Japan's Finances In the Financial Supplement which forms part of
this issue of The Spectator Viscount Kano, London manager of the Yokohama Specie Bank, gives reasons for confidence in Japan's economic and financial situation. He has none the less felt himself bound to warn his countrymen against the disastrous possibilities of the present crisis. In an interview with the newspaper Asahi, he emphasised the unfortunate effects of her action in China on her financial relations with Great Britain, and pointed out that to maintain her position on the money markets and retain her foreign trade was as essential to her as victory in the war. But the war has already had an effect on her foreign trade, imposing the necessity of strictly limiting some imports, such as cotton, and certain exports ; in August her adverse trade balance rose to 747,848,000 yen as against 213,689,000 yen in the same month of last year. Viscount Kano's warning may lead many to ask whether Japan's guilt is not shared by those who finance and trade with her. As a great com- mercial nation, Japan is especially dependent on the goodwill of other countries, for loans, markets, and materials ; the loss of that goodwill would mean nothing short of disaster for her. Anything like an official boycott must wait on the outcome of the Nine Power Conference, but every individual in every country who condemns Japan's actions can refuse to purchase knowingly any Japanese goods.
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