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Mobilising human resources to build a national communications network: the case of Japan before the Pacific War
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 April 2024
Abstract
This article analyses labour-intensive workforce strategies in Japan's government-run informational infrastructure (post, telegraph, and telephone) and in the adjunct services associated with their administration in the decades up to the Pacific War. It asks to what extent the growing scale of employment in Japan's communications infrastructure in this period confirms the existence of labour-intensive growth outside the manufacturing sector, and how far the growth of the labour force in post and telecommunications was facilitated by specific labour-absorbing institutions—that is, formal or informal institutions designed to mobilise or incentivise large numbers of employees. The discussion of these two associated questions shows not only that this area of infrastructure provision was highly labour-intensive in terms of the numbers employed and the diverse tasks undertaken, but also that the government-run postal system in effect depended for its growth and development on labour strategies and labour-absorbing institutions analogous to those usually associated with manufacturing development. The article also seeks to establish how far we can see in this sector the gradual improvement in the quality of labour normally associated with the labour-intensive industrialisation process, providing evidence that the evolving institutions were closely associated with a gradual improvement in the quality of labour and its ability to interact with rapidly changing needs and technologies.
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References
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6 Responsibility for the postal service initially lay with the Ekiteishi, a department of the Minbushō (Civil Affairs Ministry), but, during the 1870s, the bureau changed its name more than once (Ekiteiryō, Ekiteikyoku) and also moved between ministries, coming under the new Home Ministry in 1874 and then in 1881 being transferred to the newly established Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce. Throughout the 1870s, the telegraph system came under the Ministry of Industry (Kōbushō, also known as the Ministry of Public Works) and, in December 1885, in conjunction with the establishment of the new cabinet system, both the post and the telegraph came under the jurisdiction of the new Ministry of Communications (Teishinshō) that was set up to unify all aspects of the transport and communications system. The Ministry of Communications also presided over policies for the development of the telephone.
7 N. Fujii 藤井信幸, Terekomu no Keizaishi—Kindai Nihon no Denshin/Denwa テレコムの経済史—近代日本の電信電話 [Economic History of Telecommunications: Telegraph and Telephone in Modern Japan] (Tokyo, 1998), pp. 24, 70; Yūseishō Yūbin Jimukyoku Yūbin Jigyōshi Hensanshitsu 郵政省郵便事務局郵便事業史編纂室, Yūbin Sōgyō 120nen no Rekishi 郵便創業１２０年の歴史 [120 Years of Postal History from Its Founding] (Tokyo, 1991), p. 216.
8 Y. Yamasaki 山崎義弘, ‘Ittō Yūbin Denshinkyokuchō kara Chiji, Daijin e—Kawamura Takeji Den’ 一等郵便電信局長から知事、大臣へー川村竹治伝 [From first-class postal and telegraph office to governor and minister: the story of Takeji Kawamura], Yūbinshi Kenkyū 郵便史研究 [Postal History Research] 35 (June 2013), pp. 28–31.
9 For a discussion of the sparse literature relating to the koin/yōnin system, see S. Ishii 石井滋, ‘Koin-yōnin Seido Kenkyū ni tsuite no Ikkōsatsu’ 雇員傭人制度研究についての一孝察 [Observation regarding research on the koin-yōnin system], Shakaigaku Kenkyū Ronshū (Waseda Daigaku) 社会学研究論集（早稲田大学）[Sociology Research Papers (Waseda University)] 23 (March 2014). Y. Satō 佐藤美弥, ‘Warera no Nyūsu ni Miru Koin-Yōnin no Bunka: 1931nen no Kanri Genbō Hantai Undō ni okeru’『我らのニュース』にみる雇員・ 傭人の文化─ 一九三一年の官吏減俸反対運動にお ける [Culture of koin-yōnin as seen in ‘Warera no Nyūsu’: the 1931 movement against salary reduction], Rekishi Hyōron 歴史評論 [History Review] 737 (2011), focuses much of his analysis on communications workers, but his emphasis is on participation in the labour movement rather than the actual categorisation.
