last twenty years but the actual product of which has in the meantime risen nearly eighty per cent. The production of other cereals, beans, and potatoes has grown even more appreciably, while the area of the cotton, indigo, and sugar culture has, for commercial reasons, remarkably declined. No illustration, however, of the limited agricultural resources of the country is more impressive than the ratio which her arable area bears to her population. The _per capita_ distribution would fall below half an acre. Under these circumstances it is natural that the cultivated lots are diminutive, more than half of the rice fields of the country being each less than one-eighth of an acre. The farmer is obliged to exercise the utmost care in utilizing every scrap of his land and every grain of its yield. A great majority of the tenants, moreover, lack a sufficient fund, after the high rents and interest are paid, even to buy manure, much less to make any improvement on the land. The implements are as meager and primitive--the outfit for the cultivation of an acre of field costing probably less than eight and a half dollars in gold--as their wages are low, seldom rising above thirty-five cents per day for the male and twenty cents for the female. The government is making efforts to develop the agriculture of the country by all possible means of education and encouragement, not the least important of which has been the creation of the central and local Hypothec Banks and the Credit Guilds. How much, however, these methods will really reach the needy villagers is yet to be seen. On the other hand, Japan cannot help realizing that her agriculture, while it still constitutes the staple industry of the nation, has already ceased either to supply her with all the necessary raw products for the manufactures or to support the new population, which is growing annually at the rate of more than half a million. Probably this serious problem lies behind many an event of recent years that characterizes the activities at home and abroad of the Japanese people. The difference between the condition of agriculture and that of manufactures and trade not only is clear, but also becomes increasingly decisive as time advances. Until we realize this significant difference we fail to grasp the most fundamental cause, excepting perhaps her growing ambition as a nation, that impels Japan onward with an irresistible force into a controlling position in the Far East. In proceeding to explain the situation, manufactures and trade will be considered together, as their influence is in a large measure mutual.