Takanori Matsumoto

This chapter assesses the quantitative position of 'traditional' industries in the economy. Traditional industry - which accounted for the largest number of gainfully occupied workers - developed steadily in the modern era and continued to provide opportunities to workers that were not absorbed by the modern industrial sector. The role of the traditional commerce and service industries is emphasized, which functioned as a 'buffer' for economic fluctuations. The regional diversity of these industries is also analyzed using the statistical method of principal component analysis.

The aim of this paper is to examine the trend of Senboku (the southern district of Osaka prefecture) textile weaving industry in the interwar period by analyzing the trend of the management of a textile weaving factory in the district. For the examination, we have investigated the trend of the management of Nayatake textile weaving factory in the interwar period. Through this investigation, we can divide the management period of Nayatake textile weaving factory in the interwar period into three parts as follows.<BR>1 The management period in which Nayatake mainly produced cotton textile goods (1922-25) <BR>The management of Nayatake in this period depended heavily upon Senboku county. In short Nayatake carried on most of transactions with cotton yarns wholesale stores, textile wholesale stores, and banks in Senboku county. <BR>2 The management period in which products of Nayatake were diversified (1926-30) <BR>Nayatake adopted a product diversification strategy in which Nayatake produced cotton blankets and cotton shawls in addition to cotton sheets in order to get out of depression. So the management of Nayatake in this period was very different from the first period. The term-end profit of Nayatake was improved by adopting this strategy. And also as far as yarns and textile wholesale stores and banks were concerned, Nayatake carried on transactions on a much larger scale than the first period by adopting it. To put it concretely, as far as wholesale stores were concerned, Nayatake depended much more upon Osaka city than the first period. <BR>3 The management period in which Nayatake mainly produced woolen textile goods (1931-38) <BR>As the management of Nayatake continued to suffer a decrease in profit for seven semiannual settlement terms, Nayatake needed further diversification of its products. So Nayatake started to produce woolen goods by introducing high-performance wool-looms. Introducing them made Nayatake capital intensive, and a term-end profit was improved quickly. In this period Nayatake tended to sell woolen goods to wholesale stores in Osaka city by check and cotton goods to local wholesale stores on credit. Also Nayatake tended to buy woolen yarns directly from woolen spinning companies and cotton yarns from wholesale stores in both Osaka and Senboku county. As far as attached finished processing was concerned, napping processing depended upon Senboku, and another processing upon Osaka city and an advanced woolen weaving area, Bishu. Moreover Nayatake tended to carry on transactions with banks in Osaka city in addition to local banks in Senboku county. <BR>Through the analysis mentioned above, the conclusion of this paper should be noted as follows. <BR>Senboku county became the most famous woolen textile weaving area in Japan after World War II. However the conversion from cotton textiles to woolen textiles had already occurred during the period from the 1930s to 1930s. Therefore the interwar period was the very turning point for Senboku which would succeed as the most well-known woolen textile weaving area after the War.