ID :
28763
Thu, 11/06/2008 - 18:43
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/28763
The shortlink copeid
FOCUS: Japan getting serious to revive silk industry
NAGANO, Japan, Nov. 5 Kyodo - Once one of Japan's key industries, earning foreign exchange and contributing to the modernization of the nation, the silk industry is aiming for a comeback after being on the verge of collapse.
Japan boasted of having about 2.2 million sericulture households across the
nation in the second half of the 1920s, but the number plunged to about 1,200
last year, according to government statistics.
The output of raw silk amounted to more than 40,000 tons in peak periods
compared with slightly more than 100 tons at present. The silk industry as a
whole has been on the decline in the wake of decreases in the import of foreign
silk year after year.
People working in the silk industry in Nagano Prefecture are among those making
efforts to revive the fabric business. The central Japan prefecture accounted
for around 30 percent of domestic raw silk production from the Meiji period
(1868-1912) to the second half of the 1920s.
Silk-reeling industrial companies in Okaya in the prefecture joined together in
1875 and developed a silk-reeling machine capable of turning out soft thread
based on the technologies of France and Italy, the nations that were at the
forefront of such techniques at the time. The Okaya model accounted for 65
percent of reeling machines in operation in the country in 1926.
Today, only two companies in the city and its vicinity are engaged in the
process of harvesting silk from the cocoons of silkworms after low-priced
Chinese silk swept over the Japanese market in the postwar years.
Miyasaka Silk Reeling Co., led by President Teruhiko Miyasaka, 69, still sticks
to the old method of making raw silk from locally sourced cocoons, which
Miyasaka and his employees boil in a pan.
Members of a local citizens' group have been hand-weaving the silk processed at
Miyasaka to make sundries such as neckties and table mats for the past three
years in an attempt to sell them to European countries.
Haruki Shimazaki of the Okaya Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the group
has so far had only one contract, explaining that ''there has been a difference
in thinking between the group and Europeans with the latter looking for
curtains and sheets.''
The Nagano Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Nagano City and Shinshu
University are geared toward developing a new technique for ''washable silk.''
Designer Masako Oka, 50, said, ''We'd like to put some thought into developing
washable silk by adding a spider's DNA to a silkworm to enable it to produce
strong thread or by mixing in a corn-derived fiber.''
The government compiled a 3.5 billion yen supplementary budget in February to
accelerate a policy of cooperation and coexistence among silkworm-raising,
silk-making and textile industries. Previously, it had restricted itself to
covering losses suffered by silkworm raisers, but launched the new policy in
the belief that sericulturists would die a ''natural death'' if the situation
stayed unchanged.
Ori Doraku (literally fabric hobby) Shiono-ya is a textile manufacturer with a
history of more than 300 years in the ancient capital of Kyoto, a city noted
for Nishijin brocade, and has been ahead of the times in cooperating with
sericulturists.
Under an agreement it has with them, the manufacturer gets farm households in
Kyoto Prefecture to raise special silkworms that turn out colored thread
without recourse to artificial feed. It then purchases the cocoons at a high
price and sends them to Miyasaka in Okaya to come up with excellent quality
thread.
Only about 250 kilograms a year can be processed under this method, yet
Shiono-ya President Yoshikazu Hattori is keen to sell products even if they are
expensive.
A similar tie-up idea is under way in Tomioka, Gunma Prefecture, the nation's
top producer of cocoons. The Tomioka municipality hopes the idea could appeal
to the World Heritage Convention in its attempt to have the Tomioka
silk-reeling factory listed as a World Heritage Site. The formerly
government-operated factory was established in 1872 as the first plant of its
kind in Japan.
The Tokyo-based Dai Nippon Silk Foundation, which is commissioned by the
government to carry out support projects, said, ''We'd like to bring up
regional brand-name products and pass on much of the profit to participating
businesses.''
Japan boasted of having about 2.2 million sericulture households across the
nation in the second half of the 1920s, but the number plunged to about 1,200
last year, according to government statistics.
The output of raw silk amounted to more than 40,000 tons in peak periods
compared with slightly more than 100 tons at present. The silk industry as a
whole has been on the decline in the wake of decreases in the import of foreign
silk year after year.
People working in the silk industry in Nagano Prefecture are among those making
efforts to revive the fabric business. The central Japan prefecture accounted
for around 30 percent of domestic raw silk production from the Meiji period
(1868-1912) to the second half of the 1920s.
Silk-reeling industrial companies in Okaya in the prefecture joined together in
1875 and developed a silk-reeling machine capable of turning out soft thread
based on the technologies of France and Italy, the nations that were at the
forefront of such techniques at the time. The Okaya model accounted for 65
percent of reeling machines in operation in the country in 1926.
Today, only two companies in the city and its vicinity are engaged in the
process of harvesting silk from the cocoons of silkworms after low-priced
Chinese silk swept over the Japanese market in the postwar years.
Miyasaka Silk Reeling Co., led by President Teruhiko Miyasaka, 69, still sticks
to the old method of making raw silk from locally sourced cocoons, which
Miyasaka and his employees boil in a pan.
Members of a local citizens' group have been hand-weaving the silk processed at
Miyasaka to make sundries such as neckties and table mats for the past three
years in an attempt to sell them to European countries.
Haruki Shimazaki of the Okaya Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the group
has so far had only one contract, explaining that ''there has been a difference
in thinking between the group and Europeans with the latter looking for
curtains and sheets.''
The Nagano Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Nagano City and Shinshu
University are geared toward developing a new technique for ''washable silk.''
Designer Masako Oka, 50, said, ''We'd like to put some thought into developing
washable silk by adding a spider's DNA to a silkworm to enable it to produce
strong thread or by mixing in a corn-derived fiber.''
The government compiled a 3.5 billion yen supplementary budget in February to
accelerate a policy of cooperation and coexistence among silkworm-raising,
silk-making and textile industries. Previously, it had restricted itself to
covering losses suffered by silkworm raisers, but launched the new policy in
the belief that sericulturists would die a ''natural death'' if the situation
stayed unchanged.
Ori Doraku (literally fabric hobby) Shiono-ya is a textile manufacturer with a
history of more than 300 years in the ancient capital of Kyoto, a city noted
for Nishijin brocade, and has been ahead of the times in cooperating with
sericulturists.
Under an agreement it has with them, the manufacturer gets farm households in
Kyoto Prefecture to raise special silkworms that turn out colored thread
without recourse to artificial feed. It then purchases the cocoons at a high
price and sends them to Miyasaka in Okaya to come up with excellent quality
thread.
Only about 250 kilograms a year can be processed under this method, yet
Shiono-ya President Yoshikazu Hattori is keen to sell products even if they are
expensive.
A similar tie-up idea is under way in Tomioka, Gunma Prefecture, the nation's
top producer of cocoons. The Tomioka municipality hopes the idea could appeal
to the World Heritage Convention in its attempt to have the Tomioka
silk-reeling factory listed as a World Heritage Site. The formerly
government-operated factory was established in 1872 as the first plant of its
kind in Japan.
The Tokyo-based Dai Nippon Silk Foundation, which is commissioned by the
government to carry out support projects, said, ''We'd like to bring up
regional brand-name products and pass on much of the profit to participating
businesses.''
