Place.Number in
1904.		Number in
1906.
China9,41727,126
Korea31,093100,000
Manchuria—43,823
Hong-Kong600756
Singapore1,2921,428
British India413530
Europe183697
United States of America33,849130,228
Canada3,8385,088
Mexico4561,294
S. America1,4962,500
Philippines2,6522,185
Hawaii65,00864,319
Australasia71,1293,274

Foreign Residents.—The number of foreigners residing in Japan and their nationalities in 1889, 1899 and 1906, respectively, were as follow:—

1889.1899.1906.
Americans8991,2961,650
British1,7012,0132,155
Russians63134211
French335463540
Portuguese108158165
Germans550532670
Chinese4,9756,37212,425
Koreans8188254

There are also small numbers of Dutch, Peruvians, Belgians, Swiss, Italians, Danes, Swedes, Austrians, Hungarians, &c. This slow growth of the foreign residents is remarkable when contrasted with the fact that the volume of the country’s foreign trade, which constitutes their main business, grew in the same period from 13½ millions sterling to 92 millions.

Posts and Telegraphs.—The government of the Restoration did not wait for the complete abolition of feudalism before organizing a new system of posts in accordance with modern needs. At first, letters only were carried, but before the close of 1871 the service was extended so as to include newspapers, printed matter, books and commercial samples, while the area was extended so as to embrace all important towns between Hakodate in the northern island of Yezo and Nagasaki in the southern island of Kiūshiū. Two years later this field was closed to private enterprise, the state assuming sole charge of the business. A few years later saw Japan in possession of an organization comparable in every respect with the systems existing in Europe. In 1892 a foreign service was added. Whereas in 1871 the number of post-offices throughout the empire was only 179, it had grown to 6449 in 1907, while the mail matter sent during the latter year totalled 1254 millions (including 15 millions of parcels), and 67,000 persons were engaged in handling it. Japan labours under special difficulties for postal purposes, owing to the great number of islands included in the empire, the exceptionally mountainous nature of the country, and the wide areas covered by the cities in proportion to the number of their inhabitants. It is not surprising to find, therefore, that the means of distribution are varied. The state derives a net revenue of 5 million yen approximately from its postal service. It need scarcely be added that the system of postal money-orders was developed pari passu with that of ordinary correspondence, but in this context one interesting fact may be noted, namely, that while Japan sends abroad only some £25,000 annually to foreign countries through the post, she receives over £450,000 from her over-sea emigrants.

Japan at the time of the Restoration (1867) was not entirely without experience which prepared her for the postal money-order system. Some 600 years ago the idea of the bill of exchange was born in the little town of Totsugawa Postal Savings Bank. (Yamato province), though it did not obtain much development before the establishment of the Tokugawa shōgunate in the 17th century. The feudal chiefs, having then to transmit large sums to Yedo for the purposes of their compulsory residence there, availed themselves of bills of exchange, and the shōgun’s government, which received considerable amounts in Osaka, selected ten brokers to whom the duty of effecting the transfer of these funds was entrusted. Subsequently the 10 chosen brokers were permitted to extend their services to the general public, and a recent Japanese historian notes that Osaka thus became the birthplace of banking business in Japan. Postal money-orders were therefore easily appreciated at the time of their introduction in 1875. This was not true of the postal savings bank, however, an institution which came into existence in the same year. It was altogether a novel idea that the public at large, especially the lower sections of it, should entrust their savings to the government for safe keeping, especially as the minimum and maximum deposited at one time were fixed at such petty sums as 10 sen (2¼d.) and 50 sen (1s.), respectively. Indeed, in the circumstances, the fact that £1500 was deposited in the first year must be regarded as notable. Subsequently deposits were taken in postage stamps, and arrangements were effected for enabling depositors to pay money to distant creditors through the bank by merely stating the destination and the amount of the nearest post office. In 1908 the number of depositors in the post office savings bank was 8217, and their deposits exceeded 10 millions sterling. Thirty per cent. of the depositors belonged to the agricultural classes, 13 to the commercial and only 6 to the industrial.

