488 



JAPAN, 



505,896 yen. The budget for 1898-*99 calls for an 

 iditure of . Japan's national 



debt stands thus (in bonds ' .war, 



railway. U; OftifttJiBad pension, 



.U' 1.388 yen. 



The Army. On Dec. :: !>< 



military organt/jition of tin- empire 965 generals 

 and MiiM-rior officers, 5.729 officers, 21.140 sui 

 . ,-. ' ... :..,.;, . .. ,..-;:: lokUen, 



making a total of 255.504. which, with 1.7i:< func- 

 tionaries in tl : artment. cave a grand 

 :. Besides the central organization 

 in Tokio and the military - l.-oN. there are the six 

 mat military division* .roya, 

 Osaka, Hiroshima, and Kunwn n <>f which 

 are large garrisons containing a division of from 

 to I'HNNi. though at Scndai there are two 



.^troops. With the Im] 

 -.IXHI men in Tokip. there is also a body 

 of drilled gendarmes, the military p.li< . 

 the reserves, and the territorial army, the iwo latter 

 bodies numbering altogether 165.Mi.~i. In tl, 

 fruiting svniif during 1H!4 4:tti.246 young men 

 :',; under Government notice, of whom 

 22,854 were place, i in active service, 98,24? assign. -,l 

 to the reserves, and the remainder hud service post- 

 poned, were exempted, allowed to resign, excused, 

 or were condemned criminals. 



The Navy. In 181)") Japan had 45 vessels of war, 

 of which 11* were in active service, 12 ut ^i 

 10 at Kun*. and 12 at Saselio (the chief navy yard-i. 

 of 82.904 tonnage, with engines of r^.V.'l | M , ,-..,. 

 power, and armed with 458 guns, besides non- 

 equipped war vessels, and 80 torpedo boats of 1,898 

 tonnage a: horse power. The personnel 



consisted of 65 superior officers, 512 subordii 

 and 6.268 noncommissioned officers and sailors. < Mi 

 July 1. 1897, besides 27 torpedo boats and 26 ves- 

 sels sunk or fallen into disuse, there were 43 effect- 

 ive war vessels, of which 3 were steel-armored bat- 



>ps. including the " Fuji." of TJ.t;i!. and the 



.ima." of I2.~i: M UK. unt ing 38 guns, 



and thc-Thin-y, i.."of 7.:;:;:, tons and -JO guns. Of 

 the other vessels, mostly cruisers, 5 have a tonnage 

 of over 4,000, 4 over 8,000, 6 over 2,000, and 9 over 

 1.000. the others being gunboats 6 of wood and 

 the rest of steel and iron. The " Kasagi," a steel 



r of 4.978 tons, was launched at Philadelphia, 

 Jan. 20. Eleven other war ships are now un.l.-r 

 construe! ion. and most of them launched. The 

 battle ships Shikishima " and Asahi," to be com- 

 pleted in ^1), the largest in the world, 

 are of 1-VM7 tons and 50 guns ea -h. 



Administration. <>,, Dec, Bl, 1895, there were 

 in the employ of the National (iovernmcnt 46,698 

 salaried officers, whose stipends amounted to n.- 

 405,425 yen. In the diplomatic and consular corps 

 there were 41 ministers and 1211 consuls, a total of 



iie countries- having the largest number being. 



in their order, Korea, 85: < l.n, .. 21 : Russia, 12; 



I States, 11 : Kngland. 7. 



re were 467,887 national electors, compared 



with 4--.2.156 in 1891. and 49,243 persons who paid 



n national taxes, but were without the elec- 

 toral riffht, the number of national voters to every 

 1,000 inhabitants being 11. In the 45 local assem- 

 blies of the empire there were 2. 1 1 : members. In 

 the communal councils of great cities, villages, and 

 assembled cities and villages, numl* ring in all 14.- 

 844, the numbers of electors were 4,186,767. An 

 elector in the commune must be a free native 

 twenty-five years old, domiciled, and having paid 

 taxes for two years. 



