1 Female Labour and the Occupation Period the case of J apan’s cotton textile industry Unpublished paper – parts of this paper were published in: Macnaughtan (2005) Women, Work and the Japanese Economic Miracle: the case of the cotton textile industry, 1945-1975. Routledge Curzon. Helen Macnaughtan SOAS, University of London “Women have, from the onset, dominated the all -important textile industry.” Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, “Final Report of the Advisory Committee on Labour: labour policies and programs in Japan”, Tokyo, 29 July 1946, p.93. (I) Introduction & Historical Overview This paper examines the influence the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (“SCAP”) had on labour conditions and employment practices in the cotton textile industry during the Occupation period of Japan (1945-1952). In doing so it focuses on the system of employment of female workers that had taken shape in the industry during the prewar period, how this was viewed by SCAP during the Occupation period, and the effects this had on the industry’s employment of women in the postwar period. This first section places the Occupation period within historical context, by briefly outlining the history of the industry during the prewar and wartime periods. It then comments on the early postwar reconstruction of the industry under SCAP, and ends with a discussion of the significance of female labour within the industry. The second section, comprising the bulk of the paper, examines the role SCAP played in defining how the textile industry’s recruitment and employment practices would take shape in the postwar period. As such it focuses on SCAP’s influence in labour reform and legislation, the role of the industry itself within this era of reform, and the new framework for recruitment that was set in place. The third section discusses further SCAP’s influence on other areas of employment relating to women within the industry, namely management and welfare programmes. The final section assesses the overall impact of the Occupation years and SCAP on the textile industry’s employment of female workers, and discusses how it evolved during the following years.