Introduction

The Japanese cotton industry depended heavily on overseas markets for its growth since the beginning of its development. Japanese major cotton spinners exported about 40% of their total sales in 1914. The exports of Japanese cotton spinners were almost completely confined to the Chinese market before the First World War. They had established a dominant position there, especially in the area of cotton yarn and coarse cotton cloth. They exported 500,000 bales of cotton yarn (worth about 56.5 million yen) to China. This amounted to 55% of the total imported yarns to China in 1914. They also exported coarse cotton cloth (sheeting, drill and T-cloth) for a total of 24.7 million yen which was 57% of the total amount imported to China in 1913.

During the First World War the Chinese modern cotton industry began expansion of its production capacity on a large scale while imports from Lancashire decreased and the price of cotton goods rose considerably. Then the Chinese market became self-sufficient in the areas of coarse cotton yarns (cotton yarns of 20 count and downward) and coarse cotton cloth. Imports of cotton yarns to China decreased from 901,000 bales in 1914 to 377,000 bales in 1918. Chinese imports of sheeting and drill decreased from 3,054,000 pieces and 1,759,000 pieces respectively in 1915 to 2,268,000 pieces and 952,000 pieces in 1918.