2222 COMMERCIAL JAPAIf. [December, 



9,519,612 yen in 1892. Sugar importations up to this time have been largely in the form of the refined material ready for use. The 

 tariff recently adopted, however, make.s the rate of duty on refined .sugar about three times that on raw sugar, the intention presumably 

 being to encourage the sugar-refining industry in Japan. Cotton yarns show no important gains in the seven years in question, but, on 

 the contrary, a decrease since 1896, this being due to the rapid increa.se in the cotton-spinning industry of Japan, which has not only 

 proved able to supply the local demand of the cotton mills, but is making a large market for itself in China, and thus increasing the 

 •cotton cloth manufactures of that country. Kerosene oil imports from 1892 to 1900 increased from 3,328,398 yen to 14,162,6.51 yen, thus 

 more than douV^ling in value, while the exports to Japan from the United States in those years barely kept pace with the general growth. 



The growing demand for food products other than rice is illustrated by the fact that importations of beans, pease, and pulse have 

 increased from 2,712,044 yen in 1892 to 8,822,111 yen in 1898, and 4,817,767 yen in 1900. Another article which shows a rapid growth 

 in importations into Japan, and one which the manufacturers of the United States may find worthy of attention, is that of oil cake for 

 fertilizing. The importation of this article in 1892 amounted to 824,651 yen, 3,220,600 yen in 1896, 4,614,967 yen in 1898, and 5,696,4-53 

 yen in 1900. The extremely limited cultivable area of Japan, coupled with the large demand from its 45,000,000 population who.se wants 

 are rapidly growing with increa.sed earnings and greater activity, calls for the most careful attention to the producing possibilities of the 

 soil, and with the small number of domestic animals from w^hich to obtain supplies of fertilizers there is a growing demand for fertilizers 

 of other clas-ses. This doubtless accounts for the rapid increase in the imports of oil cake for fertilizing, a product of which our own 

 exportations have rapidly grown, while the possibility of introduction of other fertilizers, of which our supply is now so large, may be 

 also worthy of consideration. The United States now supplies a large share of the phosphates of the world used for fertilizing purposes, 

 and this, coupied with the almost unlimited capacity of production of oil cake, makes this rapidly growing Japanese market for fertilizers 

 one worthy of attention. 



Another line of imports into Japan which has rapidly grown in the last few years is that of woolen goods, especially those classed aa 

 "moussclinc de laine." This single line of manufactures has increased from 2,448,899 yen in 1892 to 4,373,988 yen in 1898, and 7,364,991 

 yen in 1900. Recent writers on Japan indicate a growing disposition on the part of the people of that country to utilize woolen goods for 

 garment.'^, and as wool is not produced in any considerable quantities in that country the demand for woolen cloths is constantly increasing. 

 All efforts to introduce sheep for wool-producing purposes have been unsucces.sful, the physical conditions of the soil and climate as well 

 as its grasses being such as to make it improbable that Japan will become a sheep-producing country, so that the growing disposition to 

 utilize woolen cloths will increa.se the market for raw wool or woolen goods, as is shown by the single item alluded to above. Other 

 classes of woolen cloths have also increased from 640,417 yen in 1892 to 2,969,763 yen in 1900, while wool yarn increased from 427,992 yen 

 in 1892 to 1,798,535 yen in 1900, and cloths made in part of wool from 196,018 yen in 1892 to 2,433,758 yen in 1900. 



One curious and interesting feature of the importations of Japan is that which relates to clocks and watches. The opinion was 

 expressed a few years ago that the cleverness of Japanese workmen in reproducing articles of delicate workmanship brought to their 

 attention would soon reduce to a minimum the importation of clocks and watches and other articles of this character. Experieace, 

 however, has not justified this belief. The importation of clocks and watches into Japan, according to the official figures of the Japanese 

 Government, has increased from 687,734 yen in 1892 to 3,419,727 yen in 1898, and 1,840,503 yen in 1900. 



