Railways in Japan
The report on railway development shows that since the government constructed its first line of eighteen miles from Yokohama to Tōkyō in 1872, a great trunk line of 1,200 miles has been built, and the total mileage in the country increased to 6,042, which in 1910 handled 153,088,066 passengers and 25,815,000 tons of freight. Of this entire mileage, 506 miles are owned by private corporations, and 5,536 by the government, which was the pioneer in the movement to give the country modern land transportation. No private construction was done until 1883, when the government had 181 miles of railway under operation; and it was not until 1889 that private enterprise for a time led the governmental effort. The state railways to August, 1905, cost the sum of 85,573,511 yen, while the private systems represented a cost for construction to the same date of 191,230,291 yen. In 1910 the grand total had reached almost 577,000,000 yen.
MILITARY REVIEW, HIMEJI
According to the reports made on the railways at the end of the year 1910 the gross earnings of both state and private railways for that year were 89,000,000 yen, the gross expenditures 46,796,000 yen, and the net profit over 43,700,000 yen.
The government has arranged plans for railway construction and development which involve an outlay of 174,523,365 yen, the construction to extend through eight years, and the improvements through twelve.
The line from Nagoya to Haichioji, near Tōkyō, opened to traffic in 1911, is about 224 miles long. The construction represents the best engineering skill, and an outlay of $17,500,000. It has ninety-five tunnels and 350 bridges.
The people of the country opposed the construction of the first line from Yokohama to Tokyo as a dangerous thing, and it was several years before public opposition to the innovation was entirely removed. Bond issues for railway construction were opposed, but the government insisted on its policy and finally won the people to its general support, so that by the end of the year 1908 on all lines there were 2,156 locomotives, 5,951 passenger coaches, and 34,045 freight cars in use.
Postal Savings in Japan[206]
It must be admitted at the outset that the system of postal savings in Japan cannot boast of any particularly brilliant record. The study of it reveals, however, a state of things which is not without some encouraging features. We give below the amounts of the deposits and some other items for every third year since the inauguration of the institution:—
| Year. | Deposits at the End of the Year. Yen. | No. of Depositors. | Amount per Depositor. Yen. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1875 | 15,000 | 1,800 | 8 |
| 1878 | 286,000 | 14,100 | 20 |
| 1881 | 821,000 | 38,900 | 21 |
| 1884 | 5,260,000 | 141,200 | 37 |
| 1887 | 18,213,000 | 568,800 | 31 |
| 1890 | 19,197,000 | 833,700 | 25 |
| 1893 | 26,155,000 | 1,060,200 | 24 |
| 1896 | 28,251,000 | 1,273,300 | 21 |
| 1899 | 23,455,000 | 1,397,600 | 16 |
| 1902 | 28,536,000 | 2,707,500 | 10 |
| 1905 | 54,754,096 | 5,858,560 | 9 |
| 1908 | 92,389,473 | 7,886,279 | 12 |
| 1911 | 200,000,000 | 12,000,000 | 17 |
The sudden drop between the years 1896 and 1902 is owing to the fact that the extraordinarily high interest offered by the ordinary banks during that period of monetary stringency diverted deposits from the Post Offices. The gradual fall in the general rates of interest since then has already begun to turn the tide back in favor of the Post Offices, as shown by the figures for late years. What is particularly satisfactory is the increase in the number of depositors, the increase in this respect being far more remarkable than the increase in the amount of the deposits, as shown by the decreasing amount per depositor. This means, if it means anything, that the advantages offered by the Postal Savings Bank are more and more extensively appreciated by the poorer classes.
The amount of deposits at the Postal Savings Bank seems to be steadily increasing, as is shown by the table. The figures for 1909, not given there, show 9,717,236 depositors, and 122,098,101 yen deposits.
