Evening star., 1923-10-28
OVERPOPULATION MENACE7
GIVES JAPAN HUGE TASK
Expert Says Industrialization of En-
s/f pire to Be Tried After Failure
of Emigration.
OF Emigration.

! in believing him. These two farmers
/ met voice the majority sentiment of
his class. Statistics back their con-
Take Korea. for example At the
end of the Chinese war, in 1905, there
| were something like $4,000 Japanese
there. That was the time when
Auence of Japan. That also was the
} time certain great leader of Japan
had an inspiration which turned out
| to be hallucination. He thought that
! the one and the only way of looking
! was to put the surplus in the general
| direction to Korea and Manchuria. He
| did not consult the farmers. He knew
nothing of the farmers. But he was
| a great statesman.
! The great Oriental Development
Company was organized in 1908, at
| first with the paid-up capital of co.
o0O, 900 yen-about $4,000. 600 in
gold. Then 1t was increased to Co.
100000 yen. The government of
! and credit. The government author
ICED 1t to issue debenture bonds up
| to ten times its pafd-up capital. 1t
was a tremendous thing. And the
| one and only business of this COM
pany was and is to persuade japanese
| farmers to move into Korea and Man
churia. 1t financed the Japanese
! farmer to lease land to the extent Of
| five acres. 1.-The ownership Of which
is to be transferred to him after the
lapse of twenty-five years Or less"
1t financed the farmer in getting the
| implements and in disposing of his
| crops and in all possible ways. And
| this tremendous company has been at
work for nearly fifteen years now.
And the result?
In 1921 there were less than 100.-
600 Japanese families in Korea, and
the total number of men and women
and children was less than 36S,0O0.
There were more than $4,000 Japanese
already in Korea at the end of the
Chinese war, as has been pointed
| out. Therefore, all the activities of
| the Oriental Development CVmpany.
| together with all the other agencies,
to turn the surplus current Of Jap
anese- population Korea-ward, show
ed the net result of slightly more
than 100000 Japanese transplanted
| in Korea since the Shimonoseh treaty.
(which closed the Chinese war That
is at the annual rate of about 10000
Japanese transplanted in Korea
Population increases Rapidly.
| Meanwhile, the Japanese popula-
tion was increasing at the rate of
| 100000 to 10000 year And Korea
| Is just across a narrow sash Of
| water" The farmer can board the
splendidly appointed ferry steamer at
Shimonoseki after dinner and find
himself in the harbor OF Fusan,
Korea, at dawn the following morn
ing. 1t is not making a half-month's
trip across the Pacific to the United
In the light of this fact, compare
the popular American opinion that the
Japanese would flood the whole Of the
Pacific states of the United States the
minute the immigration restriction bar
is let up. 1t is a joke. A billion
dollars OF American money can never
lure anything like goodly proportion
of the japanese farmers from their
pocket handkerchief paddy fields which
have come down to them through ten.
twenty generations Of their august an
ceStorS.
There are only three classes of the
the country. First. those who have
done something which makes it more
pleasant the greater the distance they
can put between their home villages
and the present address. Then there
is class of restless young man, who
would rather adventure forth beyond
the four seas than eat, largely of a
student class whose parents are finan-
cially unable to support them through
any sort OF schooling. Then still an
ether class, composed largely of the
chronic and habitual failures.
"A closer study tilan Is usually given
by American newspapers and their
writer's will show that a mere fraction
of the total population of Nippon
which stands ct about 57,000.000 this
year, are living abroad-115.500 in the
whole Of the United States. 1880 in
Canada. 7S,S00 in Manchuria and 34,260
in Brazil.
Lacks Raw Materials.
Emigration as a solution of the basic
population question Of Nippon is fail,
ure. an expensive failure. Japan has
refused to see this for years and years.
But the logic Of things as they come
to pass has driven the understandings
on this point so impressively that she
can no longer insist on her blindness.
If not in emigration, then where else
is the way out for Japan? She Is
clothed with the glory Of mountain
and water undreamed Of by the author
of the Tai Mahal. But she is entirely
nude of essential raw materials-sans
iron, sans rubber, sans cotton; her
coal is practically exhausted. She is
no England Of the Pacific in this re-
spect.
She is working out her salvation,
nevertheless. The how Of it, the tre-
mendous scope Of her transformation, |
the spirit back Of 1t all, these were
the biggest things found in Nippon,
as shall tell in the next article.
Copyright New York world) Press
p,Ihly