POSTAL AND OTHER MEANS OF COMMUNICATION
The advancement of a nation, may, I think, be accurately gauged by the
facilities it possesses or has developed for the communication of its
inhabitants, either by personal intercourse or those other means which
science has of late years discovered or evolved for the transmission
of thought, whether on business or otherwise--the letter post, the
telegraph, and the telephone. I accordingly purpose briefly describing
the extent to which, in these respects, Japan has assimilated and
utilised Western ideas.
I have already touched on the matter of railway communication, so I
will not again refer to it in any detail. I may, however, remark that
although railways in Japan have done much to open up the country and
provide for more frequent and rapid intercourse between man and man,
they still lack much in the matter of European ideas of comfort. There
are three classes of carriages, and the fares of each are extremely
low. The gauge is narrow; the carriages are open, as in America, with
one long seat running down each side and a shorter one at the end. In
the first-class carriages tea is provided, a kettle and tea-pot
wherein to make the beverage being placed on the floor between the
seats for the use of passengers. No doubt ere long the Japanese will
be more impressed than they appear to be at present as to the
necessity for express trains, high speeds, Pullman and restaurant
cars, as well as for other now indispensable characteristics of
English and American railways. The initial railway line in Japan was
that between Yokohama and the capital. It was popular and well
patronised from the first, in contradistinction to the record of
railways in China, where the initial line--that between Shanghai and
Wusung--had to be bought up and pulled up by the Chinese authorities,
in view of the number of Chinamen who persisted in committing suicide
by placing themselves in front of the train as a protest--and a most
effective protest, it must be admitted--against the introduction into
their country of this contrivance of the "foreign devils." The
contrast in the manner in which the introduction of railways was
received in China and Japan respectively is, I think, characteristic
of the difference in the disposition and mental attitude of the people
of the two countries.
A postal service modelled on that of Europe was inaugurated in Japan
in 1871 by the introduction of a Government letter post between Tokio,
Kyoto, Osaka, and Yokohama. Arrangements had, of course, long
previously existed for the transmission of official correspondence
throughout the country, but private letters were conveyed by private
carriers. The following year the official postal service was extended
to the whole of Japan, but not till twelve months later were private
carriers abolished and the post-office, with all its various
ramifications, constituted a State monopoly. Postcards, embossed
envelopes, newspaper wrappers, and all the paraphernalia--so far as
they had then been developed--of European post-offices were adopted
by the Japanese postal authorities, and caught on with the people with
surprising rapidity. In 1875 mail steamers were established between
Japan and the Chinese ports, and the next year Japan, which at that
time had, as I have elsewhere mentioned, to view post-offices
established in the treaty ports, herself planted Japanese post-offices
in both China and Korea. The Postal Union was joined in 1877, and from
that time the Japanese post-office has developed, _pari passu_ with
the post-offices of European countries until at the present time it is
in some respects ahead of them in the matter of enterprise and the
facilities it affords. The Inland Parcel Post was established in 1892,
and it has had a marked effect in the opening up of the country and
the familiarising of the people with many commodities, principally
European, of which they had previously no knowledge. At the present
time there are considerably over 6,000 post-offices. About a thousand
millions of letters and postcards--a favourite means of
communication--are handled yearly. The number of parcels at present
sent through the post amounts to about eleven millions annually.
Every description of post-office business as known in Europe is not
only transacted in Japan, but, so far as results go to show, each new
phase seems to fill a distinct want on the part of the people. Take
the matter of postal orders for example, the introduction of which in
this country was so vigorously opposed by the banking community, but a
facility which has proved of incalculable utility and convenience to
the mass of the public. Postal orders, when introduced into Japan,
quickly came into favour. In the first year only a certain number of
offices were authorised to issue and to pay these orders. This number
has now been largely increased, and many millions of postal orders are
at present annually sold in Japan. The International Postal Order
Service has also assumed considerable dimensions, and has largely
aided, I think, in the industrial and commercial development of the
country.
Post Office Savings Banks were established in Japan as far back as
1875. The object, as in this country, was to encourage thrift among
the mass of the people. The maximum deposit in one year of any
depositor is limited to 500 yen (about L50). The Post Office Savings
Bank has been largely utilised, and both the number of depositors and
the sums deposited continue to grow on a scale which shows that the
utility and benefit of this institution are greatly appreciated by the
Japanese people. At first the Savings Bank was worked at a loss; it
took time to develop, while in its infancy banking methods were
probably not as well understood by the Japanese authorities as they
now are. At the present time the Post Office Savings Bank in Japan is
so worked that it not only pays all its expenses but returns a profit
to the national exchequer. In this respect it very favourably compares
with the Post Office Savings Bank as administered in this country,
which is not only worked at a loss, but, owing to various causes, has
entailed a liability, nominal though it be, on the British taxpayer.
Telegraphs were first introduced into Japan in 1869, and, as was the
custom at that time in almost all countries, the telegraph followed
the railway. The first line was between the capital and Yokohama. As
time progressed some steps were taken in the direction of developing
the system, but it was not until 1878 that the telegraph service in
Japan was placed on a proper footing. In 1879 the International
Telegraph Union was entered. At the present time Japan is covered by a
network of telegraph wires, and every important island is in
communication with the capital. Telegrams may be sent either in the
Japanese or European languages. Like every other means of
communication, the telegraph has been rapidly adopted by the Japanese
people, and it now forms such a part of the national life that it is
almost impossible to imagine the country without a telegraph system.
