1 Textile Workers in Japan, 1650-2000 Janet Hunter and Helen Macnaughtan This is a pre-print draft version of a published article. To cite this article, see: Hunter, Janet and Helen Macnaughtan (2010). “National Histories of Textile Workers: Japan” (p305-332) in Lex Heerma Van Voss, Els Hiemstra-Kuperus and Elise Van Nederveen Meerkerk (eds.) The Ashgate Companion to the History of Textile Workers, 1650-2000. Ashgate Publishing Ltd., pp.836, ISBN: 978-0-754-66428-4 Japan has a long history of textile production, and the forms and nature of textile production have undergone major changes over the years since 1650. In order best to comprehend the consequent changes in the nature of textile work and textile workers, this overview will be divided into three chronological sections: the years from the seventeenth century up until the 1850s, characterised by pre-industrial and proto- industrial forms of production; the period from the 1850s up to 1937, marked by Japan’s increasing integration into the international economy, accompanied by the growth of capitalist factory production and successful international competition; and the years 1937-2000, which were marked firstly by a shift of resources out of textile production for war-related reasons, followed by recovery and the relative decline of the significance of textile production in the Japanese economy, and in Japan’s international trade. 1650-1850s Environment As might be expected in a low income country, in pre-industrial Japan clothing accounted for a considerable part of household expenditure even among the wealthiest families, and textiles was by far the largest sector of manufacturing. Many Japanese families continued to produce their own clothing, but the period witnessed the spread