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JAPAN
Britain, the United States, France, and Germany, as well as in the home yards. The war with Russia augmented Japan's naval strength considerably.
She possesses now a fine fleet of 12 battleships and 11 armoured cruisers of over 10,000 tons displacement, 17 protected cruisers, 4 armoured coast defence ships and 74 torpedo-boat flestroyers, The shipbuilding yards of Japan are now constructing super-Dreadnoughts.
POPULATION, TRADE, AND INDUSTRY
The total area of Japan, exclusive of Formosa, is estimated at 163,042 square miles, and the population in 1909 was estimated to be 49,769,704. There are, exclusive of Chinese, about 5,000 foreigners residing in Japan, more than one-third of that number being British subjects. The empire is geographically divided into the four islands: Honshiu, the central and most important territory, Kiushui, "nine pro- vinces," the south-western island; Shikoku, "the four provinces," the southern island, and Yezo, the most northerly and least developed.
The former three islands are sub-divided into eight large areas, containing sixty-six provinces, and the latter (Yezo or Hokkaido) is divided into eleven provinces.
The total value of the foreign trade for the last six years was:
1903
1904
1905
1906
1907
1908
Exports, Yen 258,303,065 319,260,89; 321,533,610 423,754,892 432,421,873 378,245,673 Imports, 271,731,508 371,360,738 488,538,017 418,784,108 494,467,346 436,257,462
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Total Yen 530,043,578 690,621,634 810,071,627 842,539,000 926,889,216 814,503,135 For ten years the balance of trade had been against Japan, but in 1906 the exports exceeded the imports by yen 4,860,000. In 1907, however, there was again an excess of imports over exports amounting to yen 62,054,473 aud in 1908 by 58,011,789. In 1908 imports exceeded exports in value by yen 58,011,789. Twenty-nine per cent. of Japan's total foreign trade in 1908 was with Great Britain and its Colonies and Dependencies.
The largest item in the export returns of the country is raw silk, which (not including waste) represented in 1908 yen 108,609,052, which was yen 7,280,000 below the value for 1907, although there was a considerable increase in the output. Raw silk and silk fabrics together represent about 40 per cent. of the total exports. Next in importance is the export of cotton yarns, which were exported to the value of 20,723,904 yen in 1908, which is nearly ten millions below the figure for 1907. In 1890 this export represented a value of only 2,364 yen. The record export was in 1906, the value being 35,303,526 yen. Cotton tissues are also an important item. The tea export has never been so high as it was in 1903, when it represented a value of over yen 13,900,000. In 1908 the export amounted to 11,153,379 yen. Copper showed a remarkable increase in 1906, the value of the export being yen 25,104,955, as compared with yen 16,048,452 in 1905. In 1907 the export was worth yen 29,2 12,693, but in 1908 it dropped to yen 21,255,013. Coal was exported to the value of 18,233,913 yen.
The leading article in the import list is raw cotton. In the last ten years this import has more than quadrupled in value. In 1907 Japan imported ginned and raw cotton to the value of 115,641,599 yen, which beat all previous records. In 1908 it fell to yen 90,256,289. The import of cotton manufactures, which reached record figures in 1906 and 1907, was lower in 1908 than it had been for the three previous years, the value being yen 1,395,760. The same is to be said of the import of woollen goods. Metals, in 1907, reached the unprecedented figure of yen 66,810,990. In 1908 the impo t showed a decline on these figures to the extent of yen 7,840,000. The import of sugar in 1906 was valued at yen 23,725,174, a figure which had not been reached since 1901, when the import was valued at yen 33,529,802; but in 1904 it reached a value of yen 23,093,177. Its value in 1907 was yen 19,864,956 and in 1908 yen 19,604,038. More than nine-tenths of the import comes from Netherlands-India. Experiments are being made in sugar-cane planting in Formosa and Southern Japan, but these are not likely to affect the import of raw sugar from foreign countries for many years. Since the war with Russia, the amount of capital invested in the sugar refining business in Japan has been more than quadrupled. The companies which were in existence before the war have more than doubled their capital, and new companies, having an aggregate capital equal to that of the old companies, have been formed.
The trade of 1908 was divided between the old Treaty Ports as under :—
Yokohama Kobe Nagasaki Osaka Moji Other Ports. Totals. Exports, Y. 190,805,900 84,114,7731 3,717,420 45,913,317, 14,919,840138,709,3841378,245,673 Imports, 151,288,110 191,080,866|14,633,57 126,470,834 21,953,793|30,430,231|436,257,462 3-12,094,010 275,195,639 18,351 007 72,819,231 36,903,633 69,139,615 814,503,135
Totals,
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