JAPAN'S TRADE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2927, 13 November 1916, Page 6

JAPAN'S TRADE

■ * ■ ENORMOUS EXPANSION WAR CREATES OPPORTUNITIES The remarkable expansion of Japansee industries and trade was emphasised by Mr. John Floclcton, of "Wellington, ill conversation with a Dominion reporter on Saturday. Mr. Flockton returned by the Itivorina from a visit to Japan, undertaken partly for business reasons. Ho had opportunities during his stay in tho Far East to see what Japanese manufacturers and traders wero doing, and he was greatly impressed by their intense activity and by tho largo scale of their operations. "They aro reaping a rich profit from the war," he said, "and they are establishing themselves in a very strong position to met competition in the period following tho war. Their keenness for business, their facilities for production, and their readiness to accept improved methods and new ideas, are factors in their favour. They enjoy, moreover, the industrial advantage of a huge supply of cheap labour and a sympathetic and enterprising Government."

Japan's war orders, added Mr. Flockton, had been on a huge scale. His attention had been drawn, for example, to a Russian order for 2,000,000 pairs of military boots. Another order was for 2,500,000 yards of cloth ? the prioe in this case being in the neighbourhood of Bs. per yard. Then Japan wgs supplying Russia with copper and other metals in vast quantities, and the exports of munitions to Russia were on a stupendous scale. Japanese factories were running at high pressure seven days a week, and even then the manufacturers were forced often to decline orders of a highly profitable character. The improvement of the financial position of the Japanese nation under these conditions naturally was rapid, and the recovery from the period of difficulty and depression that had followed the Russo-Japanese War probably was now complete. The Japanese merchants and manufacturers wore alive to the opportunity presented to them by' the war, and they were preparing to retain as much as possible of the trade they had won. They were improving the quality of their goods where necessary, and, even more important, were revising their financial methods, and their distribution. arrangements.

Before tlio war Japan's foreign trade was handled mostly by foreigners. Japan imported her raw materials through British, Indian, and German merchants, and very few of the Japanese banks had branches abroad, even in the great centres of the world. But the position has changed materially during the last two years. Mr. Flockton mentioned that Japanese cotton merchants, for example, now went to India and laid in stocks of raw cotton there. Many of the big trading firms had established branches in London, New Yorfc, Petrograd, and elsewhere, for the direct sale of their goods, while the system of agencies was being expanded rapidly. Then the extension of Japanese banking operations had been conspicuous. Branches had appeared in San Francisco and Sydney, for' example. The Japanese financiers had been advancing money to Russia in large sums, which were spent in Japan on the purchase of munitions and goods. Discussing some aspects of the war in relation to Japan, Mr. ITlockton mentioned that the German banks in the Japanese cities had now been closed, though they wore permitted to continue their operations without much hindrance until recent months. The last of these banks had been closed during his stay in Tokio. German influence in China was still very strong, and some curious incidents were reported in that quarter. The Germans in Hankow, for instance, had demanded and obtained permission to control part of the police system. They had been able to prevent the purchase of cattle 011 a scale for export to the United Kingdom. Even the Chinese newspapers had condemned the "inordinate complaisance" shown by the Chinese authorities in some districts towards the Germans.