Not altogether unsatisfactory as is this result of the official efforts to encourage the saving habit among the people, it must be noted that we are in this respect far behind some of the European countries. Consulting the statistics for the year 1898, we find the postal savings reached in that year to £120,000,000 in England, £33,000,000 in France, £21,000,000 in Belgium, £4,800,000 in Austria, £1,000,000 in Hungary, £2,700,000 in Holland, and £3,400,000 in Sweden. In spite of the great improvement effected in the system of late years, especially in the way of simplifying the official procedure connected with the acceptance and repayment of the deposits, much still remains to be done in order to bring the facilities provided by it within easy reach of the people by increasing the number of the Post Offices authorized to receive deposits throughout the country.
While speaking of savings, it may not be uninteresting to mention a few figures on the state of the deposits at the ordinary banks. We do not happen to have at hand the statistics covering all the banking concerns in the country. The “Ginkō Tsushin-Roku,” however, supplies us with reliable statistics up to February, 1902, so far as the principal banking centres are concerned. We find, then, that the total amount of deposits at the banks belonging to the clearing-houses of Tōkyō, Ōsaka, Kyōto, Nagoya, Yokohama, and Kōbe, stood at the end of February at 308,289,000 yen, made up as follows, not including the deposits at the Bank of Japan:
| Yen. | |
|---|---|
| Tōkyō | 119,268,000 |
| Ōsaka | 75,824,000 |
| Yokohama | 49,280,000 |
| Kōbe | 23,423,000 |
| Kyōto | 22,616,000 |
| Nagoya | 17,878,000 |
In June, 1910, the Bank of Japan had a paid-up capital of 37,600,000 yen; in 1909 the deposits were 220,101,784 yen. At that time the Industrial Bank of Japan had deposits of 8,930,050 yen. The deposits in all the Japanese banks in 1909 amounted to 1,617,873,711 yen.
The Oil Industry in Japan[207]
Japan’s oil industry has a brilliant future before it. The use of kerosene in the country has grown at a wonderfully rapid pace. In the first year of Meiji the amount of oil imported was 639 koku. In 1901 it had reached 1,300,000 koku. The value of the oil imported in 1868 was only 7,236 yen; that imported in 1901 was 14 million yen.[208] The following table shows the rate at which the import of kerosene into Japan increased:—
| Years. | Koku. | Value. Yen. |
|---|---|---|
| 1868 | 639 | 7,236 |
| 1872 | 8,936 | 160,608 |
| 1877 | 53,645 | 605,598 |
| 1882 | 413,644 | 2,320,905 |
| 1887 | 421,177 | 1,871,428 |
| 1892 | 653,785 | 3,328,398 |
| 1897 | 1,221,164 | 7,667,350 |
| 1900 | 1,356,846 | 14,162,652 |
| 1901 | 1,379,927 | 14,943,400 |
Notwithstanding the large supply that has come from abroad, of late years the demand for the Echigo oil has gone on increasing, as shown in the subjoined table, which covers seven years.
| Years. | Koku of Crude Petroleum. | Value. Yen. |
|---|---|---|
| 1895 | 158,334 | 526,976 |
| 1896 | 207,470 | 619,333 |
| 1897 | 257,614 | 668,677 |
| 1898 | 355,006 | 670,308 |
| 1899 | 544,583 | 1,450,904 |
| 1900 | 836,628 | 2,142,003 |
| 1901 | 1,115,807 | 2,345,916 |
It is calculated that about 5/10 of the total quantity of this crude petroleum was used for lighting purposes. It would seem, then, that Echigo supplied 3/10 of the total amount of oil used for lighting in Japan during the seven years, and that the remaining 7/10 came from abroad. Taking the year 1901, the value of the crude petroleum being 2,345,916 yen, it is estimated that when refined this amount of petroleum would fetch not less than 4 million yen. But the fact remains that the proportion of oil imported is still very large, so that there is room for a further great development of the business.
In 1908 Japan’s output of petroleum was 1,872,592 U. S. barrels. Echigo is by no means worked out: new fields are constantly being discovered in that province. Then petroleum has been found in Hokkaidō and in the Yamagata and Shizuoka prefectures. So that among Japan’s modern industries her oil trade may be pronounced to be full of promise. How the quality of the Japanese oil compares with the American and Russian brands, we are not told by the Jiji, but from other sources we gather that when properly refined Japanese petroleum is equal to the best American and Russian oils.