paragraph, it may be said that the Japanese have turned what we call mechanical industries into fine arts, which display a magnificent triumph of æstheticism even in little things.1

This chapter would be incomplete without a paragraph concerning Japanese shops, or retail stores, which are among the first curiosities to attract and rivet a foreigner's attention. The building is, perhaps, a small, low, frame structure, crowded among its fellows on a narrow lane. The floor is raised a foot or so above the ground, and is covered, as usual, with thick matting. Spread out on the floor or on wooden tiers or on shelves are the goods for sale. The shopkeeper sits on his feet on the floor, and calmly smokes his pipelet, or fans himself, or in winter warms his hands over the hibachi (fire-bowl). He greets you with a profound bow and most respectful words of welcome, but makes no attempt to effect a sale, or even to show an article unless you ask to see it. He is imperturbably indifferent whether or not you make a purchase; either way, it is all right. He will politely display anything you want to see; and, even if, after making him much trouble, you buy nothing or only an insignificant and cheap article, he sends you away with as profound a bow and as polite expressions as if you had bought out the shop. Whether you buy little or much or even nothing, you are always dismissed with "Arigatō gozaimasu" and "Mata irasshai," which are very re

1 See also chapter on "Esthetic Japan."

spectful phrases for "Thank you" and "Come again." Having dropped into "a veritable shoppers' paradise," you will quickly "find yourself the prey of an acute case of shopping fever before you know it!" It is, indeed, true, to quote further from this same writer, that "to stroll down the Broadway [known as the Ginza] of Tokio of an evening is a liberal education in every-day art."1

From what has already been written, it is easily noticeable that wages and incomes, like so many things in petite Japan, are insignificant. It may be added here that ordinary mechanics earn on an average 50 sen a day, and the most skilful seldom get more than double that amount; that carpenters earn from 50 to 80 sen a day; that street-car drivers and conductors receive 10 or 12 yen per month, and other workmen of the common people about the same. Even an official who receives 1,000 yen per year is considered to have a snug income. It will be inferred from this that the cost of living is proportionately cheaper, whether for provisions or for shelter or for clothes, and that the wants, the absolute necessities, of the people are few and simple. Literally true it is, that a Japanese man "wants but little here below, nor wants that little long." With rice, barley, sweet potatoes, other vegetables, fish, eggs, tea, and even sweetmeats in abundance and very cheap, a Japanese can subsist on little and be contented and happy with enough, or even less than that. But,

1 Lowell's "Soul of the Far East," pp. 114-117.

unfortunately, the new civilization of the West has carried into Japan the itch for gold and the desire for more numerous and more expensive luxuries, and has increased the cost of living without increasing proportionately the amount of income or wages.1

Industrial Japan has already become more or less modified by features of Occidental industrialism, such as guilds, trade unions, strikes, co-operative stores. It is true that feudal Japan also had guilds, which are, however, now run rather on modern lines. One of the oldest, strongest, and most compact is that of the dock coolies, who without many written rules are yet so well organized that they have almost an absolute monopoly, with frequent strikes, which are always successful. Others of the guilds are those of the sawyers, the plasterers, the stonemasons, the bricklayers, the carpenters, the barbers, the coolies (who can travel all over the empire without a penny and live on their fellows), the wrestlers, the actors, the gamblers, the pickpockets, etc. The beggars' guild is now defunct. The labor unions of modern days include the iron-workers, the shipcarpenters, the railway engineers, the railway workmen, the printers, and the European-style cooks. The last-mentioned is one in which foreigners resident in Japan necessarily take a practical interest! The only unions which have become absolute masters of the situation are those of the dock coolies, the railway laborers, and the railway engineers. As for

1 The Yankees of the East (Curtis), chap. xii. Also see Appendix.

co-operative stores, there are a dozen or more in Tōkyō, Yokohama, and Northern Japan.

The perfect organization of these modern unions is due largely to the efforts of a young man named Sen Katayama, who is the champion of the rights of the laboring man in Japan. He spent ten years in America and made a special study of social problems. He is the head of Kingsley Hall, a social settlement of varied activity in the heart of Tōkyō, and editor of the "Labor World," the organ of the working classes. That the changes rapidly taking place in the industrial life of Japan will raise up serious problems, there is no doubt; what phases they will assume cannot be foreseen. But "socialistic" ideas are carefully repressed in modern Japan.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

"Japan and its Trade" and "Advance Japan (Morris); "The Yankees of the East" (Curtis); “Japan in Transition (Ransome), chap. x.; "The Awakening of the East" (LeroyBeaulieu), chaps. iv. and v.; and especially Rein's "Industries of Japan," in which the subject is treated in great detail with German thoroughness. But to keep pace with the rapid progress along industrial and commercial lines, one really needs current English newspapers and magazines, such as are mentioned in the chapter on Language and Literature." The reports of the British and United States consular officials are also very useful in this respect. "Japan and America," a monthly magazine published in New York City, will be found convenient and valuable on this subject.

66

CHAPTER III

TRAVEL, TRANSPORTATION, COMMERCE

OUTLINE OF TOPICS: Travelling in Old Japan; vehicles of Old and New Japan; jinrikisha; railway travel; telegraph and telephone; street-car, bicycle, and automobile; steamships. - Postal system. Oil, gas, and electric light. - Foreign commerce; variety of imports. — Mixed corporations. - Stock and other exchanges. — Banking system; coinage; monetary standard. Baron Shibusawa on business ability of Japanese, prospects of industrial and commercial Japan, and financial situation. Bibliography.

NE of the most common and most important indications of a great change in the life and

civilization of Japan is to be seen in the

improved modes of travel and transportation. The ancient method, though in some sections pack-horses and oxen were used, was essentially pedestrian. The common people travelled on foot, and carried or dragged over the road their own baggage or freight. Couriers, carrying the most important despatches, relied upon fleetness of foot. The higher classes and wealthy people, even though not themselves making any exertions in their own behalf, were carried about in vehicles by coolies, who, with their human burdens, tramped from place to place. On water, too, travel and transportation depended mostly upon human muscular exertion, as all boats, small or large, had to be propelled by oars or poles, except when favored with a