JAPAN. 



455 



after the revolution, until his mission to Europe 

 and America in 1871. 



The second governing body is the Genro-In, 

 or Senate. The name signifies House of Sen- 

 iors. It is composed of men who have served 

 the country with recognized distinction, noble- 

 men, officers who have given proofs of ability 

 in the administrative departments, and men 

 eminent in politics throughout the country. 

 The Emperor's decree creating this body stated 

 that it was to enlarge the law-making power. 

 Its powers are confined to the approval of 

 laws submitted to its consideration by the min- 

 istry. 



The elective local assemblies were estab- 

 lished in 1878. They sit in March of each year 

 for a time not to exceed thirty days, and, sub- 

 ject to the control of the Home Minister, they 

 deal with questions of local taxation. The 

 qualifications for electors are an age of twenty 

 years, registration, and payment of at least five 

 dollars' land-tax. Each voter must write the 

 name of his candidate upon the voting slip. 



Gold is, nominally, the monetary standard 

 in Japan ; but the heavy expenses imposed on 

 the Government for the suppression of rebel- 

 lions and pensioning the Shogun and Daimios, 

 had diminished the coin reserve and augmented 

 the paper currency, so that a disparity of values 

 exists. The currency unit in Japan is the yen 

 or dollar, which is divided into sen or cents, 

 and rin or mills. The unit of exchange at the 

 treaty ports is the Mexican dollar. The paper 

 money, or yen satsu, varies according to their 

 comparative abundance in value. While they 

 stood at 8 per cent discount in 1877 against 

 gold yen, in previous years, although they are 

 not redeemable in specie, they had actually 

 stood at a premium. The large amount issued 

 during the Satsuma rebellion has been the 

 cause of their standing constantly below par 

 since then. The Government have coined a 

 trade dollar in recent years, identical in weight 

 and fineness with the American trade-dollar, 

 and four grains heavier than the silver yen. 

 This new coin is beginning to circulate exten- 

 sively in China and other parts of the East. 

 The coins of gold, silver, and bronze struck at 

 the Japanese mint already compare favorably 

 with the coinage of any other country. 



The military system has necessarily been 

 built up from the foundation since the feudal 

 system prevailing under the Shogun was abol- 

 ished. The new army was formed under a 

 conscription law, by which every male between 

 the ages of seventeen and forty is subject to 

 three years of military service with the colors, 

 and to two years in the first, and two years in 

 the second division of the reserve. The re- 

 mainder of the period of military liability he is 

 enrolled in a reserve corps, somewhat resem- 

 bling a Landwehr. This system provides near- 

 ly 70,000 men liable to be called upon for 

 military duty. From this number the regular 

 force is recruited by lot. The normal strength 

 of the army is 35,560 men in peace, and 50,230 



in war-time. The troops have been highly 

 trained, chiefly under French officers ; but the 

 instruction is now conducted almost altogether 

 by Japanese officers. The Imperial Guard, 

 which is the flower of the army, is selected 

 from the Samurai class. The organization of 

 the army of the line is given as follows : 



The Imperial Guard is made up of two in- 

 fantry brigades of two regiments each, 3,200 

 men ; one regiment of cavalry, 150 men ; two 

 companies of artillery, 300 men ; one company 

 of engineers, 150 men ; and 80 men in the 

 commissariat ; in all, 3,880. 



The Japanese police is a new development. 

 The discipline and intelligence shown by the 

 force, and the satisfaction of the people with 

 the new institution, have been remarked with 

 admiration. The police is made up of 18,000 

 picked men, who have been drilled and in- 

 structed in their duties with great care. They 

 exercise judgment and consideration in their 

 interferences with the acts of the people, and 

 possess the confidence of all in a high degree, 

 being regarded everywhere as the protectors 

 of the people from disturbance and submitted 

 to as the authorized officers of the law. They 

 are uniformed in European costume. The dis- 

 missal of the Samurais from their functions 

 and privileges left the country entirely without 

 a constabulary ; but the efficiency developed by 

 the police in a few years is of the very highest 

 order. 



Before the revolution of 1868, Japan had no 

 ships, properly speaking. There was a con- 

 siderable number of junks, some of nearly 200 

 tons, but used only as coasters. The state 

 had a few that could sail as far as the Loo- 

 choo Islands, Formosa, or China; but their 

 primitive and defective form made them unfit 

 and dangerous for such long distances. These 

 junks were exclusively reserved for embassa- 

 dors or literary men, all commercial relations 

 with foreign countries being strictly forbidden 

 by Japanese laws. It is only since the restora- 

 tion, when the Mikado's power was firmly es- 

 tablished, that the Government thought of cre- 

 ating a navy and of encouraging the people to 

 build merchantmen after European models. 

 The effect of removing restrictions and en- 

 couraging mercantile enterprise was remark- 

 able. In 1873 the merchant navy consisted of 

 110 steamers, with an aggregate tonnage of 

 16,088; 37 sailing-vessels, with 8,488 tonnage; 

 and 22,692 junks. Since that date the number 

 of ships has constantly increased, and was in 

 1879 as follows: 



