ths has steadily risen since the eighties.
The ratio of births, other than still births, per 1,000 of population,
which in 1889-93 was 28.6, increased by 1909-13 to 33.7; but the death
rate fell only from 21.1 to 20.6. The ratio of unmarried, 63.22 in
1893, was 66.22 in 1918.

The following figures for Japan Proper are printed by the _Financial
and Economic Annual_, issued by the Department of Finance:

---------------------------------------------------------
Year. | Total. |Annual Increase |Average Increase per
| |of Population. |1,000 Inhabitants.
---------------------------------------------------------
1910 | 50,716,600 | -- | 14.09}
1911 | 51,435,400 |718,800 | 14.17}
1912 | 52,167,000 |731,600 | 14.22} 14.21
1913 | 52,911,800 |744,800 | 14.28}
1914 | 53,668,600 |756,800 | 14.30}
| | |
1915 | 54,448,200 |779,600 | 14.53}
1916 | 55,235,000 |786,800 | 14.45}
1917 | 56,035,100 |800,100 | 14.49} 14.50
1918 | 56,851,300 |816,200 | 14.57}
1919 | 57,673,938 |822,638 | 14.47}
1920 | 55,961,140 | -- | --
---------------------------------------------------------

It will be seen that for the year 1920 there was a big drop. The
population of 55,961,140 for the year 1920 is the actual population as
returned by the census; the figures of the preceding years are
"based," it is explained to me, "on the local registrars' entries. The
national census has demonstrated that the figures were larger than the
actual number of inhabitants, the discrepancies being partly due to
erroneous and duplicate registration and partly to the exodus of
persons to the colonies or foreign countries whilst retaining their
legal domiciles at home. But the table serves to show the rate of
increase." A million and three-quarters is a substantial figure,
however, to account for in this way. It would seem reasonable to
suppose that the increased cost of living, marriage at a later age
than formerly and increased mortality due directly or indirectly to
the factory system have arrested the rate of increase of the
population in recent years. For trustworthy figures of the Japanese
population we must await the next census and compare its figures with
those of the 1920 census, the first to be taken scientifically.

A considerable part of Japan is uninhabitable. Of how much of the
British Isl