Working Women of Japan

The origin and history of the Matsuyama Working Girls' Home cannot be told apart from the story of the man who has been its heart and life, Mr. Shinjiro Omoto. Born in 1872 and...

As already stated, many girls prefer factory work to that of domestic service, either in private families or in hotels. From ancient times there have been small industrial enter...

The reader will desire to know what, if any, have been the efforts to ameliorate the evils described in preceding pages. They are of two kinds: first, governmental in origin, ge...

The word _geisha_ means an "accomplished person." A geisha is invariably a young woman who has had years of training fitting her to provide social entertainment for men. The _ge...

Japan has three leading wealth-earning occupations: agriculture, sericulture, and factory work. In each of these women take an important part. In the cultivation of the soil far...

It may seem strange to class prostitutes among working women, but the facts require such classification, for, not only so far as the parents and brothel keepers are concerned, b...

A distinct class of domestics is that which serves in hotels, tea-houses, and restaurants. Here the hours of labor are longer,--from four or five in the morning till midnight, o...

Before passing on to study the various classes of workers constantly recruited in no small numbers from the homes of farmers, we should first consider the high development of in...

The great poverty of the majority of the people renders necessary, as already noted, not only the utmost economy in the home, but also a high degree of industry, and the beginni...

In old Japan, next to the Imperial family and court nobles, came the feudal lords (_Daimio_), upheld by the warrior class (_Samurai_), below whom in turn were ranked the three c...

In old Japan, among the workers the highest rank was held by farmers, next by artizans, and last came the merchants, for they were regarded as resorting to means somewhat degrad...

The chief wealth-earning domestic industry carried on by farmers' wives and daughters is the rearing of silkworms and the reeling, spinning, and weaving of the silk. Japan suppl...

By the time a girl is fifteen or sixteen she is regarded as sufficiently large, strong, and mature to enter on more responsible work. Among the several fields open to her is tha...