Robert Zoeller
12/27/14
Period­5 The Cotton Industry of Japan and India The mechanization of the cotton industry was important in India and Japan.
Japan and India’s cotton industry consisted of peasant labor, harsh labor conditions, technological advances and low wages. However the two countries had many differences in their industries; gender labor, the labor recruitment process and cotton production. Japan and India have 2 very different ways of getting labor workers. (Document 3) states that the Japanese were sent by their family to work in the factory. However (Document 9) in India the factory workers are recruited upon the peasants to work in the cotton mills. The majority of workers recruited in
India are males, but in Japan the workers are mostly women according to
(Document 7). When analyzing (Document 8) the picture, it shows a majority of
Japanese women working in a cotton mill. In (Document 10) the shows men working in a textile shop.
The cotton in India is much greater than Japan. (Document 1) states that in 1884
Japan only produced 5 million pounds of hand and machine spun yarn. India produced significantly more yarn, having produced 301 million pounds of hand and machine spun yarn. As Japan had a larger demand for yarn, the amount of yarn greatly increased. According to (Document 2) in 1914 Japan was producing 666

pounds of yarn yearly. However, India was still producing more, and produced 742 pounds in 1914. This means that India’s recruitment and their processes are more effective than Japan’s.The conditions of the cotton mills in both countries are horrendous. Both (Document 9) and (Document 3) state that the conditions are terrible. Not many safety precautions are taken in the factories so injury is very common. Also due to such crowded conditions as stated in (Document 3) many women fall ill and are encouraged to keep working. This causes illnesses to spread quickly. The transition from rural areas to urban areas for the farmer girls makes
them