Population.
?The population was as follows on the 31st of
December 1907:?
Population.
|
Males.
|
Females.
|
Totals.
|
Population
per
sq. m.
|
Japan proper
|
24,601,658
|
24,172,627
|
48,774,285
|
330
|
Formosa (Taiwan)
|
1,640,778
|
1,476,137
|
3,116,915
|
224
|
Sakhalin
|
7,175
|
3,631
|
10,806
|
0.1
|
|
?????
|
?????
|
?????
|
Totals
|
26,249,611
|
25,652,395
|
51,902,006
|
The following table shows the rate of increase in the four
quadrennial periods between 1891 and 1907 in Japan
proper:?
Year.
|
Males.
|
Females.
|
Totals.
|
Average
increase
per cent.
|
Population
per
sq. m.
|
1891
|
20,563,416
|
20,155,261
|
40,718,677
|
1.09
|
272
|
1895
|
21,345,750
|
20,904,870
|
42,270,620
|
1.09
|
286
|
1899
|
22,330,112
|
21,930,540
|
44,260,652
|
1.14
|
299
|
1903
|
23,601,640
|
23,131,236
|
46,732,876
|
1.54
|
316
|
1907
|
24,601,658
|
24,172,627
|
48,774,285
|
1.13
|
330
|
The population of Formosa (Taiwan) during the ten-year
period 1898?1907 grew as
follows:?
Year.
|
Males.
|
Females.
|
Totals.
|
Average
increase
per cent.
|
Population
per
sq. m.
|
1898
|
1,307,428
|
1,157,539
|
2,464,967
|
?
|
182
|
1902
|
1,513,280
|
1,312,067
|
2,825,347
|
2.70
|
209
|
1907
|
1,640,778
|
1,476,137
|
3,116,915
|
2.37
|
224
|
According to quasi-historical records, the population of the empire
in the year
A.D.
610 was 4,988,842, and in 736 it had grown to
8,631,770. It is impossible to say how much reliance may be placed
on these figures, but from the 18th century, when the name of every
subject had to be inscribed on the roll of a temple as a measure
against his adoption of Christianity, a tolerably trustworthy census
could always be taken. The returns thus obtained show that from
the year 1723 until 1846 the population remained almost stationary,
the figure in the former year being 26,065,422, and that in the latter
year 26,907,625. There had, indeed, been five periods of declining
population in that interval of 124 years, namely, the periods 1738?1744,
1759?1762, 1773?1774, 1791?1792, and 1844?1846. But after
1872, when the census showed a total of 33,110,825, the population
grew steadily, its increment between 1872 and 1898 inclusive, a period
of 27 years, being 10,649,990. Such a rate of increase invests the
question of subsistence with great importance. In former times the
area of land under cultivation increased in a marked degree. Returns
prepared at the beginning of the 10th century showed 2
1
/
2
million acres
under crops, whereas the figure in 1834 was over 8 million acres. But
the development of means of subsistence has been outstripped by
the growth of population in recent years. Thus, during the period
between 1899 and 1907 the population received an increment of
11.6% whereas the food-producing area increased by only 4.4%.
This discrepancy caused anxiety at one time, but large fields suitable
for colonization have been opened in Sakhalin, Korea, Manchuria
and Formosa, so that the problem of subsistence has ceased to be
troublesome. The birth-rate, taking the average of the decennial
period ended 1907, is 3.05% of the population, and the death-rate
is 2.05. Males exceed females in the ratio of 2% approximately.
But this rule does not hold after the age of 65, where for every 100
females only 83 males are found. The Japanese are of low stature
as compared with the inhabitants of Western Europe: about 16%
of the adult males are below 5 ft. But there are evidences of
steady improvement in this respect. Thus, during the period of ten
years between 1893 and 1902, it was found that the percentage of
recruits of 5 ft. 5 in. and upward grew from 10.09 to 12.67, the rate
of increase having been remarkably steady; and the percentage of
those under 5 ft. declined from 20.21 to 16.20.
Towns.
?There are in Japan 23 towns having a population of
over 50,000, and there are 76 having a population of over 20,000.
