JAPAN. 



COIvIvECTIVE SAlvE OF CEREALS. 



KoKUiiOTSU Hambai Soshiki XI KwANSURU Chosa [Inquiry info the Organization of tke 

 Sale of Coeals). Department of Agriculture and Commerce. Tokio, 191 1. 



Saxgy6 Kumi.\i Yoran. [Report on the Co-opt'w^rc;<j SoczeizVs). Department of Agriculture and 

 Commerce. Tokio, 19 13. 



NiHON NO KoME, [Japanese Rice). Department of Agriculture and Commerce. Tokio, 1912. 



Dai Nippon Teikoku toeei Nenkax. [Statistical Yearbook of the Japanese Empire). 



Published bj' the Imperial Statistical Bureau. Tokio, 1913. 



§ I. Introduction. 



The organisation of the sale of cereals in Japan was necessitated by 

 causes of quite the same kind as in the majority of those countries in which 

 the sale has been organized. In few countries, however, have these causes 

 been so potent as in Japan, where the special conditions of the super- 

 abundant rural population, 80 % of which we may say is engaged in the cul- 

 tivation of rice or other cereals, or in industries auxiliary to such cultivation , 

 were such that interests which affect a more or less Umited proportion of 

 the population in the largest grain producing countries, in Japan, affected 

 quite more than half the entire nation. 



In fact, when we consider that the rural inhabitants of Japan still 

 to day, in spite of the considerable exodus to the large centres, constitute 

 more than 80 % of the population, and remember that of them 80 % are 

 engaged, as we have said, in the cultivation of cereals, it will be easil)^ 

 understood that, even on a moderate reckoning, the Japanese grain pro- 

 ducers form more than three fifths of the whole nation. 



In view of their numbers, we may logically admit that the interests 

 of the producers and of the consumers to a large extent correspond, since, 

 it is well to repeat it, in Japan the producers of cereals and more especially 

 of rice form altogether the majority of the consumers. In a recent art- 

 icle (i), we have already dealt in detail with the fluctuations in price of 



(i) Cfr. The article, " Fluctuations in Prices and Wages ". Bulletin at Economic and 

 S-cial Intelli'ence, February, 1914, pp. 129 et seqq. 



