SPECULATIVE WAVE IN JAPAN.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8456, 5 June 1907, Page 3

SPECULATIVE WAVE IN JAPAN.

"The 'get-rich-quick' fever has seized Japan and unless the nation sobers down speculative crisis will become as common in Tokio as they are in New York." Such is the opinion of a city merchant who has just returned to London from a business tour in the East. "I was amazed at the amount of speculation which is now indulged in by all classes in the principal cities," he told a press representative. "The Stock Exchange in Tokio, which, unlike ours in London, is open to the public, is frequently the scene of|great excitement and bucket-shops of the worst description abound both in the capital and in other cities. The Produce and Rice Exchanges are other centres of feverish gambling. Some day aJJapanese Leiter will make a corner in rice. "I learned that the companies and syndicates floated during the twelve months ending in January last represented the astonishing total capital of 140 million pounds. "Many of these companies were of the soundest description, but Japanese company promoters whose numbers are growing rapidly, have been responsible for several rotten concerns. "In land and house property, too, there is much speculation. In Northern Japan, more especially, property has in many cases trebled in value. "Happily, Japanese women do not speculate, and take little interest in business affairs. The railways, owned by the State, afford no opportunities for speculation, and the tramways in Tokio are shortly to be municipalised.

"The sober-minded statesmen of Japan believe that the present fever is a passing phase, due to the great wave of prosperity which is passing over the nation, and to the elation consequent on her victories."