The Law for the Promotion of Japanese Traditional Craft Industries

The Law for the Promotion of Japanese Traditional Craft Industries (伝統的工芸品振興法), enacted on May 25th, 1974, has been designed to preserve and promote Japanese traditional handicraft in the Age of Industrialization and Globalization. It functions as follows:

I It defines the authorities who have the right to validate a traditional craft. According to the law, a traditional craft is designated by the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry.

II It specifies the standards of being a traditional craft. As required by the law, a traditional craft should be:

·used mainly in daily life;

·produced primarily by hand;

·manufactured using a traditional skill or technique;

·made from traditional materials

·manufactured in a certain area with a certain number of craftsmen.

Just as what the law was invented for, it has really gone a long way toward protecting and promoting the Japanese traditional craft since the day of its promulgation. In my point of view, the reason why the law has functioned so well is as follows. Firstly, the law clearly specifies the protection targets, which is of great significance. Actually, before the law was introduced, people had already realized the necessity of protecting traditional crafts, yet problem would occur when they began to take concrete actions because they might get confused with which one should be protected as a traditional craft. Secondly, it explicitly sets standards of being a traditional craft, which ensures its high quality, and thus be beneficial for its long-term development. Otherwise, some may pursue blindly high production and high speed, in spite of the product quality for the short-term profits, and the whole traditional craft industry would fall into vicious competitions. Last but not least, the official recognition from the national level above serves to build public confidence in handicraft quality and stir up a strong sense of pride within craftsmen and local communities. These three reasons above explain well the effectiveness of the law in promoting traditional crafts.

The Association for the Promotion of Traditional Craft Industries, founded in July, 1975, has constantly been playing a pivotal role in protecting and promoting traditional crafts at the grass-root level in Japan. It has three main functions as follows. Firstly, it serves as a “manager” to ensure the smooth working of the whole traditional craft industry system. For instance, it will honor a craftsman with the title “Master Craftsman”, issue a certificate of authenticity for each craft product that bears the symbol mark of a traditional craft, give public commendations as well as financial awards to those who have contributed much to the promotion of traditional crafts, and so forth. Similar scenarios can often be seen in a company, the “manager” who operates the whole company provides, now and then, material incentives to those distinguished “employees” in order to achieve higher productivity. Secondly, it functions as a “researcher”, who often conducts researches on the data of materials, techniques, and inspirations of traditional crafts, and provides useful guidance for future design and quality improvement. Lastly, the association acts as a “propagandist” who is always engaged in publicizing traditional crafts. For instance, it often assists in organizing exhibitions of traditional crafts, holding handicraft product festivals, distributing relevant pamphlet and books to school children, and keeping customers informed.