of the Louisiana Purchase
Exposition was consequently postponed until the 1st day of May, 1904,
Japan was later enabled to accept the invitation.

Early in the year 1904 the imperial Government sent a corps of officials
to St. Louis to select a suitable location for the Government buildings,
and to apply for space in the various departments of the exposition. Due
to the prompt attention of the Japanese Government and the courtesy of
the managers of the exposition, the desired arrangements were
accomplished without the slightest difficulty. A bill appropriating
$400,000 to be expended for the exposition was passed by both houses of
the legislature, and in July, 1903, the Government formally notified the
Exposition Company at St. Louis that Japan would be represented at the
fair.

The Japanese commission for the exposition took great care not to accept
for exhibition any articles which had mere virtue of novelty, without
practical value, or any articles not produced in large volume. The idea
of the Government in employing such discrimination was to so plan the
exhibition that it would leave some lasting effects after the exposition
upon the world's trade and commerce. The exhibition of matters relating
to education was executed under the direct supervision of the department
of education, and was so planned as to make it represent a complete
system of the education now in vogue in Japan. In regard to the
exhibitions of mines, fish, forestry, agriculture, and horticulture, the
department of agriculture and commerce exercised the authority of
deciding what articles should be displayed. The arrangement of articles
exhibited in various departments of the exposition was made so that
those independent of the Japan Exhibits Association were arranged by
individual exhibitors under the supervision of the Japanese commission,
while others were set out in proper order by the association.

There was no department or palace in which Japan did not exhibit.
Displays on an especially elaborate scale, however, could be found in
the following eleven palaces, namely: Palaces of Education and Social
Economy, Fine Arts, Liberal Arts, Manufactures, Varied Industries,
Transportation, Mines, Forestry, Fish, and Game, Electricity, and
Agriculture. The total area of space of the Japanese sections in these
departments was distributed among different sections as follows:

Square feet.
Palace of