ABSTRACT
Studies on female labour in pre-war Japan mostly focus on the female workers in the textile mills. There can be no doubt that these women, who around 1910 accounted for more than one-third of the whole industrial labour force (male and female) were especially important for Japanese industrialization. However, there were many other occupations in which women played an important role as well. One example which has been somewhat neglected so far is the female labour force in the coal-mines.
