JAPAN
597
wooden gunboat. Prior to the capture of the Chen-yuen, now called the Chin-yen, Japan did not possess a line-of-battle ship. Her fleet consisted entirely of compara tively small vessels. There were also on the stocks two steel cruisers and a steel despatch vessel. An expansion scheme, extending from 1st April, 1896, to 31st March, 1906, was then adopted and orders were subsequently placed for ships in Great Britain, the United States, France, and Germany, as well as in the home yards. The war with Russia augmented Japan's naval strength considerably, and many fine ships have since been built. She possesses now a fine fleet of 15 battleships and 13 first-class, 4 second-class and 15 third-class armoured cruisers, 4 armoured coast defence ships and 74 torpedo-boat destroyers. The shipbuilding yards of Japan are now constructing super-Dreadnoughts.
POPULATION, TRADE, AND INDUSTRY
The total area of Japan, exclusive of Formosa and Chosen, 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. Japan 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:--
1905
1906
1907
1908
1909
1910
Exports, Yen 321,533,610 423,754,892 432,421,873 378,245,673 413,112,511 455,091,860 Imports, 488,538,017 418,784,108 494,467,346 436,257,462 394,158,843 463,482,735
"
Total Yen 810,071,627 842,539,000 926,889,216 814,503,135 807,311,354 918,574,595 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, and in 1908 by 58,011,789, but in 1999 the balance of trade was again in Japan's favour by just on Fineteen million yen. Twenty-nine per cent. of Japan's total foreign trade in 1908 and 1909 was with Great Britain and its Colonies and Dependencies, who have 40 per cent, of the import trade and 19 per cent. of the export.
The largest item in the export returns of the country is raw silk, which (not including waste) represented in 1909 yen 123,813,900, which was yen 15,231,848 above the value for 1908, 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 33,762,649 yen in 1909, which is thirteen millions above the figure for 1908. 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 1909 the export amounted to 13,354,072 yen, which is much above what it has been in recent years. The copper export was yen 21,071,383. Coal was exported to the value of 17,297,139 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 1909 Japan imported raw cotton to the value of yen 108,307,788, which beat all previous records. Correspondingly, there has been a steady decline in the import of Cotton Yarns, due to the fact that Japan can now supply nearly all her own requirements, with the exception of gassed yarns of the finest counts. Cotton textiles showed a large falling off in 1909, but this was due to the prohibitive cost of the goods in Manchester. Japan spent nearly a million and half pounds sterling less on machinery in 1909 than in the previous year, and metals generally showed a considerable falling off. So also did sugar, which amounted in value to only 13,367,287 yen, which is a lower mark than has been reached for many years. More than nine-tenths of the import comes from Netherlands-India. Experi- ments 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.
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