Conclusion

Penelope Francks ()
Additional contact information
Penelope Francks: University of Leeds

Chapter Chapter 5 in Housework, Consumption and Female Labour in Japan, 1600—1940, 2025, pp 69-73 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract This brief chapter draws together the arguments made in the book. Up to the inter-war period at least, the Japanese economy was characterised by small-scale production units and a high level of household self-sufficiency, especially in food. This depended on the availability of household labour, which was unpaid according to the ‘third-party criterion’ and not reflected in standard quantitative measures of living standards. Examination of the characteristics of the diet and clothing consumed by rural and urban households reveals the role of such labour in determining living standards and the significance of its neglect in historical assessments and comparisons. It also highlights the influence of female household labour in the creation of food products that have come to be enjoyed across the globe in recent years.

Keywords: Comparative historical living standards; Unpaid household labour; Women’s work in Japan; Origins of Japanese food products (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palscp:978-3-031-83693-0_5

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9783031836930

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-83693-0_5

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Studies in Economic History from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().