Japanese Silk Factories DBQ

Female Japanese workers in a silk factory were highly mistreated. Its safe to say that japan's economy over the last century has been very successful. As factory production ideas grew and grew, tens of thousands of individuals, most likely from rural backgrounds, were hired for factory work. The silk industry was one of japan's powerful inventions. They also came to be known as japan's most important exports. Throughout the women's busy day with very few breaks, they experienced long hours, poor work conditions, and bad wages.

As the production of silk grew over time, labour hours became longer and the factory work life became much more difficult. Work days in the Japanese silk factories were up to fourteen hours per day. “A normal working day in a plant in Okaya was thirteen to fourteen hours¨(Doc, B). This did not give the workers much time to have a life or any kind of relationship outside of the factory. In addition to the days being extremely long, they rarely received any breaks or time given to themselves. ¨given fifteen minutes for breakfast... They were allowed fifteen minutes for lunch... And a ten minute break...¨ (Doc. B). The women's motivation to carry on working at the factory seemed to always

With so much growth within the factory, more attention was given to the conditions of the workplaces. Surely a factory is not a suitable environment for young children although, girls as young as twelve were hired to help out. These young girls normally were sold to the factories at very young ages by their parents so the family would receive more money (Doc. G). 1,677 female mill workers left their jobs in Japan at this time (Doc. D). The long hours and possibly unsanitary environment and/ or food could have been a cause for the amount of women leaving. 40% of female workers voted that the treatment when sick was poor and 50% voted that it was average (Doc.