The foundations of Japan

 
EMIGRANTS AND RESIDENTS ABROAD (LXXIV). The latest official figures as to Japanese resident abroad, supplied in 1921 and probably gathered in 1920, are:

(The comparable return for 1918 was 493,845.) It has been suggested that these official statistics are incomplete; 7,000 as the number of Japanese in Russian territory seems low. Even during the War, in 1917, passports were issued to 62,000 Japanese going abroad. Of these, according to the Japan Year-book, 23,000 were made out for Siberia. Professor Shiga has stated that "no small number" of Japanese leave their country as stowaways.

 
RISE IN PRODUCTION PER "TAN" OF PADDY [LXXV]. The 3 or 4 koku is reached in favourable circumstances only. The average is far below this, but it rises, as shown in Appendix XV.

Between 1887 and 1915 the area under barley and wheat rose from 1,591,000 chō to 1,812,000 chō, the yield from 15,822,000 koku to 23,781,000 koku and the yield per tan from .994 koku to 1.313. Between 1882 and 1914 the increase in the crops of the three varieties of millet averaged .515 koku per tan. The increased yield of soy beans was .229 koku per tan, of sweet potatoes 138 kwamme per tan and of Irish potatoes 138 kwamme.

 
LABOURERS [LXXVI]. When hired labour is required on farms it is supplied either by relatives and neighbours or by the surplus labour of strangers who are small farmers or members of a small farmer's family. According to the Department of Agriculture: "Ordinary fixed employees are upon an equal social footing. Apprentice labourers are very numerous. No working class holds a special social position as such. This is the greatest point of difference between the Japanese agricultural labour situation and that of Europe." The number of labourers in October 1920 was:

In addition to the total of 3,081,952 "there are 32,973 agricultural labourers who are boys and girls under 14."

 
DECREASE OF FARMERS TILLING THEIR OWN LAND [LXXVII]. In 1914 the number of farmers owning their own land was 1,731,247; in 1919 it had fallen to 1,700,747. In 1914 the number of tenants was 1,520,476; in 1919 it had increased to 1,545,639. That is, there were 30,500 fewer landowners and 25,163 more tenants. During the period between 1914 and 1919 the number of farmers (landowners and tenants) increased 30,293. While from 1909 to 1914 the percentage of landowners fell from 33.27 to 31.73, the percentage of tenant farmers rose from 27.69 to 27.87 and the percentage of persons partly owner and partly tenant from 39.04 to 40.40. See Appendix XXXIV.

 
RURAL AND URBAN POPULATIONS [LXXVIII]. The following table shows the percentage of the population living in communes under 5,000 and 10,000 inhabitants in 1913 and 1918:

These figures clearly indicate the decrease of the rural population. To take 10,000 inhabitants as the demarcation line between urban and rural population is probably less correct than to take a demarcation line of 7,500 inhabitants. A mean of the two percentages of populations living in communities under 5,000 and under 10,000 inhabitants shows 61.41 per cent, in 1913 and 56.97 per cent, in 1918, a decrease of 4.44 per cent. The variation between this result and the preceding one has a simple explanation. About 30 per cent, of the families engaged in agriculture carry on their farming as an accessory business. Teachers, priests and mechanics may all have patches of land. On the other hand, a small number of people have no land. Therefore, the percentage of the rural population is only slightly higher than that of the families engaged in agriculture. In 1918 there were 5,476,784 farming families (to 10,460,440 total families or 52.3 per cent.), and if we multiply by 5⅓—the average number of persons per family in Japan is 5.317 (1918)—to find the population dependent on agriculture, the number is 29,209,514. The total population of Japan in 1918 was 55,667,711. The Department of Agriculture has stated that on the basis of the census of 1918 the number of persons in households engaged in agriculture was 52 per cent. of the population. According to one set of statistics the percentage of farming families to non-farming families fell from 64 per cent, in 1904 to 60.3 per cent. in 1910 and 56 in 1914. We shall probably not be far wrong in supposing the rural population to be at present about 55 per cent, of the population. The percentage of persons actually working on the farms is another matter. As has been seen, some 30 per cent, of the 5½ million farming families are engaged in agriculture as a secondary business only. It may be, therefore, that the 5½ million families do not actually yield more than 10 million effective farm hands.

