Yen

“ Thus the old 5-yen gold piece, weighing 2.22221 momme of 900 fineness, became a 10-yen piece in the new currency, and a new piece of half the weight was coined. No change whatever was required in the reckonings of the people. The yen continued to be their coin of account, with a fixed sterling value of a little over two shillings, and the denominations of the gold coins were doubled. Gold, however, is little seen in Japan: the whole duty of currency is done by notes. ”

“ Of course it may be said that Japan has nothing to do with sterling values, the yen being simply a yen to her people, and not so many shillings and pence. But the price of Japanese labour and the prices of the commodities it produces have appreciated even more sharply than gold has appreciated during the past ten years. The labour that earned only twenty-four sen in 1891 can easily earn more than thirty-nine sen to-day, and of course it is proportionately easier for the producing classes to pay their taxes at present. ”

“ Undoubtedly, to carry the currency of a nation from a discount of 70 or 80% to par in the course of four years, reducing its volume at the same time from 160 to 119 million yen, was a financial enterprise violent and daring almost to rashness. The gentler expedient of a foreign loan would have commended itself to the majority of economists. But it may be here stated, once for all, that until her final adoption of a gold standard in 1897, the foreign money market was practically closed to Japan. ”

“ The widow tells me that house-masters pay 2 yen once for all for the sign, and an annual tax of 2 yen on a first-class yadoya, 1 yen for a second, and 50 cents for a third, with 5 yen for the license to sell sake.
These "godowns" (from the Malay word gadong) , or fire-proof store- houses, are one of the most marked features of Japanese towns, both because they are white where all else is grey, and because they are solid where all else is perishable. ”

“ For his room and three ample meals a day he pays every four weeks only one yen eighty-five sen—not much more than a dollar and a half in American currency. If very, very poor, he will not be obliged to wear a uniform; but nearly all students of the higher classes do wear uniforms, as the cost of a complete uniform, including cap and shoes of leather, is only about three and a half yen for the cheaper quality. Those who do not wear leather shoes, however, are required, while in the school, to exchange their noisy wooden geta for zori or light straw sandals. ”

“ This, together with music, noise, and the crowds packing the streets from curb to curb, may appropriately be termed "The Great Colored Way." It is a sidelight of life in another 375 part of the world that has to be seen to be understood. No expense is spared in lighting in front of amusement buildings in Osaka. The price of admission is five and ten cents, and the places are jammed during opening hours.
The unit of money in Japan is the yen, which is 50 cents in American coin. The half-yen is a silver piece; some of the lower coins are also silver, others nickel and copper. ”

“ It has irregularity without picturesqueness, and the grey sky, grey sea, grey houses, and grey roofs, look harmoniously dull. No foreign money except the Mexican dollar passes in Japan, and Mr. Fraser’s compradore soon metamorphosed my English gold into Japanese satsu or paper money, a bundle of yen nearly at par just now with the dollar, packets of 50, 20, and 10 sen notes, and some rouleaux of very neat copper coins. ”

“ Fortunately all these things, and even dresses themselves, can be handed down from mother to daughter, as jewels and lace may be in European lands, Japanese ladies fashions not changing quickly.
A Japanese lady's dress will often represent a value of 200 yen, without counting the ornaments for her hair, worth perhaps as much again. A woman of the smaller shop-keeping class may have on her, when she goes out holiday-making, some 40 or 50 yen's worth. A gentleman will rarely spend on his clothes as much as he lets his wife spend on hers. ”

“ Then she thought to herself, “It is not the most desirable of places to live where one loses a finger for each nick of china, but the yen he pays are many more than I can earn elsewhere, and my dear mother must have tea and rice. ”

“ In 1878 it was decided that a sum of 10,000,000 yen in gold should be kept, as part of the Reserve Fund, in the Government Treasury, the remainder being turned into floating capital, and it was ordered at the same time that 20,000,000 yen should be added annually out of the general account to the Sinking Fund, having for its object the redemption of public debts, both domestic and foreign. ”

