There are several thousand chō in the vicinity of Tokyo where, owing to the low temperature of the marshy soil, the seed is sown direct in the paddies, not broadcast but at regular intervals and in thrice or four times the normal quantities.
[ RATE OF PLANTING [XXII].] I have been told that an adult who has the seedlings brought to his or her hand can stick in a thousand an hour. The early varieties may be set in clumps of seven or eight plants; middle-growth sorts may contain from five to six; the latest kind may include only three or four. The number of clumps planted may be 42 per tsubo, which, as a tsubo is nearly four square yards, is about ten per square yard. The clumps are put in their places by being pushed into the mud. A straight line is kept by means of a rope. The success of the crop depends in no small degree on skilful planting.
[ HOW MUCH RICE DOES A JAPANESE EAT? [XXIII].] The daily consumption of rice per head, counting young and old, is nearly 3 go. (A go is roughly a third of a pint.) A sturdy labourer will consume at least 5 go in a day, and sometimes 7 or even 10 go. The allowance for soldiers is 6 go. These quantities represent the rice uncooked. In recent years more and more rice has been eaten by those who formerly ate barley or mainly barley. And some who once ate a good deal of millet and hiye are now eating a certain amount of rice. The average annual consumption per head of the Japanese population (Korea and Formosa excluded from the calculation) was: 1888-93, 948 go; 1908-13, 1,037 go; 1913-18, 1,050 go. The averages of 25 years (1888-1912) were: production, 42,756,584 koku; consumption, 44,410,725 koku; deficit, 1,984,970 koku; population, 45,140,094; per head, 0.980 koku. In 1921 the Department of Agriculture, estimating a population of 55,960,000 (see [Appendix XXX]) and an annual consumption per head of 1.1 koku per year, put the national consumption for a year at about 61,550,000 koku. See also [Appendix XXVI].
[ IMPORTED AND EXPORTED RICE [XXIV].] "Good rice" is imported from Korea and Formosa. The objection is to "Rangoon" rice. But most of the imported rice does not come from Rangoon but from Saigon. The figures for 1919 were in yen: China, 283,011; British India, 1,012,979; Kwantung, 15,053,977; Siam, 29,367,430; French Indo-China, 116,313,525; other countries, 39,918; total, 162,070,840. The exports in 1919 were in yen: China, 1,354; Australia, 6,570; Asiatic Russia, 165,463; Kwantung, 213,633; British America, 356,600; United States, 476,756; Hawaii, 3,046,598; other countries, 60,707—all obviously in the main for Japanese consumption. The total imports and exports were in koku and yen over a period of years:
| Year | Imports | Exports | ||
| Koku | Value (yen) | Koku | Value (yen) | |
| 1909 | 1,325,243 | 13,585,817 | 422,513 | 5,867,290 |
| 1910 | 918,627 | 8,644,439 | 429,251 | 5,900,477 |
| 1911 | 1,719,566 | 11,721,085 | 216,198 | 3,940,541 |
| 1912 | 2,234,437 | 30,193,481 | 208,423 | 4,367,824 |
| 1913 | 3,637,269 | 48,472,304 | 204,002 | 4,372,979 |
| 1914 | 2,022,644 | 24,823,933 | 260,738 | 4,974,108 |
| 1915 | 457,606 | 4,886,125 | 662,629 | 9,676,969 |
| 1916 | 309,158 | 3,087,616 | 686,479 | 11,197,356 |
| 1917 | 564,376 | 6,513,373 | 769,129 | 14,662,546 |
| 1918 | 4,647,168 | 89,755,678 | 264,565 | 8,321,965 |
| 1919 | 4,642,382 | 162,070,840 | 95,219 | 4,327,690 |
| 1920 | 471,083 | 18,059,194 | 116,249 | 5,897,675 |
The twenty-five years' average (1888-1912) of excess of import over export was 1,339,493 koku. See also [Appendix XXVIII].
[ INCREASE OF RICE YIELD AND OF POPULATION [XXV].]
| 1882 | 1913 | Percentage of Increase | 1918 | Percentage of Increase[A] | |
| Population | 36,700,000 | 53,362,000 | 45 | 66,851,000 | 55 |
| Rice crop (koku) | 30,692,000 | 50,222,000 | 63 | 53,893,000 | 75 |
[Footnote A: 1882-1918. The degree to which the increase in production will be maintained is of course a matter for discussion. As far as rice is concerned, it must be borne in mind that there is an increasing consumption per head.]
[ FARMERS' DIET [XXVI].] It is officially stated in 1921 that "the common farm diet consists of a mixture of cooked rice and barley as the principal food with vegetables and occasionally fish." The barley is what is known as naked barley. Ordinary barley is eaten in northern Japan, but two-thirds of the barley eaten elsewhere is the wheat-like naked barley, which cannot be grown in Fukushima and the north. The husking of ordinary barley is hard work. The young men do it during the night when it is cool. They keep on until cock-crow. Their songs and the sound of their mallets make a memorable impression as one passes through a village on a moonlight night. Another substitute for rice beyond millet is hiye (panic grass). In the south it is regarded as a weed of the paddies, but in the north many tan are planted with this heavy-yielding small grain.