Rail nays. In 1896 there were 261 miles of pri- 

 vate and 792 miles of Government railways, of which 



rnment 1 

 to t runic an increase of 171 n. 



toWB a net pr. 



MUCH! of m, .re than $2,500,000. About. 

 A uh a capital of *>. nave 



obtained charters, and the total length o! 

 alrea<! -1 to be constructed i- 



miles.' The 'i'okai.lo linilwax i- ! bet-hanged Ir.un 



G to doubi. ' nietimi ol 



rinosaisto be left to private nterp: 

 nine engines have been built in the K< < 



Resource*.- e total \\.-aith 



of theempireat 10,000,0(H' chief item 



of revenue is the land tax. Of all the ground ne- 



lated that one lift I. 



rice fields, one sixth in arable land, one fortieth in 

 house lots, one half in forests, and one t hirtceni h 

 in other lands. The revenue has grown In* 

 000,000 yen in 17M to ! 



ase leaves the agricultural population un- 

 touched, the land tax remaining the same that it 

 was twenty years ago vi/.. 2A |-er eent. .f the 

 cially assessed Value of the land, which is aboi, 

 third of the market value. The increase of agricul- 

 tural products in !!.">. compared with 181 



s 8 to 5, in barley as 1! to !. in raw silk as 52 

 to P.I. in tea as 8 to 2. In mineral- the increase be- 

 l^'.i:{ and 1895 was of gold, threefold : of sil- 

 ver, sevenfold; of copper, fivefold; of iron, two- 

 fold; and of coal, sixfold. In textiles, cotton 

 has ii :hivcfold. the number of 



:aving much more than doubled be' 

 and ls ( .i">; silk fabrics have more than doub 

 plant it y. but cotton fabrics somewhat less. In 

 maritime enterprise the tonnage of 

 in 1895, com pan <! with L86 vly live tir 



great, and in vessels sai ling abroad fourfold. l'r\u 



I.IKMI yen in 1879 Hade has grown to 



290,500,000 in 1896. The total receipt ,,f th. 

 eminent in 1896-'97 were 17li.720.:{so yen. In 1880 

 the Mitsubishi firm, by investing 1,000.000 yen in 

 t he Taka-hima coal mine, astounded the commer- 

 cial public. A few years later the Mitsui 

 paid 4,000,000 yen fdr the Miike coal mine, 

 ceiitly this v;,me house purchased from the imperial 

 household the Sa<lo and Ikuno gold and silver 

 mines and tlie<K ; ,ka meltin- >r H.000,000 



yen. Recently the Third Hank inv- 

 yen in < K-ika' Harbor Works bond*. In 1M.~. the 

 [aid-up capital of the banksof t In- empire ainounl< d 

 to 127,807,71- "i yen. and ti 

 518 yen. while 'in 1896 the figures reached 2-1". 

 544 yen as capital. In July. ISHT. tl,, re were 1,487 

 bank'< in Japan, their capital amounting to 292,- 

 865,514 



roi-eiirn Trade. The -nfMYinl Gazette n showl 

 that the total value of forefgn trale in 1 s>6 was 289,- 

 .. of wliich the . 117.- 



842,700 yen; and of this. 1 1 ;.:,;:,. :,7s yen -tood for 

 home products. Tlie total of imports wa- 17: 

 474 yen. The movement in coin and bullion showed 

 an export of 11.598,883, and an import of :;:< 

 208 yen. Of the countries trading with Japan, 

 Asiatic took 106.819.274 yen of exports; Kiirope.m, 



..-.774: Amen- f which 47,! 



760 yen were with the Unite,! I Austra- 



lia and (>,,:.!,, i i:,f,.i;:',4. The customs re \ 

 amounted (1 \'"- American competition 



with (ireat Britain and Germany is noticed in 

 supply of machinery, rails, nails, and pig iron. 

 man nafli have beefl <lriven out of the Japanese 

 market, and 30.000 ton* of American rail- 

 at lower prices than British makers were wii;. 

 ! 'lie total demand for rails in Jap. 

 about 200.000 tons annually, and four railwn 



nplefed in 1H{>8 or 18W. have decided to adopt 

 the American rail. As British makers were not 



