The following estimate gives an idea of the wealth of Japan and its distribution:—
| Land | 7,000 | millions | yen. |
| Mines | 500 | „ | „ |
| Live-stock | 80 | „ | „ |
| Buildings | 1,900 | „ | „ |
| Furniture | 400 | „ | „ |
| Railroads | 350 | „ | „ |
| Warships and merchant-ships | 250 | „ | „ |
| Specie | 200 | „ | „ |
| Miscellaneous | 300 | „ | „ |
| Goods and other products | 800 | „ | „ |
| Total | 11,080 | „ | „ |
The output of gold in 1908 was 168,883 ounces.
On the position Japanese occupy as regards the acquisition of wealth Mr. Kure Bunso, the well-known statistician, writes in the “Shakaigaku Zasshi” as follows: There are only two men in Japan who pay an income tax on over 250,000 yen. There are only 13 men in the whole country who pay on 39,000 yen, being in the proportion of 4 persons to every 100,000 inhabitants; only 67 who pay on 24,000 yen, being in the proportion of 2 persons to every 10,000 inhabitants; 96 persons who pay on 17,000 yen, being in the proportion of 2.8 persons to every 10,000 inhabitants; those who pay on 11,000 yen number 140, being in the proportion of 4 persons to every 10,000 inhabitants. Out of every 1,000 inhabitants there are only 7 persons who make 2,700 yen a year. Thus it is seen that when compared with the French and the English the Japanese are extremely poor. The Germans seem to be rich to the Japanese, though when compared with the French and English they are poor. General Grant, when in Japan nearly twenty years ago, remarked that Japan was fortunate in having such an equality among all classes of the people. He said that the gulf between the rich and the poor did not exist here. Equality may be all very well in its way, but, says Mr. Kure, a state of equality in which most of the people hardly have enough to live on is anything but desirable.[209]
The new building of the Mitsui Company in Tōkyō is constructed upon steel frames, and is the only one of its kind in the East. The Mitsui Bank is the oldest banking establishment in Japan, more than 200 years old. The building area is 2,600 square yards on a site covering 2½ acres.
Japanese Year Periods
It should be borne in mind that the Japanese year periods do not regularly correspond with the reigns of the Emperors, because “a new one was chosen whenever it was deemed necessary to commemorate an auspicious or ward off a malign event.” But hereafter the era will correspond with the reign of an Emperor. The names of some of these eras are quite famous, like the Elizabethan or the Victorian Era in English history. As the first era was a time of great reforms, it is known as the Taikwa Reformation; the Engi Era, in the tenth century, is celebrated for important legislation; the Genroku Era, in the seventeenth century, was “a period of great activity in various arts”; and the Tempō Era, of recent days, was “the last brilliant period of feudalism before its fall.” This name was also given to the large 8 rin piece coined in that era. The Wadō Era, in the fourteenth century, was so named on account of the discovery of copper; and the second era, Hakuchi, commemorates a “white pheasant,” presented to the Emperor.