400 



JAPAN. 



June 1 a foreign loan of 10,000,000, at 90 per 

 100, at 4 per cent, interest, was floated in Lon- 

 don, and the money has been paid. The work of 

 reassessing taxable value of land was completed 

 in August, 1899, making a reduction of 148,590,000 

 yen. Tire total expenses of the Chino-Japanese 

 War of 1894 were 200,475,508 yen, of which 164,- 

 520,371 yen were for the army and 35,955,137 for 

 the navy. The war revenue raised amounted to 

 225,230,127 yen, among the items of which are: 

 Domestic loans, 110,804,926; taken from indem- 

 nity, 78,957,165; from accumulations of revenue 

 surplus, 23,439,086: revenue from occupied terri- 

 tory, including Formosa, 1,550,104. The actual 

 expense for arms and ammunition was 21,250,000, 

 or 10 per cent, of the total outlay, and for re- 

 wards 7,182,194. the Japanese receiving from the 

 Chinese 100,000,000 more than was spent in di- 

 rect outlay. 



In the banks of Japan, Dec. 31, 1898, the de- 

 posits amounted to 324,570,418 yen; loans, 321,- 

 149,058; bonds and securities, 106,214,857; securi- 

 ties on loans, 321,149,085, In 1898 there were 

 1,700 banks, having a total paid-up capital of 

 223,000,000 yen, the sum for the disposal of busi- 

 ness averaging to each about 265,000. In August, 

 1899, 188,709,749 of paper currency was in circula- 

 tion. In ten years, since 1877, the price of 40 

 commodities has risen from 100 sen to 170 sen. 



Resources. The estimated total resources of 

 Japan are 7,898,000,000 yen, based on statistics 

 for 1894 and 1895. On the latest statistics the 

 estimate is 15,093,000,000. Of the total area of 

 the land, 103,300,272 acres, 669,536 belong to the 

 Government and 34,630,736 to the people. The 

 gross annual product of the land, no account 

 being taken of Government property, is 28 yen, 

 and the net produce 14 yen per acre. Only 13,- 

 730,706 acres of arable land, yielding 36 yen net 

 per acre, are owned by the people. The number 

 of horned cattle is 1,091,360, and of horses 1,477,- 

 021, the value of both kinds being 75,000,000 yen. 

 Railways, telegraphs, and aqueducts are valued 

 at 90,000,000 yen, shipping at 98,000,000, mines at 

 405,000,000, and marine products at 272,000,000. 

 Personal property, reckoned at 24 yen per head, 

 is appraised at 1,028,000,000. The average rice 

 crop is 200,000,000 bushels, the crop for 1899 fall- 

 ing 800,000 bushels below the average. The an- 

 nual consumption is about 5,000,000 bushels great- 

 er than the average yield, and rice is still a deli- 

 cacy rather than a necessity to most of the rural 

 population. Much of Japan's food supply has to 

 be imported, as population increases faster than 

 the food capacity. In 1899 fresh oil fields were 

 discovered and worked in Echigo, and new and 

 profitable gold fields have been opened in Yezo. 

 In Italy the public burden for each person is 21 

 yen ; in Japan it is 4. 



The Army. At the end of 1898, when the re- 

 cruits for that year had been drafted into the 

 ranks, there were in the active army of Japan 

 11,726 officers and 80,013 rank and file. The fig- 

 ures for the infantry were 8,266 and 51,208; for 

 the artillery, 1,635 and 12,811; for the cavalry, 

 646 and 2,532; for the engineers, 583 and 1,089; 

 for land transport train, 596 and 1,473. There are 

 in the first reserve 8,894 officers and 105,104 men; 

 in the second reserve, 8,583 officers and 62,537 

 men ; in the supernumeraries, 64,303 men ; a total 

 of 17,477 officers and 231,944 men. The total en- 

 rollment of soldiery is 341,160, distributed in the 

 7 divisions and depots, the Imperial Guard of 

 more than 12,000 men being in Tokio. Heretofore 

 the artillery and cavalry have not been brigaded, 

 but 2 brigades of 3 regiments of cavalry and 2 

 brigades of 4 regiments of field artillery each have 



been formed. The garrison artillery now occupy 

 the forts which, at 9 great centers, guard the 

 coast. The building and equipment of these are 

 in the most approved modern style. Col. Arisaka 

 has greatly improved the field artillery, which 

 uses a smokeless powder of native invention. 

