Page:Sanzō Nosaka - A Brief Review of the Labour Movement in Japan (1921).pdf/34



1. The „Organisable“ Workers.

In order to understand the extent of the Japanese Trade Union Movement, it is necessary to bear in mind: (1) that agriculture and semi-agriculture occupy nearly 60 per cent. of the population (56.6 millions), (2) that the handicraft and small-scale industries greatly dominate, and (3) that there is an extraordinary number of woman labourers, chiefly employed in the textile industry (650,000 in factories and 700,009 small and home works) and other small-scale productions. (See the Appendix).

According to the latest official report (1918), we obtain the following figures in connection with a rough estimate of the so-called „organisable“ workers, with complete exclusion of wage-earners engaging in distributive, domestic, clerical, and other similar services, out-door (including building), and agriculture labourers.

The total figure shows that there are nearly three millions of the industrial workers. But, as the Trade Union movement among the