From the above it will be remarked that Japan, in a relatively very short time, from being almost exclusively an importer of cotton goods, now exports them to foreign markets, and with good results. The Custom-house declared in 1898 £1,109,600 worth of cotton, or 20,269 tons of exports, and £734,400, or 7,185 tons of imports. The statistics of the Japanese Cotton Spinners’ Union record the following figures:
| Mills. | No. of Looms. | Workmen. | Workwomen. | Production of Spun Cotton. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tons. | |||||
| 31 Dec., 1890 | 30 | 227,895 | 4,089 | 10,330 | 18,798 |
| 31 Dec., 1895 | 47 | 580,945 | 9,650 | 31,140 | 68,106 |
| 31 Dec., 1897 | 61 | 839,387 | 13,447 | 43,367 | 97,435 |
| 31 Oct., 1898 | 61 | 1,233,661 | 13,447 | 43,367 | 97,829 |
Nearly half of this cotton is manufactured at Osaka, the rest at Kobe, and at Okyama, on the Inland Sea, to the west, and at Yokkaichi, Nagoya and Tokio, to the east. The conclusion of the late Chinese War gave a great impulse to the cotton industries in Japan, and necessitated the construction of new and much larger establishments, and the enlargement of those already in existence, so that it is calculated that before long over a million and a half looms will be in activity in various parts of the country. These very important industries, it must be remembered, are not subsidized by foreign capital, or under the direction of foreigners; they are purely and absolutely Japanese; up to the present, however, nearly all the plant has been imported from England and America.
Until 1897 employers of labour had a good deal of trouble in obtaining workmen. The townspeople, being engaged in a great many small industries of their own, were not willing to abandon them for work which was not likely to prove as remunerative as their own; in consequence of this the country districts had to be ransacked for hands, and nearly all the girls employed in the factories of Osaka are the daughters of small farmers. They are lodged and boarded by the various companies in buildings erected expressly for the purpose, a percentage being deducted from their wages for their keep. Certain abuses having arisen in their management, a leading local newspaper, published in English, but really owned and edited by Japanese, in 1897 called attention to the same in a series of articles, violently attacking the working organization of the Osaka cotton-mills. The lodgings of the workwomen were, it was stated, exceedingly unhealthy; and as to the morals of the women employed, the less said about them the better. Then, again, the agents who engaged these young women were accused of doing so under false promises, and it was said they even went so far as to intercept their correspondence with their homes. The editor furthermore condemned in the severest terms the employment of extremely young children.
These articles attracted a great deal of attention, and contained doubtless a certain amount of truth, not unmingled, however, with considerable exaggeration. The Japanese employers of labour are, it should be remarked, after all in very much the same position in which our own were some fifty or sixty years ago. As to the moral tone of the workgirls, it is doubtless neither better nor worse than it is in the great manufacturing centres of Europe and America. At Moscow a manufacturer informed me that the morals of his workgirls were very bad, and at Shanghai another gentleman related to me things on the same subject best left unpublished. The working hours are not longer in Japan than they were in Europe thirty or forty years ago. They never exceed twelve hours a day, from which half an hour must be deducted for the midday meal. Nevertheless, it is excessive, especially when we remember that the week’s work is divided into two parts, one half the hands working all night and the other all day, so that the looms are never at rest. Then they have only two off-days in the month, on the first and the fifteenth; and there are only four special holidays in the year, the three first days in the New Year, and the Emperor’s birthday. Even the first and the fifteenth are not observed if there is a press of work. If these hours appear too long, it must not be forgotten that the Japanese workman, like his brother worker in the South of Europe, does not labour with the intensity that distinguishes the Englishman or the American. As to the employment of women, they are only engaged in the match factories, and their work is of the lightest.
Nevertheless, attention in Japan is being directed towards these two very important questions, which will, doubtless, sooner or later, receive proper attention and be modified. Wages are already rising, as the workpeople begin to understand their worth and their own interests, and to know how to protect them. A danger to which the Japanese industries are exposed is undoubtedly due to a diminution of capital, the result of over-production after the late war, which brought about much the same phase that occurred in the commercial history of Germany after the Franco-German War. However, the financial crisis of 1898 and the competition recently created at Shanghai have created a certain degree of anxiety concerning the immediate future of Japanese industry; but, on the other hand, the magnificent results obtained in such a surprisingly short time, and the courageous manner in which this industrious people have overcome the many difficulties which beset them in the earlier stages of their career, must not be forgotten.