Other articles in which the increase in importation has been rapid and suggestive to manufacturers and exporters of the United 

 States arc rails for railways, which increased from 67,437 yen in 1892 to 4,753,371 yen in 1900; other materials for railways, from 51,865 

 in 1892 to 2,514,232 in ]8'98; printing paper, from 217,309 in 1892 to 2,030,844 in 1900; satins of cotton, from .523,459 in 1892 to 3,662,638 

 in 1900; plate and sheet iron, from 240,583 in 1892 to 4,080,543 in 1900; iron pipe, from 55,814 in 1892 to 2,981,693 in 1900; cotton prints, 

 from 430,544 in 1892 to 2,002,732 in 1900; nails, from 900,422 in 1892 to 2,181,064 in 1900; white shirtings, from 330,558 in 1892 to 

 1,325,142 yen in 1900, while numerous other articles whose values are stated in smaller sums show equal and even greater relative 

 growth in the importations, the details of which will be shown by the table printed on another page. 



ARE.-V, POPULATION, AND PRODUCTION. 



The geography of Japan is so well known that details need not be discussed. From the northernmost of its group ofc Kurile Islands, 

 adjacent to Kamchatka, to the southernmost extremity of Formosa is over 4,000 miles, or more than the distance from the northern 

 boundary of Alaska to the southern extremity of California. Its principal islands of course are Hondo, or Niphon, with a total area of 

 87,485 square miles, about equal to the State of Kansas, and a population, as shown by the census of December 31, 1898, of 33,327,935, 

 or an average of 381 inhalMtantsper S(iuare mile; Hokkaido, or Yesso, with an area of 36,299 square miles, about equal to that of Indiana, 

 and a pojjulation of (510,155, or an average of 10.8 per square mile; Shikoku, lying next south of Hondo, with an area of 7,031 square 

 miles, or a little loss than that of Mas.sachasetts, and a population of 3,013,817, or 428 per square mile; and Kiushiu, still farther south, 

 with an area of 16,840 square miles, about the same as the combined area of Vermont and ISIassachusetts, and a population of 6,808,908, 

 or 404 per square mile, making for those four principal islands a total area of 147,655 square miles, or about the same as that of the State 

 of California, and a population of 43,760,815, or an average of 296.4 per square mile. In addition to this the population of the island of 

 Formo.-a, ceded to Japan by China after the war between China anfl Japan, was given on December 31, 189S, as 2,690,09<i. 



Tlie Kurile Islands, stretching northward from Hokkaido to Kamtehatka, which were obtained from Russia in oxclian^ji^ for .•> part 

 of Saghalin, number about 25, with an area of 3,070 square miles, and a small population, subsisting upon hunting and fishing, 

 tlie products of which they barter to American, Portuguese, and Dutch traders. The Riu Xiu Island.", which lie between Jaj-»an and 

 Fonnosa, also belong to Japan, and likewise have a small population, subsisting chiefly by fishing and barter. Hokkaido or Yesso, the 

 most northerly of the i.«lands, has but a comparatively small population, the climate being severe and lanro portions of the surface 

 unsuited to agriculture. Indeed, the fact that the largo j)roi)ortion of the Empire of Japan is volcanic and that lines of mountains, some 

 of them active volcanoes, run through the center of the i.-^lands with merely a frontage of low lands on each side and vsllors between 

 those mountains, renders the cultivable area relatively small, the land now under cultivation being estimated at but about 12 per cent of 

 the total area. This is, however, very carefully tilled, mo,«tly by hand, with spades, hoes, and implements of this character, plows and 

 other agricultural iniplements being but comparatively little used. Rice is the largest and most important crop agriculturally, supplying, 

 OS it does, the ])rincipal food of a large part of the population, though wheat, corn, barley, and millet are grown in certain localities in 

 quantities bearing hut a small relative proportion to that of rice. As to natural products for exportation, silk is by far the most impor- 

 tant, the export.M of raw silk in 1900 amounting to 48,818,347 yen. Tea is the next in importance among the natural products, the 

 exports of 1900 being 9,035,819 yen in value; rice, 3,576,569 yen; cuttlo-fisli, 1,168,794 yen; camphor, 3,070,701 yen. Of the niiueral% 



