Roughly speaking, the population of Japan is estimated at about 57,000,000 with a total area of 140,000,000 square miles, of which about 15,000,000 acres are supposed to be used for cultivation. For the purpose of illustration let us take the United States for comparison. The relative density of population in the two countries is as follows: In other words, the ratio of density between the two countries in the case of improved land is 11 to 1. However in the consideration of population from an economic point of view there is no significance in merely stating the figures as to the numbers of people in certain regions compared with others without taking account of other economic factors affected by the question of population. It is only when people cannot obtain a proportional increase of food in their own countries for their increasing population that the real and great significance of population manifests itself. It is absolutely futile to consider the condition of Boston as compared to New York by merely stating the number of the people per square mile in both cities, any more than it is useful to say that even the most populated localities in Japan "hardly surpass certain areas in Belgium, England and Germany" without reference to the economic and social situations in those places. This being the case, the matter of population may be made much more clear by answering two questions. First: How much does the nation have to pay for its food supply? And secondly: How will these prices affect the nation's economic welfare? Scenery and Farmers Any western travelers who have hastily passed through Japan proper in a train could not fail to admire the beautiful scenery of its mountains and rivers, but they seem to be few indeed, who are able to understand why and how the Japanese farmers are working so hard "from dark to dark," and doing so on the tops or slopes of the numerous hills and mountains, some as high as several hundred feet above sea level. It is in Japan that nature has given to 35,000,000 farm workers only 15,000,000 acres of arable land. It is also in Japan that more than 70 percent of the farmers are cultivating less than two and a half acres of land, while those who are given more than 15 acres constitute but 1.22 percent of the total number of farmers. High Yield of Land With such small shares of cultivated area they must exploit every inch of ground just as long as they can reap any profit from their efforts, and all means are to be tried in order to produce as much as possible from the small improved land of their holdings. Readers who see the following figures will not be surprised to learn the superior yields produced from Japanese fields as compared with others, if they keep in mind this statement regarding the Japanese farmer. The figures below give the comparative yields in various countries with the average value of the yield per hector in Italy as the base unit.
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