JAPAN. 



made in the Government arsenals at Tokio and 

 Osaka. The rifle used by the infantry was in- 

 vented by Col. Murata, and is exactly fitted for 

 the man who uses it. In its improved form, since 

 the war of 1894, it is a repeater. The Arisaka 

 quick-firing cannon, very light and effective, was 

 introduced in 1901. Much attention is paid to 

 the education of the soldiers. The number of 

 illiterates is steadily decreasing, there being in 

 the army more than 05,000 graduates of the ele- 

 mentary schools and about 1,000 of the middle or 

 higher schools. The number of horses in service 

 is 30,000. The Red Cross Society in 1900 had 

 728,507 members, with a total income of 4,657,575 

 yen, and two fully equipped hospital ships. 



The Navy. The Japanese began the forma- 

 tion of a steam navy almost immediately after 

 first (in 1853) seeing a steamship, which was the 

 first large United States war steamer, the Mis- 

 sissippi, of Commodore Perry's squadron. The 

 Yedo Government at once sent students to learn 

 from the Dutch at Nagasaki, and by 1860 one of 

 these young men was able to navigate a steam- 

 ship across the Pacific. Naval development has 

 gone on steadily since. There are five maritime 

 districts, in three of which are .docks, arsenals, 

 barracks, foundries, and other facilities for ship- 

 building. Maizuru, on the west coast, fronting 

 Vladivostok, chosen in 1890, is now being laid 

 out. Muroran, as yet only a village of 1,150 souls, 

 is in Yezo. In 1898 the mean daily force in the 

 naval service, exclusive of commissioned officers, 

 was 18,426. The number of deaths by disease was 

 129, or 6.34 per 1,000 patients, a decrease of 9.91 

 per thousand, compared with the death-rate for 

 the preceding fourteen years. The improved sys- 

 tem of diet has driven kakke out of the navy, 

 and the increase of body weight per man, from 

 1884 to 1898, is from 121 to 130 pounds. In 1901 

 the actual fleet afloat and in commission was 

 more than 70 vessels, with a personnel of more 

 than 25,000, of whom more than 6,000 were 

 trained officers. In December, 1901, there were 

 8 battle-ships, 10 coast-defense ships, 18 cruisers, 

 16 gunboats, 3 despatch-boats, 1 torpedo-depot, 

 and more than 50 torpedo-boats, besides 1 battle- 

 ship, 3 cruisers, 3 second-class cruisers, and 30 

 torpedo-boats building at home and abroad. 



Finances. The dearth of available capital in 

 Japan for the carrying out of the multifarious 

 private enterprises natural to a nation that in re- 

 cent years has passed from the agricultural to the 

 industrial and commercial condition, together 

 with the great expansion of national energies un- 

 der the direction of the Government since the 

 Chino-Japanese War of 1894, has caused much 

 financial embarrassment, the trouble arising from 

 increasing wealth rather than otherwise. Since 

 Oct. 1, 1897, Japan has employed the gold stand- 

 ard. From the establishment of the mint at 

 Ozaka in 1870, money to the amount of 516,744,- 

 091 yen, in bronze, copper, nickle, silver, and gold 

 pieces (3 of gold, 6 of silver, 1 of nickle, and 1 

 of bronze), has been coined, but in December, 

 1900, the mint struck 171,719,820 yen in 10-yen 

 pieces and 315,000 in 50- and 10-sen pieces. The 

 indemnity collected from China 365,194,997 yen 

 furnished ready money, of which 20,000,000 

 yen were gratefully given to the Emperor, and 

 the rest employed in the enlargement of the navy 

 and in coast defense. The outbreak in China in 

 1900 required the expenditure of 23,905,611 yen 

 out of this indemnity fund, most of which it was 

 proposed to make good by extra taxation, but 

 against this measure the House of Peers pro- 

 tested. The national debt in September, 1901, was 

 526,664,194 yen. The budget for 1901 as passed 



by the Diet was: Ordinary revenue 201,247,095 

 yen, and extraordinary revenue 53,358,486 yen. 

