SOME FACTS ABOUT JAPAN 



THE Johns Hopkins University 

 has just published a very com- 

 prehensive essay by one of its 

 students, Yukimasa Hattori, entitled 

 ' ' The Foreign Commerce of Japan Since 

 the Restoration, 1 869-1 900." The au- 

 thor quotes in his opening chapter from 

 that remarkable and historic oath of the 

 Emperor, given April 6, 1898, on the 

 happy restoration of imperial authority: 

 ' ' The uncivilized customs of former 

 times shall be broken through. . . . 

 Intellect and learning shall be sought 

 for throughout the world to establish 

 the foundation of the Empire. ' ' As Mr 

 Hattori says, "Nothing will perhaps 

 better illustrate the spirit of the times 

 than this terse sentence, by which the 

 long-established social and political in- 

 stitutions were condemned ' ' and an era 

 of commerce with nations inaugurated. 

 The essay consists of 79 printed pages, 

 divided into three parts: (1) discusses 

 the volume of trade, the text being sup- 

 plemented by diagrams showing graph- 

 ically the great increase. The author be- 

 lieves that the balance of trade for the 

 period ending with 1900 was even; (2) 

 describes the character of Japan's com- 

 merce ; (3) explains the geographical 

 distribution of the trade. England is 

 losing her leading position. The share 

 of Germany does not even yet amount 

 to one-half that of England, but the 

 German merchants are prosperous and 

 energetic, and more and more of the 

 English trade in Japan is passing into 

 their hands. 



The American imports have made the 

 most remarkable increase. In 1895 the 

 total value of Japan's imports from the 

 United States was only 9,000,000 yen. 

 In 1900 it had increased to the enormous 

 sum of 62,000,000 yen. This rapid in- 

 crease, however, is largely due to raw 

 cotton, though the imports of manufac- 

 tured goods also increased at a great 

 pace. 



WEALTH OF COAL 



According to the estimate of Henry S. 

 Munroe, the total coal-bearing area of 

 Japan amounts to about 5,000 square 

 miles, while the average thickness of 

 veins is 15 feet. The coal product of 

 Great Britain, it has been estimated, is 

 equivalent to the labor of 133,000,000 

 operators working without wages for her 

 enrichment. Japan, says Mr Munroe, 

 has now, in the Ishikari field alone, 

 stored up, and available for at least two 

 centuries' use, the labor of an equal body 

 of men. But it may be very much 

 doubted whether this report of Mr 

 Munroe is not somewhat exaggerated. 

 Though a more recent careful geological 

 survey has been made, it seems that the 

 extent and amount of deposits can not be 

 ascertained with precision. In 1899 the 

 number of plants for mining coal was 

 2,108, covering an area of over 318,- 

 644,670 tsubo (1 tsubo = 0.03306 acre) 

 and having a total estimated supply of 

 1,593,000,000 tons of coal. At the 

 present rate of consumption, which 

 amounts to some 9,000,000 tons (viz, 

 4,000,000 tons for export and 5,000,000 

 tons for home use), this supply will, 

 roughly speaking, last about one hun- 

 dred and seventy years. 



COTTON SPINNERS 



In view of the rapid growth of the 

 cotton-spinning industry in Japan, from 

 70,000 spindles in 1885 to 1,088,000 

 spindles in 1900, it is interesting to con- 

 sider at what economic advantage or dis- 

 advantage the Japanese spinner is com- 

 peting with his rivals in Manchester and 

 Bombay. It is said that the proportion 

 between hands and spindles is three or 

 four times as great in Japan as in the 

 English factories, though the evidence is 

 by no means conclusive on this point. 

 The proportion of operators to spindles 

 is practically the same in Japan as in 

 India, being about one workman to 



