Page:A handbook of modern Japan (IA handbookofmodern01clem).pdf/65

Rh fortnightly from Seattle to Hongkong with excellent passenger accommodations. The Tōyō Kisen Kwaisha (Oriental Steamship Company) is a Japanese organization with three fine vessels running about once a month from San Francisco to Hawaii, Japan, China, and Manila. The word Maru in such combinations as "America Maru" or "Kaga Maru" is a special suffix always attached to the name of a ship.

In Old Japan there was no official postal system, and letters were despatched by private messengers and relays of couriers. When Japan was opened to the world, some of the foreign nations represented there maintained special post-offices of their own, but these were gradually abandoned. It was in 1872 that the modern postal system of Japan was organized on American models; and it was only five years later when Japan was admitted to the International Postal Union. The twenty-fifth anniversary of this event was celebrated with great éclat in Tōkyō in 1902. The Japanese postal system has been gradually improved during its quarter-century of existence, so that in some respects it excels its model, the United States postal system, and is really one of the most efficient in the world. It includes registration, money orders, parcel post, reply postal cards, postal savings, and universal free delivery. Letter postage is 3 sen within the empire and 10 sen to all countries of the International Postal Union; postal cards are 1-1/2 and 4 sen respec-