It must be admitted at the outset that the system of postal savings in Japan cannot boast of any particularly brilliant record. The study of it reveals, however, a state of things which is not without some encouraging features. We give below the amounts of the deposits and some other items for every third year since the inauguration of the institution:—
| Year. | Deposits at the End of the Year. Yen. |
No. of Depositors. | Amount per Depositor. Yen. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1875 | 15,000 | 1,800 | 8 |
| 1878 | 286,000 | 14,100 | 20 |
| 1881 | 821,000 | 38,900 | 21 |
| 1884 | 5,260,000 | 141,200 | 37 |
| 1887 | 18,213,000 | 568,800 | 31 |
| 1890 | 19,197,000 | 833,700 | 25 |
| 1893 | 26,155,000 | 1,060,200 | 24 |
| 1896 | 28,251,000 | 1,273,300 | 21 |
| 1899 | 23,455,000 | 1,397,600 | 16 |
| 1902 | 28,536,000 | 2,707,500 | 10 |
| 1905 | 54,754,096 | 5,858,560 | 9 |
| 1908 | 92,389,473 | 7,886,279 | 12 |
| 1911 | 200,000,000 | 12,000,000 | 17 |
The sudden drop between the years 1896 and 1902 is owing to the fact that the extraordinarily high interest offered by the ordinary banks during that period of monetary stringency diverted deposits from the Post Offices. The gradual fall in the general rates of interest since then has already begun to turn the tide back in favor of the Post Offices, as shown by the figures for late years. What is particularly satisfactory is the increase in the number of depositors, the increase in this respect being far more remarkable than the increase in the amount of the deposits, as shown by the decreasing amount per depositor. This means, if it means anything, that the advantages offered by the Postal Savings Bank are more and more extensively appreciated by the poorer classes.
The amount of deposits at the Postal Savings Bank seems to be steadily increasing, as is shown by the table. The figures for 1909, not given there, show 9,717,236 depositors, and 122,098,101 yen deposits.
Not altogether unsatisfactory as is this result of the official efforts to encourage the saving habit among the people, it must be noted that we are in this respect far behind some of the European countries. Consulting the statistics for the year 1898, we find the postal savings reached in that year to £120,000,000 in England, £33,000,000 in France, £21,000,000 in Belgium, £4,800,000 in Austria, £1,000,000 in Hungary, £2,700,000 in Holland, and £3,400,000 in Sweden. In spite of the great improvement effected in the system of late years, especially in the way of simplifying the official procedure connected with the acceptance and repayment of the deposits, much still remains to be done in order to bring the facilities provided by it within easy reach of the people by increasing the number of the Post Offices authorized to receive deposits throughout the country.
While speaking of savings, it may not be uninteresting to mention a few figures on the state of the deposits at the ordinary banks. We do not happen to have at hand the statistics covering all the banking concerns in the country. The “Ginkō Tsushin-Roku,” however, supplies us with reliable statistics up to February, 1902, so far as the principal banking centres are concerned. We find, then, that the total amount of deposits at the banks belonging to the clearing-houses of Tōkyō, Ōsaka, Kyōto, Nagoya, Yokohama, and Kōbe, stood at the end of February at 308,289,000 yen, made up as follows, not including the deposits at the Bank of Japan:
| Yen. | |
|---|---|
| Tōkyō | 119,268,000 |
| Ōsaka | 75,824,000 |
| Yokohama | 49,280,000 |
| Kōbe | 23,423,000 |
| Kyōto | 22,616,000 |
| Nagoya | 17,878,000 |
In June, 1910, the Bank of Japan had a paid-up capital of 37,600,000 yen; in 1909 the deposits were 220,101,784 yen. At that time the Industrial Bank of Japan had deposits of 8,930,050 yen. The deposits in all the Japanese banks in 1909 amounted to 1,617,873,711 yen.