INDUSTRIALIZATION IN THE JOBAN COAL FIELD REGION AFTER THE COLLAPSE OF THE COAL-MINING INDUSTRY

Abstract

After the Second World War, especially in the period of high growth of Japanese economy which was led by the development of manufacture, the monopolistic position of coal in Japanese energy markets gave place to petroleum. Because of this replacement, most of the coalmining industries have collapsed. This study is an attempt to consider the industrial reorganization of the coal field district as one of the ways to solve its economic problems. As a case study, the author selects the Joban coal-field region and attempts to pursue its transformation into the new industrial development, the character of new industry, and the factors prescribing the new industrial character from the viewpoint of the labor force. The Joban coal-field region is located in Iwaki City of Fukushima Prefecture, Kitaibaraki City, Takahagi City, and Juo Town of Ibaraki Prefecture. These cities and town are located at least 150 km north of Tokyo. In 1976, the coal-mining industry in the Joban coal-field has ended its 125 years of history. There were 125 coal mines and about 32, 000 coal miners in 1951, which was a peak year of its coal industry. The following results were made clear by this study: 1. The modern industrialization of the Joban coal-field region was initiated in the 1930's by chemical fertilizer, rayon, and pulp industries that were located there due to the proximity to natural resources. But the chemical fertilizer industry based on Joban coal as the raw material did not develop sufficiently because of low quality of the coal. Hence, the greater part of its raw coal was brought from Hokkaido. An administrative agency has aided in the later industrial development with two special acts. These acts made available the spacious lands to the new manufacturing plants. Consequently, two industrialized districts were formed in the Joban coal-field region. One is the Onahama coastal industrial district which mainly consists of equipment type, chemical industries, and large-scale factories. The other is the inland industrial district which consists of the labor-intensive, small-scale factories. The latter district changed the pure coal-mining district to more diversified industrial district. This district is named the past coal-mining district. 2. Industrialization in the post coal-mining district was a result of action by the municipal authorities which during the economic crisis encouraged the new industries and the enterprises decentralizing from the Keihin industrial zone. Both industries depended on the national administration for the financial support. As a whole, these industrial development were included in the sphere of the Keihin industrial zone. 3. Industrialization in the post coal-mining district has two features. One is the timber and furniture industries represented by a joint corporation of a coal-mining company and a new company. The other is electric and electronic machine-parts industries relocated from the Keihin industrial zone. Most workers were recruited from the people of this district. Former coal-mining workers are now employed as manufactor lobers by timber and furniture industries. On the latter, the labor force is divided into two types. The surplus young workers after the completion of school are employed by the large-scale factories, and middle or old aged housewife workers are employed by the small-scale factories. Housewife workers enter the labor market, to help their husbands who lost their works when the coal-industry failed or were reduced their income by 25 percent due to re-employment in small industries. 4. Since the purpose of work in the coal mine was chiefly to mine coal, in essence it was manual labor operating simple machines. By changing coal-mining labor to manufacture labor, the work content became more complex and sophisticated. But fundamentally, the character of manual labor with machines remained unchanged.