonobe & Keijiro Otsuka, 2014. "Cluster-Based Industrial Development," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-137-38511-6, March.
    9. Tomoko Hashino & Takafumi Kurosawa, 2011. "Beyond Marshallian Agglomeration Economies: The Roles of the Local Trade Association in a Meiji Japan Weaving District (1868-1912)," Discussion Papers 1113, Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University.
    10. Stephen Broadberry & Steve Hindle, 2011. "Editors’ introduction," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 64(s1), pages 1-7, February.
    11. Tomoko Hashino, 2012. "Institutionalising Technical Education: The Case Of Weaving Districts In Meiji Japan," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 52(1), pages 25-42, March.
    12. Keijiro Otsuka & Gustav Ranis & Gary Saxonhouse, 1988. "Comparative Technology Choice in Development," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-19140-6, December.
    13. Pierre Van Der Eng, 2004. "Economic History of Asia: comparative perspectives," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 44(3), pages 215-220, November.
    14. Broadberry, Stephen & Eng, Pierre van der, 2010. "Historical perspectives on Asian economic growth and development," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 260-263, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Karolina Hutková, 2017. "Transfer of European technologies and their adaptations: The case of the Bengal silk industry in the late-eighteenth century," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 59(7), pages 1111-1135, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tomoko Hashino & Keijiro Otsuka, 2015. "The Rise and Fall of Industrialization and Changing Labor Intensity: The Case of Export-Oriented Silk Weaving District in Modern Japan," Discussion Papers 1501, Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University.
    2. Hashino, Tomoko & Otsuka, Keijiro, 2013. "Cluster-based industrial development in contemporary developing countries and modern Japanese economic history," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 19-32.
    3. Tomoko Hashino & Keijiro Otsuka, 2013. "Hand looms, power looms, and changing production organizations: the case of the Kiryū weaving district in early twentieth-century Japan," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 66(3), pages 785-804, August.
    4. Tomoko Hashino & Keijiro Otsuka, 2011. "From Smithian Growth to Schumpeterian Development: An Inquiry into the Development of the Kiryu Weaving District in the Early 20th Century Japan," Discussion Papers 1121, Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University.
    5. Tomoko Hashino, 2012. "Institutionalising Technical Education: The Case Of Weaving Districts In Meiji Japan," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 52(1), pages 25-42, March.
    6. Otsuka, Keijiro & Sonobe, Tetsushi, 2011. "A cluster-based industrial development policy for low-income countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5703, The World Bank.
    7. Hashino, Tomoko & Otsuka, Keijiro, 2012. "Hand looms, power looms, and changing production organizations: the case of the Kiryu weaving district in the early 20th century Japan," Economic History Working Papers 41659, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    8. Girum Abebe & Tetsushi Sonobe, 2012. "Management Practices, Self-Selection into Management Training Participation, and Training Effects in the Garment Industry in Ethiopia," GRIPS Discussion Papers 11-23, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.
    9. Keijiro Otsuka, 2020. "Strategy for Cluster-Based Industrial Development in Developing Countries," Discussion Papers 2019, Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University.
    10. Tetsuji Okazaki, 2021. "The Impact of Technological Change on Labor and Wage: The Japanese Silk Weaving Industry during the Industrial Revolution," CIGS Working Paper Series 21-002E, The Canon Institute for Global Studies.
    11. Higuchi, Yuki & Nam, Vu Hoang & Sonobe, Tetsushi, 2015. "Sustained impacts of Kaizen training," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 189-206.
    12. Khondoker Abdul Mottaleb & Kaliappa P. Kalirajan, 2014. "Determinants Of Labor-Intensive Exports By The Developing Countries: A Cross Country Analysis," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 59(05), pages 1-22.
    13. Babur Wasim Arif & Tetsushi Sonobe, 2012. "Virtual Incubation in Industrial Clusters: A Case Study in Pakistan," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(3), pages 377-392, March.
    14. Otsuka, Keijiro & Sonobe, Tetsushi, 2012. "The Role of Training in Fostering Cluster-Based Micro and Small Enterprises Development," WIDER Working Paper Series 099, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    15. Tetsuji Okazaki, 2021. "The Impact of Technological Change on Labor: The Japanese Silk Weaving Industry during the Industrial Revolution," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-1166, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    16. Tetsushi Sonobe & Yuki Higuchi & Keijiro Otsuka, 2012. "Productivity Growth and Job Creation in the Development Process of Industrial Clusters," GRIPS Discussion Papers 11-22, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.
    17. Tomoko HASHINO & Keijiro Otsuka, 2021. "Selective Technology Choice, Adaptations, and Industrial Development: Lessons from Japanese Historical Experience," Discussion Papers 2124, Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University.
    18. Tomoko HASHINO, 2021. "From Lyon to Kyoto: Modernization of a Traditional Silk-Weaving District in Japan, 1887–1929," Discussion Papers 2122, Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University.
    19. BASSINO, Jean-Pascal & van der ENG, Pierre, 2016. "Asia's 'Little Divergence' in the 20th Century: Evidence from PPP-based direct estimates of GDP per capita, 1913-1969," Discussion paper series HIAS-E-28, Hitotsubashi Institute for Advanced Study, Hitotsubashi University.
    20. Yuya Aikawa & Tomoko Hashino & Keijiro Otsuka, 2023. "Agglomeration with the Declining Marshallian Agglomeration Economies:An inquiry into the postwar development of the Nada sake brewing district in Japan," Discussion Papers 2308, Graduate School of Economics, Kobe University.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:koe:wpaper:1303. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kimiaki Shirahama (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fekobjp.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.