COMPETITIVE CONDITIONS [N INTERNATIONAL TRADE. 151

Kaisha (Ltd.)—Japan Trading Co. (Ltd.)—composed of Japanese
and foreign business men. These firms are not only export and import
 commission houses; their business activities comprise nearly
every field of industry and commerce, and they own, operate, or control
 plantations, mines, factories, shipping companies, and banks,
and also undertake private or public contracts on a large scale.
The firm of Mitsui &amp; Co., which is representative.of this type of
Japanese business corporation, through its branch office in London, is
one of the largest exporters to Japan from England of machinery,
metals, cotton and woolen piece goods, coal, fertilizers, etc. The
works and interests of the Mitsuis are so extensive and varied that
they embrace nearly all of Japan’s principal commercial concerns,
and, therefore, they have no ordinary influence on the general economic
 welfare of Japan. This concern is engaged in almost every
line of export and import trade, with a chain of branches that encircle
 the globe. In 1908 their coal business amounted to one-third
of the whole annual production of Japan. Their specialty is the
supply of bunker coal to steamers at all the coaling stations in the
Orient. The firm also owns its own fleet of steamers. It represents
several well-known European and American manufacturers in the
Orient, e. g., Vickers (Ltd.), the General Electric Co., the American
Locomotive Co., etc.t (See Pt. II, p. 255.)
Japan’s colonial trade.—Japan’s colonies—Formosa (Taiwan),
Korea (Chosen), Saghalien (Karafuto), and Manchuria (Kwantung)—are
 not as yet of great importance as markets for Japan's
industrial products. Their commercial importance lies in the fact
that they constitute important supply centers for foodstuffs and
raw products, sugar, rice, beans, and cattle, and possibly serve as
outlets for Japan’s surplus population. Both in volume and in value
Japan’s trade with these colonies is slowly but steadily increasing.
In view of the fact that rice is such an important factor in the daily
food of the Japanese, the Government pursues the policy of encouraging
 its production, as well as that of sugar, in the colonies, especially
 in Formosa and Korea. The importance of Manchuria, rich
in minerals but sparsely populated, lies in its location between Russian
 and Chinese territory. The Manchurian Railroad, originally
built by Russia, is becoming a great carrier of Japanese exports to
Russia?

Cooperation between American manufacturers and Japanese
merchants.—A considerable degree of success has been attained by
a number of American and other manufacturers cooperating with
Japanese merchants. The General Electric Co., for instance, is

1 Kotaro Mochizuki, Japan To-Day, p. 449 fol.
) Weltwirtschaftiiches Archiv, 1915, I, p. 78.