SOME FACTS ABOUT JAPAN.

King Country Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 297, 24 September 1910, Page 2

SOME FACTS ABOUT JAPAN.

(Prom "Every-Day Japan," by A. Lloyd, M.A.) The area of Japan proper, not counting its more recent acquisitions, such as Formosa or Saghalien, is 27,062 Japanese ri., corresponding to 382,400 square kilometres, or 162,655 square miles in our English reckoning. Japan is, therefore, considerably larger than the British Isles, especially since its more recent developments. If we were to place Japan on the map of Europe it would, without Formosa and Saghalien, cover an area equal to the whole of Germany, minus Bavaria and the Thuringian States ; with its new colonies the area covered would be almost that of the German Empire. Or if we were to put the southernmost point of Kyushu in the south of Sicily, it would make a long narrow country covering the whole of Italy, Switzerland, Alsace Lorraine, Baden, Wurtemberg, Hesse, and the Rhine provinces of Prussia. Or if you placed its southernmost point at Assouan, in Egypt, which is on the same parallel of latitude with the South of Japan, you would get a long narrow Empire reaching from there to about Warsaw in Poland, and containing a population about equal to that of the Austro-Hungar-ian Empire. We never talk of little Germany, or little Austria, or even little Italy. The word is a misnomer also in the case of Japan. Notwithstanding the topagraphical advantages of their country, the Japanese have never been a seafaring nation. The reason for this is not far to seek. To the west and south they could, indeed, make voyages of short duration such as their ships were capable of undertaking, and in the days before the restrictive policy of Iyeyasu had sealed Japan from all intercourse with the outside world Japanese traders and far more frequently Japanese pirates might be met with along the coasts and rivers of China, in Korea, and as far as Siam and Cochin China. But to the east lay the great Pacific Ocean, a waste of waters, all but impossible for the Japanese to traverse in the days of small sailing ships such as the country had to put up with during her" long mediaeval period. Thus, the Pacific Ocean, with its difficulties and unknown terrors, was a barrier to Japanese navagation in the east, while the Government policy during three centuries kept the Japanese sailors from the more accessible waters tc the west and south. All that remained for the sea-faring enterprise )f the people was the internal trade among the numerous islands of the Japanese Archipelago and the teaming fisheries of the northern seas. Both of which the Japs have known how to utilise to their utmost extent. When the call came for Japan to become a maritime power in the modern sense of the term there was no lack of mariners trained by long habit in the ways of the ocean. One peculiarity of the seas surrounding the Japanese Archipelagc is the presence of two gulf streams, the one cold and the other hot. The Kuroshiwo, or black current, is produced near the equator by the action of the trade wind, flows along the coasts of China till it strikes the shores of Japan, follows the Japanese coastline as far north as about 38 deg. N.L., and thence bends eastward across the Pacific Ocean, where it spends its remaining strength ir washing the coasts of British Columbia. The other current is a cold one t ; it rises near the mouth of the Amur River, and flowing southwards between the mainland of Asia and the island of Saghalien, washes the western coasts of Yezo and the main island of Hondo, or Honshu. One result of these two contrary currents is to produce surprising differences of climate and temperature between places which are really only a few miles apart and which lie almost parallel of latitude. Thus in Tokio, which is on about the same parallel as Madrid, we have a winter which, while damp and raw, cannot be said to be inclemently cold so long as the sun is shining ; while a few miles off, around Kambabura Hayama, the winters may almost be said to be as mild as on the Riviera. Snow falls but seldom, and when it falls it rapidly disappears. If, however, we take the train running west, across the great backbone range of mountains in the vicinity of the Sea of Japan, into the provinces oi Shinshu and Echigo, we are at once made conscious of the influence oi the cold current from the north. Here we get a winter not unlike the game season in the southern parts of Eastern Canada, dry and bracing, with several feet of snow for many months at a time. And yet the distance between Tokio and Nigata is no greater than that between London and Bath, and the two places are on almost the same parallel of latitude. This is, of course, only one of the many cases producing differences of climate between one part of Japan and another. The reader will readily understand that a long narrow strip of island territory beginning just north of the Tropics and ending not far short ol the Arctic circle, must of necessity offer an almost infinite variety of climates. It is as hard to characterise the climate of Japan as it is to describe in a few words the chief characteristics of its people. Another result of the Gulf streams, and especially of the cold stream [lowing down from the north, is to bring immense quantities of excellent fish into Japanese waters. The extreme importance of the fishing industry to Japan will be understood when it is realised that the fisheries give occupation to about 900,000 families, or over 3,0§©,000 individuals, amounting to about 15 per

cent, of the whole population c that the 3,000,000 fisherfolk require 420,300 boats for the ourposes of their industry, and that the average annual product of the fish taken is 477,399,173 yen, or in English money £47,739,917. Fish is considerably cheaper in Japan than it is in England, so that those items would need to be increased considerably in order to make a good comparison with British industries. The Japanese is. in the main, a fish eater both by religion and by inclination, the fish that he cannot use for eating is put on his fields as a fertiliser, and the fishing population along the coast not only occupy themselves with fishing, but reap a good harvest from the seaweed and other marine products which are sometimes used for food, sometimes as fertilisers, sometimes, as with coral and pearls, for articles of dress or ornament.