JAPAN. 



399 



are obtained from the waters near Massowah and 

 in the Dahlak archipelago. Most of the foreign 

 trade is carried on by Banyan merchants from 

 Bombay. The imports by sea and land were 

 valued at 28,442,551 lire in 1896. The colonial 

 budget for 1899 amounted to 10,622,400 lire, of 

 which 7,757,900 lire were for the colonial troops 

 and 2,864,500 lire for administrative and other 

 expenses. The revenue collected in the colonies 

 was 2,491,600 lire according to the estimates, 

 and the difference of 8,130,800 lire was supplied 

 from the Italian treasury. 



By the treaty made with the Negus of Abys- 

 sinia at Adis Abeba on Oct. 26, 1896, Italy re- 

 stored Tigre to Abyssinia, renouncing all claims 

 to a protectorate over that empire and the sover- 



eignty asserted over Somaliland, except a strip 

 of coast 180 miles wide. The Italian territory, 

 including the sultanate of Obbia, has an area 

 of about 100,000 square miles, with a population 

 estimated at 400,000. The administration of the 

 Benadir coast has been intrusted to a commercial 

 company for the term of fifty years. There were 

 3,764 vessels, of 166,129 tons, entered at Masso- 

 wah in 1898, and 3,758 vessels, of 166,009 tons, 

 cleared. The length of telegraphs was 1,229 kilo- 

 metres; of railroad, 24 kilometres. The colonial 

 troops consist of 222 carabineers, 600 chasseurs, 

 300 artillerymen, 297 engineers, and 304 train, 

 with 6 battalions of native infantry, 2 native bat- 

 teries, and 1 native squadron; total strength, 185 

 officers and 6,547 men in 1899. 



JAPAN, an island empire, east of the conti- 

 nent of Asia, between the possessions of Russia 

 and those of the United States, extending from 

 north latitude 21 48', near the Philippines, to 

 50 56', near the Kuriles, and from east longi- 

 tude 156 32' to 119 20'. Of the 4,000 islands 

 known, with an area calculated at 161,401 square 

 miles, about 500 are inhabited, the majority of 

 the people living on Hondo or the main island. 

 Minami-tori-shima, or Southern Bird island (pos- 

 sibly Marcus island), 600 nautical miles east of 

 the Bonin group, discovered in October, 1897, has 

 been claimed and occupied by the Japanese Gov- 

 ernment. 



Politically, the empire is divided into 47 dis- 

 tricts and 705 subdistricts. There are 44 large 

 cities and 14,782 cities and villages. The Emperor, 

 Mutsuhito, is the one hundred and twenty-second 

 in the traditional line of Mikados, which has a 

 historic basis of about fifteen centuries. The 

 heir apparent, Yoshihito, born Aug. 31, 1879, was 

 proclaimed heir to the throne Aug. 31, 1887, and 

 received the title of Crown Prince Nov. 3, 1889. 

 He is betrothed to the Princess Sada, fifteen years 

 old, his cousin, the third daughter of Prince Kujo. 



Besides the imperial residence, there are 4 de- 

 tached palaces in Tokio 3 in Kioto and 1 in 

 Hakone 10 imperial places of sojourn, and 2 

 imperial gardens. Only male descendants, born 

 either of the Empress or of the imperial concu- 

 bines, can succeed to the throne. The Emperor 

 shares legislative power with the Imperial Diet, 

 which consists of two houses, the upper house 

 having 316 peers and imperial nominees and the 

 lower house 300 members elected by male voters, 

 who must pay a land tax to the value of 5 yen 

 annually or an income tax of 3 yen. (A yen is 

 worth 50 cents.) The former number of 510,000 

 franchise holders is thus increased to more than 

 2,000,000. The fourteenth annual meeting of the 

 Diet took place on Nov. 22, 1899. Since 1870 

 40 ministries have come into existence, the aver- 

 age duration being about seven months, none sur- 

 viving more than twenty months. The first ses- 

 sion of the Diet under the Constitution began 

 Nov. 29, 1890. The Diet was dissolved by the 

 Government five times, and there have been six 

 suspensions because of " unreasonable opposi- 

 tion " to the Government. No House of Repre- 

 sentatives has yet served out its full term of four 

 years. Nevertheless there has been, on the whole, 

 steady progress. Most of the work in the Diet 

 is done in committees, and government by party 

 is now practically the rule. In the three months' 

 session closed March 10, 1899, the lower house 

 dealt with 284 measures, of which 174 were pre- 



sented by the Government, and 230 were passed. 

 The Emperor's Cabinet consists of the 10 heads 

 of departments. In addition, he has his Privy 

 Council of 20 veteran statesmen, practically a 

 body of great importance, especially in the forma- 

 tion of new cabinets. Below this central admin- 

 istration, and directly under the control of the 

 Emperor, are the four provincial governments 

 the prefecture of the police of Tokio, department 

 of colonization for Hokkaido, or the Northern 

 Islands, the Fu and Ken (prefectures and dis- 

 tricts), and the government of the island of For- 

 mosa. In 1897 65,502 public functionaries re- 

 ceived salaries amounting to 17,104,226 yen, the 

 number of officials since 1886 increasing 52 per 

 cent, and the total of the yearly salaries 78 per 

 cent. More than 15,000 officers in the army and 

 navy make the total personnel 80,000, and the 

 total of salaries 24,000,000 yen, or a cost to the 

 people of about 57 sen (100 sen make a yen) per 

 head for official service. The number of officials 

 has increased 40 per cent, and the amount of 

 salaries 50 per cent, since the war with China. 

 The total population of the empire is more than 

 46,000,000. 



Finances. Japan adopted the gold standard 

 Oct. 1, .1897. By the end of 1898 all silver yen 

 had been withdrawn from circulation, amounting 

 to 45,580,000. The loss incurred in connection 

 with the rates of silver had been 5,500,000 yen, 

 but the profits resulting from the subsidiary coin 

 (27,560,000 chiefly in Japan and Korea, and 47,- 

 520,000 sold in Shanghai and Hong- Kong) were 

 5,650,000. The Minister of Finance reported in 

 November, 1899, that the gold monetary system 

 has worked excellently. The accounts for the 

 year 1897-'98, now settled, show an ordinary rev- 

 enue of 124,222,879 yen, of which 98,047,487 was 

 for ordinary expenditure and 9,647,640 used for 

 payment of the public debt, leaving a surplus of 

 16,527,752. In 1898-'99 the figures for these four 

 items were as follow: 132,568,434, 11,327,183, 

 7,622,717, and 13,618,534. For the years 1899- 

 1900 the figures are: 178,558,944, 134,495,192, 

 6,467,609, and 37,596,143. The items of the last 

 two years given above are still in the budgetary 

 stage. The budget for 1900-1901, submitted to the 

 House of Representatives Nov. 25, 1899, show: 

 Ordinary revenue, 192,230,000; extraordinary rev- 

 enue, 44,480,000, making a total of 236,710,000. 

 For ordinary expenditure, 148,950,000; extraor- 

 dinary expenditure, 85,390,000; total, 234,340,000 

 the surplus of 2,360,000 to be applied to prison 

 improvement and educational purposes. Of the 

 extraordinary revenue, 23,750,000 come from the 

 Chinese indemnity and 17,330,000 by loan. On 



