Directory_and_Chronicle_1918 — Page 541

JAPAN

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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 The old titles were abolished, and have been replaced by those of Prince (Ko), Marquis (Ko), Count (Haku), Viscount (Shi), and Baron (Dan).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

The revenue for the year 1917-18 was estimated at 714,534,127 yen, an increase of 113,595,730 yen compared with the previous financial year, and the expenditure at 551,105,610 yen. The total of the national debt amounts to about 2,467,701,937yen (roughly, £246,000,000), more than one-half being foreign loans. The total of the public loans raised for the purpose of meeting extraordinary expenditures connected with the war with Russia exceeded 1,700,000,000 yen, which is three times the total amount of the loans prior to the outbreak of the war. The greater part of this huge sum was raised in Europe and America, and to effect the redemption of these loans a law was passed in 1906 establishing a national debt consolidation fund, to which a sum of not less than one hundred and ten million yen (£11,267,029) has to be transferred annually from the general account. The grand total of the extraordinary expenses connected with the war with Russia was 1,982,000,000 yen (£203,073,770). The debt per head, which was as high as 48.438 yen in 1909-10, was 35.478 yen in 1913-14 and 32.180 yen in 1916-17. Following on the restoration of peace there was a remarkable boom in commercial enterprise. During the two years 1906-7 the registered capital of joint-stock companies showed an increase of 946,411,725 yen (ninety-seven million pounds sterling). A steady development has been maintained since, and the returns in December, 1915, showed that there were in existence 17,149 trading companies with a total paid-up capital of 2,167,723,000 yen. The European war marked a new era in the international financial relations and Japan that was solely a debtor country previously has been raised to the dignity of a creditor country. At the end of 1917 it was estimated that the foreign credit account of Japan was approximately a thousand million yen.

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 Yezo Militia; but on the conclusion of that war a large scheme of expansion was adopted, under which the number of divisions was raised to twelve, exclusive of the Guards. In 1904-5 Japan sent a million men into Manchuria, of whom more than 600,000 were combatants. After the Russo-Japanese War Imperial approval was given to the increase of the Army to 25 divisions. At present the Army consists of about 22 divisions. Every male Japanese is compelled to personal service from the age of 17 till the completion of his 40th year

At the conclusion of the war with China, Japan found herself in possession of a fighting fleet of forty-three serviceable vessels-independent of twenty-six torpedo- boats their aggregate displacement being 78,774 tons. Of these, ten, with an aggregate displacement of 15,055 tons, had been captured from China, namely, an armour-clad turret-ship of 7,335 tons, two steel cruisers, six steel gunboats, and one 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 13 battleships, 7 battle-cruisers, 9 first-class cruisers and 10 second-class cruisers, together with coast-defence ships, destroyers, torpedo-boats and submarines.