 
IS RICE THE RIGHT CROP FOR JAPAN [LXXIX]. Mr. Katsuro Hara, of the College of Literature, Kyoto University, asks, "Is Japan specially adapted for the production of rice?" and answers: "Southern Japan is of course not unfit. But rice does not conform to the climate of northern Japan. This explains the reason why there have been repeated famines. By the choice of this uncertain kind of crop as the principal foodstuff the Japanese have been obliged to acquiesce in a comparatively enhanced cost of living. The tardiness of civilisation may be perhaps partly attributed to this fact. Why did our forefathers prefer rice to other cereals? Was a choice made in Japan? If the choice was made in this country the unwisdom of the choice and of the choosers is now very patent."

Along with this expression of opinion may be set the following figures, showing the total production of rice and of other grain crops during the past six years, in thousands of koku:

From 1910 to 1919 the areas under barleys and wheat were, in chō, 1,771,655-1,729,148, and under rice 2,949,440-3,104,611.

 
INNER COLONISATION v. FOREIGN EXPANSION [LXXX]. An Introduction to the History of Japan (1921), written by an Imperial University professor and published by the Yamato Society, the members of which include some of the most distinguished men in Japan, says: "It is doubtful whether the backwardness of the north can be solely attributed to its climatic inferiority. Even in the depth of winter the cold in the northern provinces cannot be said to be more unbearable than that of the Scandinavian countries or of north-eastern Germany. The principal cause of the retardation of progress in northern Japan lies rather in the fact that it is comparatively recently exploited.... The northern provinces might have become far more populous, civilised and prosperous than we see them now. Unfortunately for the north, just at the most critical time in its development the attention of the nation was compelled to turn from inner colonisation to foreign relations. The subsequent acquisition of dominions oversea made the nation still more indifferent."

According to a report of the Hokkaido Government in 1921, the number of immigrants during the latest three year period was 90,000, and one and a half million acres are available for cultivation and improvement.

 
AGRICULTURE v. COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY [LXXXI]. There is supposed to be more money invested in land than in commerce or industry. Comprehensive figures of a trustworthy kind establishing the relative importance of agriculture, commerce and industry are not readily obtained. "This is a question," writes a Japanese professor of agriculture to me, "which we should like to study very much." Industrial and commercial figures at the end of and immediately after the War are not of much use because of the inflation of that period. The annual value of agricultural production before the War was about 1,800 million yen; it must be by now about 2,500 or 3,000. In 1912, according to the Department of Finance, the debt of the agricultural population was 740 million yen. In 1916 the Japan Mortgage Bank and the prefectural agricultural and industrial banks had together advanced to agricultural organisations 110 millions and to other borrowers 273 millions. In 1915 co-operative credit associations had advanced 45 millions to farmers and 11 millions to other borrowers. The paid-up capital of companies, was, in 1913, 1,983 million, of which 27 million was agricultural, and in 1916, 2,434 million, of which 31 million was agricultural. The reserves were, in 1913, 542 million, of which 1 million was agricultural, and in 1916, 841 million, of which 3 were agricultural. (For some reason or other, "fishing" is included under "agricultural." On careful dissection I find that of the 45 million of investments credited to agriculture in 1918, only 28 million are purely agricultural.) The land tax is estimated to yield 73 million yen in 1920-1. It is 2½ per cent. on residential land, 4.5 per cent. on paddy and cultivated land—3.2 per cent, in Hokkaido—and 5.5 per cent. on other land—4 per cent. in Hokkaido.

INDEX

This Index may be regarded as a Glossary inasmuch as every Japanese word which occurs in the book will be found in it. The meaning is usually given on the page the number of which comes first.

