The entire metrication process in Japan actually took many decades. This page - http://metricpioneer.com/japan/ - offers an interesting summary. One can also find metrication stories of France and Brasil and Germany and Turkey and China and India and Australia from this page under the Effort tab. David Pearl 503-428-4917
On 7.4.2016 13:28, c...@traditio.com wrote: > 50 YEARS AGO > Friday, April 1, 1966 > > Metric system goes into effect nationwide > > Today the metric system will be enforced in all aspects of Japanese life. > > The metric system was put into effect on Jan. 1, 1959, but a period of grace > was provided for its enforcement in the areas of real estate and house > building up to March 31 this year. > > From 1959 on, the Japanese have been using the metric system for almost all > other things. A housewife today buys rice by the kilogram and soy sauce by > the liter. > > Japan was first exposed to the metric system in 1891 when she acceded to the > International Convention on the Metric System of 1875. As of that time, > however, the metric system was made legal alongside the traditional weights > and measures known as the shakkan system (shaku for length and kan for > weight). With the introduction in 1909 of the British yard-pound system, > weights and measures came to be expressed in three different systems in > Japan, much to the complication of national life. > > The coexistence of these systems had no serious consequence until World War > I, when the Army found some shells made to British specifications did not fit > their cannons, whose calibers were measured by the centimeter. > > In 1921, the weights and measures law was revised to make the metric system > the only official one. But implementation of the new system was postponed due > to lack of adequate preparation in 1924 and 1934. In 1938 it was postponed > again because it was seen as being foreign and, therefore, to be rejected. > > Eventually, a 1951 law provided for implementation in 1959, with a period of > grace till March 1966 for land and buildings because of Japans unique modular > system of building. Here, every house is planned according to the modules of > shaku, ken and tsubo. A ken, the very basis of all other modules, is the > length of the Japanese tatami and all the sliding doors. When building a > house, a carpenter buys lumber which is also measured to these standard sizes > to minimize waste. > > In spite of the law that goes into full force today, it seems unlikely that > tatami makers will alter their ways. Without shaku as units, they feel, it > would be impossible to make tatami. > > www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/04/02/national/history/munitions-orders-grow-japan-soviet-union-sign-neutrality-treaty-metric-system-enforced-public-asked-accept-gulf-mission/#.Vwa0gzfn_Qx > [1] > _______________________________________________ > USMA mailing list > USMA@colostate.edu > https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma [2] Links: ------ [1] http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/04/02/national/history/munitions-orders-grow-japan-soviet-union-sign-neutrality-treaty-metric-system-enforced-public-asked-accept-gulf-mission/#.Vwa0gzfn_Qx [2] https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
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