THE GEOGRAPHY OF JAPAN 



59 



© Keystone View Company 



REELING SILK IN ONE OP JAPAN'S MANY MODERN MIEES 



More than one- fourth of the world's silk is produced in Japan. Of this a large per- 

 centage is sold as raw silk and only about one-sixth of the entire amount is manufactured in 

 Japan. 



those wild and inhospitable regions that 

 long ago engendered those habits of fru- 

 gality, endurance, and self-reliance among 

 an island race immune from invasion, 

 and have rendered the Japanese one of 

 the proudest and most self-satisfied patri- 

 ots the world has ever seen. 



MORE THAN HAEE THE PEOPEE EIVE ON 

 THE EAND 



Xo less than three-quarters of Japan 

 is mountain land, to a great extent un- 

 cultivated, because uncultivable. The 

 remaining quarter is worked with a min- 

 uteness of care and an intensity of energy 



of which we have little conception and to 

 which none of our industries offers any 

 parallel. 



In spite of the growth of industrialism 

 and the migration of so many from the 

 countryside to the towns, still more than 

 half the people live "on the land." Even 

 in feudal Japan, the tillers of the soil 

 ranked next in social status to the Sa- 

 murai and above the merchants and me- 

 chanics. Those were days when Japan 

 was secluded from the world and was 

 forced to be self-supporting. In order to 

 make the most of her resources, all avail- 

 able ground was laid under contribution. 



