Research on development of co-oprative society for electricity supply in mountain villages in Japan before Word War II

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the history of development of co-operative society for electricitysupply before World War II. Most of electricity supply companies of Japan were established in cities by private capital, and the first company was established in 1887. The number of electricity supply companies was 573 in 1917, and the number reached about 800 in 1933.However, electric power industry had not developed in mountain villages where the dimension of populationwas small. Many of electricity supply companies before World War II did not understand a public concept. Thecondition of arrangement of houses in mountain villages were an unfavorable term for the supply of electricity. When the supply of electricity was received from company, a lot of utility poles were needed for settlement in mountain villages. Therefore, the cost of electricity supply for mountain villages by company of electricity supply was higher than the cost of city. When the settlements of mountain villages demanded electricity supply to company, inhabitant had to bear the cost of large amount of money.Therefore, electricity supply were done by three methods in mountain villages. The first method was establishment of electricity supply company by capitalists in the mountain villages. The second method was a electricity supply by municipality. And, the third method was establishment of a small-scale co-operative society for electricity supply. The end of electricity supply network before World War II was constructed by money, labor, and wisdom of inhabitant in mountain villages.