Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/147

* JAPAN. 129 JAPAN. leather, telephones, lumber, and steel and iron materials for bridges and buildings. Hong Kong and Germany supply nearly half the sugar im- ported, the remainder coming cliiefiy from other Asiatic countries. The United States buys more than three-fourths of the tea exports, and is the heaviest purchaser of raw silk, which in 1901 was in value three-sevenths of the entire exports of Japan. .Japan's cotton yarn and tissues are sold in neighboring countries of Asia. The exports of coal, principally to C'liina and Hong Kong, are important. CoMiti xic.Tio>s. .Japan has been exerting every energy for many years to improve trans- portation facilities throughout the country and to foreign lands. The Government is not unmind- ful of the necessity of supplying good harbors. Yokohama, the most northerly port of first-class importance, has a naturally fine harbor that has been greatly improved by dredging. There are large dock facilities and a substantial break- water. Yokohama transacts a very large part of the foreign business of the country. It is the centre of the silk trade. The second port in im- portance is Kobe, one of the centres of the tea trade and other commerce of Central .Japan. The ports open by treaty to foreign trade are Y'okohama, Kobe, Osaka, Nagasaki, Hakodate, Xiigata, and a few minor ones. In 1900 .Japan had in its merchant marine 1321 steamers of the Western type (.54.3.258 tons) and 3850 sailing vessels cf the Western type (320,572 tons), be- sides a large number of sailing vessels of the native type. There are regular lines of Japanese steamers to Europe, America. Australia, British India, China, and Korea. Forty-eight steam- ships, including those of the United States and Canada, ply regularly between the Pacific Coast ports of America and the seaports of Japan, some of them going on to Hong Kong and Shanghai. Xine steamship companies have vessels in this trade, and they ply between Y'okohama, San Francisco. Puget Soimd ports, and Vancouver. About half of the total foreign commerce is car- ried under the British flag. .t the end of 1001 the length of the .Japanese railways in operation was 4026 miles, of which Ihe Government owned 1059 miles. Xearly 2000 miles are building. The first railway. 18 miles in length, between Tokio and Y'okohama. was opened in 1872. and now there is direct communi- cation by rail from .womori at one end of the main island to Shimonoseki at the other, a dis- tance of 1132 miles, and from Moji in Kiushiu, less than a mile distant, the lines run south to Kumamoto, 121 miles, and beyond. There are many branch lines, and there is a line of some length in Yezo. There are also 14 tramway com- panies, with 227 miles of track, and on JIarch 31. 1901, 205,390 jinrikishas were in use. More than 500 locomotives built in the United States are in daily use in Japan. The post-office sys- tem is extended all over the Empire, and the telegraph and telephone have been very widely introduced. B.XKS. The banking business of the country is carried on by six great banks (one of them with 46 branch' establishments) and 1802 ordi- nary banks, not including the foreign banks at the open ports. The Bank of .Tapan is a Govern- ment institution founded in 1882, and authorized to issue convertible notes, the paper currency of the country down to that time having been 'fiat' money. There are also 681 savings banks with deposits in 1900 of $139,534,330, in addition to the post-office savings banks. Japan adopted a gold standard in 1897, and the yen, in which accounts are kept, is nominally equal to the United States dollar. iloxET, Weights, and Measures. The yen is divided into 100 sen. The subsidiary silver coins are 5. 10, 20, and 50-sen pieces, and there are 5-sen nickel pieces, and 2 sen, 1 sen, and H sen of copper. For small sums copper 'cash' are in use (1000 = 1 yen), and the old-fashioned tempo is now seldom met with. The unit of weight is the kin, equal to II3 Englisli pounds, or more exactly 1.325 pounds avoirdupois. Above that is the kwan (or kw<imme) equal to 8.28 pounds avoirdupois, or 16 kwan to 100 kin. The lineal foot is divided into 10 inches, and is equal to 0.9942119 English foot. For distances, 36 cho equal 1 ri. which equals 2.44034 English miles. For land measures the square cho equals 2.45 acres, and the square ri equals 5.955 square miles. For measures of capacity 10 go = I sho = 108.5 cubic inches, or a little more than 1% quarts. The koku is equivalent to 39.7033 gallons, or 4.9629141 bushels. The English pound and the ton of 2240 pounds are also coming into commercial use. The picul — 100 kin, or 132% pounds avoirdupois — has long been in use in the foreign trade. GovEKNiiENT. The government may be de- scribed as a constitutional monarchy with repre- sentative institutions based largely on German rather than on British or American models. The Constitution on which it rests was promul- gated by the Mikado in 1889 in accordance with his oatli in 1868, to give the people representative government. In that year the dual government which had existed for centuries reached its end, and the Mikado became the de facto as well as the de jure ruler. The instrument consists of 76 articles, 17 devoted to the Emperor. 15 to the rights and duties of subjects, 22 to the Imperial Diet, 2 to the Ministers of State and the Pri-y Council, 5 to the .Judiciary, 12 to Finance, and 4 to supplementary rules. The Premier, or Minis- ter President of State, presides over the Imperial Cabinet. The central Government consists of the Imperial Cabinet, Pri^-y Council, and the nine ministries — Foreign, Home, Finance, War. Navy, Justice, Education, Agriculture and Commerce, and Communications. There are also a court of accounts, a tribunal of administration, and the administrative bure.'us for the Upper and Lower Houses. In the Provincial Governments division, there are the prefecture of the police of Tokio, the Department of Colonization of Yezo, the fu and ken (the three cities and 43 prefectures into which Japan proper is divided), and the Government of Formosa. Functionaries are in three grades {cholii, so and hin), besides many salaried agents, there having been a grand total in 1900 of 92,571 persons, receiving salaries amounting to $12,653,267. The Parliament or Diet meets annually and has control over the policy and expenditures not fixed by the Constitution. It consists of an Upper and a Lower House. The composition of the Upper House is peculiar, its membership being made up of five classes: (1) Princes of the Imperial family who are twenty-five years of age or over — they become members for life ; (2) princes and marquises of twenty-five years