226 REPORT ON COOPERATION IN AMERICAN EXPORT TRADE.
Its head office is in Tokyo, and, outside of Japan, Chosen, and
South Manchuria, it maintains five branches in the United States,
three in Europe, four in India, seven in South China and the South
Seas, seven in North China, and one in Australia. The branches and
agencies in Manchuria, all of which are under the direct control of
the Dairen branch of the firm, are as follows:
Antung, Mukden, Yingkou, Chinchou. Hsinmintun, Kaiyuan,
Tiehling, Ssupingkai, Kungchuling, Changchun, Kirin, Shaungchengpu,
 Shihtouchengtzu, Harbin, and Tuichingshan. The branch
at Vladivostok is also under Dairen.
Through these the Mitsui Bussan Kaisha is kept in touch with
all variations in market conditions. So far as the cotton industry
is concerned, it imports raw cotton and cotton-mill machinery into
Japan and exports cotton yarn, cotton cloth, knit goods, etc., and is
in close touch with all branches of the cotton industry of Japan.
The Manchurian branches and agencies are engaged -chiefly in the
importation of cotton cloth and yarn and the export of Manchurian
staple produce. The amount of business, both import and export,
done by the Dairen branch during 1914 was 60,000,000 yen, the
former having been 25,000,000 and the latter 85,000,000 yen. The
importation of cotton cloth and yarn alone amounted to 18,000.000
yen.
The Mitsuis ship largely to Dairen by the Nippon Yusen Kaisha
and the Osaka Shosen Kaisha, but also employ a good many chartered
 steamers for carrying coal, etc. Owing to its expanding business
 and to the higher rates charged for carriage it is now buying
steamers to take the place of those chartered, and it will probably
soon be carrying most of its exports of cloth as well as other articles
in its own ships. The Mitsui Bussan Kaisha, as well as the other
members in the Cotton Exporters’ Association, get a 10 per cent
rebate on the scheduled freight rates of these steamship lines for
cotton piece goods to various points in Chosen and China, as well
as to Hongkong and Manila.
The firm is by far the most powerful commercial medium in conducting
 direct trade between Japan and foreign countries. Formerly
Japan’s foreign trade was carried on exclusively through the hands
of foreign middlemen at the open ports of Japan. As the Japanese
quickly learned how to do business on their own account direct with
their foreign clients, the system of the middlemen and commission
merchants was almost completely dispensed with.
A general tendency has been noted of late among the manufacturers
 in all the leading products of Japan to undertake the sale of
their own goods abroad through regular selling organizations. This
may mark the advent of a revolution in the economic system of
Japan. In the case of the Mitsuis, this firm, in addition to acting
as selling agents for Japanese products, are also agents in the Far
East for a number of American and other foreign concerns. They
are sole agents in Japan and in Manchuria for a number of prominent
 American firms.
The firm is agent for many large insurance companies, both Japanese
 and foreign. It also acts as agent for the Nippon Yusen Kaisha,
is sole agent for the Onoda Cement Co., and undertakes the export
of Fushun coal. These mines, located near Mukden and yielding