Rapid communication by means of beacons was not unknown in ancient Japan, but code-signalling by the aid of flags was not introduced until the 17th century and was probably suggested by observing the practice of foreign merchantmen. Telegraphs. Its use, however, was peculiar. The central office stood at Osaka, between which city and many of the principal provincial towns rudely constructed towers were placed at long distances, and from one to another of these intelligence as to the market price of rice was flashed by flag-shaking, the signals being read with telescopes. The Japanese saw a telegraph for the first time in 1854, when Commodore Perry presented a set of apparatus to the shōgun, and four years later the feudal chief of Satsuma (Shimazu Nariakira) caused wires to be erected within the enclosure of his castle. The true value of electric telegraphy was first demonstrated to the Japanese in connexion with an insurrection in 1877, under the leadership of Saigo, the favourite of this same Shimazu Nariakira. Before that time, however, a line of telegraph had been put up between Tōkyō and Yokohama (18 m.) and a code of regulations had been enacted. Sudden introduction to such a mysterious product of foreign science created superstitious dread in the minds of a few of the lower orders, and occasional attempts were made at the outset to wreck the wires. In 1886 the postal and telegraph offices were amalgamated and both systems underwent large development. Whereas the length of wires at the end of the fourth year after the introduction of the system was only 53 m., and the number of messages 20,000, these figures had grown in 1907 to 95,623 and 25 millions, respectively. Several cables are included in these latter figures, the longest being that to Formosa (1229 m.). Wireless telegraphy began to come into general use in 1908, when several vessels belonging to the principal steamship companies were equipped with the apparatus. It had already been employed for some years by the army and navy, especially during the war with Russia, when the latter service installed a new system, the joint invention of Captain Tonami of the navy, Professor S. Kimura of the naval college and Mr M. Matsushiro of the department of communications. The telegraph service in Japan barely pays the cost of operating and maintenance.

The introduction of the telephone into Japan took place in 1877, but it served official purposes solely during 13 years, and even when (1890) it was placed at the disposal of the general public its utilities found at first few appreciators. Telephones. But this apathy soon yielded to a mood of eager employment, and the resources of the government (which monopolized the enterprise) proved inadequate to satisfy public demand. Automatic telephones were ultimately set up at many places in the principal towns and along the most frequented highways. The longest distance covered was from Tōkyō to Osaka (348 m.). In 1907 Japan had 140,440 m. of telephone wires, 262 exchanges, 159 automatic telephones, and the approximate number of messages sent was 160 millions. The telephone service pays a net revenue of about £100,000 annually.

Agriculture.—The gross area of land in Japan—excluding Formosa and Sakhalin—is 89,167,880 acres, of which 53,487,022 acres represent the property of the crown, the state and the communes, the rest (35,680,868 acres) being owned by private persons. Of the grand total the arable lands represent 15,301,297 acres. With regard to the immense expanse remaining unproductive, experts calculate that if all lands inclined at less than 15° be considered cultivable, an area of 10,684,517 acres remains to be reclaimed, though whether the result would repay the cost is a question hitherto unanswered. The cultivated lands are thus classified, namely, wet fields (called also paddy fields or rice lands), 6,871,437 acres; dry fields (or upland farms), 5,741,745 acres, and others, 2,688,115 acres.

Paddy fields are to be seen in every valley or dell where farming is practicable; they are divided into square, oblong or triangular plots by grass-grown ridges a few inches in height and on an average a foot in breadth—the rice being Rice. planted in the soft mud thus enclosed. Narrow pathways intersect these rice-valleys at intervals, and rivulets (generally flowing between low banks covered with clumps of bamboo) feed ditches cut for purposes of irrigation. The fields are generally kept under water to a depth of a few inches while the crops are young, but are drained immediately before harvesting. They are then dug up, and again flooded before the second crop is planted out. The rising grounds which skirt the rice-land are tilled by the hoe, and produce Indian corn, millet and edible roots. The well-wooded slopes supply the peasants with timber and firewood. Thirty-six per cent. of the rice-fields yield two crops yearly. The seed is sown in small beds, and the seedlings are planted out in the fields after attaining the height of about 4 in. The finest rice is produced in the fertile plains watered by the Tone-gawa in the province of Shimōsa, but the grain of Kaga and of the two central provinces of Settsu and Harima is also very good.