10 The reasons for this recategorisation are not explained in the communications statistics, but similar changes are found among other groups of government employees.
11 Ekitei Nenpō 駅逓年報 [Communications Yearbook] 1908, p. 2.
12 Even larger was the national railways, which claimed to have close to 200,000 employees by the mid-1920s. See Tōyō Keizai Shinpōsha 東洋経済新報社 (ed.), Meiji Taishō Kokusei Sōran—Sōritsu 80 Shūnen Fukkoku 明治大正国勢総覧—創立８０周年復刻 [Overview of the State of the Country in the Meiji-Taishō Eras: 80th Anniversary Edition] (1927, republished Tokyo, 1975), p. 621.
13 Figures from Yūseishō, Yūsei Hyakunen Shi Shiryō, vol. 30, pp. 82–83.
14 Teishinshō Dai 52 Hō 逓信省第５２報 [Ministry of Communications Bulletin 52], cited in Yūseishō, Yūsei Hyakunen Shi Shiryō, p. 85.
15 Yabuuchi, Nihon Yūbin Sōgyō no Rekishi, p. 301; Yūseishō Yūbin Jimukyoku Yūbin Jigyōshi Hensanshitsu, Yūbin Sōgyō 120nen no Rekishi, p. 41.
16 Tōkyō Nichi Nichi Shinbun 東京日日新聞, 28 June 1872. Universal elementary education did not become a reality in Japan until around the turn of the century.
17 H. Maejima 前島密, ‘Irōkai ni Nozomite no Kangae’ 慰労会にのぞみての考え [Thoughts on attending a commemorative dinner], Tsūshin Kyōkai Zasshi 通信協会雑誌 [Communications Association Journal] 7 (1909), p. 45.
18 H. Maejima 前島密, Yūbin Sōgyō Dan 郵便創業談 [Stories of the Founding of the Post] (reprinted Tokyo, 1951), pp. 69–71. Except where indicated otherwise, references to Yūbin Sōgyō Dan are to this edition.
19 For the Edo-period system, see Vaporis, C. N., Breaking Barriers: Travel and the State in Early Modern Japan (Cambridge, MA, 1994)Google Scholar.
20 S. Ōkuma 大隈重信, ‘Gojūnenrai no Yūjin Maejima Hisoka Kun’ 五十年来の友人前島密君 [My friend of 50 years, Maejima Hisoka], Teishin Kyōkai Zasshi 逓信協会雑誌 [Communications Association Journal] 132 (1919), p. 2.
21 Yabuuchi, Nihon Yūbin Sōgyō no Rekishi, p. 178. For the old courier system, see ibid., chapters 3, 4. The government's strategy towards the couriers is also discussed in Maclachlan, People's Post Office, pp. 41–42.
22 Nihon Tsū’un KK 日本通運KK, Nihon Tsū’un KK Shashi 日本通運 KK社史 [Nihon Tsū’un KK Company History] (Tokyo, 1962), p. 127.
23 Yūbin Hōchi Shinbun 郵便報知新聞, 24, 10th month Meiji 5.
24 Yabuuchi, Nihon Yūbin Sōgyō no Rekishi, p. 204.
25 Some of the official statistics suggest that, long before 1941, there was a subcategory of third-class post offices that were designated tokutei yūbinkyoku, but not all the data differentiate this subcategory. Maclachlan uses the English term ‘commissioned postmasters’.
26 Yūseishō Yūbin Jimukyoku Yūbin Jigyōshi Hensanshitsu, Yūbin Sōgyō 120nen no Rekishi, p. 39. The Teishinshō Hō (1903), pp. 374–83, lists all employees at first-class and second-class post offices by rank and task. No city had more than one first-class office but Tokyo, for example, had over 20 second-class offices as well. Other cities also had a number of second-class offices.
