"Why were Japanese People not Wealthy before the Second World War? ---Evidence from Mind and Job Search of Girls Living in the Sennan District of Osaka Prefecture, 1878-1912" (in Japanese)

Any country will thrive by industrialization because a lot of goods and services will be produced during industrialization. In Japan, however, before the Second World War people could not be wealthy although she industrialized rapidly. In this regard it has been emphasized that there was so much labor force in Japan that oversupply of labor had prevented real wages people gained from rising. But, instead of it, this article shows that whether people could be rich or not depended on the way they chose jobs, by exploring mind and job search of girls living in the Sennan district of Osaka prefecture in the late 19th and early 20th century. Before industrialization girls living in the Sennan district had made money by producing cotton threads and cotton cloths at home or by working as domestic servants in rich households living nearby. In addition, after the beginning of industrialization girls were able to work in factories because a cotton spinning mill and weaving factories were built in the Sennan district. In this situation it was less profitable for girls to work at home than to work outside home as domestic servants or factory workers. Nevertheless girls were so eager to work with their families that they would work at home rather than work outside home. As a result girls earned less money by working at home, although they could have gained much money by working as domestic servants or factory workers.