Abstract

This article shows how wartime conditions transformed the waste business in Japan. Hygiene regulations from 1900 to the 1920s followed by an influx of Korean migrant labour disrupted the traditional waste trade. The conquest of Manchuria opened up new export markets for Japanese waste and increased the demand for munitions, causing scrap metal prices to skyrocket. These new economic conditions created opportunities for Korean-owned waste businesses. In 1938 the Japanese Ministry of Commerce and Industry imposed a control system on kuzuya scrap dealers consciously modelled on Nazi Germany to keep scrap prices as low as possible and to prevent criminal activity through extensive surveillance. These price controls privileged wholesalers and harmed waste-pickers; Koreans remained in the trade because of their cheap labour. Economic mobilization under conditions of total war after 1941 temporarily rehabilitated the marginalized image of kuzuya in government propaganda, but the end of the war shattered that illusion.

摘要

本文展示了战时条件如何改变了日本的废物处理行业。1900 年至 1920 年代的卫生法规以及随后涌入的韩国移民劳工扰乱了传统的废物贸易。征服满洲为日本废料开辟了新的出口市场，增加了对军火的需求，导致废金属价格飙升。这些新的经济条件为韩国拥有的垃圾企业创造了机会。1938 年，日本商工省对葛屋实施了管制制度废品经销商有意识地效仿纳粹德国，将废品价格保持在尽可能低的水平，并通过广泛的监视来防止犯罪活动。这些价格控制特权批发商和伤害拾荒者；韩国人因为廉价劳动力而留在了这个行业。1941 年后全面战争条件下的经济动员暂时恢复了葛谷在政府宣传中的边缘化形象，但战争的结束打破了这种幻想。