The Foundations of Japan Part 39

In considering the position of the industry it is natural to ask how it would be affected if the j.a.panese factories were able to draw more largely upon Manchuria for wool. The answer is that the sheep in Manchuria at present yield what is called "China" wool, which is suitable only for blankets and coa.r.s.e cloth.

To some who feel a sympathy for j.a.pan in her present stage of industrial development and are inclined to take long views it may seem a pity that she should contemplate making such a radical change in her national habits as is represented by the demand for woollen materials and for meat. j.a.panese dress, easy, hygienic and artistic though it is, and admirably suited for wearing in j.a.panese dwellings, is ill adapted for modern business life, not to speak of factory conditions.

But it has not yet been demonstrated that j.a.pan is under the necessity of subst.i.tuting, to so large an extent as she evidently contemplates doing, woollen for cotton and silk clothing, and Western clothing for her own characteristic raiment.[270] The cotton padded garment and bed cover are both warm and clean. It is odd that this new demand on the part of j.a.pan for woollen material should coincide with movements in Europe and America to utilise more cotton, for underclothing at any rate. There is undoubtedly a hygienic case of a certain force against wool. The same is true of meat. It may well be that the dietary of many j.a.panese has not been sufficiently nutritious, but much of the meat-eating which is now being indulged in seems to be due more to an aping of foreign ways than to physical requirements. The more meat j.a.pan eats and the more she dresses herself in wool the more she places herself under the control of the foreigner.[271] Whatever degree of success may attend sheep breeding within the limits imposed upon it by physical conditions in j.a.pan, the raw material of the woollen industry must be mostly a foreign product. As far as meat is concerned, it is difficult to believe that while the agriculture of j.a.pan is based upon rice production there is room for the production of meat on a large scale. If the meat and wool are to be produced in Manchuria and Mongolia we shall see what we shall see. The significance of the experiment of the Manchuria Railway Company since 1913 in crossing merino and Mongolian sheep and the work which is being done on the sheep runs of Baron Okura in Mongolia cannot be overlooked. Ten years hence it will be interesting to examine industrially and socially the position of the woollen industry[272]

and the animal industry in j.a.pan and on the mainland, and the net gain that the country has made.

FOOTNOTES:

[264] _Yof.u.ku_ means foreign clothes.

[265] In 1920 there were 8,219 sheep in j.a.pan, including 945 in Hokkaido.

[266] A sheep produces about 7 lbs. of wool in the year. But this is the unscoured weight. In j.a.pan, an expert a.s.sured me, it would not reach more than 56 to 60 per cent. when scoured.

[267] "To-day sheep cannot, be kept on arable to leave any reward to the farmer."--_Country Life_, August 20, 1921.

[268] See Appendix LXIX.

[269] See Appendix LXX.

[270] An immense amount of silk is used in j.a.panese men's clothing.

The kimono, except the cheaper summer kind and the bath kimono _(yukata)_, which are cotton, is silk. So are the _hakama_ (divided skirt) and the _haori_ (overcoat). j.a.panese women's clothes are largely silk. The dress of working people is cotton, but even they have some silk clothing.

[271] "By degrees they proceeded to all the stimulations of banqueting which was indeed part of their bondage."--Tacitus on the Britons under Roman influence.

[272] The industry has already made on the London market an impression of competence in some directions. For production and exports, see Appendix LXX.

CHAPTER XL

THE PROBLEMS OF j.a.pAN

Concerning these things, they are not to be delivered but from much intercourse and discussion.--PLATO

Emigrants do not willingly seek a climate worse than their own. This is one of the reasons why the development of Hokkaido has not been swifter. The island is not much farther from the mainland than Shikoku, but it is near, not the richest and warmest part of the mainland, but the poorest and the coldest. If we imagine another Scotland lying off Cape Wrath, at the distance of Ireland from Scotland, and with a climate corresponding to the northerly situation of such a supposit.i.tious island, we may realise how remoteness and climatic limitations have hindered the progress of Hokkaido.

