How do so many people get their living in such a poor, little country? To do it they have to work very hard. They culti vate their little farms as well as we would cultivate the smallest gardens. They do not have land enough to raise food for many animals, so they keep but few. Therefore, they do not have much meat or milk.
Instead of these foods, they eat fish. There are more fishermen in Japan than in any other country. Thousands and thou sands of Japanese fishing boats are at sea when the weather is good.
In some parts the climate is too rainy for wheat, and rice is raised instead. The people eat rice as we eat bread. Instead of butter, the Jap anese use bean oil, some of which they make at home and some of which they buy from China and Korea. They also eat many vegetables, which they grow on their little garden farms.
As there are so few animals, the people do not have much leather for shoes. Often they wear shoes made of wood. These they slip off when they go into a house. Their socks are made like mittens, with a separate place for the big toe, so that they can slip it into a strap which holds on their wooden shoes. Sometimes the little
Japanese boys take off their wooden shoes and play ball with them.
458. the Japanese have learned the ways of people in America and Europe, they have been building steel ships and factories as the people do in England and America. There are large cotton mills at Osaka, which manufacture raw cotton from the United States. Japan has a large trade with China, and also with the United States and with Europe. To us they send silk, tea, and beautiful things; we send them cotton, steel, and kerosene oil. Steamers of many nations call at Yokohama and at Osaka.
At the head of the Japanese Govern ment is an emperor, called the Mikado.
Japan now has a Parliament, but it does not have as much power as the English Parliament.
Korea, or Chosen, was long an indepen dent kingdom, but is now ruled by the Jap anese. Much of the surface of Korea is mountainous, and there are mines of gold and other metals. In Korea, as in Japan, most of the people earn their liv ing by tilling the soil.