356 



JAPAN. 



bers, 46,634; and the money raised by natives 

 amounted to 117,817 yen. 



The Roman Catholics have 1 archbishop, 3 

 bishops, 109 foreign missionaries, 34 native 

 priests, 201 churches and stations, and 55,824 

 members. 



The Russo-Greek Church has 4 foreign mis- 

 sionaries, 283 native priests or evangelists, and 

 26,680 members, who contributed 7,364 yen to 

 Christian work. In Tokio there are 23 Christian 

 sects, 103 church-buildings, 127 foreign mission- 

 aries, and 6(5 native pastors. The Buddhist sects 

 show considerable activity, and have adopted not 

 a few features of work and methods borrowed 

 from the Christians. The Salvation Array has 

 been active in the reformation of the social evil. 

 In 1899 there were in the empire 52,274 prosti- 

 tutes, and in 1901 there were but 40,195, with a 

 heavy decrease in visitors to brothels and in 

 brothel receipts, largely through the regulation 

 granting " free cessation " to prostitutes. The 

 total decrease of numbers in 1901 was 23 per cent. 



Politics and Events. On Jan. 23 Major Ya- 

 maguchi with a battalion of infantry left Awo- 

 mori to practise marching in the snow; but, 

 owing to the heavy storm, they were over- 

 whelmed and most of them were frozen to death, 

 there being only 12 survivors of the 210. The 

 sum of 1,830 yen was raised by the foreigners in 

 Japan for the relief of the families of the dead, 

 and 150,000 yen was appropriated for the same 

 purpose by the Japanese Government. The cold 

 weather was exceptional, some places in the Hok- 

 kaido showing 40 below zero. 



Major-Gen. Arisaka was awarded by the Em- 

 peror the second-class order of the Rising Sun 

 and a donation of 2,000 yen for his inventions in 

 arms and ammunition. 



On Feb. 11, on the date of the promulgation of 

 the Constitution, announcement was made of the 

 conclusion of an alliance between Japan and 

 Great Britain, and great popular rejoicings fol- 

 lowed. Its objects are to maintain the status quo 

 and general peace in the extreme East, and espe- 

 cially the independence and integrity of the Chi- 

 nese and Korean Empires, and to secure to the 

 signatories full and free -enjoyment of the oppor- 

 tunities created by treaty. During the year the 

 agitation of the payment by foreigners of a house 

 tax was kept up, the matter being finally re- 

 ferred for arbitration to the International Tri- 

 bunal at The Hague. 



The session of the Diet closed March 10. Of 79 

 Government bills presented during the 29 sessions 

 of the lower house, 69 were passed. Of 5 bills 

 sent down from the upper house, 1 was passed. 

 Of 94 bills presented by its own members, 37 

 were passed. The House dealt with 146 measures 

 in all, most of the work being done in committee. 

 In the upper house, of 42 Government bills re- 

 ceived, 36 were passed. Of 36 bills sent up from 

 the lower house, 17 were passed. Of 5 bills pre- 

 sented by .the peers themselves, 1 was passed. 

 The relations between the two houses were, dur- 

 ing part of the time, rather Unpleasant. 



A great fire broke out in Fukui, March 30, de- 

 stroying 4,000 houses in the business part of the 

 city. The princes of Riukiu (Loo Choo Islands), 

 after years of expectation that China would re- 

 sume rule over the archipelago, cut off their 

 hair, put on foreign clothes, sent their children to 

 the Government schools, and paid social visits in 

 Tokio, where they now reside. After more than 

 thirty years of retirement in Shidzuoka. Keiki, 

 the last of the shoguns has been invited to the 

 capital, to appear often at the court, and recently 

 was exalted to a high degree in the nobility. 



Marcus island, occupied by the Japanese for 

 some years, was visited by the Kasagi, man-of- 

 war, the Japanese Government having been form- 

 ally notified that the United States had no 

 claim. It was discovered by a Japanese in 1879, 

 and was formally annexed in 1898 under the 

 name of Minami-Tori Shima. 



The imperial Postal Department celebrated on 

 June 25 the twenty-fifth anniversary of its en- 

 trance into the Universal Postal Union by the 

 issue of memorial postal cards, in a set of five, 

 of elegant execution. 



The faction fights, with a purpose of ethical re- 

 form, in view of the licentiousness of the abbots 

 and priests in the Shinshiu sect, the richest and 

 strongest sect among the Buddhist denomina- 

 tions, were continued during the year with per- 

 sonal violence. 



A great typhoon, beginning below the Riukiu 

 Islands, swept the coast of Japan for three days 

 until the afternoon of Aug. 28, doing immense 

 damage, unroofing or destroying edifices, demol- 

 ishing wharves and breakwaters and the famous 

 Red Bridge at Nikko, driving gunboats and bat- 

 tle-ships on the rocks, besides pouring a tidal 

 wave 60 feet high over the Odawara district, 

 which spent its force a half-mile inland, lifting 

 bodily a railway from its bed, covering rice-fields 

 with sand, and killing or drowning more than 300 

 persons, besides overturning railway-trains. 



This year the Chinese Imperial Government 

 and local authorities summoned to their assist- 

 ance in China about 50 Japanese teachers, rail- 

 way engineers, experts for industrial enterprises, 

 legal advisers, chiefs of police, and other helpers 

 in various 'lines of progress. 



Formosa. The area of this island, ceded by 

 China to Japan in 1895, including adjacent islets, 

 is 5,535 square miles. The number of obnoxious 

 insects has greatly decreased, and the death-rate 

 among the Japanese has decreased by more than 

 75 per cent. The twenty years' program of im- 

 provement, inaugurated by the Government, es- 

 timated to cost 35,000,000 yen, includes a trunk- 

 line railway, a thorough survey of the whole 

 land, and the settlement and confirmation of 

 landholders' rights, harbor improvement, and 

 the building of Government offices and residences, 

 with drainage, water-works, etc. 



The year 1902 was notable for a steady devel- 

 opment of the physical resources of this islanc 

 for the education, tranquillity, and prosperity 

 the more civilized portion of the inhabitant 

 and for active military operations against tl 

 rebellious savages of the mountains and forests, 

 resulting in hundreds of casualties on both side-. 

 but with steady loss to the savages. In the 

 national budget the subsidy for encouragement 

 of navigation in Formosa amounted to 800,000 

 yen. The foreign trade of Taiwan in 1900 

 amounted to 24,141,949 yen, and in 1901 to 21,- 

 166,015 yen. 



Besides 1,500 private schools attended by 25,000 

 pupils, there are 1,496 small elementary schools 

 sustained by the Government, attended by 27,- 

 590 pupils, or 6 per cent, of the eligible chil- 

 dren of school age. In the Pescadores 96 ele- 

 mentary schools were attended by 10.000 pupils. 

 The principle is to Japonize as much as possible 

 the natives, whose minds are impregnated witli 

 Chinese thought, and who are pro-Chinese in 

 nearly everything. There are also medical and 

 normal schools, besides a score or more in whi< j h 

 the Japanese language and literature are taught. 



The problem of malaria has been successfully 

 attacked by segregating one battalion of infantry 

 from the bites of mosquitos for one hundred and 



