JAPAN. 



321 



borg was not more successful than his predeces- 

 sors in solving the problem of tax reduction. His 

 scheme involved the sacrifice of 325,000,000 lire of 

 revenue without adequate compensation. It was 

 rejected by the Cabinet, and he resigned on July 

 31. The Minister of Agriculture and Commerce 

 gave up also his portfolio, which was accepted 

 by Prof. Guido Bacelli on Aug. 4, and the Min- 

 istry of Finance on Aug. 8 by Signer Carcone, who 

 held the same post in the first Pelloux Cabinet. 

 The finances of the Government showed a surplus 

 of about 17,000,000 lire for the year ending June 

 30, 1901, instead of the expected deficit. The de- 

 velopment of the sugar industry led to a large 

 increase of the sugar tax. 



Dependencies. The ultramarine possessions 

 of Italy consist of the colony of Eritrea on the 

 Red Sea coast and Obbia and a part of the Somali 

 coast to the south of it ceded to Italy by the 

 Sultan of Zanzibar in 1892, extending 180 miles 

 inland and including the ports of Brava, Merka, 

 Mogadoscio, and Warsheik (see EAST AFRICA). 

 Eritrea has an area of 88,500 square miles and a 

 population of about 450,000. There were 2,014 

 Europeans in 1899. The port of Massowah had 



7,775 inhabitants. The imporl- in 1899 were 

 valued at 9,071,391 lire. Then- were 2, DM vessels, 

 of 113,179 tons, entered and 2,047, ot I !:{,09r> tons, 

 cleared, four-fifths of the vessels bcin^ Italian. A 

 railroad, of which 17 miles have l.<cn built, is 

 being carried by an Anglo-Italian companv I'roiu 

 Massowah to Asmara, the seat of government, 

 and a telegraph to Adis Abeba, the capital of l.h<! 

 Negus Menelek (see ABYSSINIA). The railroad, 

 which will allow gold-mines in the interior to be 

 exploited, is to be finished in 1903. The colony has 

 an autonomous administration and the manage- 

 ment of its own finances. Gov. Martini in March, 

 1901, negotiated with Anglo-Egyptian representa- 

 tives the frontier delimitation between Eritrea 

 and Kassala, which Italy restored to Egypt in 

 1897 after three years of Italian occupation. 

 Tomat, at the junction of the Setif with the At- 

 bara, remains under Italian influence. The fron- 

 tier between French and Italian territory in the 

 south was delimited by a joint commission about 

 the same time, and Italy obtained the important 

 post of Assab. Signer Dulio is Governor of the 

 Benadir Coast, which is otherwise called Italian 

 Somaliland. 



JAPAN, a constitutional empire in the Pacific 

 Ocean, occupying a chain of islands between the 

 Russian and the American possessions, from north 

 latitude 21 48' above the Bashee Channel near 

 the Philippines, to 56 56' near the Kurile Islands; 

 and from east longitude 156 32' to 119 20'. Of 

 the 4,000 and more known islands, more than 500 

 are inhabited, though nearly three-fourths of the 

 people live on the main island, Hondo. The popu- 

 lation Dec. 31, 1898, was 43,760,754, or, with that 

 of Formosa (2,797,543), the total is 46,558,297. 

 The money standard is gold, a yen being worth 50 

 cents. 



The feudal system, after nearly one thousand 

 years of development, was abolished in 1871. The 

 Emperor, whose personal name is not in general 

 use either officially or popularly, and who has no 

 family name, bears the usual title of Tenno, " Son 

 of Heaven," or Kotei, " Emperor," but the most 

 ancient title, which has obtained an honorable 

 place in the languages of civilization, is that of 

 Mikado, or " Honorable Gate." Only male de- 

 scendants succeed to the throne, and the Mikado 

 not only reigns but governs. Mutsuhito, the pres- 

 ent ruler, born in Kioto Nov. 3, 1852, is the one 

 hundred and twenty-second of the imperial line, 

 succeeding his father, Komei, Feb. 13, 1867. He 

 married, Feb. 9, 1869, the Princess Haruko, born 

 May 28, 1850, daughter of Prince Ichijo. She is 

 childless. The heir apparent, Prince Yoshihito, 

 was born Aug. 31, 1879, of the Lady Yanagiwara 

 Aiko, of the imperial harem. He married, May 10, 

 1900, his cousin the Princess Sada, daughter of 

 Prince Kujo, born June 25, 1884. A male child, 

 Hirohito (Michi-no-Miya), was born of their 

 union May 5, 1901. The civil list is 3,000,000 yen, 

 or 1.5 per cent, of the state revenues. By the 

 Constitution of 1889 the Emperor limited his pre- 

 rogative, and he shares legislative power with the 

 two houses of the imperial Diet, the upper house 

 having about 316 peers and imperial nominees, 

 and the lower house 369 members, from 16 urban 

 and 308 rural districts, elected by subjects who 

 pay at least 10 yen in direct taxes. The general 

 tendency of political life is toward democracy, 

 and constitutional reform has been steadily con- 

 tinuous, with a tendency, despite frequent fail- 

 VOL. XLI. 21 A 



ures, toward the English, rather than the German 

 system. The sixteenth annual meeting of the 

 Diet began Dec. 10, 1901. After twenty-two 

 months of office, the Yamagata Cabinet resigned 

 in March, 1901, and a new Cabinet was formed by 

 the Marquis Hirobumi Ito in May, which lasted 

 but a few weeks. The Emperor then summoned 

 Viscount General Katsura to form an administra- 

 tion, which is still in office. 



The imperial Cabinet, over which the Emperor 

 actively presides, consists of the Minister Presi- 

 dent of State and nine heads of" departments. 

 The Emperor is also assisted by a Privy Council 

 of 20 statesmen of age and experience, who have 

 great influence in the appointment of the Mikado's 

 servants, from Prime Minister to consul. There is 

 also a Court of Accounts, an administrative tri- 

 bunal, and two administrative bureaus, for the 

 upper and lower house respectively. Besides this 

 Central Government there is the other division of 

 the provincial government, in which are grouped 

 the prefecture of the police of Tokio, Department 

 of the Colonization of Yezo, the Fu and Ken (pre- 

 fectures of the districts, 47 in all, with 14,687 sub- 

 divisions), and government of the island of For- 

 mosa. In 1898 the total number of civilian em- 

 ployees of. the Government was 68,876, who drew 

 salaries to the amount of 18,587,710 yen. 



The Army. The Emperor is commander-in- 

 chief of the army and navy, and the whole male 

 population between the ages of seventeen and 

 forty is liable to military service. Both the naval 

 and the military forces are divided into the actual 

 service, the reserve, and the territorial forces. 

 The standing army is divided into the active army, 

 levied from males of the age of twenty, who must 

 serve with the colors three years, but in the case 

 of the navy four years. Of all branches of the 

 service, including the police, the total in 1899 was 

 6,557 officers and 149,134 men for a peace footing. 

 In the reserves are 1,734 officers and 178,153 men; 

 and in the territorial army 834 officers, 96,317 

 men, with a still further reserve force of 168,249 

 men, who in an emergency may be drawn upon, 

 making a grand total of 583,119. There are train- 

 ing-schools for almost every branch of the service. 

 All the small arms, cannon, and ammunition are 