"Our mode of living is not suited to the colder climate," an agricultural professor said to me. "Poor emigrants do not have money enough to build houses with stoves and properly fitting windows."

To what extent the modified farming methods rendered necessary by the Hokkaido climate have had a deterring effect on would-be settlers I do not know. It has never been demonstrated that the j.a.panese farmer prefers arduous amphibious labour to the dry-land farming in which most of the world's land workers are engaged; but the cultivation of paddy or a large proportion of paddy is his traditional way of farming. Rice culture also means to him the production of the crop which, when weather conditions favour, is more profitable than any other. In Hokkaido, as we have seen, the remunerative kind of agriculture is mixed farming, and, in a large part of the country, rice cannot be grown at all. Against objections to Hokkaido on the ground of the strangeness of its farming may probably be set, however, the cheapness of land there.

An undoubted hindrance to the colonisation of Hokkaido has been land scandals and land grabbing. Many of what the late Lord Salisbury called the "best bits" are in the hands of big proprietors or proprietaries. Some large landowners no doubt show public spirit. But their cla.s.s has contrived to keep farmers from getting access to a great deal of land which, because of its quality and nearness to practicable roads and the railway, might have been worked to the best advantage. In various parts of j.a.pan I heard complaints. "The land system in Hokkaido," one man in Aichi said to me, "is so queer that land cannot be got by the families needing it, I mean good land."

Again in Shikoku I was a.s.sured that "the most desirable parts of the Hokkaido are in the hands of capitalists who welcome tenants only." In more than one part of northern j.a.pan I was told of emigrants to Hokkaido who had "returned dissatisfied." A charge made against the large holder of Hokkaido land is that he is an absentee and a city man who lacks the knowledge and the inclination to devote the necessary capital to the development of his estate. Of late the rise in the value of timber has induced not a few proprietors to interest themselves much more in stripping their land of trees than in developing its agricultural possibilities.

The development of Hokkaido may also have been slowed down to some extent by a lower level of education among the people than is customary on most of the mainland, by a rougher and less skilful farming than is common in Old j.a.pan and by the existence of a residuum which would rather "deal" or "let George do it" or cheat the Ainu than follow the laborious colonial life. But no cause has been more potent than a lack of money in the public treasury. I was told that for five years in succession Tokyo had cut down the Hokkaido budget. Necessary public work and schemes for development have been repeatedly stopped.

At a time when the interests of Hokkaido demand more farmers and there is a general complaint of lack of labour, at a time when there are persistent pleas for oversea expansion, there are in j.a.pan twice or thrice as many people applying for land in the island as are granted entry. The blunt truth is that the State has felt itself compelled to spend so much on military and naval expansion that the claims of Hokkaido for the wherewithal for better roads, more railway line and better credit have often been put aside.[273]

One thing is certain, that slow progress in the development of Hokkaido gives an opening to the critics of j.a.pan who doubt whether her need for expansion beyond her own territory is as pressing as is represented by some writers. However this may be, Hokkaido is stated to take only a tenth of the overplus of the population of Old j.a.pan.

The number of emigrants in 1913 was no larger than the number in 1906.

A usual view in Hokkaido is that the island can hold twice as many people as it now contains. "When 3,625,000 acres are brought into cultivation," says an official publication, "Hokkaido will be able easily to maintain 5,000,000 inhabitants on her own products."

Very much of what has been achieved in Hokkaido has been done under the stimulating influence of the Agricultural College, now the University. The northern climate seems to be conducive to mental vigour in both professors and students. If in moving about Hokkaido one is conscious of a somewhat materialistic view of progress it may be remembered that an absorption in "getting on" is characteristic of colonists and their advisers everywhere. It is not high ideals of life but bitter experience of inability to make a living on the mainland which has brought immigrants to Hokkaido. As time goes on, the rural and industrial development may have a less sordid look.[274] At present the visitor who lacks time to penetrate into the fastnesses of Hokkaido and enjoy its natural beauties brings away the unhappy impression which is presented by a view of man's first a.s.sault on the wild.