The larger towns, their populations and the growth of the latter
during the five-year period commencing with 1898 were as follow:?
|
1898.
|
1903.
|
T?ky?
|
1,440,121
|
1,795,128
|
Osaka
|
821,235
|
988,200
|
Ki?to
|
353,139
|
379,404
|
Nagoya
|
244,145
|
284,829
|
Kobe
|
215,780
|
283,839
|
Yokohama
|
193,762
|
324,776
|
Hiroshima
|
122,306
|
113,545
|
Nagasaki
|
107,422
|
151,727
|
Kanazawa
|
83,595
|
97,548
|
Sendai
|
83,325
|
93,773
|
Hakodate
|
78,040
|
84,746
|
Fukuoka
|
66,190
|
70,107
|
Wakayama
|
63,667
|
67,908
|
Tokushima
|
61,501
|
62,998
|
Kumamoto
|
61,463
|
55,277
|
Toyama
|
59,558
|
86,276
|
Okayama
|
58,025
|
80,140
|
Otaru
|
56,961
|
79,746
|
Kagoshima
|
53,481
|
58,384
|
Niigata
|
53,366
|
58,821
|
Sakai
|
50,203
|
???
|
Sapporo
|
???
|
55,304
|
Kure
|
???
|
62,825
|
Sasebo
|
???
|
52,607
|
The growth of Kure and Sasebo is attributable to the fact that they
have become the sites of large ship-building yards, the property of
the state.
The number of houses in Japan at the end of 1903, when the census
was last taken, was 8,725,544, the average number of inmates in
each house being thus 5.5.
Physical Characteristics.
?The best authorities are agreed that
the Japanese people do not differ physically from their Korean
and Chinese neighbours as much as the inhabitants of northern
Europe differ from those of southern Europe. It is true that the
Japanese are shorter in stature than either the Chinese or the
Koreans. Thus the average height of the Japanese male is
only 5 ft. 3
1
/
2
in., and that of the female 4 ft. 10
1
/
2
in., whereas in
the case of the Koreans and the northern Chinese the corresponding
figures for males are 5 ft. 5
3
/
4
in. and 5 ft. 7 in. respectively.
Yet in other physical characteristics the Japanese, the Koreans
and the Chinese resemble each other so closely that, under
similar conditions as to costume and coiffure, no appreciable
difference is apparent. Thus since it has become the fashion for
Chinese students to flock to the schools and colleges of Japan,
there adopting, as do their Japanese fellow-students, Occidental
garments and methods of hairdressing, the distinction of nationality
ceases to be perceptible. The most exhaustive anthropological
study of the Japanese has been made by Dr E. Baelz
(emeritus professor of medicine in the Imperial University of
T?ky?), who enumerates the following sub-divisions of the race
inhabiting the Japanese islands. The first and most important
is the Manchu-Korean type; that is to say, the type which prevails
in north China and in Korea. This is seen specially among the
upper classes in Japan. Its characteristics are exceptional
tallness combined with slenderness and elegance of figure; a face
somewhat long, without any special prominence of the cheekbones
but having more or less oblique eyes; an aquiline nose;
a slightly receding chin; largish upper teeth; a long neck; a
narrow chest; a long trunk, and delicately shaped, small hands
with long, slender fingers. The most plausible hypothesis is that
men of this type are descendants of Korean colonists who, in
prehistoric times, settled in the province of Izumo, on the west
coast of Japan, having made their way thither from the Korean
peninsula by the island of Oki, being carried by the cold current
which flows along the eastern coast of Korea. The second type
is the Mongol. It is not very frequently found in Japan, perhaps
because, under favourable social conditions, it tends to
pass into the Manchu-Korean type. Its representative has a
broad face, with prominent cheekbones, oblique eyes, a nose
more or less flat and a wide mouth. The figure is strongly and
squarely built, but this last characteristic can scarcely be called
typical. There is no satisfactory theory as to the route by which
the Mongols reached Japan, but it is scarcely possible to doubt
that they found their way thither at one time. More important
than either of these types as an element of the Japanese nation
is the Malay. Small in stature, with a well-knit frame, the cheekbones
prominent, the face generally round, the nose and neck
short, a marked tendency to prognathism, the chest broad and
well developed, the trunk long, the hands small and delicate?this
Malay type is found in nearly all the islands along the east
coast of the Asiatic continent as well as in southern China and
in the extreme south-west of Korean peninsula. Carried
northward by the warm current known as the Kuro Shiwo, the
Malays seem to have landed in Ki?shi??the most southerly
of the main Japanese islands?whence they ultimately pushed
northward and conquered their Manchu-Korean predecessors,
the Izumo colonists. None of the above three, however, can be
regarded as the earliest settlers in Japan. Before them all was
a tribe of immigrants who appear to have crossed from north-eastern
Asia at an epoch when the sea had not yet dug broad
channels between the continent and the adjacent islands.
These people?the Ainu?are usually spoken of as the aborigines
of Japan. They once occupied the whole country, but were
gradually driven northward by the Manchu-Koreans and the
Malays, until only a mere handful of them survived in the
northern island of Yezo. Like the Malay and the Mongol types
they are short and thickly built, but unlike either they have
prominent brows, bushy locks, round deep-set eyes, long divergent
lashes, straight noses and much hair on the face and the
body. In short, the Ainu suggest much closer affinity with
Europeans than does any other of the types that go to make up
the population of Japan. It is not to be supposed, however,
that these traces of different elements indicate any lack of homogeneity
in the Japanese race. Amalgamation has been completely
effected in the course of long centuries, and even the
Ainu, though the small surviving remnant of them now live
apart, have left a trace upon their conquerors.
The typical Japanese of the present day has certain marked
physical peculiarities. In the first place, the ratio of the height
of his head to the length of his body is greater than it is in Europeans.
The Englishman’s head is often one-eighth of the length
of his body or even less, and in continental Europeans, as a rule,
the ratio does not amount to one-seventh; but in the Japanese
it exceeds the latter figure. In all nations men of short stature
have relatively large heads, but in the case of the Japanese there
appears to be some racial reason for the phenomenon. Another
striking feature is shortness of legs relatively to length of trunk.
In northern Europeans the leg is usually much more than one-half
of the body’s length, but in Japanese the ratio is one-half
or even less; so that whereas the Japanese, when seated, looks
almost as tall as a European, there may be a great difference
between their statures when both are standing. This special
feature has been attributed to the Japanese habit of kneeling
instead of sitting, but investigation shows that it is equally
marked in the working classes who pass most of their time standing.
In Europe the same physical traits?relative length of
head and shortness of legs?distinguish the central race (Alpine)
from the Teutonic, and seem to indicate an affinity between the
former and the Mongols. It is in the face, however, that we
find specially distinctive traits, namely, in the eyes, the eye-lashes,
the cheekbones and the beard. Not that the eyeball
itself differs from that of an Occidental. The difference consists
in the fact that “the socket of the eye is comparatively small and
shallow, and the osseous ridges at the brows being little marked,
the eye is less deeply set than in the European. In fact, seen in
profile, forehead and upper lip often form an unbroken line.”
Then, again, the shape of the eye, as modelled by the lids, shows
a striking peculiarity. For whereas the open eye is almost
invariably horizontal in the European, it is often oblique in the
Japanese on account of the higher level of the upper corner.
“But even apart from obliqueness, the shape of the corners is
peculiar in the Mongolian eye. The inner corner is partly
or entirely covered by a fold of the upper lid continuing more
or less into the lower lid. This fold often covers also the
whole free rim of the upper lid, so that the insertion of the eye-lashes
is hidden” and the opening between the lids is so narrowed
as to disappear altogether at the moment of laughter. As for
the eye-lashes, not only are they comparatively short and sparse,
but also they converge instead of diverging, so that whereas in a
European the free ends of the lashes are further distant from
each other than their roots, in a Japanese they are nearer together.
Prominence of cheekbones is another special feature,
but it is much commoner in the lower than in the upper classes,
where elongated faces may almost be said to be the rule. Finally,
there is marked paucity of hair on the face of the average Japanese?apart
from the Ainu?and what hair there is is nearly
always straight. It is not to be supposed, however, that because
the Japanese is short of stature and often finely moulded, he
lacks either strength or endurance. On the contrary, he possesses
both in a marked degree, and his deftness of finger is not less
remarkable than the suppleness and activity of his body.
Moral Characteristics.
?The most prominent trait of Japanese
disposition is gaiety of heart. Emphatically of a laughter-loving
nature, the Japanese passes through the world with a
smile on his lips. The petty ills of life do not disturb his equanimity.
