JAPAN’S TROUBLES

Evening Star, Issue 22365, 15 June 1936, Page 10

JAPAN’S TROUBLES

THE ECONOMIC BASIS HER UNCERTAIN PROSPERITY GROWING UHREST Sensational political developments in Japan are serving to obscure social, labour, and economic conditions which are the fundamental causes of the revolt of a part of the Tokio garrison, it is declared in authoritative sources, said a writer in the ‘Christian Science Monitor ’ after the recent Japanese assassinations. . , . , Individuals and corporations which have interests in Japan and organisations like .the American Council of the Institute of Pacific Relations viewed developments there as merely “ surface manifestations of fundamental economic maladjustments ” which have grown out of a prosperity wave in which special interests—financial and manufacturing —have prospered beyond anything ever known heretofore in the Far East, while labour and small industry, particularly in agriculture, has been ground between the upper and nether millstones. The result, it was declared, has been a growing unrest, of which a faction of the army, popularly known in the Western world as Fascist, has taken advantage to strengthen its own position and impose its will in the drafting of policy on the mainland. The American Council of the Institute of Pacific Relations, commenting on the situation, stressed that these “ fundamental economic maladjustments ” should not be obscured “ by the more sensational aspects of the political drama.” “ The mushroom prosperity winch Japan has enjoyed in recent years has by no means distributed its benefits equally throughout the country-,” it was said at the' council’s headquarters. “ Huge profits in certain industries have not brought commensurate gains to individual workers. Confined largely to export and military industries, even this apparent prosperity is now threatened by fears of contracted individual expenditures and a tapering off of the export boom.” The situation was thus seen as almost parallel to that iu the United States when the “ prosperity era ” was nearing its end after the Great War. OVER-EFFICIENCY. “ The very efficiency which has brought profits to large, highly-organ-ised industrial and commercial units, has meant ruinous competition for millions of small producers and tradesmen,” the council's comment continued. “ Meanwhile the crisis in agriculture continues acute. While the Manchurian venture has brought prestige to the fighting services and profits to capitalists, the huge outlays it had entailed have yet to show anything more than an enormous debt and tax burden for the country as a whole. “ The resulting economic stress has intensified group antagonism of Jong standing between landlord and peasant, capital and labour, financial giant and small enterprise, and creditor and debtor. “ Dissatisfaction and a, sense of insecurity arc rife in many sections of the population. “ While syiieh underlying strains escape the newspaper headlines, they provide the materials out of which is fashioned the prevailing issue of ‘ national renovation ’ under the leadership of the army as against parliamentarism and capitalism ns they have been known in Japan. “ Thus economic uncertainties, intensified by growing disillusionment over the programme on the mainland of Asia, have inevitably inflamed the spirit of partisan violence and responsibility for outbursts like the recent one.” The council finds that the line-up of the opposing social groups 011 the question of Japanese foreign policy is “ byno means clear-cut,” but holds that the question “ is largely one of method rather than of objective.” . ALL AGREE ON EXPANSION. “ Civil and military- groups agree on the necessity of Japanese economic expansion, principally by exploiting the resources and market of China,” the council said. “ The outcome of the present crisis may determine whether this end is to be sought through military pressure or through peaceful penetration, In either case it remains to be seen whether such expansion will solve the problems of Japanese economy which have called it forth.” s This view was fully shared in high financial and business circles interested in the Far East, where it was accepted, as the council indicated, that Japanese penetration of Chinn, either peacefully or by- armed force, was inevitable; that it could not bo prevented save byunited action by the Powers, with 110 likelihood of them being able to resolve their own differences and fears to an extent which would enable them to unite to preserve the integrity- of China. Russia was seen as the onlypossible bar to Japan on the Asiatic mainland, and, whether this would or could become operative, it was declared, was to he determined only- by future developments. The view was held that to-day’s situation in Japan was indicative rather of peace with Russia than of war, since a comprehensive knowledge of Japanese conditions reveals a weakness in Nippon that indicates that she is not prepared for hostilities with a major Power possessing the biggest army in the world and with the resources now possessed by the Soviet Government. It was stressed that this view was based in part on the certain knowledge that a Russo-Japanese war would require a greater co-ordination of army and navy with finance and industry, these being woven into a homogeneous unity with labour and mau-power. Such a co-ordination would, it was added, he possible only- when the social and economic foundations of the nation were sound to the core, and the developments in Tokio, in the light of confidential reports received and the analysis of the Pacific Relations Council, indicated this was not the case. With a view to further clarifying the situation in the public thought the council reissued an article by Dr Emil Lcderer, dean of the university in exile, one-time professor at the Imperial University iu Tokio, an internationally known authority on Japanese affairs, in which he analysed in the December, 1934, number of ‘ Pacific Affairs,’ institute organ, the military, economic, and social situation in Japan. * AN INNER STATE. Dr Lederer stresses the agricultural unrest there and the fact that the Japanese army, “a State within the State,” draws its young officers mostly from the , peasants’ masses, thus accounting for the fact that they are “ iu sympathy with the agrarian revolutionary movement,” and “ listen readily to agitation against capitalism.” “ They are as willing to shoot a capitalist as a ‘ radical,’ ” he says. “ Among these young officers social

criticism and even nationalism have been dissolved into a fantastic, heroic ideology. . “ The main problems in the composition of the present Japanese situation are these; The unrest caused by the cultural situation, by the lack of balance, even now not fully recognised, between the old traditional Far Eastern standards and the new Western ideas; the far-reaching aims of Japan not only to become the model of all of the Asiatic peoples, but to head them politically ; a programme which is confronted by the calm, superior resistance of the Chinese, who are confident in their strength to hold their own and to develop steadily and even without the disruption that came to the Japanese after they opened their country to the foreigner; the agricultural unrest caused by the difficulties of increasing the net yield of the land; the greed for land,’ entailing a radical peasants’ movement within the country, and an aggressive foreign policy; industrial unrest, which results from the fact that a balance has not been achieved between the Japanese and foreign industries; the vulnerability of a foreign trade based on a very few commodities and liable to meet closed markets in time of depression; an over-growing conflict between the exaggerated demands of the military and the minimum of common sense defended by the civilian Ministers and the bureaucracy; the medley of social ideas, advocated by confused ‘ leaders ’ and supported by blindly enthusiastic followers, and, in the realm of politics, a parliamentary system which can function for a time, but is disturbed over and over again by the militaristic clans enforcing their policies by a mailed fist. . . . In short, a country full of tensions and unsolved problems.” Among the labour problems, Dr Lederer places first the long working hours, segregation of women in barracks, and ruthless suppression of radical organisations. Meanwhile the peasant “ lives practically at the minimum of subsistence,” and while his standards are to-day much higher than they were in olden times, they are still far below that of the average European peasant. He was once so poor. Dr Lederer declares, that he was known as a “ water drinker, because he could not afford the charcoal to boil water for his tea.”