27 Maclachlan, People's Post Office; Yabuuchi, Nihon Yūbin Sōgyō no Rekishi; Inoue and Hoshina, Yūbin no Rekishi; K. Tahara 田原啓介, ‘Senzenki Santō Yūbinkyoku no Keiei Jittai’ 戦前期三等郵便局の経営実態 [Managerial situation of third-class post offices in the pre-war period], Yūsei Shiryōkan Kenkyū Kiyō 郵政資料館研究紀要 [Postal Archive Research Contributions] 2010, https://www.postalmuseum.jp/publication/research/docs/research_01_05.pdf (accessed 7 May 2022).
28 Maejima to Shiratori 21st/2nd month, Meiji 5, 29 March 1872, reprinted in Yūseishō, Yūsei Hyakunen Shi Shiryō, vol. 24, p. 23.
29 Maejima, Yūbin Sōgyō Dan, p. 99.
30 Inoue and Hoshina, Yūbin no Rekishi, pp. 128–29. Unlike in Japan, however, many of the sub-post offices in Britain, as well as a few of the larger offices, were, as early as the 1890s, officially run by women. For the employment of women in the UK's Royal Mail in the early twentieth century, see Crowley, M. J., ‘“Inequality” and “value” reconsidered? The employment of post office women, 1910–1922’, Business History 58.7 (2016)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
31 Maclachlan, People's Post Office, p. 43.
32 Imperial Japanese Post Office, 3rd Report, 1874, p. 5, enclosed in NA (National Archive) FO 46/205, no. 62, Parkes to Derby, 3 April 1876.
33 N. Yamamoto 山本直太朗, ‘Yūbin no Konjaku’ 郵便の今昔 [Post, past and present], Taiyō 太陽 [Sun] 33 (1927), p. 551. The mon, which predated the Restoration, was the smallest currency unit circulating in the early Meiji period.
34 Maejima, Yūbin Sōgyō Dan, p. 29. For Hamaguchi, see K. Sugimura 杉村広太郎, Hamaguchi Goryō Den 濱口梧陵 伝 [Biography of Hamaguchi Goryō] (Tokyo, 1920).
35 Maejima, Yūbin Sōgyō Dan, pp. 66–67 gives the text of this preamble.
36 For the development of the Meiji bureaucracy, and the associated introduction of more formal qualifications for entry, see Shimizu, Y., The Origins of the Modern Japanese Bureaucracy (London, 2020)Google Scholar, chapters 2–4.
37 Maejima, Yūbin Sōgyō Dan, p. 98.
38 Imperial Japanese Post Office, 3rd Report, 1874, p. 5, enclosed in NA FO 46/205, no. 62, Parkes to Derby, 3 April 1876.
39 Garon, Beyond our Means, pp. 155ff.
40 Maclachlan, People's Post Office, p. 65.
41 Inoue and Hoshina, Yūbin no Rekishi, pp. 164–71.
42 K. Suzuki 鈴木克彦, ‘Kyūkan Shōkai (7) Teishin Kyōiku Shi’ 旧刊紹介（７）「逓信教育史」[Introduction to old publications (7) Teishin Kyōiku Shi (History of Communications Education)], Yūbin Shi Kenkyū 郵便史研究 33, March 2012, p. 43. Since Bryan was already paid ¥450 per month, rising to ¥500 after the international postal treaties were signed, his total salary was inordinately high.
43 Data suggest that a majority of all foreign employees in the Meiji period were earning in excess of $50 per month and a significant number far more than that (H. J. Jones, Live Machines: Hired Foreigners and Meiji Japan (Vancouver, BC, 1980), p. 152, Table 6). Bryan's salary was not atypical of the top earners, who received more than their Japanese bosses and members of the cabinet.
44 Suzuki, ‘Kyūkan Shōkai (7) Tsūshin Kyōiku Shi’, pp. 44–45. The school was in 1890 renamed the Tokyo Post and Telegraph School, to be replaced in 1905 by the newly established Tsūshin Kanri Renshūsho.
