Through Japanese Spectacles.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 250, 2 September 1902, Page 3

Through Japanese Spectacles.

Japan possesses a “ Piei'ponfc Morgan ” in Baron Shibusawa, President of the First Bmk of Japan, and head of many railways, shipping concerns and factories in r the Far East, As the leading financier in Japan at the present day, his views on the outlook in t ha world of commerce are interesting, and worthy of attention, Baron Shibusawa has been visiting America and England, and sonm of his impressions are recorded in an interview which the London Daily Mail secured with the dis tiuguished visitor. His comparisons of Americans and Englishmen was marked by Oriental caution. “ America seems to me, he said, “ like the young mao of twentyfive, full of impetuous vigour, in the first flush of his strength, who thinks nothing too high or too great for him to tackle. In England, on the contrary, I find the middle-aged man. His activity, ; his readiness to rush into every concern, may not be so great, but possibly there is a maturity of judgment and a wisdom abouu the ripened life of your nation which the younger lacks.” Like eyeiy observant visitor in the United States, the Baron while there was struck with the great economy in manufacture, achieved by the abundant use of labour - saving machinery, the development ot specialising ” m production, and the wise utilisation of waste. Both America and Germany, according to the Baron, are making serious attacks upon Britain’s commercial supremacy in Japan, and a revision of British methods is necessary it that supremacy is to be tained. “ The goods from America, he remarked, “ are every year increasing, and soon impoits and exports may balance. But your most dangerous competitor is Germany. The German trader gams continually over the English or American because he takes the trouble to learn the nafive tongue, while you do not.” The German, it appears, has probably studied Japanese before leaving home, and he goes on studying it when he arrives in the country. The result is that in a few years he can dispense with a middleman in the conduct of his business, and thereby * scores’ over his English and American competitors. His Japanese may not be very good, but, says the Baron, “it does for business.” It is tht Baron a belief that if the English do not take care they will find in a few years that the Germans have taken a large part of their business from them. Evidently in the Far East, no less than at Home, the Britisher will have to wake up.—Press.