Directory_and_Chronicle_1900 — Page 465

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JAPAN

Previous to the last change of Government, which restored the ancient Imperial régime, the administrative authority rested with the Shogun (Military Commander), whom foreigners were at first led to recognise as the temporal sovereign, and with whom they negotiated treaties of peace and commerce. The Shogunate was founded in 1184 by Yoritomo, a general of great valour and ability, and was continued through several dynasties until 1869, when the Tokugawa family were dispossessed of the usurped authority. Under the Shogun three hundred or more Daimios (feudal princes) shared the administrative power, being practically supreme in their respective domains, conditionally upon their loyalty to the Shogun; but their rank and power disappeared with the Shogunate. On the 7th July, 1884, however, His Majesty issued an Imperial Notification and Rescript rehabilitating the nobility, and admitting to its ranks the most distinguished civil and military officials who took part in the work of the Restoration. The old titles were abolished, and have been replaced by those of Prince (Ko), Marquis (Ko), Count (Haku), Viscount (Shi), and Baron (Dan).

REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE.

In the Budget for 1899-1900 the estimate of revenue amounts to 188,930,635 yen, while the expenditures aggregate 218,807,147 yen, showing a deficit of 29,876,512 yen. The deficit is provided for in a special budget. Compared with the previous year the revenue has decreased by 60,904,444 yen and the expenditures by 9,740,788 yen. Of the revenue 143,501,401 yen belong to the ordinary and 45,429,234 yen to the extraordinary section. In the extraordinary section a decrease of 83,038,004 yen is noticeable in the amount of public loans, appropriations from the Indemnity, supple- ments to shipbuilding fund, sums brought forward from the previous year, expenses disbursed in connection with the garrison of Weihaiwei, &c. Of the expenditure 139,718,500 yen belong to the Ordinary and 79,088,646 yen to the extraordinary section. Included in the extraordinary expenditure are votes for military and naval expansion, under the Military and Naval extension schemes. These schemes are divided into two periods, the first period programme and the second period programme, beginning with 1st April, 1896, and terminating 31st March, 1906, and the intended penditure, is as follows:-Army, first period, 43,329,400 yen; second period, 38,350,000 yen; total 81,679,400 yen ; Navy, first period, 116,086,400 yen; second period, 144,618,770 yen; total, 260,705,170 yen; making a grand total for Army and Navy of 342,384,570. The first period Army programme is divided into five headings, namely, construction of forts, building and equipment of barracks, manufacture of arms, development of arsenals, and extraordinary constructions; in the second period programme only the first three items appear. In the ordinary expenditure there is also a large increase in the Army and Navy votes to provide for the increase in the number of the officers and men.

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In 1899 a sterling loan of £10,000,000 was issued. The loan is for 55 years, from January 1, 1899, but is redeemable at £100 per cent after January 1, 1909, by drawings from time to time at the option of the Government of Japan, on their giving six months' notice. the rate of interest is 4 per cent., and the loan was issued at £90 per £100. The proceeds of the loan are to be applied towards the completion of the various remunerative public works cited in the following Acts of Parliament: Railway Construction Loan of 1892. Public Undertakings Loan of 1896, Hokkaido Railway Construction Loan of 1896, the law relating to the placing of a public loan in a foreign country of 1899. The expenditure under these Acts is estimated to be as follows £8,900,000 for railway construction and improvement; £900,000 for establishment of steel works; £1,000,000 for extension of the telephone service. On March 31, 1899, before the issue of the last loan, the national debt stood as follows:-Funded debt, £39,125,000; debt to the Bank of Japan, £2,200,000; paper money (for the redemption of which by March 31, 1900, provision has been made), £511,000; total, £41,836,000. On this it was remarked in the prospectus of the 1899 loan that "The amount of debt. therefore, is 18s. per head of the population," but against this the State owns assets (railways, telegraphs, telephones, etc.) valued at £30,000,000 sterling, and lands valued at about £82,000,000 "(exclusive of timber)." The total debt now stands at £51,836,000. ARMY AND NAVY.

Until the war with China the Army consisted of six divisions and the Imperial Guards, with a peace footing strength of 70,000 in round numbers and a war footing of 268,000, exclusive of the Gendarmerie and the Ezo Militia; but on the conclusion of the war a large scheme of expansion was adopted, under which the number of divisions is to be raised to twelve, exclusive of the Guards, so that the peace footing will be 145,000, and the war footing 520,000, the expansion to be concluded in eight years from

1896.