 Only 15 per cent, of the soldiers are illiterate, 

 40 per cent, have a common-school education, 

 and 27 per cent, are fairly able to read and write 

 and know some arithmetic. In small arms the 

 Japanese formerly used Enfields and Sniders, but 

 since 1883 they have had the Murata rifle, a 

 clever adaptation by a Japanese colonel of sev- 

 eral systems. In 1886 the Murata rifle was im- 

 proved. In 1890 it was converted into a repeater, 

 but the troops in the Chinese war, with the ex- 

 ception of the Guards and the Fourth Division, 

 used the 1 -round rifle. In 1897 the Arisaka rifle 

 was adopted, and the Japanese claim that this 

 arm is better than any used in Europe. Half 

 the army is now equipped with this light, simple, 

 5-round magazine gun. 



The Navy. In September, 1899, the Japanese 

 navy consisted of 8 first-class battle ships, 5 

 afloat and 3 building, 2 second-class battle ships 

 or armored cruisers, 20 cruisers, 10 coast-defense 

 ships in three classes, 4 dispatch vessels, 10 tor- 

 pedo destroyers, and 30 torpedo boats. The Hat- 

 sute, launched on June 27, and contracted to be 

 ready for sea by March, 1899, has a displacement 

 of 15,240 tons, the guaranteed speed being 18 

 knots. The navy yards at Yokosuka, Kure, and 

 Sasebo have dry docks and first-class equipment, 

 and on the new ships are the fullest resources 

 known to modern naval science. In September, 

 1899, there were in the active Japanese navy more 

 than 20,000 men, of whom 761 were officers, from 

 admiral to cadet midshipmen, 212 engineers, 175 

 medical officers, 15 pharmaceutists, 187 paymas- 

 ters, 61 officers in the construction department, 

 and 6 in the pilot, making a total of 1,413 officers. 



Trade. The old order of low customs tariff, 

 established June 25, 1886, gave place at the be- 

 ginning of 1899 to the new system of higher 

 duties. The customs duties in 1894 amounted to 

 5,881,024 yen, and in 1898 to 8,360,689 yen. The 

 total foreign trade for the year 1898 amounted 

 to $216,245,195, of which $141,641,725 were im- 

 ports and $84,603,470 for exports. From January 

 to July, 1899, the exports amounted to 106,630,- 

 021 and the imports to 11,522,342 yen, the first 

 half of the year being always the principal time 

 for imports and the second half for exports. The 

 estimates of the total export for 1899 aggregate 

 200,000,000 yen, or double the volume of six years 

 ago. The trade between the United States and 

 Japan in 1873 was: Exports from Japan, 4,200,- 

 000 yen; imports to Japan, 1,000,000 yen; and in 

 1898, exports, 47,000,000; imports, 40,000,000 yen. 

 Japanese articles sent to us are raw silk (25,- 

 000,000 yen in 1898), tea, liabutai (light, summer 

 silk), silk fabric, and fancy matting. The staples 

 of American imports are machinery, iron, petro- 

 leum, cotton, flour, and tobacco. The imports, 

 from the United States in 1898 amounted to 

 6,874,531, and in 1898 to 40,001,092 yen, the in- 

 crease being due largely to cotton, 7,500,000 yen; 

 flour, 1,000,000 yen; tobacco, cigarettes, and elec- 

 tric equipment making up the rest of the in- 

 crease. In 1899, of 3,147,855 boxes of Wakayama 

 oranges, 150,000 were sent to the United States. 

 The tonnage of Japanese vessels in October, 1899, 

 was 734,622, or five times more than the tonnage 

 in 1885. More than half of the vessels of over 

 1,000 tons (149 in number) belong to the Nippon 

 Yusen Kaisha, or Japanese Ocean Navigation 

 Company. Twenty-two new ports were opened 