“ University students, who formerly got along on 11 yen a month, can scarcely now manage under 20 yen. The price of a box for the ten days wrestling matches at Ekō-in, Tōkyō, rose from 40 to 54 yen for the best places, and from 38 to 45 yen for the next best in the single year between January, 1900, and January, 1901. ”

“ I left Tokyo with about 30 yen in my pocket, which remained from my school expenses. Taking off the railway and steamship fare, and other incidental expenses, I had still about 14 yen in my pocket. I could give them all I had;—what did I care, I was going to get a salary now. All country folk are tight-wads, and one 5-yen bill would hit them square. Now watch and see. Having washed myself, I returned to my room and waited, and the maid of the night before brought in my breakfast. ”

“ The outcome of these various arrangements was that, by the middle of 1885, the volume of fiduciary notes had been reduced to 119,000,000 yen, their depreciation had fallen to 3%, and the metallic reserve of the treasury had increased to 45,000,000 yen. The resumption of specie payments was then announced, and became, in the autumn of that year, an accomplished fact. From the time when this programme began to be effective, Japan entered a period of favourable balance of trade. According to accepted economic theories, the influence of an appreciating currency should be to encourage imports ”

“ Yen, yen, n. a Japanese gold or silver coin, used as the monetary unit since 1871, and now equivalent to about 2s. 01⁄2d. of our money. [Jap.,—Chin. yuen, round, a dollar.]
Yeoman, yō′man, n. in early English history, a common menial attendant, but after the fifteenth century, one of a class of small freeholders, forming the next grade below gentlemen: a man of small estate, any small farmer or countryman above the grade of labourer: an officer of the royal household: a member of the yeomanry cavalry: (Shak.) ”

“ In obedience to elementary economical laws, the cheap money had steadily driven out the dear, and although the government mint at Osaka, founded in 1871, had struck gold and silver coins worth 80,000,000 yen between that date and 1881, the customs returns showed that a great part of this metallic currency had flowed out of the country. In these circumstances Japanese financiers decided that only one course remained: the treasury must play the part of national banker. ”

“ If a man is badly off or wants to undertake something beyond his financial resources, and his friends decide to help him, they may proceed by forming a kō. A kō is composed of a number of people who agree to subscribe a certain sum monthly and to divide the proceeds monthly by ballot, beginning by giving the first month's receipts to the person to succour whom the kō was formed. Suppose that the subscription be fixed at a yen a month and that there are fifty subscribers. Then the beneficiary—who pays in his yen with the rest—gets 50 yen on the occasion of the first ingathering. ”

“ We walked to our hotel in Yokohama and took rooms, relying that future funds would come out of the letter which was supposedly waiting at the bank for me. In the meantime in the bag which had been forwarded from Nagoya I found a two-dollar American [282] bill. This gift we cashed into yen and sat through the evening on a terrace over the bund along the water front, sipping forgotten coffee and ordering long, iced, fresh lemon drinks. A steamer had landed that day and at the next table to ours was a charming group of American girls. They were filled with enthusiasm for the exotic. ”

“ Out of every 1,000 inhabitants there are only 7 persons who make 2,700 yen a year. Thus it is seen that when compared with the French and the English the Japanese are extremely poor. The Germans seem to be rich to the Japanese, though when compared with the French and English they are poor. ”

“ The industrial boom which followed the war with China in 1894-5, created a necessity for securing foreign capital to finance multitudinous undertakings which Japan herself had not the means to carry on unaided. Thereupon the Government, recognising the impossibility of borrowing in the Western money markets so long as Japan remained on a silver basis, passed a bill making the currency a gold one in the ratio of 321⁄3 to 1, or say 2/01⁄2 sterling per yen. ”

