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TRABE AND FINANCE I
JAPAN'S COMMERCIAL PROGRESS.
' Pnrlng fie jost few ycart the Japaueso
na\o tliro i off thoir prejudices in rrgiird
lo tradt and romrocrco and ni a* result
ha\c qulckh come li (o the forefront of the
«orle?s roramoreinl powers holpe i by =(imc
abnormal pcrir li- surli as the Ht«- \ dr
the lime Ti ade S ipi lemont contains a
special Jit nrs initustrirl section from
which we hftie pithcred a lund of nlertst
ing information showing the achievements
Excitable limpie ire apt to quote tho
Orloutnl wrrkmeii as models of industry as
compared with the Eurojcans e pcclalll
when a strike Is on Novertholca the
lapane'e hasp thoir trade unions ind
whilst thev art of recent formation >ct
they are ste xlily increasing In btrenfeth
and women also aro included in theil mern
bership I abour is plentiful in Japan and
consequentlj workmen unll) rccen.ly were
cheap and employees wonlxl not spend tho
neoouar) monov to introduce labour-saving
devices and altl ruf.li the men will work
for longer than v. would and are skilful
with their fingers statistics go to show
that they get ierj circlets and the quality
of tho work suffers
Many and lancd aro the industries of
Tapan but by far the creates! is the silk
Industn In 1813 tho production was
£9 000 000 which increased until In 1911 It
was £62,000 000 thero being nearly two
million households ongageil in silk Browing
(Tiring employment to nearly f 000 000 per
sons The Japan*^ Covernmont is keenly
interested In Uie industrj and nae «stab
llshed an institute to Improie the methods
at present in vogue Silk is tho chief ot
pon product and altogether 40 per cent
of the total production of the world comes
from Japan
From sulphur to stiver from eoal to gola
from tin to tungsten almost every mineral
known can be found in some parts of
Japan though in many casca the quantity
and quality of the return bro not ^uch is
would make tbe exploitation attract tv» ,e.
the fact remains that the. country possesses
a wonderful rang« of minerals foo follow-
ing figuren show the ontput for a year -
Copper _ _ " _ 00,000 metric tons
Silver _ _ " (¡5,000 000 oz ano
.Lead _ _ 11000 torr»
Antimony _ .. _ 400 tons*
Gold_ 245 000 oz
Zinc " _. - - _ 39000 tons
Manganese ore 55 000 tons
Phosphorus _ " 192 000 metric toni
Coal ""__ " 28000000 metriu tons
Sulphur _ 64 000 metric tons
Sulphur oro .. 21000 inetrio tons
.During the war enormous quantities of
antimony were shipped to the United
States and the 1916-1" output was 24 000
tons but has. now dropped back to pre-war
conditions and ontput
The total value of Japan s mineral pro
ducts stands at about £45 000 000 sterling,
nf which coal and copper aro the most
laluable individual items and represent to
gether about one-half of tho country s mino-
ral wealth The ostimated amount of tho
coal available is noorly 10 000 000 tons In
most of the coal mines women are employ-
ed to a large extent, but the restrictions
I laced upon the emplo>ment of women by
in«. International labour Conference hold
at Washington is exercising the minds of
ilio employers as being likoly to increase
working costs Japan is second on the list
of copper producing countries the principal
producer boiiif, Auierlcu which accounts for
moro liinn half the worlds output Hore
again the war revived the industry as
1 roduction for abont 12 months prior ti
1"14 WHS at a very low ebb On the out-
break of hostilities ovor> thing took on a
blighter aspect and In 1)1" the value of
topper exports amounted to nearly £9 000
000 but in 1919 had decreased to £1250 000
f f course the condition of the metal mar
ket uonld affect the value but in the
fitno producers h.ie FT&*I hope of In
i roasing thoir trade with China although
the eonipotition from America fe very keen
Slier Is found mostlj near the copper
i iino-> and it is estimated that at presont
no silt or mine In J»i<*n is u paying pro
1 ositlon However the amount of gold and
bitter found with aopper ib very consider-
able and it üviariably follows that fn
reascd production of copper also means
increased production of these two metals.
In 1917 the production ol silver was 7 000,
000 ounces
The domestic output of lead is under
10,000 000 tons In the case of zinc tlio
output is only 6 000 Vins, so that Japan
now Imports the ore and exports the finish
ed article. In 1917 exports amounted to
£2.000 000, and In 191t thcy had dropped to
i-100 000 whilst in 1920 the amouut was
only £12,000 Sulphur is very plentiful
»na hu boen verj largely exported Pro
duction more than doubled between 191a
and isis and owing to tho war-time do
maud exports morb thai treoiod but itt
1919 this product suffered like tho others
from the trade Mump .ind world depression
Petroleum Is another of the loading pro-
ducts, 191463 tons of oil nore produced In
1319 n decrease of some 17 000 tons com-
pared with 1018 but in view of the écono-
mie valso of oil and its importance fioin
n national point of view lmestments in this
industry are steadily increaslr" nnd the
search for oil is attracting i large num-
ber of people
The war provided the Japanese with an
opportunity to ad%unoo thoir shipbuilding
trade, and this «as full} takon advantago
ot. In 1307 tho number of registered ?ves-
sels built was 76 with n gross tonnage ol
28£38 tons. In 1914 79 vessels with u gross
tonnage of B3J573 tons were built and in
1919 these figures had expanded to 273 ve«,
sels, with a gross tonnngo of fi'M SJC tons
Japan holds third place imoti0st the nations
of the world in shipbuilding and in this
connection It Is Interesting to note that a
large percentage of those who supervise the
teeunlool details were trained In British
shipyards When the wholo of the Japanese
yards aro fully employed they are capable
of on ontpnt of over 700 000 tons a year
Being in a similar position geogriphlcally
to Uiot occupied by Great Britain It is
natural that Jopan should aspiro to become
a great shipping nation and tho load-
ing Japonese shipping linos aro already woll
known all over the world Most of them
receive some kind of subsidy from the Gov
oinment and the steamship route to Ans
tralla is one of thoBO which is subsidised
till December 1021 I rom the inauguration
of the subsidt until the end of 1916 more
than £14 500 000 has boon pild Tho" re-
markable expansion of Japanese mercantile
marine is indicated hy figures published In
Lund s Iieglstor of Buttah and foreign
shlpplnj, Those showod that it developed
from 1 708 000 lons gross to 2 gog 000 tons fn
June 1920 au incienso of 1239,000 tons or
5 per cont We have previously Intimated
in this column that most of, the larger
shipping companies had elabóralo and ox
tonsilp plans for increasing thoir fleets hut
nit* the falling of freights throughout the
"oild most of thom Lancellcd their pro
(.ramme* The Japaner nation are von
[¡illustrions and are lioparedMo carry out
tliMriimbltions at am cost so that iii the
'uture w« must be prepared to seo them
yung cnery effort to oust us from our posL
i'n as the ocean carriers of the world
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