Urban Small Businesses in Japan's Indigenous Economic Development

本研究的目的是从城市小本企业的角度来探讨日本战前的工业化。正如我们在前面的研究中指出的，近代日本的工业化过程包含了所谓的“本土经济发展”。第一次世界大战以前农村织造工业的发展就是一个典型的例子，它在工厂之外还存在着以农民副业为基础的外销制等生产形式。然而，在第一次世界大战后，纺织业的出厂制迅速让位于配备动力织机的工厂制。相比之下，大城市的工业发展，特别是在两次世界大战期间的东京，导致了新成立的小作坊的增加。在这里，以商人、工厂、小作坊和家庭作坊的复杂交易为基础的生产系统运行着。玩具制造业是二战期间东京作为出口产业发展起来的，是基于这种生产体系的典型产业之一。由于城市地区缺乏农民和亲密社区，城市小企业的基础不同。这项技能是在准学徒制度中训练的，在这种制度中，未成年工人经历了一种在职培训。基于这种技能的形成，不少员工建立了自己的企业，甚至与批发商竞争。它们的活动得到了集群的正外部性的支持。正式制度和非正式制度在防止交易无序方面发挥了重要作用。结合商人功能的生产组织者的角色也很重要。商人和家庭经济的结合，加上社会和制度基础，促进了以小企业为基础的工业化。这些研究结果表明，“本土经济发展”虽然舞台由农村转向城市，但在战后日本经济发展中仍然发挥着重要作用

The aim of this research was to explore Japan's pre-war industrialization from the viewpoint of urban small-scale businesses. As we have pointed out in the previous studies, the industrialization process in modern Japan included so-called "indigenous economic development". A typical case can be seen in the development of rural weaving industry before the World War I. There functioned the production form besides factory such as putting-out system based on the peasant's sideline work. After the World War I, however, putting-out system in the weaving industry rapidly gave way to factory system that equipped the power looms. Contrastively, the industrial development in large cities, especially in Tokyo during the Inter-war period, entailed the increase of newly formed petty and small workshops. There functioned the production system based on the complex transaction of merchants, factories, small workshops and domestic works. Toy manufacturing, which developed as an export industry in the I … More nter-war Tokyo, was one of the typical industries based on that production system. As the urban area lacked the peasants and the intimate communities, urban small businesses stood on the different foundations. The skill was trained in the quasi-apprentice system where juvenile workers experienced a sort of on-the-job training. Based on this skill formation, not a few employees set up their own businesses and competed even with the wholesalers. Their activities were supported by the positive externality of the cluster. The formal and informal institutions played significant roles to prevent the transactions from disorder. The role of production organizer that combined the function of the merchant was also important. The combination of the merchant and the household economy, together with the social and institutional basis, promoted an industrialization based on the small businesses. These results of this research indicates that the "indigenous economic development", although the arenas of which changed from rural area to urban area, still played a significant roles in Japanese economic development after the W.W.I. Less