45 Nihon Teikoku Tōkei Nenkan 日本帝国統計年鑑 [Imperial Japan Statistical Yearbook] 14 (1895), p. 795.
46 Nihon Teikoku Tōkei Nenkan 日本帝国統計年鑑 19 (1900), p. 795; Teishinshō Hō 逓信商報 [Ministry of Communications Bulletin], 1903, p. 161; Nihon Teikoku Tōkei Nenkan 日本帝国統計年鑑 40 (1921), pp. 246–47.
47 Kyū Kōbu Daigakkō Shi Shiryō Hensankai 旧工部大学校史資料編纂会, Kyū Kōbu Daigakkō Shi Shiryō 旧工部大学校史資料 [Materials on the History of the Former University of Engineering] (Tokyo, 1931), pp. 349–51.
48 Teishinshō Hō (1903), p. 5.
49 See, for example, Jiji Shinpō 時事新報, 3 October 1890. See also Hunter, J., ‘Technology transfer and the gendering of communications work: Meiji Japan in comparative historical perspective’, Social Science Japan Journal 14.1 (2011)Google Scholar.
50 Ekiteishō Daigonen Hō 駅逓省第五年報, 1890, p. 53. Male workers were identified as receiving a daily wage of between 10 sen and 55 sen per day (ibid., pp. 52–53).
51 Nihon Teikoku Tōkei Nenkan 19 (1900), p. 795; Nihon Teikoku Tōkei Nenkan 40 (1921), pp. 246–47.
52 Teishinshō Nenpō Taishō 10nen 逓信省年報大正十年 [Ministry of Communications Annual Report for 1921], pp. 15–16, 54–55; Nihon Teikoku Tōkei Nenkan 40 (1921), pp. 246–47.
53 Teishinshō Hō (1903), p. 53; Ekitei Nenpō (1908), p. 21; Annual Report of the Department of Communications (Tokyo, 1921), pp. 15–16. The commitment to running financial services of this kind that would be accessible to all members of the population, including those on low incomes, dated from the 1870s.
54 Y. Matsuzawa 松沢裕作, ‘Teishinshō ni okeru Josei no Koin to Hanninkan: Chokinbukyoku o Chūshin ni—1900nen-1918nen’ 逓信省における女性の雇員と判任官：貯金部局を中心にー１９００年－１９１８年 [Female employees and hanninkan in the Ministry of Communications: the case of the Savings Bureau 1900–1918], Kokuritsu Rekishi Minzoku Hakubutsukan Kenkyū Hōkoku 国立歴史民俗博物館研究報告 [Research Reports of National Museum of Japanese History], September (2022). Matsuzawa notes that it was not until 1906 that women could become hannin appointees, but the 1903 Ministry Report does in fact note the existence of 97 female hannin employees.
55 Ekitei Nenpō (1908), pp. 22–23.
56 The founders of the new service felt strongly that the state needed to inculcate in citizens an understanding of the value of a state-run postal network. Terms such as shinji saseru (make them believe) and uetsukeru (implant) were used, as distinct from the term kyōiku (education) used to refer to the provision of skill development and training for employees.
57 Yabuuchi, Nihon Yūbin Sōgyō no Rekishi, p. 237.
58 Yūseishō Yūbin Jimukyoku Yūbin Jigyōshi Hensanshitsu, Yūbin Sōgyō 120nen no Rekishi, p. 39.
59 Maclachlan, People's Post Office, pp. 62–65.
60 Quoted in H. Maejima 前島密, Yūbin Sōgyō Dan—Yūbin no Chichi Maejima Hisoka Ikōshū 郵便創業談—郵便の父前島密遺稿集 [Tales of the Founding of the Post: posthumous Works of Maejima Hisoka, Father of the Post] (Tokyo, 1936), pp. 182–84.