 The revenue is from (1) taxation, 149,351,250 yen; 

 (2) Government enterprises, 46,524,610 yen; (3) 

 miscellaneous receipts, 5,371,235 yen. The prin- 

 cipal items of taxation, stated in million yen, 

 yielded as follows: The land tax 46, sake tax 55, 

 stamp duties 13, and custom duties 15. The re- 

 ceipts, 24,665,964 yen, from post, telegraphs, and 

 telephones, form the principal item of revenue 

 from Government enterprises, after which is that 

 from the patent bureau, 9,610,011; and the third 

 from the railways, 8,665,964 yen. The ordinary 

 expenditures amounted to 163,568,171 yen, and 

 extraordinary to 85,775,851 yen, or a total of 249,- 

 344,622, showing a surplus of 5,620,959 yen. Nev- 

 ertheless, in the extraordinary revenue is an item 

 of 29,862,450 yen derived from domestic loans 

 that as yet have not been floated. And another 

 item in extraordinary revenue is 19,315,105 yen ap- 

 propriated from the Chinese indemnity. In the 

 expenditures the departments receive as follow: 

 Foreign, 2,270,367 yen; Home, 9,165,533 yen; Fi- 

 nance, 52,995,173 yen; War, 38,001,488 yen; 

 Navy, 20,161,010 yen; Justice, 10,821,375 yen; 

 Education, 4,725,578 yen; Agriculture and Com- 

 merce, 2,533,007 yen; Communications, 19,984,640 

 yen. The budget submitted for 1902 sets forth a 

 revenue of 261,493,272 yen, of which 226,345,000 

 yen is ordinary, and 35,148,272 yen is extraordi- 

 nary expenditure, its largest item being the issue 

 of bonds to the amount of 22,525,150 yen. The 

 total ordinary revenue from Formosa for 1900 

 was 10,270,186 yen, against 7,493,650 yen in 1898, 

 making, with the extraordinary revenue in 1900, 

 17,426,665 yen, against 11,283,265 yen in 1898. In 

 the domestic trade in 1900 the exports amounted 

 to 4,678,000 yen, and the imports to 8,439,000 yen. 

 In foreign trade the exports were worth 10,571,000 

 yen, and the imports 13,570,000 yen. 



Resources. The year 1900 was characterized 

 by a great expansion in commerce, industry, and 

 new enterprises, calling for ready money, which 

 the country itself, though so prosperous, can not 

 provide. The official investigations of the Home 

 Department show that the national wealth of 

 Japan for 1898 was 113,060,000 yen, against that 

 in 1888 of France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Rus- 

 sia, and the United States of 85,000,000, 64,000,000, 

 38,000,000, 29,000,000, 50,000,000, and 128,000,000 

 yen respectively; or, 150 yen per head of popula- 

 tion in 1901, against 2,240, 1,440, 990, 1,000, 550, 

 and 2,100, respectively, of the other countries. In 

 national expenditure in 1901 Japan's burden was 

 248 out of every 1,000 yen, or 4 yen per head, 

 or 22 out of every 1,000 yen of wealth. In 

 national Joans in 1900, Japan had 486,460 yen, 

 or 10 yen per head, and 42 yen in every 1,000 

 yen of wealth, the exports reaching a total of 

 204,000,000 yen and imports 287,000,000 yen; in 

 savings there were but 51,908 yen, or less than 1 

 yen to each head, or 5 to every thousand yen of 

 wealth.* The ratios of other customs were pub- 

 lished in full, for educational purposes.. In the 

 customs returns to the amount of 1,500,000 yen 

 in 1899 many articles that in 1870 had no figure 

 in the list were exported, such as buttons, which 

 were practically unknown to Japanese dress in 

 1868, 230,000 yen; leather boots and shoes, for- 

 merly unknown, 30,000 yen, and averaging 1.52 

 yen per pair; gloves, 10,000 yen; hats, caps, and 

 bonnets, 180,000 yen; cotton shirts, 112,000 yen; 

 socks and stockings, 112,000 yen. The researches 

 show that the country's wealth in 1887, as com- 

 pared with 1877, had increased 40 per cent; and in 

 1897, as compared with 1887, 60 per cent. Inves- 

 tigations made during several months of 1901 



