COMMERCIAL JAPAN IN" 1900. 



Eecent events so much increase the interest which the people of the United States feel, and have for many years felt, in Japan 

 that a brief review of present conditiojis in that country compared with those of earlier years seems justiiiable. Japan has, durir.k' the 

 past few years, assumed an important I'ank in the list of commercial nations, and in doing so has vastly increased her commerce with the 

 United States, the nation instrumental in first opening the doors of that country to commerce with the world. Within the last few years 

 new treaties have been made with the principal countries of the world, by which their citizens are given equal privileges with the 

 citizens of Japan in all parts of the Empire and made subject to the laws of that country, which have been recently revised, n-aw 

 commercial codes established, new currency adopted, new tariffs created, and new ports opened for commercial intercourse with the 

 world. Lastly, by reason of more recent events, Japan and the United States have become near neighbors, physically as well as 

 otherwise, Japan's northern territory, the Kurile Islands, lying within 500 miles of our Aleutian Islands, and her southern extreme, 

 Formosa, lying within 200 miles of the Philippines, thus making a complete cham along the Pacific front of Asia. From Yokohama, her 

 most important port of entry, the distance to Manila as a trade center is practically the same as that to Hongkong, which has proved so 

 important a distributing point for British trade; from Yokohama to Honolulu, a distance of 3,400 miles, Japanese steamships now 

 regularly ply; and from Yokohama to the Pacific coast ports of the United States the distance is far less than to the ports of any other 

 great commercial nation, while the opening of an isthmian canal would greatly lessen the water route between Japan and the Gulf and 

 Atlantic ports of the United States, from which she draws so large and constantly increasing a proportion of her supplies. 



EARLIER COMMERCIAL RELATIONS. 



The earlier commercial relations of Japan to the world, and the part which the United States has had in developing them, are so 

 well known that they need not be recounted in detail. Portuguese adventurers, who were the first to establish commercial relations in 

 China, soon extended their trade to Japan, the first Portuguese sailors landing on her soil in 1542, and within a few years an active 

 commerce was established. Encouraged by that success, the Dutch East India Company in 1598 dispatched five merchant vessels to 

 Japan, one of which reached it in 1600, and in 1609 other Dutch ships arrived and were well received by the Japanese, who conceded 

 thera a port on the island of Hirado and the pri^•ilege of establishing a "factory" or trading post and settlement. The hostilities 

 between the Portuguese and Dutch, however, and the extreme demands of the Portuguese, who considered themselves already established 

 in the commerce of Japan, coupled with dissatisfaction with the attitude of foreign missionaries toward the popular religion of Japan, led 

 to the exclusion of all traders except the Dutch, who were permitted to take up their residence on a small island, Deshima, where they 

 remained for more than two centuries in undisturbed monopoly of the entire European trade of Japan. In 1852, serious complaints of 

 mistreatment of American sailors wrecked on the coast of Japan having been made. Commodore M. C. Perry, with a fleet of American 

 vessels, was sent by the United States Government to demand from Japan a treaty by which American vessels should be allowed to enter 

 one or more of its ports to obtain supplies, and, if practicable, that Americans should also be given general trading privileges in these 

 ports. This undertaking was peacefully carried to a successful termination, a treaty being signed March 31, 1854, by which the ports of 

 Shimoda and Hakodate were opened as harbors of refuge, supply, trade, and consular residence to the United States. This action was 

 quickly followed by a successful demand for similar privileges by the British, Russian, and Dutch governments, and by 1860 the ports of 

 Hakodate, Kanagawa, Nagasaki, and Niigata were opened to the commerce of the leading commercial nations of the world. 



From this time forward the commercial relations of Japan with the world made rapid progi*ess. In 1860 and 1861 a Japanese 

 embassy visited the United States and Europe. The decade 1860-1870, while largely occupied by dissensions and, in some cases, 

 hostilities between the elements favoring commei'cial relations with the world and those preferring former methods, saw marked 

 developments within Japan, the beginning of the adoption of the customs and methods of western nations, and laid the foundation of 

 the progress which has since been made. In 1871 an embassy consisting of the embassador and junior prime minister, Iwakura, the 

 vice-embassador, Kido, Count Ito Hirobumi, the three ministers of the cabinet, and several inferior officers and secretaries, numbering 

 49 in all, sailed from Japan to visit all the nations having treaties with that country. Count Ito, in an address at San Francisco, the first 

 landing place after the embassy had left Japan, said: "Our mission, under special instructions from His Majesty the Emperor, while 

 seeking to protect the rights and interests of our respective nations, will seek to unite them more closely in the future, convinced that 

 we shall appreciate each other more when we know each other better. * * * Held in absolute obedience by despotic sovereigns 

 through many thousand years, our people knew no freedom or liberty of thought. With our material improvement they learned to 

 understand their rightful privileges, which for ages had been denied them. Civi^ war was but a temporary result. Our 'daimios' 

 magnanimously surrendered their principalities, and their voluntary action Avas accepted by the General Government. Within a year 

 a feudal system, firmly established many centuries ago, has been completely abolished. By educating our women we hope to insure 

 greater intelligence in future generations. Japan can not claim originality as yet, but will aim to exercise practical wisdom by adopting 

 the advantages and avoiding the errors taught her by the history of those enliglitened nations whose experience is their only teacher." 



The development of Japan which followed this tour of observation and intercourse with other nations of the world was very 

 rapid. Schools were increased, students Afere sent abi'oad to obtain a higher education and study foreign methods; internal highways 

 were made, steamships built, and communication with foreign countries was increased; manufacturing industries were encouraged and 



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