_. FOREIGN EXPANSION [LXXX]. _An Introduction to
the History of Japan_ (1921), written by an Imperial University
professor and published by the Yamato Society, the members of which
include some of the most distinguished men in Japan, says: "It is
doubtful whether the backwardness of the north can be solely
attributed to its climatic inferiority. Even in the depth of winter
the cold in the northern provinces cannot be said to be more
unbearable than that of the Scandinavian countries or of north-eastern
Germany. The principal cause of the retardation of progress in
northern Japan lies rather in the fact that it is comparatively
recently exploited.... The northern provinces might have become far
more populous, civilised and prosperous than we see them now.
Unfortunately for the north, just at the most critical time in its
development the attention of the nation was compelled to turn from
inner colonisation to foreign relations. The subsequent acquisition of
dominions oversea made the nation still more indifferent."

According to a report of the Hokkaido Government in 1921, the number
of immigrants during the latest three year period was 90,000, and one
and a half million acres are available for cultivation and
improvement.

AGRICULTURE _v_. COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY [LXXXI]. There is supposed to
be more money invested in land than in commerce or industry.
Comprehensive figures of a trustworthy kind establishing the relative
importance of agriculture, commerce and industry are not readily
obtained. "This is a question," writes a Japanese professor of
agriculture to me, "which we should like to study very much."
Industrial and commercial figures at the end of and immediately after
the War are not of much use because of the inflation of that period.
The annual value of agricultural production before the War was about
1,800 million yen; it must be by now about 2,500 or 3,000. In 1912,
according to the Department of Finance, the debt of the agricultural
population was 740 million yen. In 1916 the Japan Mortgage Bank and
the prefectural agricultural and industrial banks had together
advanced to agricultural organisations 110 millions and to other
borrowers 273 millions. In 1915 co-operative credit associations had
advanced 45 millions to farmers and 11 millions to other borrowers.
The paid-up capital of companies, was, in 1913, 1,983 million, of
which 27 million was agricultural, and in 1916, 2,434 million, of
which 31 million