JAPAN. 



317 





vast majority of students and educated people use 

 the English language, and the regulations of the 

 Department of Education, published in 1900, have 

 greatly extended the study of English in the 

 schools. The agitation for the use of the Roman 

 letter in writing Japanese has resulted in official 

 sanction and regulation. The general discussion, 

 on the lecture platform and in the periodical press, 

 in favor of a higher public morality, not only 

 personal but commercial, was one of the features 

 of the year. 



In the history of Japanese morals, three eras 

 are noted. Under feudalism, the basis of morals 

 was " loyalty." From 1868 until the Constitu- 

 tion of 1889, the basis was " patriotism." Since 

 then the basis has been " society." Political cor- 

 ruption has extended from the courtier to the 

 bureaucrat, and now to the people at large, and 

 the cry for improvement of personal and com- 

 mercial morality is the burden of the more re- 

 spectable of the 800 journals published, with a 

 circulation of 440,000,000. The Yoshiwara, or 

 licensed system of prostitution, centuries old, is 

 in process of radical reform. In Tokio there were 

 458 houses in which were 6,835 women, most of 

 whom, taken in childhood and trained up by their 

 quasi owners, were not allowed ever to leave the 

 Yoshiwara inclosures except in case of death or 

 illness of a near relative, nor allowed even to walk 

 about inside without guards. The system made 

 the women little better than slaves. Largely 

 through the agitation of the Salvation Army 

 agents new police regulations were issued in 1900, 

 enabling every inmate to receive her freedom if 

 she desires it. As a result, more than 500 women 

 have left the quarters in Tokio, and more in other 

 uarters of the empire. 



Resources. The year has been marked by the 

 discovery of more oil fields on the western coast 

 of Hondo, and of gold at Esashi in Yezo, the total 

 product of gold being, for lack of oflicial oversight 

 in the hasty discovery, three times as great as the 

 figures, which are for nine working months of 

 the year. The Government reports show that 

 164,366 persons obtained 1,250 pounds of gold. 

 ~n Hondo the two copper mines of Ashiwo and 



esshi produce 1,300,000 pounds of copper an- 

 ually, which is sold for 4,200,000 yen. In 1897 

 he production of iron from ore, compared with 



pper, was as 7 to 5, manganese as 4, coal as 5, 

 ulphur as 3, and petroleum as 9. In general, the 



ineral products are not reckoned among the best 



'Urces of the wealth of Japan, and attention is 

 urned more and more to manufactures and com- 

 merce. In 1900 283,460 tons of coal were exported, 

 valued at 1,590,921 yen the best record yet made 

 in coal. Experts appraise for Japan a fifty-year 

 upply only. 



The year has been noted for excellent crops, 

 ice being the most valuable, reports from all the 

 rice producing centers making it 22.200.000 bush- 

 els, or 14.3 per cent, above the average crop, which 

 is 194,000,000 bushels. The barley crop has yielded 

 101,600,000 bushels, or 8.1 per cent, larger than 

 the average. The tea exported in 1899 from Yoko- 

 hama was 27,969,178 pounds. While the mulberry 

 farms are increasing in area and output, those of 

 the tea plant are diminishing, showing the increase 

 of manufacturing interests. The value realized in 

 1899 from the export of silk was 62,627,721 yen, 

 airainst 20,598,621 yen in 1891, while tea yielded 

 S.2f>1.664 yen for the total crop of 158,282.214 



iunds, against the 131,247,564 pounds, valued at 

 6,786,977 yen, in 1890. The season's crop of silk 

 cocoons is 13.1 per cent, increase over last year. 

 The production of raw silk in 1890 was 2,529,816 

 pounds, and in 1899 5,257,773 pounds. 



Fifteen million yen are invested in cotton spin- 

 ning, there being/in 1900, 1,088,339 spindles, and 

 the output being for the first half of 1900 154,- 

 000,000 pounds of yarn and cloth, of which 

 2,975,019 yen's worth were exported; the latter low 

 figure being on account of the stoppage of trade 

 through war with China. In fisheries 3,005,429 

 people are employed, who take 36,476,959 yen's 

 worth. Tobacco is now a sort of Government 

 monopoly, the crop being stored in 66 monopoly 

 offices. The new developments of industry and 

 trade include the formation of a tobacco trust, 

 capitalized at 10,000,000 yen, and another of a 

 cotton-yarn trust. The tobacco crop for 1900 is 

 officially estimated at more than 6,500,000 pounds. 

 In 1899 4,965,000 yen's worth of ceramic wares 

 was exported, but relatively the lacquer and the 

 porcelain trade, both of them still existing as cot- 

 tage industries, have fallen behind the textile indus- 

 try, in which there are combination factories with 

 capital. Foreign trade for the first half of 1900 

 reached a total of 258,196,661 yen, of which there 

 were exports 94,987,854 and imports 136,208,807. 



In 1899 the total trade of Japan with the British 

 Empire exceeded 180,000,000 yen, of which 56,- 

 000,000 yen was with Great Britain, while the 

 trade with the United States exceeded 104,000,000 

 yen. Compared with 1893, there is an increase in 

 railway traffic of 4,000,000 to 11,000,000 passen- 

 gers; in the mercantile marine, from 200,000 to 

 700,000 tons; in the capital of commercial and 

 industrial companies, from 230,000,000 to 900,- 

 000,000 yen; in clearing-house transactions, from 

 200,000,000 to 1,700,000 yen; of loans paid by the 

 Bank of Japan, 50,000,000 to 150,000,000 yen; of 

 foreign trade, 170,000,000 to 500,000,000 yen. 



Politics and Events. Early in 1900 the bu- 

 bonic plague invaded Osaka and Kobe, but was 

 stamped out after several score of deaths. Rats 

 having been found to be subjects and vehicles of 

 the disease, rewards were offered for their destruc- 

 tion. In Tokio 110,000 were killed and paid for. 

 Dr. Kitasato discovered a serum believed to be 

 efficacious in counteracting the virus of the pest. 

 Under the new treaties abolishing the extraterri- 

 torial and consular courts, Miller, an American, 

 was executed for murder under Japanese law. 

 Jan. 15. Sir Ernest Satow exchanged places with 

 Sir Claude McDonald, the one going to Pekin 

 and the other to Tokio. Russia has deprived 

 Japanese subjects of the right to fish in the waters 

 of Saghalien, and 269 stations are to be closed and 

 all Japanese leave the island. Imperial sanction 

 was given to the law providing that name seals are 

 sufficient on documents where hitherto signatures 

 have been necessary. Noticeable changes have 

 been made in the Japanese diplomatic corps 

 Mr. Takahira, Vice-Minister of State for Foreign 

 Affairs, succeeding Mr. Komura in Washington. 

 Baron Hayashi going from St. Petersburg to Lon- 

 don, and Mr. Kato Takeaki from London into 

 the Cabinet. The imperial wedding, bridal tour, 

 and issue of memorial stamps took place in May. 

 with many accessories approaching Western eti- 

 quette and customs. Snow fell on Mount Fuji 

 Sept. 24, twelve days earlier, and on Mount Okaru 

 twenty days earlier, than usual. Rear- Admiral 

 Beardslee, in 1853 a lieutenant in Commodore 

 Perry's squadron, was received by the Emperor, 

 and at a large garden party, with many relics of 

 a half century ago. heard addresses from Japan's 

 eminent men recalling early days. A memorial 

 to Perry is to be erected at Uraga, in the form 

 of a lighthouse, surmounted with a bronze statue 

 of the commodore. In November the training ship 

 Tsukishima Maru. with all her crew of 111 persons, 

 was lost off Xumadzu. 