But he must still be glad to have seen this distant part of j.a.pan. He finds there something stimulating and free which seems to be absent from the older mainland. It is possible that when Hokkaido shall have worked out her destiny she may not be without her influence on the development of Old j.a.pan. Those of the settlers who are reasonably well equipped in character, wits and health are not only making the living which they failed to obtain at home; they are testing some national canons of agriculture. Face to face with strangers and with new conditions, these immigrants are also examining some ideals of social life and conduct which, old though they are, may not be perfectly adapted to the new age into which j.a.pan has forced herself.

One evening in Hokkaido I saw a lone cottage in the hills. At its door was the tall pole on which at the _Bon_ season the lantern is hung to guide the hovering soul of that member of the family who has died during the year. The settler's lantern, steadily burning high above his hut, was an emblem of faith that man does not live by gain alone which the hardest toil cannot quench. In whatever guise it may express itself, it is the best hope for Hokkaido and j.a.pan.

During my stay in the island I had an opportunity of meeting some of the most influential men from the Governor downwards; also several interesting visitors from the mainland. We often found ourselves getting away from Hokkaido's problems to the general problems of rural life.

Of the good influences at work in the village, the first I was once more a.s.sured, was "popular education and school ethics, a real influence and blessing." The second was "the disciplinary training of the army for regularity of conduct." ("The influence of officers on their young soldiers is good, and they give them or provide them with lectures on agricultural subjects and allow them time to go in companies to experimental farms.")

Someone spoke of "the influence of the religion of the past." "The religion of the past!" exclaimed an elderly man; "in half a dozen prefectures it may be that religion is a rural force, but elsewhere in the Empire there is a lack of any moral code that takes deep root in the head. After all Christians are more trustworthy than people drinking and playing with geisha."

On the other hand a prominent Christian said: "There is a weakness in our Christians, generally speaking. There is an absence of a sound faith. The native churches have no strong influence on rural life.

There is often a certain priggishness and pride in things foreign in saying, 'I am a Christian.'"

Another man spoke in this wise: "I have been impressed by some of the following of Uchimura. They seem ardent and real. But I have also been attracted by strength of character in members of various sects of Christians. The theology and phraseology of these men may be curious, may be in many respects behind the times, but their religion had a beautiful aspect.[275] Many of our people have got something of Christian ethics, but are no church-goers. Some j.a.panese try to combine Christian principles with old j.a.panese virtues; others with some soul supporting Buddhistic ideas. We must have Christianity if only to supply a great lack in our conception of personality. People who have accepted Christianity show so much more personality and so much more interest in social reform."

When we returned to agricultural conditions, one who spoke with authority said: "In Old j.a.pan the agricultural system has become dwarfed. The individual cannot raise the standard of living nor can crops be substantially increased. The whole economy is too small.[276]

The people are too close on the ground. They must spread out to north-eastern j.a.pan, to Hokkaido, Korea and Manchuria. The population of Korea could be greatly increased. There is an immense opening in Manchuria, which is four or five times the area of the j.a.panese Empire and spa.r.s.ely populated. There is also Mongolia."[277]

"But in Korea," one who had been there said, "there are the Koreans, an able if backward people, to be considered--they will increase with the spread of our sanitary methods among a population which was reduced by a primitive hygiene and by maladministration. And as to our people going to the mainland of Asia, we do not really like to go where rice is not the agricultural staple, and we prefer a warm country. In Formosa, where it is warm, we are faced by the compet.i.tion of the Chinese at a lower standard of life.[278] The perfect places for j.a.panese are California, New Zealand and Australia, but the Americans and Australasians won't have us. I do not complain; we do not allow Chinese labour in j.a.pan. But we think that we might have had Australasia or New Zealand if we had not been secluded from the world by the Tokugawa regime, and so allowed you British to get there first.

