DATA FROM JAPAN | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 23, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 29.

DATA FROM JAPAN.

The public prominence of Japan and the Japanese gives additional interest to some facts and figures published by the Imperial Census department of that country in its recent official report. According to this source the country, on December 31, 1893, had a total population of 41,388,313, occupying a territory of 382,329 square kilometers (1 kilometer equals 274 acres). The average density of population was 108 for each square kilometer, the highest percentage being found in the province of Osaka, which reported 691, while Hokkaido, the most northern province, reported only 4 inhabitants to each square kilometer.

Foreigners in Japan numbered only 9,633, and of these 5,373 were Chinese, 1,787 English, 430 German.

To every 1,000 inhabitants there were 8.66 marriages, and the annual percentage of divorces was 2.82; so that there were about 3 marriages to every divorce. This ratio is explained on the ground of the ease with which divorces can be secured in Japan, especially as the teaching of Confucius recommends a divorce in the case of marriage that remains without issue during the first three years.

The female population of Japan is 20,481,848, and the male 20.906,465; and it is especially noted that the number of unmarried “old maids” is exceptionally small.

The wages earned by the Japanese laborer present some interesting data for comparison. The best paid are the tailors who make European clothing, who earn .49 yen a day, or something less than 25 cents, as a yen is about the equivalent of a half dollar. Next comes the stone mason, with .36 yen; carpenters, cabinet-makers, blacksmiths, with .13 yen; painters, .29 yen; while the lowest wages are paid to the farm laborers, namely, .19 yen to the men and .12 yen to the women. Workers in special lines, such as the weaving of silks, earn in addition to their keep, amounting to perhaps 1.50 yen, monthly wages of 4.83 in the case of men, and 3.30 in the case of women. The average working day is from 12 to 16 hours; and as Japan has no Sunday, a laboring man can count on 350 working days a year. The cheap labor and the skill of the Japanese workingman explain the rapid development of Japanese trades and manufacture, which now already have entered into sharp competition with the products of England, Germany, and France in eastern markets. The export trade of Japan amounted to 66,141,044 yen in the year 1884, and to 197,775,247 yen in 1893. The imports too had increased proportionally, consisting largely of supplies for the army and navy. And yet the annual exports exceed the imports by fifteen or twenty million yen. —Selected.