“ The currency system, established by Japanese financiers at the beginning of the Meiji era was based on the gold standard, the unit being the gold yen a coin worth four shillings, in round numbers. But, in the first place, Japan's stock of gold was soon driven out of the country by her depreciated fiat currency, and, in the second, as all other Oriental nations were silver-using, and as the silver Mexican dollar was the unit of accounts in Far-Eastern trade, Japan ultimately drifted into silver monometallism, the silver yen becoming her unit of currency. ”

“ An ordinary working Jinrikisha costs a little over 30 yen, and will last three years if repaired a couple of times yearly. Hand some private jinrikishas may come to 45 or even 50 yen. The total cost of the outfit of a jinrikisha-man—coat, drawers, hat, and lantern all complete—is estimated at from 2, to 5 yen. The usual fare is from 15 to 25 sen per ri (2 1⁄2 miles English) . Many men work on their own account, their one Jinrikisha being their stock in trade. These are they that loiter about the street corners, waiting for a job. ”

“ It is useless to try to correct them, because they are still changing. The price of rice, which did not exceed 15 yen per koku when you were making your research work, exceeded 50 yen in 1919, and is now struggling to maintain the price of 25 yen. ”

“ My brother came to me, two days previous to his departure for Kyushu, and giving me 600 yen, said that I might begin a business with it, or go ahead with my study, or spend it in any way I liked, but that that would be the last he could spare. It was a commendable act for my brother. What! about only 600 yen! I could get along without it, I thought, but as this unusually simple manner appealed to me, I accepted the offer with thanks. Then he produced 50 yen, requesting me to give it to Kiyo next time I saw her, which I readily complied with. ”

“ On the position Japanese occupy as regards the acquisition of wealth Mr. Kure Bunso, the well-known statistician, writes in the “Shakaigaku Zasshi” as follows: There are only two men in Japan who pay an income tax on over 250,000 yen. There are only 13 men in the whole country who pay on 39,000 yen, being in the proportion of 4 persons to every 100,000 inhabitants; only 67 who pay on 24,000 yen, being in the proportion of 2 persons to every 10,000 inhabitants; 96 persons who pay on 17,000 yen, being in the proportion of 2.8 persons to every 10,000 inhabitants ”

“ Money is the only thing one can depend upon when in the country and you should economize and be prepared for rainy days. I’m sending you ten yen by postal money order. I have that fifty yen my Master Darling gave me deposited in the Postal Savings to help you start housekeeping when you return to Tokyo, and taking out this ten, I have still forty yen left,—quite safe.”
I should say women are very particular on many things.
When I was meditating with the letter flapping in my hand on the porch, the old lady opened the sliding partition and brought in my supper. ”

“ But at this point the empire became involved in war with Russia, and the enormous resulting outlays caused a signal change in the financial situation. Before peace was restored in the autumn of 1905, Japan had been obliged to borrow 405,000,000 yen at home and 1,054,000,000 abroad, so that she found herself in 1908 with a total debt of 2,276,000,000 yen, of which aggregate her domestic indebtedness stood for 1,110,000,000 and her foreign borrowings amounted to 1,166,000,000. ”

“ When I was in Tokyo, tradesmen's messenger boys received only their food, lodging and clothing and an occasional present, with help no doubt in starting a linked business when they were out of their time. Now such youths, as a development of the labour movement, are on a wage basis and receive 20 yen a month. ”

“ There are at Shimbashi 250 men, whose trade is so profitable that a place at the stands finds ready bidders at twelve yen and a half, while at Uyeno, the twenty sen share every man paid when the stands were fixed is now worth three yen. Outside the railway enclosure at Shimbashi are to be seen men who solicit passengers, and when they find fares, undersell them to jinrikisha-men, the difference between the customer’s price and the jinrikisha-man’s being their clear profit. ”

“ The fact that many rural families were in debt, not for seed or manure but for food spoke for itself. The amounts might seem trivial in Western eyes, but when the average income was only 350 yen a year a debt of 80 yen was a serious matter; and 80 yen was the average debt of farming families in the prefecture of Shidzuoka. No one could say that the farmers were lazy: they were working hard according to their lights. ”