CHAPTER V
RURAL JAPAN
Predominance of agriculture in the economic existence of Japan—Density of the rustic population in the plains and lower valleys—Importance of the Japanese fisheries with respect to the food supply of the people—Principal crops: rice, tea and mulberry-trees—Absence of domestic animals—Returns of Japanese agriculture—Small holdings—Japanese peasantry, their vegetarian or ichthyophagian diet—Their dwellings—Position of women—Their extreme cleanliness, politeness and good nature—Cost of living—Amelioration of peasant life in Japan after the Restoration—Spread of Western civilization and instruction among them.
Notwithstanding the rapid industrial development which has recently taken place in Japan, the greater proportion of the population is still essentially rural, and derives, if not all, at least the greater part of its means of subsistence from the soil. Petty industries, however, abound and materially assist this hard-working people to add to their very small incomes. Along the indented coasts of the islands, and on the shores of the Inland Sea, innumerable little villages will be found, whose inhabitants depend entirely for their subsistence upon the fisheries, but notwithstanding their importance, Japan may be described as an essentially agricultural country. It is, also, the cultivation of the soil which supplies the raw material of the silk, still one of the staple export industries, and also of another very important article of exportation, tea. On a total export in 1896 of £11,650,000 worth of Japanese products, tea represented £637,200, rice £795,100, raw silk cocoons and silk-ravel £3,166,600. If we add to these figures about £4,700,000 worth of miscellaneous products, or 14 per cent., and add also about £1,200,000, or 4 per cent., of raw or unprepared produce, we shall find that the aggregate value of agricultural products of all kinds reaches the respectable figure of £5,950,000, more than half that of the total export. Notwithstanding their importance, the area devoted to the culture of the tea-plant and the mulberry-tree is relatively small as compared with that devoted to rice, which is the staple article of food of the whole of the Far East. The extensive culture of this latter accounts for the peculiarity often noticed in Japanese landscapes, that you never see any of those gentle hill-slopes which are so familiar in France. The hills rise abruptly from the stagnant waters, and seem cut into three or four broad step-like terraces, possibly the result of the action of the water which inundates the rice-fields. When I was in Japan, in the autumn, the rice harvest was just over, and the country would have looked very dismal on account of the drab colour of the muddy soil, divided up like a chess-board into regular squares, from which the rice had been recently cut, and now covered by a thin layer of dry weeds, had it not been for the peculiarly elegant shapes of surrounding heights which are shaded by those delightful firs so familiar to us in old Japanese prints. The lace-like curtains of bamboo clustering here and there added also to the variety and charm of the scene, which was further enhanced by the numerous cryptomerias, whose superb foliage contrasted vividly with the brown and the red of the maples that are invariably planted around the charming little temples dotted about in all directions. In the hilly districts the beauty of the trees breaks the monotony of the rice-fields and of the reclaimed wastelands, but in the plains and valleys there is not one to be seen, every inch of land being most carefully cultivated.
The rural population of Japan is marvellously dense, incomparably more so than in any part of Europe. On an area but little greater than that of Great Britain and Ireland, Japan contains 42,270,620 inhabitants, that is to say, 284 souls per square mile, including the large southern island of Yezo, which is very sparsely peopled. Not taking this very extensive island into account, it will be safe to state that the population of Japan is twice as dense as that of France, and only equalled by that of Belgium, an absolutely industrial country, whereas at least 80 per cent. of the Japanese live in the country. Certain provinces, Shiko and Sitama, for instance, to the north-east of Tokio, respectively boast of 604 and 709 to the square mile, although the capital cities of these two provinces contain respectively only 26,000 and 20,000 inhabitants. The island of Shikoku and the province of Kagawa, on the other hand, which possesses only one large town, Takamatsu, with 34,000 inhabitants, has a population that reaches the phenomenal figure of 998 souls to every square mile. In only thirty-six out of forty-six Japanese provinces, exclusive of Yezo, are there less than 250 inhabitants to the square mile, and in only four, three of which are at the extreme north and one at the south, is the population less crowded than in most parts of France. The following statistical table shows the population, with its relative density: