Let us for a moment consider the qualifications of the Japanese as a manufacturing nation, for upon them must ultimately depend their economic as well as general national success. It would be impossible to conceal from our view certain serious disadvantages which confront industrial Japan, particularly in her want of the new form of labor and experience and lack of certain raw materials and of capital. Regarding labor, the old manual dexterity and individual apprenticeship have hardly had time to be sufficiently converted into an organized and specialized mechanical training, so that the foreign visitors report continually the apparent inefficiency and ill discipline of the Japanese mill-hand. On the other hand, Japan cannot forever count on the cheapness of her labor, whose cost is still low, the average daily wage of twenty-six principal classes of laborers being not more than one-quarter of an American dollar, but it has risen more than twice within the last fifteen years, and will continue to rise along with the cost of living. The shortage of capital is natural when it is remembered that Japan is just passing from an agricultural to a manufacturing stage, but none the less constitutes the most serious drawback to her industrial growth. Ingenuity and enterprise are not wanting, but owing to the scarcity of capital Japan's exploitation of resources, both at home and in Korea and China, is handicapped to an extent which is exasperating. Latterly, however, particularly after the war, foreign capitalists have been seeking investment in Japan, and they may be expected to aid Japanese enterprise on the mainland. The lack of proper business experience of the Japanese manufacturers is natural from their comparatively recent appearance. They have been accused of over-eagerness to rid themselves of foreign advisers and middlemen, who could have supplied them with a better understanding and control of the outside market than they themselves could command. The native maker, however, will learn deeper by blundering more. A graver charge has continually been made of the slack commercial veracity of the Japanese, which is admitted by themselves to be real, but which has for certain reasons been unduly magnified, while it is naturally being remedied by experience. Another grave disadvantage of the Japanese manufacturer consists in his want of such important raw materials as cotton, wool, and iron. The growth of cotton in Japan is insignificant, while its importation from India, China, and the United States amounts to more than seventy million _yen_ annually. Wool has to be entirely supplied from abroad, as pastures for sheep do not exist in Japan, while the total annual output of iron is less than eighty thousand short tons.