Japan

an empire of eastern Asia. It comprises chiefly a chain of four large continental islands inclosing the sea of Japan. Hondo or Nippon, the largest of these, is from fifty to 100 miles in width, and about 700 miles long. There are in all no less than 487 islands of sufficient size to be recognized by the government. The area of the empire, including several groups of small islands, but not including Formosa, is 147,655 square miles, about equal to the combined areas of Minnesota and Wisconsin. The larger islands have numerous deep-water harbors. A mountain chain runs lengthwise through Hondo. The highest peak, Fusiyama, lies about two and one-half miles above sea level. About 200 years ago an eruption took place. Many people living in the vicinity were killed. It is now a dormant volcano covered with perpetual snow. The people regard the mountain as sacred. Aside from this peak, the rest of the mountain chain is arable. Active volcanoes occur in Yezo, the most northerly of the large islands. During the last twenty years of the eighteenth century a score of villages and 100,000 people were destroyed by volcanic eruptions. An extinct crater in the southernmost of the large islands is said to have the largest circumference of any in the world. Earthquakes are frequent throughout the empire causing the inhabitants to build low houses of light construction.

MINERALS. The fundamental rocks of the islands are of volcanic origin. These are overlaid by clays and marl. There are numerous deposits of a kind of clay used for porcelain. Mines of gold, silver, lead, and iron occur. The tin and copper are of superior quality. Hot springs abound. Coal mines have been opened up of late. Oil wells now produce a large yield of petroleum. The pearls of Japan are famous for their size and beauty. The empire is one of the sources of ambergris. Carnelians, jasper, and agate stones are found.

CLIMATE. The Empire extends through so many degrees of latitude that the range of climate is greater than that of the United States. The southern part of Formosa is within the Tropic of Cancer. The most northerly island of the empire, an islet of the Kurile group, lies beyond the fiftieth parallel of north latitude. The climate of the empire is much modified by the Japan Current, producing much the same effect that the Gulf Stream does upon the British Isles. The seasons are much like those in the United States, only warmer. There is abundant rainfall. Typhoons are expected in September.

FLORA. The bamboo and the sago palm flourish as far north as Tokio. The pine, elm, chestnut, beech, and oak are found at the greater elevations, or farther northward. Asa Gray, the American botanist, found that the flora of Japan corresponds very closely to that of North America, yet there are many peculiar plants that we do not have, as the lacquer tree, the wax tree, and the japonica. Some of our most valued vegetables and varieties of orchard fruits have been obtained from Japan. The uplands are clothed with a profusion of wild flowers. The leaves of the maple and other deciduous trees on the hillside turn red with frost in autumn just as ours do. The tea plant thrives best in Central Japan.

FAUNA. Although a long settled country with an ancient civilization, there are still a few wild animals. Wild bears still roam in Yezo. The monkey, deer, boar, and hyena are found in the more remote portions of the main island. Like other folks, the people of Japan have many tales to tell of the quest of the fox and the badger. Though Japan is noted for cats, the islands are infested with rats and mice. The islands are not without birds, but it is said that there are only two song birds, a lark and a nightingale. Large serpents are numerous, but they are harmless. Insect life is abundant and brilliant. Mosquitoes and fleas infest the country.

FISHERIES. A kind of trout much prized by anglers is found in the chief streams. The seas teem with fish. Pearl and coral are gathered. Lobsters and oysters bring the total value of marine products up to $27,000,000. Three million Japanese subsist by means of the fisheries. This industry has been enlarged greatly by the recent agreement permitting the Japanese to fish in the waters of Russian Siberia. The streams are all comparatively short. The water supply is hoarded carefully for purposes of irrigation. Lakes are not infrequent. One in the southern part of Hondo is over forty miles in length. Flatboats carry the produce of the interior to the seaports. Cedar and pine logs, rivaling those of the Pacific Coast in size, are floated from the mountains to sawmills near the sea.

the manufacture of porcelain, steel mirrors, mulberry paper, paper handkerchiefs and napkins, fans, ivory carving, the casting of metal statues, the weaving of silks, decoration of screens and earthenware, they are unsurpassed. Modern manufactures are springing up rapidly. Native factories now make cannon, firearms, ammunition, and implements of the most approved patterns. Shipyards equipped with the most modern appliances have been established at several ports. Tokio is the capital. Yokohama, eighteen miles distant, is its seaport. There are eight cities having over 100,000 in population. The leading exports are tea, silk, ornamental articles, drugs, porcelain, matches, paper, and straw braid. The leading imports are flour, sugar, cotton, iron and steel goods, machinery, stationery, and petroleum.

PROGRESS OF JAPAN. Japan was little known to the world prior to 1852, when a naval expedition under Commodore Perry succeeded in making a treaty opening the principal ports to foreign commerce. The only nation previously enjoying the privilege was the Dutch. During the last fifty years Japan has made wonderful progress. Docks have been constructed; railroads have been built; the empire has been thrown open to the world. The young people of the upper classes have been sent abroad to absorb knowledge and learn the ways of the world.

GOVERNMENT. In 1868 the rule of feudal lords was shaken off in favor of the emperor. In 1889 the Japanese exchanged an absolute monarchy for a constitutional form of government. The emperor is called the mikado. He is assisted by a cabinet and a parliament of two houses framed on the British model. The members of the house of representatives are elected by ballot, one for each 127,000 people. Male Japanese subjects not less than twenty-five years old, who are residents of a year's duration and who pay taxes to the amount of not less than five dollars a year, may vote. This sounds fairly reasonable, but the smallness of means is such that thousands pay less and the suffrage is confined to a fraction of the male population.

