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Seeking employment during Japan's early industrialisation: new engineering graduates and their struggles before 1900
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 March 2024
Abstract
This article examines the social background of engineers in Meiji Japan by analysing their employment-seeking activities and their role in fostering industrial development. In particular, it focuses on the graduates from the Imperial College of Engineering (ICE) in Tokyo. One of the most prestigious schools for technical education, the ICE was established by the Meiji government in 1871 and opened in 1873. In traditional Japanese society, the handicraft manufacturing sector was held in low regard. The difficulties that graduates faced while the industry was still developing serve as a stark reminder of the widespread contempt and disdain for manufacturing that existed in Japan before the new profession of engineer gained traction. By scrutinising the memoirs of these engineers, this study shows that new engineering graduates faced barriers to employment in industry due to the low social prestige of those working in manufacturing in the private sector and the conflict with traditional workers, as well as the fact that private companies could not afford to employ engineers in the early years of industrialisation.
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- Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Royal Asiatic Society
References
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20 If they moved to the private sector, they were required to pay a penalty of 700 yen, but the Ministry of Public Works seems to have been flexible about this. For example, Minoji Arakawa, a second-year graduate from the Course of Mining at the ICE, was exempted from paying a penalty when he went to a private railway company from the Ministry of Public Works. See Kyū Kōbu-dai-gakkō shiryō hensan-kai (ed.), Kyū Kōbu-dai-gakkō shiryō, furoku (Tokyo, 1931), p. 60. Another example is the case of Tsunehisa Fujii, a fifth-year graduate from the Course of Chemistry, who was recruited by the Ministry of the Army. See T. Hayashi, ‘6 gatsu hatsuka kōbu shokikan dai-gakkō kagaku sotsugyō-seito Fujii Tsunehisa saiyō no gi ni-tsuki kaitō’, June 1883, Ref. C09121042200, at the Japan Center for Asian Historical Records. However, in many cases, no records have remained and the effectiveness of this rule is not clear.
21 H. Itō, ‘Gijutsu no mono hishoku mōshitsuke sōrō-setsu gekkyū sonohoka-tō no gi’, October 1875, Ref. A07090164800, at the Japan Center for Asian Historical Records.
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25 Ibid., pp. 104, 133.
26 Ōkura-shō (ed.), Kōbu-shō enkaku hōkoku (Tokyo, 1889), p. 806. The career paths of the graduates of the college are mentioned in Wada, ‘Kōbu-dai-gakkō ni okeru kagaku-ka no ichizuke’.
27 Wada, ‘Kōbu-dai-gakkō ni okeru kagaku-ka no ichizuke’, pp. 60–61.
28 It should be noted that the chemical industry may have been slower to develop than other industrial fields. For example, one article reports a chemical company founded in 1877 with involvement of a prominent chemist, Jōkichi Takamine (1854–1922), who was one of the first graduates from the ICE. The report notes that he would lead the chemical industry, which has lagged behind other industries. See ‘Zakki, Tokyo jinzō hiryō kaisha’, Kōgakkai-shi 77 (1888), pp. 456–57, at p. 457.
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34 Ibid., pp. 34–35. For comparison, the starting salary for a police officer was 4 yen in 1874. See Shūkan Asahi (ed.), Nedan-shi nenpyō: Meiji, Taishō, Shōwa (Tokyo, 1988), p. 91.
35 Nakamura argues that the late entry of ICE graduates into the railway industry put them at a disadvantage compared with other engineers, which ultimately encouraged them to enter the private sector. See Nakamura, Nihon tetsudō-gyō no keisei, p. 152.
36 Ibid., pp. 152–54.
37 N. Nitta (ed.), Kikuchi Kyōzō-ō den (Osaka, 1948), pp. 57–59. Studying abroad was considered a privilege that promised a high status afterwards.
38 Kyū Kōbu-dai-gakkō shiryō, furoku, pp. 88–89.
39 K. Yamamoto, Nihon ni okeru shokuba no gijutsu, rōdō-shi: 1854–1990 (Tokyo, 1994), p. 173.
40 What I discuss here is the relationship with foremen as it affected the employment of new graduates, not the impact of foremen and productivity. In the case of iron making, in which a large number of skilled workers were essential, foremen played an important role in securing human resources in a factory. See Y. Tōjō, ‘Shoki seitetsu-gyō to shokkō shakai’, in Kigyō bokkō, (ed.) Takamura, pp. 201–32.
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42 Tōyō Bōseki kabushiki kaisha and ‘Tōyō Bōseki shichijū-nenshi’ henshū iinkai (eds.), Tōyō bōseki shichijū-nenshi (Tokyo, 1953), p. 179.
43 E. Shibusawa, S. Onuki, and Y. Takahashi, Seien kaikoroku, Jō (Tokyo, 1927), p. 432.
44 Ibid., pp. 432–33.
45 T. Kuwada, ‘Haran chōjū no gojū-nen: Mushiryoku ni shūshi sita tankō-gyō’, Sekitan jihō 2.11 (1927), pp. 1018–23, at pp. 1020–21.
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47 I have discussed the ethos of samurai origin that influenced the formation of Japanese engineering in my master's thesis. See M. Wada, ‘Engineering Education and the Spirit of Samurai at the Imperial College of Engineering in Tokyo, 1871–1886’ (unpublished master's thesis, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2007).
48 S. Nakamura, Tanakadate Aikitsu sensei (Tokyo, 1943), p. 25. In the end, Tanakadate did not pursue political science and eventually became a professor of physics at Tokyo Imperial University.
49 S. Katsuta, Katsuta Shuichi chosakushū, 5, gakkō-ron, daigaku-ron (Tokyo, 1972), p. 295.
50 M. Yoshida, Zusetsu, gijutsu to Nihon kindaika (Tokyo, 1977), p. 188.
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