Evening star., 1935-12-15
JAPAN FOLLOWS COURSE
OPPOSITE TO NEW DEAL
Policy of Building Up Foreign Trade
Has Put ON People Strain of High
Taxes and Living Costs.

moment is responsible for the activi-
ties of the japanese armies in North
China Very plausibly, the Japanese
say they are not bent upon terri
torial conquest, "a thing denounced
by the mass of public opinion" to
quote their statement, but they are
now out in the open with their in
tention so to impose their military
domination on the Asiatic mainland
as to make as much of 1t as possible
an exclusive Japanese market.
Obviously, in a country like Japan,
it is policy that has to be carried
rife strain upon the already suffering
japanese consumer.
The imitation finally forced wage
increases and some increases in pro-
duction costs in 1884 which are pre-
sumably still mounting slightly. But
they are being held down as tightly
as possible and the consumer and the
farmer pay the bill. Mounting army
and navy costs, of course, make it still
harder. The government has agreed
upon susidies to needy rural towns
which could no longer stand their tax
burdens, but the grant made was ap-
parently far smaller than that rec
commended by the investigating au-
thorities swho first took the problem
in hand
Meanwhile one sees no evidences Of
unemployment in Japan. Apparently
the imitation has brought building and
one sees the workmen and carpenters
at work at 9 or 10 o'clock at night as
though it where midday.
Industrialization in Infancy.
But it must be understood that
Japanese industrialization is still in
its infancy. The heavy industries are
the particular charge of the govern
ment and evidently every sacrifice is
being made to develop them. The
spinning and weaving industries ap-
pear to be the best developed.
Despite the heroic efforts, the bal
ance of trade is still against Japan;
she still buys more than she sells,
though she claims a favorable ball
ance when freight carrying charges,
4hNNAScb Oll 4OAOlsAA uLlu
other visible items in the trade ac-
count are added.
When the present trend of events
was uShered in, coming as a reaction
against economic catastrophe which
seemed to result from certain liberal
tendencies in government policy, it
was accompanied by the most extreme
or
parently the government has at
tempted to wipe out the extremists to
the Right just as it struck against the
Communists and smashed their power.
From our point Of view, the whole
present program would be called an
extreme Fascism or Rightism. but the
Extremists to whom 1 refer and
against whom the government acted
went even to conspiracy and the mur-
der of high government officials, it
will be recalled. Now an attempt is
being made to stabilize the social stu
alton back of the trade imperialist
plan by sort of religious revival in
which the force of shintonism, or
Emperor worship, can be used to
Stiffen the Japanese morale under
strain behind the governmental au-
thorities.
Military IncOmprehensibIe.
The most difficult thing of all for
the American to comprehend in ia
pans extraordinary national policy is
the place of the army and navy.
Under the japanese constitution, the
armed forces are independent and
are not under civil control. Yet
clearly they are an instrument of
what is essentially trade policy in
this instance. AS nearly as 1 can
understand it, we appear to have then
an instrument not under control.
That seems to be the answer to some
of the inexplicable moves of the jap
aneSe Army in China, at the Shanghai
bombardment, for example. The army
is in China to win trade domination
for Japan. But the trade interests
which the army would serve have
no control over it. The army can
and does run riot. The army is in
dependent and has the freedom of
action it has because of japanese
tradition, embraced in the empires
promulgated constitution.
So, even if Japan'S objective in
China be commercial, and not terri |
torial or militaristic, as it seems to |
me it is at least intellectually pos
sible to believe, yet do not see how |
any one could count upon how the |
army might proceed to execute that |
trade policy. That, take it, is the |
enigma which is Japan.
(Copyright 1895. by the North American |
Alliance. Inc