The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-06-20
JAPAN IN TIE PRESENT
Numerous Serious Problems Con-
fronting the Empires Rulers.
Population increasing Fnster Thnn
the Means of Subsistcncc-Her Poo
pie Seeking Relief From Probable
Famine and Distress by Emfgra-
Instrumentation of Koren Needed.


1t is rather of lean and ill-feshed cows
ears of rice that are blasted by the east
wind. The japanese at this end of the CEN
fury is as much frightened about the law
of Nautilus as was his grandfather in the
early fifties at the armada of Perry.
New conditions proceeding from world
| contact have utterly abolished the old
Japan of exclusion and inclusion. A half
century ago. Dali Nippon was like Jericho
of Joshua's day. none went out aud none
| came in Under centuries of repression,
| the nation was like seed planted be-
tween bricks or live squash enclosed in
| bands of iron. Population could not in
crease. for this meant starvation. Let no
one think OF Japan either as idyllic or
Edenic, neither Of an undreaming Thorn
! rose, in Sleeping Castle, free from care.
AS matter of fact, population continually
pressed upon the food supply. The burden
of much of the old reading literature OF re-
| form was. economic and eschew luxury
while still the peasantry groaned. Tie
| large colonies of Heterae, great bairicEded
settlements of public women near every
large municipality forming almost cities by
| themselves; the many legal impediments to
marriage; the iron-like rightly CT the
| laws anu UlUUranCeS 10 C0aDSc
of abode or occupation; the prevalence Of
| infanticide; the almost universal destruc-
| ton Of manned OF malformed infants, tell
| why and how population remained station
| airy for a century. Great ash heapS-lCw
| it may be, overgrown and yelled by kind
natures greenery-near the cremation
| houses, composed of incinerated human
! bones and charred wood ard debris, are the
| monuments of famines terrible and sweep
! ing. When crops failed corpses could not
be cremated singly but in heaps must be
reduced to ashes. These all tell the story
how, under the old japanese system, TIE
| adjustment of man to his food supply was
regulated by stern nature.
Here is a bright race of people living
/ upon narrow. mountainous chain of ISL
ands, which were fertile only in the val
| leys and lowlands. The 1.-THE of land form
| ing the food soil was ever liable to lose
| area by flood and tidal wave. The turbu-
lent rivers might have utterly dry beds
| today and tomorrow be frightful mountain
torrents. Often after rains these would,
at one sweep. blot out the arabic land,
| covering it over with worthless sand and
stones. Japan is neither Egypt nor Hol-
land, but resembles each-fOr the worse.
1t is not generally known that the bikes
of Japan. shetering less valuable land.
cost in the aggregate more money than
those of the Netherlands.
Her Small Area of Cultivation.
So far only about one-t tenth of the area
of Japan is cultivated; that is. about Il, 1000
out of the 10000 square miles mot in
Guiding Fornosa) in the Empire, the rest
of the country being set up in the cold
north region. high up on the mountains.
worth very little except for forests. or on
desolate islands. Even the woodlands are
conbed and scraped clean, down to their
leaves. for fuel. Mountain gorges and ac-
cessible slopes are made useful by being
terraced, especially If stream of water
Is near to be caught and harnessed for
irrigation. Often the soil is laboriously
carried up on human shoulders from the
plain below.
In the dark, middle ages of Japan-long
and terrible in spite Of romance and glory
war; and during the last three CEN
turtles. immortality, pestilence. endemic dis
ease. and strict sumptuary laws kept down
the population. All is now different
We know what happens when a we'll
wired champagne cork is drawn, or a bot
tie Of Saratoga water is opened So, to-
day, all pressure suddenly removed, the
japanese are literally flying out over tue
world. They are obliged to- First be-
cause the bottle is no larger, for Fortnosa
is hardly yet subdued and is too hot for
the average Japanese, while Yezo and the
kuriles are too cold. The Japanese man
likes the temperate zone and likes it very
much. and the walls Of MS long bottled-up
country are very rigid. Furthermore, apart
from removal of pressure. the amazing ex-
parsion of the original volume OF contents
has not been foreseen or arranged for All
the time new forces are creating a fresh
volume OF humanity, requiring larger space
and more food, and this to an alarming de-
gree.
Let look az the facts
1t is very funny in Mother Goose" and |
nursery rhyme to be 'the old woman that |
lived in a shoe" but it is no joke for a /
nation to find itself in bands stronger than |
leather. The Japan of 1900 lives in shoe. |
In the first place. the population is increas-
ing beyond all precedent. Since 1868 tie |
old checks have all been removed. Sump-
tuary laws are abolished. The army the |
navy. the courts. the schools, lines of ia |
dustrial competition and advancement and |
enterprise OF every sort invite the native
into the race for dollars, and to the multi
plication Of his kind. for life seems worth
living now. The old pessimism of Bud
dh:sm which declared existence an evil, is
jeered at In mcckery Instead of station
airy population. We have one increasing at
the rate Of half million year.
The Multitude of Subjects.
When Perry's anchors dropped off Yoko-
hama and his evening gun awoke the
echoes of the hills of Adzuma in 1885,
Japan had not 30.OO0.O00. In 1872 by
actual and careful enumeration. there
were in all Japan 100000 souls. From
that time forth the statistics of popula
ton show leaps and bounds. In 1886 there
were IS, GO0.0 0O, in 1895 AZ ,000, GOO. the CEN
sus showing in some years an increase Of
over half Million so that
today, including Formosa. the Mikado
rules over 4GO00GG0 subjects. Since
scientific methods in medicine. surgery,
and hygiene. and quarantine have become
uniform all over the Empire. the death
rate among children is lowered nearly so
per cent The life OF adults is visibly
heightened. Based on science, rather than
guesswork, are the prospects for q popu-
lation of 10000, 600 A. d. 1850.
How can the food product be increased?
farming may do much to enlarge
the area of arabic lands on mountain. ter
race. valley, and field. Some areas may
be diked and reclaimed by pumping out
the sea and river water. Good engineer
ing may stop the rayages of the river
hoods. Nevertheless at present the area |
IF food producing land is actually dimin-
shing instead of increasing, while the
people are becoming meat eaters, which
means more demands on the soil. The
Japanese are changing also from an agri !
ultural to a manufacturing people. Every
;ear tea and silk are found to pay better
han grain and vegetables, so the tea
plantations and mulberry orchards stand I
where once wheat and barley thrOve. ,
Where in the Japan of Perry's day there
vas scarcely n chimney in the Empire, ,
,ut only smokeholes, and artisans worked
Lii. la..- lara n % in thu | u