JAPANESE TRADE.

Woodville Examiner, Volume XXXVI, Issue 5516, 24 October 1919, Page 1 (Supplement)

JAPANESE TRADE.

In 1913 Japanese imports exceeded exports in value by £9,697,100, in round figures; in 1914 the excess of imports over-exports was only £463,000. The situation then changed completely, and exports exceeded imports for 1915 by £17,585,700; in 1916 by £37,104,000; in 1917 by £56,719,400, and from January to August, 1918, by £10,560,800. The total value of the exports for 1917 was £160,300,500, of which £70,411,100 apply to Asia —about half of this latter figure representing exports to China; £33,518,250 being applicable to Europe—the greater ports to Great Britain; £50,356,000 being the value of the exports to America, of which the United States took £47,853,600 in value; £5,402,part of £20,264,600 representing ex--500 being the value of the exports to Australia, which took goods for a value of about half the latter figure—to Cape Colony and Natal, Egypt and Hawaii. The table gives, further, two comparatively small sums to “other nations” and to “unknown destinations.” The total value of the commodities imported into Japan, also for 1917, w r as £103,581,100, divided in the main as follows; —Asia, £47,551,800, the principal component figures being £22,394.100 from British India and £13,327.100 from China; Europe £8,217,600, in which figure Great Britain enters for £6,330,400; America, £37,678,200, the greater part, or £35,970,500, representing imports from the United States; there being, further, imports to the value of £3,293,400 from Australia, £1,885,100 from Cape Colony and Natal, £1,090700 from Egypt, besides entries under Hawaii, temporary warehouse and unknown origin. All the above figures for exports and imports do not include gold and silver coins and bullion, and apply to Japan proper only. The list of increased exports for the year 1917, as compared with 1916, is headed by raw silk, the increase over 1916, in value, being £8,811,800. Raw silk was largely in demand from both Europe and America, due partly to the fact that the output in silk-producing centres outside Japan was poor. The largest consumer, as formerly, was the United States, followed by France, Great Britain and Italy. The next item on the list is steamships, the increase in the exports of which in 1917 over 1916 amounted to over £8,000,000, this being accounted for by a scarcity of vessels and a brisk demand for them from both Europe and America.

The list of increased imports for the year 1917, as compared with 1916, is headed by bar iron, the increase over 1916, in value, being over £10,000,000- There is also an increase in the value of machines and machinery imported to the extent of over £1,600,000. These items were largely in demand in shipbuilding, and other enterprises, which had undergone a sudden development in Japan since the war.— “Engineering.”