412 



JAPAN. 



Finances, Interior, Public Instruction, and Ec- 

 clesiastical Affairs. At the side of the Min- 

 istry stands the " Sain " or Senate, composed 

 of thirty members, and the " Shorn " or Coun- 

 cil of State, of an unlimited number of mem- 

 bers, both nominated by the Mikado, and con- 

 sulted by him at his pleasure. 



The area, according to an official publication 

 in 1877, is 146,613 square miles, or 379,711 

 square kilometres. The population on Janu- 

 ary 1, 1876, was 34,338,404, of whom 17,419,- 

 785 were males and 16,918,619 females. The 

 following is a complete list of all the cities 

 having, according to the latest dates, more than 

 50,000 inhabitants: 



The actual receipts and disbursements of the 

 government from 1875 to 1879 were as follows 

 (value in yens ; 1 yen equal 99 '3 cents) : 



The revenue and expenditures* in the budget 

 for 1879-'80 were estimated at 55,651,379 yens 

 each. The public debt amounted in 1879 to 

 363,327,974 yens. 



Professor Max Miiller, in a letter addressed 

 to the London "Times," states that, from what 

 he has been able to ascertain, 100,000 or 200,- 

 000 only of the total population of Japan are 

 claimed as professed Shintoists or nothing ; the 

 rest are Buddhists or nothing. In 1879 two 

 young Buddhist priests of the Shin-Shu sect 

 were sent to Oxford to learn Sanskrit ; not only 

 the ordinary language, but that peculiar dialect 

 in which the sacred books of the Northern 

 Buddhists are written, and of which we have 

 as yet neither grammar nor dictionary. 



Christianity continues to make steady prog- 

 ress. The Russian missionaries report a mem- 

 bership of more than 6,000 in the congrega- 

 tions. (See GREEK CHURCH.) 



Education in Japan continues to make steady 

 and rapid progress. The latest statistics show 

 that in 1877 the number of elementary schools 

 in all of the seven grand school districts was 

 25,459, of which 24,281 were public and 1,178 

 were private schools. The number of teachers 

 was 59,525. The number of scholars was 2,- 



* The details of this budget, and of the public debt, are 

 given in the ''Annual Cyclopaedia" for 1879. 



162,962. Of middle schools there are 389, 

 with 910 instructors. In addition to these 

 educational establishments there is the uni- 

 versity at Tokio, with four departments of 

 law, science, literature, and medicine ; and an 

 English language school is annexed to the pre- 

 paratory department. The total number of 

 students admitted in this department was 

 1,040. There are besides two normal colleges 

 for training teachers, with 25 instructors and 

 177 pupils, and 28 foreign language schools, in 

 which French, German, Russian, and Chinese 

 are taught. The total amount of the expendi- 

 ture on the public schools is given at $5,364,- 

 870. 



The Japanese army in 1878 was composed 

 as follows : 



The navy in 1879 comprised 10 steam-vessels, 

 of an aggregate of 2,930 horse-power, and with 

 49 guns. Three of the vessels are ironclads. 

 The fleet is manned by 3,500 men, inclusive of 

 200 officers. 



The foreign commerce in the years 1868 to 

 1879 was as follows (in yens) : 



The movement of shipping in the ports open 

 to foreign commerce was as follows in 1879 : 



The aggregate length of railroads in opera- 

 tion is 121 kilometres. Eight lines of telegraph 

 have an aggregate length of 2,934 kilometres. 

 There are telegraph stations in 112 towns. The 

 number of dispatches in 1877 was 410,150. 



The postal administration of Japan has been 

 rapidly improving since the country, on June 

 1, 1877, joined the World's Postal Union. Ac- 

 cording to the annual report of the Postmas- 

 ter-General, the total number of postal stations 

 on June 30, 1879, was 3,927. The number of 

 letters sent was 29,000,000. The number of 