132 (2) signifies that there are two references on page 132 to the subject indexed.

Such subjects as Agriculture, Hokkaido, Labour, Paddies, Rice and Sericulture are indexed at length, but some matters which relate to them and are of general interest appear in the body of the Index.

 
Abbot and Ronin 333

Abiko 105

Ability 66

Abortion 65, 303;
Abortifacient 332

Abroad, first, 235

Accommodation with the West 363

Acreage, see Agriculture

Acting 115 (2), 320

Adjustment 85, 186, 194, 197, 210, 232, 365, 370, 380;
Cost 72;
Cottages 72;
Graves 72;
Method and Results 71-2;
Statistics 72

Admonition, see Police, 54

Adoption 21, 328

Adulteration 356

Æ 99, 321

Aerated waters 119

Aeroplanes 31

Aestheticism 203

Affection, Question by a Japanese, 144

Affinity 272

Afforestation, see Deforestation,
Floods, Tree planting; 23, 92-3, 97, 152, 177, 194, 197, 228, 233, 240, 260, 318, 370

Africa 410

Agriculture, see Adjustment, Animals under different names, Area, Cattle, Crops under different names, Cultivation Farmers, Grain, Hokkaido, Implements under different names, Land new, Land available, Land utilised, Manure, Milk, Paddies, Peasant Proprietors, Tenants, Tools, Rice and other crops, Sericulture, Upland;
Advantages 365, 367;
Accessory business 412;
American, proposed study of, vii;
Arable 409, (British) 385;
Areas 394, 400,
quarter acre 89,
one and a quarter acre to five acres 89,
two 210,
two and a half 9, 284,
three 10,
five 284,
seven and a half 89, 373,
ten 10,
twelve and a half 207,
fifteen 10,
twenty-five 213,
one tan 232,
five 184,
six 302,
eight 304, 383,
twelve 270,
fifteen and a half 373,
one chō 220, 304, 377 (3), 379, 380, 385,
one and a half 379,
two 380,
two and a half, see Hokkaido,
three 373, 380,
four 10,
four to four and a half 338,
four to five 207,
five 310, 337-8,
seven 10, 338, 373,
eight 310, 373,
ten 28,
ten to fifteen 28, 338,
thirty 338,
sixty-two 374;
Associations against landlords 88;
v. Armaments 93, 359;
an Author on viii;
Based on rice 343;
Basis of nation ix, 92;
Calendar of operations 136;
Compared with British 390;
Capitalisation 368-9;
College 195;
Criticism of 362, 365, (backbreaking) 75;
v. Commerce and industry 180, 414;
Commercial side 65;
Company 207;
Consolidation of holdings 364;
Crop statistics errors 404;
"Encourager" 176;
Experiment station 158, 176-7, 207, 370;
Experts 207, 283, (respect for) 54;
Foundation and means to an end ix, 27;
Foreign 365, 367;
v. "Foreign relations" 414;
and Family system 330;
Faults of 65;
like Gardening 307;
God of 145;
Goddess of 312;
Helpful 180;
Holdings, Consolidation of 368;
How to teach 27;
Grazing 240, (British) 385;
Hydraulic engineering 149;
Industry and Commerce 284;
Implements 268;
Improvement, Principles of 370;
Land, how used, 408;
Machinery 365, 367-8-9;
in praise of 10;
Methods 208;
Limitations imposed on 365 (2), 367;
Merits 365;
National Agricultural Society 378;
Night work 359;
Number of families engaged in 412;
Relations to national welfare 369, 370-1;
Pasture 111, 409, (British) 385;
Petite Culture 346;
Production not final aim 367;
Profitable 232, 373;
Progress 261;
Remedies 368-9, 370;
Revolutionising 367;
and Religion 231;
Schools, see Schools, 176, 375;
Shortcomings 365;
Strikes 88;
Students not leaving land 285;
Subsistence provided by 365;
Small farms decreasing 394;
Tenants' Movement, see Landlords;
Without rice 381 (2)

