War time labeling of Civilian Goods

[Nick Komiya]

Several times a year, I end up explaining this over and over, so I guess it is for the benefit of all to raise an independent thread and ask the moderators to pin it for easy future reference.

All sorts of items sold on the market during the war such as flags, clothing, tabi, civil defense helmets, etc are found with small paper tags with writing on them. Most of the time, among what is written, there will be a single Kanji in a circle (either公, 停 or協 ). These were official price control ratings as applied to the item in question.

Those who have read my pinned articles know that Japan already experienced severe material shortages as early as 1937. Naturally the government would have feared the onslaught of hyperinflation, and in response, on 20th October 1939 introduced the Price Control Act, which forcefully froze prices of goods to the level as of 18th September 1939 and forbade any price increases.

Goods which got these fixed prices got the　停 in a circle (the mark was read as Maru-Tei), which meant “Halt” and was abbreviation for 停止価格（Stationary Price）. However, when buyers, sellers or unions could get the governing body to approve, they could get a revised price as a new freeze point. These items were marked with a協 in a circle (read as Maru-Kyo) short for協定価格 (Negotiated Price). The final category was 公 in a circle (read Maru-Ko) for公定価格 (Public Price), a price fixed by law by the governing body. These different degrees of price control actually came in a progression.

After the across the board freeze to 18th Sept 1939 prices (Maru-Tei), the government had to yield on some items (Maru-Kyo), but finally the government would issue laws to peg down those prices and made them official legal prices (Maru-Ko). So as the war progressed more and more items got shifted to the Maru-Ko category.

These labels were only found on civilian items and not on military issue items. Army style visor caps also can be seen with these tags, which indicated the kind of cap army veterans could buy on the civilian market.

Here’s an example of a label, which I stole from Geoff Ward’s post about a civil defense helmet. It has the Maru-tei label and interestingly freezes prices at various stages of distribution. The one on top is the Ex-factory price pegged at 5.3 Yen. Then comes wholesale price pegged at 5.8 Yen, and finally retail price at 6.5 Yen.

[Geoff Ward]

Well done Nick!

[Alan M]

Excellent , thanks again Nick .

[Nick Komiya]

Continuing on the topic of how the government controlled civilian items during the war, another hallmark for such intervention in the economy are the markings stamped into wartime ceramic items. All ceramic items after August 1940 had markings combining a kanji which normally stood for a name of a city/town with a number. It may remind you of Tsushogo codes on dog tags, but the markings are civilian in origin. The government restricted the range of products and merged companies together, etc. These codes identified the manufacturer and if authorities found a violation they knew who to punish. Same codes are seen on ceramic grenades, military mess hall bowls and plates, so sometimes they are mistaken for military markings but they are civilian controlled economy markings that also got applied to ceramics used by the military.

[Nick Komiya]

"Maru-Kyo" tag inside a bamboo civil defense helmet people mistake for army sun helmets

[Nick Komiya]

Maru-Ko Fixed Price tag meant a non-negotiable government set price for civilian goods towards the end of the war.

[Nick Komiya]

As I explained above about the special mandatory marking system the government enforced upon the ceramics industry, some of you may wonder why those markings are rarely seen on sake cups commemorating discharge from military service.

The answer is simply that the majority of such cups, those without these control markings, predate the introduction of the markings in August 1940. Up until the mobilization for the China Incident, lavishly thanking those in the township that sent the soldier off with gifts like such sake cups was common practice, but as material shortages gradually became serious, people could not keep up such luxury and the practice was discouraged by patriotic women's organizations, etc.

Therefore though there was no flood of military discharge sake cups anymore after 1940, those few that still got made did indeed carry the prerequisite business control number on the rear side. Shown below is such an example. It has the markings of 岐 155 for a company in 岐阜 Gifu. Also the inscription says "Commemorating Service in the Sacred East Asia War", euphemism for the Pacific War.