JAPAN. 



417 



ular law of succession, and tho throne gonor- 

 ally devolves not on the son of tho Mikado, 

 hut on tho eldest or the most distinguished 

 1 1 >.! i.f the house. It is only necessary 

 that tlu- n. -w Mikado belong to one of the four 

 oyal families: Katzura, Arisugawa, Fushimi, 

 r Kannin. of tho house Katzura, only one 

 scion, Princess Sumiko, born 1828, is still 

 To tho house Arisugawa belong the 

 I'riiu-o8 Takahito (born 1812) and Taruhito 

 (born 1885); to tho house Fushimi, Prince 8a- 

 danaru (born 1868) ; and to the house Kannin, 

 Prince \assu (born 1865). The ministry con- 

 sists of eight departments, namely : the Minis- 

 try of the Imperial House, of Foreign Affairs, 

 War, Navy, Finances and the Interior, Justice, 

 Public Instruction, and Ecclesiastical Affairs. 

 At the side of the ministry stand the Sain, 

 or Senate, composed of about thirty daimios, 

 ainl the Shorn, or Council of State, of an un- 

 limited number of members, and consulted by 

 the Mikado at his pleasure. A Parliament 

 was formed in 1869, with deputies selected by 

 the provincial governments, but it was soon 

 dissolved, its deliberations taking no effect. A 

 new Parliament was to be called in the course 

 of the year 1*875, the necessary preparations 

 having been completed in 1874. The empire 

 is divided into seventy-two Ken, or land dis- 

 tricts, and three Fu, or residential districts, 

 namely: Yeddo (now officially called Tokio, 

 " the Capital of the East "), Osaka, and Kioto. 

 At the head of each of these seventy-five dis- 

 tricts is a prefect, whose powers and attributes 

 are far more extensive than those of any simi- 

 lar functionary in Europe. There is, however, 

 a limit to their judicial action, for they cannot 

 carry into execution sentences devolving ban- 

 ishment or death, until they have been con- 

 firmed by the Minister of Justice. 



Tho empire consists of the Japanese Islands, 

 the island of Yesso, part of the island Saghalien, 

 part of Kuriles, and the Liu-Khiu Islands. 

 The area and population of the several divi- 

 sions are as follows : 



Japan proper (or the Japanese Islands) is 

 geographically divided into the three islands 

 of Niphon, the central and most important 

 territory; Kiusiu, "the nine provinces," the 

 Southwestern Island ; and Shikoku, " the four 

 states," the Southern Island. The capital, Yed- 

 do, or Tokio, had in 1872 a population of 779,- 

 861. The population of Kioto (Miaco) is 667,- 

 834; of Osaka, 580,885; Yokohama, 61,553; 

 Niegata, 82,256 ; Kumaraotu, 800,000 ; Kago- 

 sima, 200,000; Nagasaki, 80,00; Kanasawa, 

 60,000. The number of foreigners in Yoko- 

 hama was in 1873 about 3,000; in Hiogo, 415 ; 



in Osaka, 103; in Nagasaki, in 1871, 198; Ha- 

 kodadi, 80 ; Tokio, 86. 



.Inpan has concluded treaties with the United 

 States (1854); Great Britain (1854); Russia 

 and tho Nt-th.-rlaiids (1865); France 0859); 

 Portugal (1860); Prussia and the Zollverein 

 (1861); Switzerland (1864) ; Italy (1866); and 

 iMiinark (1867). Besides these states, Bel- 

 gium, Austria, Pern. Sweden, and Spain, are 

 also represented in Japan by diplomatic agents. 

 By the treaties with the foreign powers, tho 

 ports of Yokohama, Nagasaki, Niegata, Iliogo, 

 Osaka, Hakodadi, and the city of Yeddo, were 

 thrown open to foreign commerce. 



The budget-estimates for the year 1873 are 

 contained in a report of the Commissary-Gen- 

 eral for the Administration of Finances to the 

 President of the Council of State, dated June 

 9, 1878. The revenue for 1873 is estimated at 

 48,700,000 ryos (1 ryo = $1.08), the expendi- 

 tures at 46,500,000 ryos; surplus, 2,200,000 

 ryos. The principal sources of revenue are 

 the land-tax (40,000,000 ryos), and the tax on 

 brandy, oil, sugar, and similar articles (2,100,- 

 000). The principal items of public expendi- 

 ture are the pensions and indemnification of 

 the deposed daimios (12,600,000) and the bud- 

 get of the Minister of War (8,000,000). The 

 budget for 1874 estimates the revenue at 58,- 

 473,136 yens (1 yen = $1), the expenditures at 

 52,804,685 yens. Of the surplus, amounting 

 to 5,668,451 yens, 5,000,000 are to be applied 

 to redeeming the paper-money ; the remain- 

 der is to be added to a reserve fund, which, 

 at the close of 1874, amounted to 21,029,841 

 yens. The public debt was stated in 1874 to 

 be as follows : 



Home debt (being mostly former debts of the * 



provinces) 21,029,260 



Foreign debt 15,085,598 



Paper-money In circulation 96,000,000 



Total 132,112,873 



The imports and exports from 1871 to 

 1873 were as follows (value expressed in thou- 

 sands of dollars) : 



The movement of shipping in 1873 was as 

 follows : 



