beginning around 1878, the japanese government promoted the development of cotton spinning as an initial means of developing modern industry in japan in the wake of the meiji restoration. japan's native raw cotton supply proved inadequate to meet demand, and there was only one japanese importer of raw cotton at the time, making the industry highly reliant on foreign merchants. to improve this situation, a group of spinning companies established in osaka in 1892 under the leadership of tsuneki sano, a 38-year-old former government official.