There are about 2,600 telegraph offices in Japan, and over twenty
million messages are annually despatched therefrom. I think it will be
admitted that--especially in view of the difficulties occasioned by
the necessity of the operators in the telegraph offices being
conversant to some extent with the characteristics of two absolutely
different descriptions of languages--the progress made by Japan, and
the development and extension of the telegraph service of the country,
have been really remarkable.
When the question of introducing telephones into Japan came up for
consideration it was treated somewhat more practically than was the
case with reference to a similar matter in this country. There was
there as here a difference of opinion as to whether telephonic
communication should be left to private enterprise or be constituted a
Government monopoly. After somewhat prolonged investigation it was
decided that the telephone service should be set up and worked by the
Government, and in the year 1890 the first telephone, that between
Tokio and Yokohama, was opened. At first, strange to say, this new
device of Western civilisation appears somewhat to have hung fire, and
no general demand sprung up for the fitting of the telephone to
private houses. It required, as indeed was the case in this country,
some education of the people in regard to the paramount advantages of
always having this means of communication at hand. The process of
education in this respect was not prolonged. Before the telephone had
been many years in the country the demand for its installation in
houses and offices became so great that the Government had to obtain a
special grant of money in order to carry out the necessary work.
According to the latest returns there are somewhere about 350
telephone offices open to the public, while the approximate number of
messages transmitted is about 150,000,000. The time is not far distant
when, as I think will also be the case in this country, the telephone
will be deemed to be an indispensable adjunct of almost every house in
the towns of Japan.
In connection with the means of communication one or two remarks in
reference to tramways may not be out of place. These are entirely, or
almost entirely, electric, and have certainly, if we are to judge by
the patronage accorded to them, been very favourably received by the
Japanese people. According to the latest returns I have available
there were twenty-two tramway companies in Japan, which between them,
in the year 1904, carried the very respectable total of over
73,000,000 passengers. All of these lines save one are electric. The
first electric tramway, that in Kyoto, was opened in 1895, so that the
development of the country in this direction has proceeded rapidly.
The Tokio Electric Tramway Company pays a dividend of 11 per cent.,
and although this is a record which some of the other lines have not
yet attained, and may not possibly attain, nevertheless these matters
must not be altogether looked at from the point of view of dividends.
The shareholder very probably regards them from that standpoint, but I
suggest that the facilities given to a town may be as great or even
greater by a tramway paying 2, or 3, or 5 per cent. as by one paying
double that figure. Indeed, large dividends are often earned by
cutting down expenditure or abstaining from expenditure designed to
increase the facilities of passengers. There is every prospect of
electric tramways being extended to every town of any importance in
Japan, and I am confident they will greatly aid in the industrial
development of the land.
[Illustration: AERIAL TRANSPORT; BASKET SLUNG ON ROPES, PROVINCE
OF HIDA
FROM A PRINT BY HIROSHIGE]
I cannot leave a consideration of the means of communication in Japan
without making some reference to that somewhat peculiar vehicle which
is by so many persons deemed to be essentially characteristic of the
country, although, as a matter of fact, I believe it is of
comparatively recent introduction, having been introduced either by a
European or an American; I refer, of course, to the jinricksha. Before
Japan became to so great an extent the objective point of the
globe-trotter, and Europe, through the medium of numerous books, was
rendered conversant with everything relating to the country, nothing
more struck the imagination of the new arrival in Japan than the sight
of this extraordinary vehicle--a kind of armchair on wheels with two
shafts, pulled by a man scantily clad and with extremely muscular
legs. Whoever was the individual responsible for the invention of the
jinricksha, he certainly conferred a great boon on all foreigners
resident in Japan before railways and tramways and other means of
communication became as prevalent as they now are. The long distances
traversed by the man between the shafts of a jinricksha and the speed
he attained and maintained were almost a marvel to the foreign
visitor. It was possible to get about the country in one of these
vehicles quite as fast as any horse-drawn vehicle could convey one,
and quite as comfortably. I have heard it stated that the men who pull
these vehicles unduly develop their legs at the expense of other
portions of their body, and that the speed at which they run and which
they certainly keep up for extraordinarily long periods has extremely
injurious effects on their constitution, so that they are, as a rule,
not long-lived. I am not aware, nor have I been able to ascertain,
whether such statements are mere theories or have any foundation in
fact. This much I will say, that the Japanese jinricksha-runners are
an extraordinary class in reference to the speed which they attain
dragging a goodly weight for a very long distance. It does not seem
likely that the jinricksha, acclimatised as it has been in Japan, will
be ousted by other modern contrivances for getting about the country.
It is still very much in evidence, and it is universally admitted by
those who have had experience of it to be a most comfortable means of
locomotion. Why it has never come into favour, at least to any extent,
elsewhere than in Japan I have never been able to understand.
Certainly jinrickshas can be hired at Shanghai, and they are to be
seen at one or two other places in the Far East, but it may be
regarded as a distinctly Japanese vehicle, although, as I have said,
there is nothing Japanese about it excepting its adaptation in the
country.
I remarked at the commencement of this chapter that we may properly
gauge the progress of a nation by the facilities it possesses or has
developed for inter-communication personally and otherwise. I hope the
few remarks I have made on this head may enable my readers to form
some idea as to the position of Japan in this matter. I have not
wearied them with statistics, but I have, I think, said enough to show
that in everything relating to communication, whether it be the
locomotion of the individual or the facilities given to him to
communicate his wishes, desires, aspirations, sentiments, Japan is now
well in line with all the other great civilised Powers, and has reason
to be proud of the progress she has made and the manner in which she
has adapted to the requirements of her people the ideas and inventions
she has obtained from Europe and America.