1925　“Joko Aisi” published

During the 1880s and 1890s, Japan was also experiencing the Industrial Revolution, and children were used as labor in factories. In particular, factory production developed rapidly after the Sino-Japanese War, and many children under the age of 10 were engaged in hard labor, averaging about 15 hours a day, to secure labor for factories. The plight of these children regarding their labor was described in “Joko Aisi (Sad story of factory girls in pre-WWII Japan)” published in 1925.

“Joko Aishi” is a reportage (documentary literature) written in 1925 by the author, Wakizo Hosoi. The book describes the actual conditions of "women workers" who worked in spinning and weaving factories, describing their poor working conditions, life in dormitories where their freedom was restricted, abuse, and fraud during recruitment. In the textile industry at that time, "women workers," mainly children of poor farmers, were forced to work under harsh conditions. In fact, at the government-run Tomioka Silk Mill, girls in their mid-teens from fallen samurai families and poor farmers were gathered together to work for low wages for more than 15 hours a day in a poor working environment, and indentured servitude bound by abuse, advance loans, etc.

In the Taisho era (1912-1926), the social labor movement grew in Japan and began to resonate with calls for social rights, especially equal opportunity education for the citizens.