It is not strange that some of our dreamers should grudge you your place there, should cherish ideas of expansion by walking in your footsteps. But it is wisdom to realise that we cannot do to-day what might have been done centuries ago or make history repeat itself for our benefit. It is wiser to seek to reduce the amount of misapprehension, prejudice and--shall I say?--national feeling in j.a.pan and America and Australasia, and try to procure ultimate accommodation for us all in that way. But not too much reduce, perhaps, for, in the present posture of the world, nationalist feeling and--we do not want premature inter-marriage--racial feeling are still valuable to mankind."

A speaker who followed said: "Remember to our credit how our area under cultivation in Old j.a.pan continually increases.[279] Bear in mind, too, what good use we have made of the land we have been able to get under cultivation--so many thousand more _cho_ of crops than there are _cho_ of land, due, of course, to the two or three crops a year system in many areas."[280]

"As for the situation the emigrants[281] leave behind them in Old j.a.pan," resumed the first speaker, "the experiment should be tried of putting ten or so of tiny holdings[282] under one control, and an attempt should be made to see what improved implements and further co-operation[283] can effect. I suppose the thing most needed on the mainland is working capital at a moderate rate. Think of 900 million yen of farmers' debt, much of it at 12 per cent. and some of it at 20 per cent.! I do not reckon the millions of prefectural, county and village debt. Of what value is it to raise the rice crop to 3 or 4 _koku_ per _tan_ (60 or 80 bushels per acre)[284] if the moneylender profits most? The farmers of Old j.a.pan are undoubtedly losing land to the moneyed people.[285] Every year the number of farmers owning their own land decreases[286] and the number of tenants increases and more country people go to the towns.[287] And, as an official statement says, 'the physical condition of the army conscripts from the rural districts is always superior to that of the conscripts of the urban districts.'"

Some Western criticism of j.a.panese agriculture cannot be overlooked.[288] Criticism is naturally invited by (1) j.a.panese devotion to what is in Western eyes an exotic crop--but owing to exceptional water supplies, favourable climatic conditions and acquired skill in cultivation, the best crop for all but the extreme north-east of j.a.pan;[289] (2) the small portions in which much of that crop is grown--of necessity; (3) the primitive implements--not ill-adapted, however, to a primitive cultural system; (4) the non-utilisation of animal or mechanical power in a large part of the country--due as much to physical conditions as to lack of cheap capital; (5) what is spoken of as "the never-ending toil"--against which must be set the figures I have quoted showing the number of farmers who do not work on an average more than 4 or 5 days a week; and (6) the moderate total production compared with the number of producers--which must be considered in reference to the object of j.a.panese agriculture and in relation to a lower standard of living.

j.a.panese agriculture, as we have seen, has shortcomings, many of which are being steadily met; but with all its shortcomings it does succeed in providing, for a vast population per square _ri_, subsistence in conditions which are in the main endurable and might be easily made better.

Paddy adjustment has clearly shown that paddies above the average size are more economically worked than small ones, but these adjusted paddies are on the plains and a large proportion of j.a.panese paddies have had to be made on uneven or hilly ground where physical conditions make it impossible for these rice fields to be anything else than small and irregular. j.a.panese agriculture is what it is and must largely remain what it is because j.a.pan is geologically and climatically what it is, and because the social development of a large part of j.a.pan is what it is. Comparisons with rice culture in Texas, California and Italy are usually made in forgetfulness of the fact that the rice fields there are generally on level fertile areas, in America sometimes on virgin soil. In j.a.pan rice culture extends to poor unfavourable land because the people want to have rice everywhere.[290] The j.a.panese have cultivated the same paddies for centuries, Some American rice land is thrown out of cultivation after a few years. In fertile localities the j.a.panese get twice the average crop. It must also be remembered that j.a.panese paddies often produce two crops, a crop of rice and an after-crop. j.a.panese technicians are well acquainted with Texan, Californian and Italian rice culture, and j.a.panese have tried rice production both in California and Texas.

