JAPANESE SHIPPING SUBSIDIES.

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 122, 9 February 1918, Page 7

JAPANESE SHIPPING SUBSIDIES.

RECENT RESTRICTIONS. The British Commercial Attache at Yokohama (Mr. E. V. Crowe, C.M.G.) | recently forwarded a translation- of a \ Japaneso law, which is of considerable interest to shipowners and shipbuild- ■■■ ers both in Japan and elsewhere (states, ; the "Shipping World"). The law rotates to the suspension of shipbuilding subsidies, and was passed at%a recent special session of tho Japanese Diet. Mr. Crowe writes that the Shipbuilding Encouragement Law, which came into force in 1896, and was amended in 1910, gavo a powerful impetus to tho i shipbuilding industry of Japan, and the advent of the European war greatly accelerated the. development of the industry. The unprecedented prosperity, which is now ruling in shipbuilding circles in Japan can, indeed, only be ascribed to the abnormal conditions brought about by tho war. All the urivato yards have earned very considerable profits, and there is every indication that the number of shipbuilding companies will be largely augmented in the near .future. In view of the profits now being made, the opinion has frequently been advanced that the time had come to abolish'the subsidies granted to ship- ' ping and shipbuilding, and this feeling has been accentuated by the fact that within the past .few months many of the vessels recently, constructed in' Japan have been transferred to foreign ownership, which no doubt gives rise, to a belief that, under present conditions at' least, when tonnage is at such an extravagant figure, the Jananeso taxpayer is being taxed for the benefit of the foreigner. For the i-iuesent, however, the Diet in this new law lias confined itself to cutting off subsidies conferred on vessels which are fold to foreign owners. Under tho Shinbuilding Encouragement Law. as amended in 1910, vessels are divided into two classes: Class A comprises vessels containing not less than iiO berths of first or., second, class, or one c.nbin or second-class berth ' for every 100 :gross feus-ipr,. hereof, while Class B 'comprises all'other' types of vessels. The™-two classes : "were in turn subdivided into four groups, the. first covering ocean-going steamers: the second, near sen vessels; the third, ' coasting vessels:. and . tho fourth, smooth-water vessels.