He takes them as part of the day’s work, and though he
sometimes grumbles, rarely, if ever, does he repine. Exceptional
to this general rule, however, is a mood of pessimism
which sometimes overtakes youths on the threshold of manhood.
Finding the problem of life insolvable, they abandon the attempt
to solve it and take refuge in the grave. It seems as though
there were always a number of young men hovering on the brink
of such suicidal despair. An example alone is needed finally to
destroy the equilibrium. Some one throws himself over a
cataract or leaps into the crater of a volcano, and immediately
a score or two follow. Apparently the more picturesquely
awful the manner of the demise, the greater its attractive force.
The thing is not a product of insanity, as the term is usually
interpreted; letters always left behind by the victims prove
them to have been in full possession of their reasoning faculties
up to the last moment. Some observers lay the blame at the
door of Buddhism, a creed which promotes pessimism by begetting
the anchorite, the ascetic and the shuddering believer in
seven hells. But Buddhism did not formerly produce such
incidents, and, for the rest, the faith of Shaka has little sway
over the student mind in Japan. The phenomenon is modern:
it is not an outcome of Japanese nature nor yet of Buddhist
teaching, but is due to the stress of endeavouring to reach the
standards of Western acquirement with grievously inadequate
equipment, opportunities and resources. In order to support
himself and pay his academic fees many a Japanese has to fall
into the ranks of the physical labourer during a part of each day
or night. Ill-nourished, over-worked and, it may be, disappointed,
he finds the struggle intolerable and so passes out into
the darkness. But he is not a normal type. The normal type is
light-hearted and buoyant. One naturally expects to find, and
one does find, that this moral sunshine is associated with good
temper. The Japanese is exceptionally serene. Irascibility is
regarded as permissible in sickly children only: grown people
are supposed to be superior to displays of impatience. But
there is a limit of imperturbability, and when that limit is
reached, the subsequent passion is desperately vehement. It
has been said that these traits go to make the Japanese soldier
what he is. The hardships of a campaign cause him little suffering
since he never frets over them, but the hour of combat finds
him forgetful of everything save victory. In the case of the
military class?and prior to the Restoration of 1867 the term
“military class” was synonymous with “educated class”?this
spirit of stoicism was built up by precept on a solid basis of
heredity. The
samurai
(soldier) learned that his first characteristic
must be to suppress all outward displays of emotion.
Pain, pleasure, passion and peril must all find him unperturbed.
The supreme test, satisfied so frequently as to be commonplace,
was a shocking form of suicide performed with a placid mien.
This capacity, coupled with readiness to sacrifice life at any
moment on the altar of country, fief or honour, made a remarkably
heroic character. On the other hand, some observers hold
that the education of this stoicism was effected at the cost of the
feelings it sought to conceal. In support of that theory it is
pointed out that the average Japanese, man or woman, will recount
a death or some other calamity in his own family with a
perfectly calm, if not a smiling, face. Probably there is a measure
of truth in the criticism. Feelings cannot be habitually hidden
without being more or less blunted. But here another Japanese
trait presents itself?politeness. There is no more polite nation
in the world than the Japanese. Whether in real courtesy of
heart they excel Occidentals may be open to doubt, but in all
the forms of comity they are unrivalled. Now one of the cardinal
rules of politeness is to avoid burdening a stranger with the
weight of one’s own woes. Therefore a mother, passing from the
chamber which has just witnessed her paroxysms of grief, will
describe calmly to a stranger?especially a foreigner?the death
of her only child. The same suppression of emotional display
in public is observed in all the affairs of life. Youths and
maidens maintain towards each other a demeanour of reserve
and even indifference, from which it has been confidently affirmed
that love does not exist in Japan. The truth is that in no other
country do so many dual suicides occur?suicides of a man and
woman who, unable to be united in this world, go to a union
beyond the grave. It is true, nevertheless, that love as a prelude
to marriage finds only a small place in Japanese ethics. Marriages
in the great majority of cases are arranged with little
reference to the feelings of the parties concerned. It might be
supposed that conjugal fidelity must suffer from such a custom.
