56 



of a Chamber if establislied, since section 4 of the " Staple Prodacts 

 Trade Associations Act " states that " all persons who are engaged 

 in the same trade as that for which the Association is established 

 shall join the Association except when exemption has been expressly 

 obtained from the Minister for Agriculture and Commerce/' But 

 this does not seem to be strictly observed. 



123. Class (3) of the Associations is represented by the Fisheries 

 Society of Japan which is outside of the Fishery Law, and by at least 

 two similar societies. For a detailed account of this society see supra 

 paragraphs 14-18. 



THE UTILIZATION OF EXHIBITIONS. 



124. B^oUowing out tlieir determination to gather knowledge from 

 all over the world, the Japanese have not only sent delegates to 

 examine the world's fislieries but have diligently attended, through 

 expert commissioners, every exhibition of importance — general or for 

 fisheries only —throughout the world, beginning with Vienna in 1872 ; 

 that at Philadelphia in 1876 seems to have first enlightened them as 

 to the importance of the industry and development which it had taken 

 in the west, but it was the special Fisheries Exhibitions of Berlin in 

 ]880 and London in 1883 which not only marked the beginning of a 

 vigorous development of fisheries among the Japanese but introduced 

 Japanese products to western nations. As mentioned s.v. "Fisheries 

 Society of Japan ", it was the thoughtful observations of the 

 delegates to the Berlin Exhibition which led to the starting of that 

 great and useful society, a society which has not merely aroused and 

 maintained a lively and practical interest in fisheiy matters through- 

 out Japan but held some ten Fisheries exhibitions and established a 

 school which developed into the Imperial Fisheries Institute (q-v.). 

 It was the trained observation of Japanese delegates to the Paris 

 Exhibition of 1878 which caused them to notice nnd to study the 

 canning intlustries of the West and led to their taking home, under 

 Government orders, a complete outfit of canning machinery and of 

 practical knowledge by which the industry was fairly introduced and 

 subsequenbly developed throughout the country till it has now attained 

 considerable dimensions. Since 1883 Japan has sent fishery exhibits 

 and expert commissioners to Chicago, Paris, Norway, St. Petersburgh, 

 St. Louis, and Milan (190o) : and while its commissioners come back 

 with abundance of infcn'mation as to fishing methods, boats and gear, 

 as to preserving processes, pisciculture, markets, etc., which would be 

 utilised in developing the Japanese industry in all branches, its 

 exhibits on each occasion have been attracting more and more atten- 

 tion from the developments shown and the excellence of the products ; 

 its canned goods at St. Louis have (so a leading merchant of Tokyo 

 informed me) led to larg'e orders for Japanese fishery products^ and q, 