"They talk of Texan and Italian rice culture," said one man who had been abroad on a mission of agricultural investigation, "but I found the comparative cost of rice production greater in Texas than in j.a.pan. Some j.a.panese farmers who went to Texas were overcome by weeds because of dear labour. In Italian paddies, also, I saw many more weeds than in ours. It is rational, of course, for Americans and Italians to use improved machinery, for they have expensive labour conditions, but we have cheap labour. The Texans have large paddies because their land is cheap, but ours is dear. In these big paddies the water cannot be kept at two or three inches, as with us. It is necessarily five inches or so, too deep, and the soil temperature falls and they lose on the crops what they gain by the use of machinery. Further, it must be remembered that we are not producing our rice for export. It is a special kind for ourselves, which we like;[291] but foreigners would just as soon have any other sort. We have no call, therefore, to develop our rice culture in the same degree as our sericulture, which rests mainly on a valuable oversea trade."

"On this general question of improvement of implements and methods,"

said another member of our company, "we must use machinery and combine farming management when industrial progress drives us to it; but why try to do it before we are compelled? Concerning horses, the difficulty which some farmers have in using them is the difficulty of feeding them economically. Concerning cereals, our consumption is not less than that of Germany, but Germany imports more than twice the cereals we do, so there would seem to be something to be said for our system."

[Ill.u.s.tration: CUTTING GRa.s.s]

"Some revolutionising of j.a.panese farming is necessary, in combined threshing, for instance," the expert who had opened our discussion said. "This combined threshing is now seen in several districts, and combined threshing will be extended. But there is the objection to the threshing machine that it breaks the straw and thus spoils it for farmers' secondary industries. It should not be impossible to invent some way of avoiding this, but the threshing machine is also too heavy for narrow roads between paddies. It is difficult to deliver the crops to the machine in sufficient bulk. Necessity may show us ways, but small threshing machines are not so economical. Of course we must have much more co-operative buying of rural requirements, and certainly there is room in some places for the Western scythe made smaller, but our people, as you have seen, are dexterous with their extremely sharp, short sickle, and fodder is often cut on rather difficult slopes, from which it is not easy to descend loaded, with a scythe.

Some foreigners who speak so positively about machinery for paddies, and for, I suppose, the sloping uplands to which our arable farming is relegated, do not really grasp the physical conditions of our agriculture. And they are always forgetting the warm dankness of our climate. They forget, too, that implements for hand use are more efficient than machinery, and, if labour be cheap, more economical.

They forget above all that we are of necessity a small-holdings country."

Is it such a bad thing to be a small-holdings country? Does the rural life of countries which are pre-eminently small-holding, like Denmark and Holland, compare so unfavourably with that of England? I wonder how much money has been sunk--most of it lost--during the past quarter of a century in attempts to increase small holdings in England.

"Because we have much remote, wild, uncultivated land," the speaker I have interrupted continued, "that is not to say that most of it, often at a high elevation, or sloping, or poor in quality, as well as remote, can be profitably broken up for paddies. Much of this land can be and ought to be utilised in one fashion or another, but we have found some experiments in this direction unprofitable, even when rice was dear. But it may be said, Why break up this wild land into paddies? Why not have nice gra.s.sy slopes for cattle as in Switzerland?

But our experts have tried in vain to get gra.s.s established. The heavy rains and the heat enable the bamboo gra.s.s to overcome the new fodder gra.s.s we have sown. The first year the fodder gra.s.s grows nicely, but the second year the bamboo gra.s.s conquers. In Hokkaido and Saghalien we are conquering bamboo gra.s.s with fodder gra.s.s. The advice to go in largely for fruit ignores the fact of our steamy damp climate, which encourages sappy growth, disease and those insects which are so numerous in j.a.pan. We cannot do much more than grow for home consumption."