It does suffer seriously in the case of the husband, but emphatically
not in the case of the wife. Even though she be cognisant?as
she often is?of her husband’s extra-marital relations,
she abates nothing of the duty which she has been taught to
regard as the first canon of female ethics. From many points of
view, indeed, there is no more beautiful type of character than
that of the Japanese woman. She is entirely unselfish; exquisitely
modest without being anything of a prude; abounding in
intelligence which is never obscured by egoism; patient in the
hour of suffering; strong in time of affliction; a faithful wife; a
loving mother; a good daughter; and capable, as history shows,
of heroism rivalling that of the stronger sex. As to the question
of sexual virtue and morality in Japan, grounds for a conclusive
verdict are hard to find. In the interests of hygiene prostitution
is licensed, and that fact is by many critics construed as proof of
tolerance. But licensing is associated with strict segregation,
and it results that the great cities are conspicuously free from
evidences of vice, and that the streets may be traversed by women
at all hours of the day and night with perfect impunity and without
fear of encountering offensive spectacles. The ratio of
marriages is approximately 8.46 per thousand units of the population,
and the ratio of divorces is 1.36 per thousand. There are
thus about 16 divorces for every hundred marriages. Divorces take
place chiefly among the lower orders, who frequently treat marriage
merely as a test of a couple’s suitability to be helpmates in the
struggles of life. If experience develops incompatibility of temper
or some other mutually repellent characteristic, separation
follows as a matter of course. On the other hand, divorces among
persons of the upper classes are comparatively rare, and divorces
on account of a wife’s unfaithfulness are almost unknown.
Concerning the virtues of truth and probity, extremely conflicting
opinions have been expressed. The Japanese
samurai
always prided himself on having “no second word.” He never
drew his sword without using it; he never gave his word without
keeping it. Yet it may be doubted whether the value attached
in Japan to the abstract quality, truth, is as high as the value
attached to it in England, or whether the consciousness of having
told a falsehood weighs as heavily on the heart. Much depends
upon the motive. Whatever may be said of the upper class, it
is probably true that the average Japanese will not sacrifice
expediency on the altar of truth. He will be veracious only so
long as the consequences are not seriously injurious. Perhaps
no more can be affirmed of any nation. The “white lie” of the
Anglo-Saxon and the
h?ben no uso
of the Japanese are twins.
In the matter of probity, however, it is possible to speak with
more assurance. There is undoubtedly in the lower ranks of
Japanese tradesmen a comparatively large fringe of persons
whose standard of commercial morality is defective. They are
descendants of feudal days when the mercantile element, being
counted as the dregs of the population, lost its self-respect.
Against this blemish?which is in process of gradual correction?the
fact has to be set that the better class of merchants, the
whole of the artisans and the labouring classes in general, obey
canons of probity fully on a level with the best to be found elsewhere.
For the rest, frugality, industry and patience characterize
all the bread-winners; courage and burning patriotism are
attributes of the whole nation.
There are five qualities possessed by the Japanese in a marked
degree. The first is frugality. From time immemorial the
great mass of the people have lived in absolute ignorance of
luxury in any form and in the perpetual presence of a necessity
to economize. Amid these circumstances there has emerged
capacity to make a little go a long way and to be content with
the most meagre fare. The second quality is endurance. It is
born of causes cognate with those which have begotten frugality.
The average Japanese may be said to live without artificial heat;
his paper doors admit the light but do not exclude the cold.
His brazier barely suffices to warm his hands and his face.
Equally is he a stranger to methods of artificial cooling. He
takes the frost that winter inflicts and the fever that summer
brings as unavoidable visitors. The third quality is obedience;
the offspring of eight centuries passed under the shadow of military
autocracy. Whatever he is authoritatively bidden to do,
that the Japanese will do. The fourth quality is altruism. In
the upper classes the welfare of the family has been set above the
interests of each member. The fifth quality is a genius for detail.
Probably this is the outcome of an extraordinarily elaborate
system of social etiquette. Each generation has added something
to the canons of its predecessor, and for every ten points
preserved not more than one has been discarded. An instinctive
respect for minutiae has thus been inculcated, and has gradually
extended to all the affairs of life. That this accuracy may sometimes
degenerate into triviality, and that such absorption in
trifles may occasionally hide the broad horizon, is conceivable.
But the only hitherto apparent evidence of such defects is an
excessive clinging to the letter of the law; a marked reluctance
to exercise discretion; and that, perhaps, is attributable rather to
the habit of obedience. Certainly the Japanese have proved themselves
capable of great things, and their achievements seem to
have been helped rather than retarded by their attention to detail.