Directory_and_Chronicle_1913 — Page 613

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JAPAN

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 1912 was estimated to be 52,200,679. 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:-

1906

1907

1908

1909

1910

1911

Exports, Yen 423,754,892 432,421,873 378,245,673 413,112,511 455,091,860 442,996,848 Imports,,,

418,784,108 494,467,346 436,257,462 394,198,843 463,482,735 512,942,169

Total Yen 842,539,000 926,889,216 814,503,135 807,311,354 918,574,595 955,939,017

The balance of trade during the past sixteen years has been against Japan, excepting in the years 1907 and 1909. In 1911 exports exceeded imports to the value of seventy million yen. Nearly 33 per cent. of Japan's total foreign trade is 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) was valued in 1911 at yen 128,875,094. Next in importance is the export of cotton yarns, which were exported to the value of 40.213,289 yen in 1911. In 1890 this export represented a value of only 2,364 yen. Cotton tissues are also an important item. The tea export has never been so high as it was in 1910, when it represented a value of over yen 14,542,331. In 1911 the export amounted to 14,379,260. The copper export was yen 20,002,580. Coal was exported to the value of 17,989,613 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 1911 Japan imported raw cotton to the value of yen 146,782,612. 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 require- ments, with the exception of gassed yarns of the finest counts. Japan's import of sugar, which amounted in value to only 9,156,747 yen, reached a lower mark than has been reached for many years. More than nine-tenths of the import comes from Netherlands-India. Ex- periments 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 1911 was divided between the old Treaty Ports as under :-

Yokohama Kobe Nagasaki Osaka Moji Other Ports. Totals. Exports, Y. 226,251,482 119,054,086 | 3,350,120:43,113,257|13,918,577|37,309,326|442,996,848 Imports,

175,581,795|256,235,347|10,426,665|19,979,019/20,202,752 30,516,591 512,942, 169

Totals,

""

» 401,833,277 375,289,433 13,776,785 63,092,276 34,121,329 67,825,917 955,939,017