Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/148

* JAPAN. 130 JAPAN. of age and over — also members for life; (3) a certain number of each of the other classes of peers — counts, viscounts, and barons — ovt'r twenty- five years of age, elected by their own order to serve for seven years; (4) jicrsons who are not peers, nominated by the Emperor for meritorious services to the State, or noted for scholarship — they are mcmt)ers for life; (5) persons over thirty years of ajrc in cacli fu and ken who are among the fifteen largest taxpayers, elected by the fifteen, and appointed by the Emperor for life. The Upper House contains 300 members; the Lower 3U!), or one for every 118,(«00 of I lie population. The national trend is toward democracy, and the struggle is to secure parly government and to make the Ministers responsible to the Diet and not to the Kniperor, as they now are. In the fu (first-class cities), Tnkio. Osaka, and Kioto, and the ken, or prefect uros, there are local legisla- tures, which have general supervision over local affairs, besides paying their own otliccrs, who in 1900 numbered SGO-t, receiving in salaries .$904.- 39C. Male subjects who are twenty-fi'/e years old, have lived a year in the voting district, and pay .$7.50 of direct taxes, are allowed to vote for members of the I^ower House. Of 5.').")..')38 such taxpayers in 1898, 501,459, or 11.8 to every thousand inhabitants, had tlie right to vote. The inhaliitants of the Colony of Vczo and the in- . habitants of the I^oo-clioo Islands have as yet no part in the Parliamentary representation. The franchise is also withheld from functiona- ries of the Imperial household, ecclesiastics, police, soldiers, sailors, bankrupts, and out- laws. Deputies must be at least thirty years of age, and Japanese subjects. Administration of .Justice. In preparation for tlie abolition of the extraterritoriality clause in all the treaties, a new criminal code, based on the Code Napoleon, was put in operation in 1882, with modifications suggested by the old criminal law of .Japan. The code of criminal procedure was in 1890 made uniform with the code of civil procedure, according to the pro- visions of the law nf the organization of judicial courts. The civil code, code of civil j)rocedure, and comnuToial code, published in 1S90. went into effect after 1803. The law of the Imperial House, Diet, and Finance, laws for the exercise of local self-government, and various miscel- laneous subjects, such as the statutes relating to banking and the mechanism of exchange, may also be called codes. Three kinds of crime are classified: (1) Crimes against the State, or to public detriment; (2) crimes against personal property; and (3) police offenses. Punishments for major crimes are death by hanging; depoi-ta- tion, with or without hard labor, for life or a term of years; imprisonment, with or without hard labor, for life or a term of years. Instead of the 250 crimes calling for the death penalty under the old system, there are but few men- tioned which are punishable with death. The principal courts are the high court of cassation (1). courts of appeal (7), and tribunals of the first instance (49). Te policing of the country is excellent. In 1899 it consisted of 34.480 men, with 2.509 in- spectors and conmiissioners, or one man to every 1270 of the population. FiN.xcE. The revenue of the Imperial Gov- amment is derived chiefly from the land tax (which since 1877 has been 2% per cent, of the market value of the land) ; the ta.es on sake and other liquors 1 about $30,000,000) ; customs dues, the leaf-tobacco monopoly, stamp duties; income ta. ($2,750,000) ; and the profits derived from Gove:nnieiit enterprises — railways, mining, post- al and telegraph services, etc. The chief items of cxpeMditiirc are: The army ($19,000,000). navy ($10,000,900), administration of justice ($5,000,- 000), education, jicnsions. {w prefectural gov- ernments (.$3,125,000), and the expenses of Par- liament, the ditl'erent executive departments, and the civil list ($1,500,000). In 1901-02 the total revenue — ordinary and extraordinary — was esti- mated at $138,748,500, and the "expenditure, $137,943,712. The public debt now stands at $255,099,500. In local matters the fu and ken revenue in 1900 was $28,135,038, exixniditure $24,238,995, the grants from the Imperial Treasury being $2,752,045. The revenue of the smaller com- munes amounted in 1900 to $30,020,282, and the expenditure to .$31,710,012. Prior to 1884 the country was flooded with 'fiat' pajx'r money, which had depreciated nearly iOO per cent. In that year the Bank of .Japan, a Government institution, issued convertible notes in excliange for this de])ieciatcd currency, and by 1885 the difference in value bctwe<>n silver and paper had almost disappeared. The fol- lowing year specie payments were resumed. In 1897 the gold standard was adopted, 74,455,735 yen in gold were coined, the silver dollars were redeemed as far as received. The currency is now nominally on a gold basis. In 1900 12,015,- 549 gold yen were jutt into circulation, as well as 1,000.000 silver yen, and 300.000 yen in nickel pieces; total. 13.915.549. The notes in circula- tion were 1,724.883 yen in Treasury n<ites, 470.- 231 yen in nati<,nal 'bank notes, and 180.089,658 yen in gold and silver notes issued bv the Bank of .lapan. Total. 188,284.772 yen. For Army and Navy, see Armies and Navies. PoLiTitAi. Divisions. Omitting Formosa (q.v.), it may be stated that Japan is di- vided: (1) Into 84 'provinces.' separated the one from the other by natural boundaries; and (2) for administrative purposes into fu
 * ind ken or 'prefectures.' The former is the

older division, and dates back many centuries, though the number has not always been the same. Their names are in more general everyday use than those of the newer divisions. With only one or two exceptions each has both a .Japanese and a Chinese name; thus Yamashiro is also called .Joshiu. and so on. those ending in -shiu (which may be translated 'province') being of Chinese origin. Of these 84 provinces two are separate islands (Iki and Tsushima, which lie between the island of Kiushiu and Korea). The others are grouped into nine regions, of which eight are named do or 'circuits.' The other is the (lo-hinai or Five Home Provinces, wdiich surround the old capital. Kioto (q.v.). Taken in order from east to west, the eight circuits are as fol- lows: (1) Hokkaido or 'North S<'a Circuit,' com- prising the 10 provinces of Yezo (q.v.). and an eleventh added in 1875. made up of the Kurile Islands; (2) Tozando or 'Eastern Mountain Cir- cuit,' comprising 13 provinces, the most easterly of which lie toward Yezo: (3) Tokaido or 'East- ern Sea Circuit.' comprising 15 provinces, and stretching along the Pacific from Sendai Bay