Gas industry of those days in Japan

(The early part of Showa) 1927-1945

Management got into the predicament because of war
The management of Gas industry in the early part of Showa expanded on and on from the end of Taisho because of the sudden increase of demand by concentration of population in city.
However, gas industry began to perform bad sales and couldn't collect gas rate from customers since 1930 because of depression.
In the wake of 2.26 Incidents in 1936, Japan went on a pre-war footing. By National Mobilization Law and other regulation of making steel manufacture, war industry was given top priority in using steel. And quota of steel into gas industry became very small.
Also, the lack of coal got gas industry into worse situation. As well as other industry, gas industry had been in the bad management situation under the control of Nation until war ended.
In this dark situation, we had bright news that Tokyo gas sold a gas switch (You can use gas when you put a socket into switch. And gas stops automatically when you take a socket from switch) and the number of installation of gas meter in Tokyo exceeded 1 million.

---

---