Aichi 1-67, 84, 345

"Aiming at being Distinguished" 124

Ainu x, 25

Akagi 315

Akita 189, 190, 193

Alimentary tract, 348, 351

Allah 98

"All family smiling" 137

Alpinist 290

Alps, 127, 152, 262

Amado 277

"A man's a man," etc. 95

Amé 191

America,
see Hokkaido, 137, 141, 288, 290, 363 (2);
Rice culture 365-6

Amida xxx, 129

Amma 108, 133

Ammonia water 177, 251

Amphibious labour 358

Amusements, see Farmers, 180, 287, 374, 378

Ancestors 19, 26, 33, 38 (3), 58, 61, 67, 94, 178

Anchors 211

Angelo, Michael, 103

Angling 245

Anglo-Japanese Alliance xv;
Anglo-Saxons 203

Animals
Bird artists 344;
Buddhism and 59;
Food, see Meat, 349;
Industry 346, 348;
Knack of looking after 343;
Liking for 221, 343;
Power 365, 370;
Tillage 406

Anjo 57

Anniversaries 50

Antelopes 110

Anti-Landlord movement 37, 88

Ants 47

Aomori 189, 194, 195, 334, 354, 391

Aoyama 66

"A plain householder" 150

Apostle and artist 90

Appetiser 268

Apples, see Hokkaido, 194, 289, 402

Appointments 125;
Tax 21

Apprentices 411

Apricots 289

Aqueduct 64

Archery 39, 40, 159

Architecture 198

Ardour 124

Area 65, 390;
and Habitable compared with other countries 385, 392;
per Family 42, 89 (2)

Armaments 93, 97, 394;
U.S. expenditure 394

Armour 36, 40

Arm rest 246, 319

Army 202, 346, 350, 360 (2), 403;
Discipline 361;
and Farmer ix;
Officers and Agriculture 362;
Railway service 297

Arnold, Matthew, 24, 272

Arrests postponed 280

Arson 56, 280, 282

Art 99, 214, 369;
Degenerated 99;
and Farmer ix;
Hills in 120;
Korean 103;
Influence of Western 103-4;
Artists 99, 100;
Sketches at festivals 193;
Artistry 317;
Artistic treasures 369;
Artistic world 102-3-4-5, 328

Artificials, see Manure

Artisans 317;
with land and houses 268;
see Farmers

"Asahi" 90, 109

Asama, Mt., 143

Asceticism 101

Asia, see West and East, 202;
Residents in 410;
Asiatic Mainland 351, 363;
Asiatic Society of Japan 364
"Aspiring" young men 135

Assaults 282

Assentation 14

Associations against Landlords 88;
for Economical agricultural Students 176;
Spirit of 16

"At twenty I found" 150

Athletics,
see under different names, 159

Attempts to deceive the West 174

Attitude
for foreign student 254;
of world, 371;
to something higher;
see Materialism, Spirituality

Attorney-General, 345

Audience, 24

Australia, 127, 352-3, 363 (2), 388;
Might have possessed, 363

Author
Attitude towards Japan, xii;
before domestic shrine, 33;
Carried, 308;
Chats in trains, 176;
"Fortune", 138;
First Englishman in place, 126;
Governor and, 84 ;
on Hearn, 254, ;
Some Conclusions, see Hokkaido, 369;
and Police, 53;
Reception at Shinto Shrine, 45;
Shinto address to, 46;
Speeches, 6, 26, 31, 254;
Tree planting, 45;
Welcome, 22;
at Wrestling match, 297

Authority
Disobedience to, 285;
Power going, 330

Autobiography of a Farmer-Egotist, 61

Autographs, 38, 324

Automobile, see Chauffeur, 205

Autumn, 214

"Average workers", 62, 377

Awakening, 324

Axholme, Isle of, 71

Aza, xxv, 15, 16, 262, 315

Azaleas, 316