POPULATION. The Japanese belong to the Mongolian family. They are related to the Chinese, whom they resemble some-what distantly in appearance. They are more active and intelligent, however, and many families are of lighter complexion. The entire population is divided into four classes. The imperial family includes fifty three individuals, the nobles and their families number 4,551. The knights, corresponding possibly to the English squires and their families, number 2,105,698. The common people, that is to say, the laboring people,--those who neither hold office nor assume a part in the government, number about 47,000,000.

EDUCATION. Education is now well nigh universal. There are 27,000 elementary schools in the empire, with nearly 100,000 teachers, and an enrollment of not far from 5,400,000 pupils. High schools, normal schools, industrial schools, normal schools, industrial schools, agricultural schools, and two universities, including departments of law, medicine, engineering, architecture, etc., are maintained. Illiteracy is practically a thing of the past. As in Germany and France, every able-bodied male citizen is liable to be called upon for military service.

INSTITUTIONS AND CUSTOMS. The constitution provides for absolute freedom of religious belief and practice. There is no state religion and no state support. In religious belief the people are much divided. A mild form of ancestor worship prevails. There are twelve sects of so-called Shintoism, and as many of Buddhism. Most of the upper classes have forsaken the native religions for European forms of belief. Volumes might be written on the peculiar institutions of Japan. The sexes dress much alike, usually in a number of loose gowns, worn one over the other, with large sleeves that serve as pockets in which to carry articles. The dress of the women may be known from that of the men, however, by the brighter colors that prevail. The women of the higher classes use much gold embroidery. Until of late all classes went bareheaded. Parasols were very fashionable. The women dress their hair elaborately, keeping it in place with big tortoise shell combs. All women, regardless of social station, carry fans, with which to screen their faces from the sun. With men the sword is a badge of social standing. The nobles wear two swords, one above the other; the knights, one sword. Men of laboring station are not allowed to carry any. The people are sociable and peaceful, but, like the Chinese, are slaves to long established forms of etiquette. It is illbred, not to say impious, to violate rules of behavior. Food is eaten usually out of light lacquered dishes made of papier mache. At great feasts each guest is supposed to be followed by a servant with a basket in which to carry away remnants of fish, game, venison, poultry, etc., that might be left over. There are no chairs, tables, or bedsteads. The floor, matting, and cushions serve instead. Cooking is done over small charcoal stoves, The entire furniture of a prosperous family in a four-room house is worth not to exceed twenty-five dollars. The house itself is of very light bamboo construction. The partitions are mere sliding screens, easily removed. In fine weather the outside walls are taken away during the day.

The people are fond of music and dancing, and of tea drinking. Theaters are popular. Mountebanks and jugglers of all sorts are welcomed by the people everywhere. Women and children toil in the fields. Ladies spend much of their time in making artificial flowers, butterflies, embroidery, and other fancy work. The common people are exceedingly industrious and tractable. They will do anything that they are taught to do. The recent advance of Japan is due very largely to the superior intelligence of the ruling classes, whose servants the common people are. In this respect the great public works and even success in warfare bear a certain similarity to the successes of the ancient Egyptians. The hour of Japan's greatest peril will arrive when the schools which the common people now attend render them intelligent, or rather make them think they are the intelligence of the country. Unless the nobility are sufficiently wise to merge gradually with the common people a day of bitter struggle and of deliverance will one day arrive.

SOCIOLOGICAL. To carry this latter point a little farther, it should be understood that the present industrial condition of Japan is oppressive. The Japanese call their country "The Land of the Rising Sun," as, indeed, it is the first Asiatic country to greet the sun as it rises above the Pacific. The astonishing advance made by the country during the last thirty years, the leadership assumed over the people of China and Korea, and the tremendous defeat administered to Russia in the War of 1904-05, have made Japan the leading native power of Asia; but the problem of Japan has not been worked out yet. To begin with, the people are crowded. Mr. Frederick J. Haskin states that, if the entire population of North America were crowded into Kansas, the agricultural situation would not be more serious. The Japanese farmer on his two-acre plot gives the general government twenty-seven per cent of his produce and pays in addition from two to eight percent into the local treasury. To do this he sells his rice and lives largely on boiled millet seed and on occasional fish. Four hundred thousand operatives are employed in factories. Men earn fifteen cents, women ten cents a day. Thirty-four thousand children under fourteen years of age receive less. Factory hours are long. Operatives labor from twelve to fourteen, and, in some cases, sixteen and seventeen hours a day.

TAXATION. Japanese art has given Western nations the notion that Japan is rather a light-hearted country-a land of butterflies, apple-blossoms, gay color, and lacquer work. Travelers who investigate the condition of the common people draw a somber picture. The government is paying interest on a huge war debt, is building Dreadnoughts that cost millions, is subsidizing merchant vessels, and is spending money in Korea and Manchuria. The wealthy are paying an income tax as high as sixty-eight per cent. The people are working to the verge of endurance. Unless financial help comes, possibly by way of income from the new possessions on the continent, a revolution or a breakdown may be expected. The Japanese leaders are making a plucky fight for civilization. A world disarmament-an escape from the financial burden of maintaining army and navy-would be a godsend to Japan.

EMIGRATION. The Japanese are swarming into South America, particularly Peru, Chile, and Brazil. They are welcomed on the west coast of South America, where there is a large labor demand with no supply. The Japanese are employed in the culture of sugar-cane, in the mines, and on the coffee, cotton, tobacco, and olive plantations. The wages are relatively high. Meanwhile, there follow after the coolies, Japanese artisans and merchants. The immigration as yet (1909) has but commenced, yet in Peru alone it is estimated that 60,000 Japanese are at work.

STATISTICS. The following statistics are the latest to be had from trustworthy sources:

See Ainu; Korea; Manchuria; Buddha; Ancestor Worship; Formosa; Rice; Tea; Silk; Tokio; Yokohama; Literature; Japan