Directory_and_Chronicle_1909 — Page 624

JAPAN

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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, 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 47 torpedo-boat destroyers.

POPULATION, TRADE, AND INDUSTRY

The total area of Japan, exclusive of Formosa, is estimated at 163,042 square miles, and the population in 1904 was estimated to be 49,319,166. There are, exclusive of Chinese, about 5,000 foreigners residing in Japan, more than one-third 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:-

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1902

1903

1904

1905

1906

1907

Exports, Yen 252,349,543 258,303,065 319,260,893 321,533,610 423,754,892 432,421,873 Imports, 255,816,645 271,731,508 371,360,738 488,538,017 418,784,108 494,467,346

Total

508,166,188 530,043,578 690,621,634 810,071,627 842,539,000 926,889,219 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. Compared with the trade of 1903, the year before the war, the trade in 1907 showed an increase of about 50 per cent. in exports and 34 per cent. in imports. The great increase in the export trade is attribut- able to improved markets for raw silk, copper and other goods,on account of favourable economic conditions in Europe and America, to the appreciation of silver which made trading with silver-using countries advantageous, to the restoration of order in Russian Asia and Manchuria, and also to the general rise in prices of the principal articles of export. The increase in the imports is set down to a greater demand for industrial raw materials, shipbuilding materials, and machinery; also to increased importations of rice, wheat and other provisions, and to "the rise in the national standard of living after the war."

The largest item in the export returns of the country is raw silk which (not including waste) represented in 1905 a value of 71,843,755 yen and in 1907 yen 116,880,000. Raw silk and silk fabrics together represented about 37 per cent. of the total exports. Next in importance is the export of cotton yarns which were exported to the value of 30,342,914 yen in 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 also show a remarkable increase. In 1906, the value of this export was yen 16,344,097; three years previously it was not more than half that figure. The tea export has never been so high as it was in 1903, when it represented a value of over yen 13,000,000. In 1907 the export amounted to 12,618,244 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 29,262,693. Coal was exported to the value of 19,052,886 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. The import of cotton manufactures is well maintained, being earger these last two years than ever before. The same is to be said of the import of woollen goods. Metals, in 1907, reached the unprecedented figure of yen 66,810,990. 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 20,076,422. 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.