Los Angeles herald., 1909-10-03
The Empire of Japan
I-Japan's Greatest Prob
By Frederic j. HaSkin

0lEn
seas; to maintain the most extensive
and expensive diplomatic and consular
service in the world; to finance num-
berless schemes for Industrial develop-
ment and business exploitation of the
newly acquired Japanese posses
sions' on the mainland, and to meet
the enormous obligation of huge i'm
perial debt.
The people from whom all this
money must come are the poorest al
| belt the thriftiest on earth. The ara
BILE area of Japan, which supports a
population of 50,000,000 people, is less
| than the area of West Virginia. II
| every human being in the United
| States, Canada and Mexico were to
be forcibly removed to the state of
Kansas then Kansas would not be as
crowded as Japan is today. The best
rice in the world is grown in Japan,
and rice growing is the chief industry
of the nation. Yet the farmers are so
poor that they cannot eat the rice they
grow. They must sell it and then buy
| the cheaper grades of rice from
French Indo-china, and many of them
are too poor even for that. They must
| subsist on a diet of boiled milet
seeds, with a feast of fish once d
month. The average amount of land
titled by each family is a trife less
| than two acres. The agricultural skill,
the unhagging industry, the thrift, the
patience of the japanese farmer, is
| not to be equaled under the sun. Yet
of the product of that tiny farm, hard
! " big enough for an American kitchen
| garden, the farmer must support his
| family, which is never small, and he
must give of his produce p per cent
in taxes to the imperial government
and from 2 to per cent in taxes to
| the local government.
men in Japan, some few rich men. If
| a mans income reaches the amount of
$4,000 a year he must pay 6S per cent
of the whole to the government as an
| income tax or an annual tax of 1000
| out of $4,000. And the tax is not
| based upon a return made by the tax
| payers, but upon an estimate made by
| the secret agents of the government,
| in a land where the secret agents know
every secret. There are only twenty
| three men in Japan who pay taxes on
an income this large. But the income
| tax purSueS, in descending scale, the
man in every walk of life, down to an
annual income of fifty dollars. And the
very poorest must pay an average in
| come tax of AZ per cent The land tax
in cities is 20 per cent per annum on
| the assessed valuation. The assessment
| is made at about 30 per cent of the
actual value, so that in ten years the
owner of city real estate has paid in
taxes the full value of his property.
| These enormous taxes are paid al
most without complaint. Just before
the war with Russia the taxes were
quadrupled for war purposes. Patriotic
Japan did not protest. Just after the
war the war taxes were almost doubled
again for-what purposes? Patriotic
Japan endured and paid. Patriotic
| Japan is still enduring and paying, and
| there is no prospect that the taxation
| burden will be lifted. There is some
protest, of course. There was a boy
colt of salt as a result of the govern
ment monopoly increase in prices. The
newspapers have inveighed against
| higher taxes, but their protest has been
no more vigorous and no more sue
cessful than the campaign for taxation
reform in the American press. The
ministry was forced, by public opinion.
to place a limit upon the expenditures
Of the navy and army, but the limit
is quite literally high
The national debt of Japan approx
imates $1,14O, 900, 0O0-a per capita in
debtedness of $21.93, more than twice
the per capita indebtedness of the
United States. The Japanese debt
| represents money actually borrowed
| abroad for the purpose of pushing for
ward the imperial program. The
American debt is largely an artifi
cial concern, kept as large as possible
to enable an absurdly inadequate
| banking system to keep up an made
quate currency issue. The difference
is that the Japanese debt will have to
be paid in good cold coin, and the tax
| collectors are now busy taking money
from the people to lay up against the
day of reckoning.
| The financial condition of Japan is
such that a war with the United
States or any great power is practically
| impossible. The only war Japan is in
China, which might result as the other
one did--in a net profit for Japan's
| treasury.
yet the difficulties of this fiscal
problem will not prevent the states
men of Japan from pushing forward
| their plans for the great Japanese en-
pire. If the people will continue to
stand the heavy taxation, that taxa
ton will be imposed. If they Will
bear the burden long enough, the
statesmen may be successful in es-
tablishing a mainland empire and an
Industrial system which will repay the
nation for it's toll and privation. Yet
there is a limit even to Japanese pa
thence. If the statesmen are not WISE
If they push beyond that limit, then
the end of Japanese ambitions VIII be
found in a Japanese revolt. There is
nothing so unlikely Despite the de-
nlorabie condition of Japanese finance,
there are few clouds in the pontlcal
heavens Illuminated by the still Rising
Sun of Nippon.
Tomorrow-The Empire of Japan. III;
where the East is Hustling.