CHAPTER VIII

THE COMMERCIAL INTEGRITY OF THE JAPANESE

IT is to be presumed that, as a rule, the business visitor to Japan has made some attempt to study his subject more or less before he leaves his country. He has, no doubt, read some of the import and export returns relating to Japan. He may have also visited some of the merchants in his own country who habitually deal with Japan. Possibly, too, he has had a talk with business men who have been out to that country on similar errands before him.

But the result of all these inquiries will be to leave him in a state of mind which will be worse, as far as complication of impressions is concerned, than the first.

The consular reports will afford him conclusive proof that business, a large and increasing business, is being done with Japan. The London merchant, while confirming that fact, will add that, while it may be just as well for him to go out to see for himself how the trade is done, he would strongly advise him to fight shy of dealing direct with the Japanese, for their business methods are strange.

The business man who has previously visited Japan will endorse and emphasize the opinion of

the merchant. He will say that the Japanese in business are devoid of integrity.

The man inquiring will, no doubt, ask his informant," Did the Japanese ever impose upon you when you were out there ?"

"Oh no," will be the reply, " for the simple reason that I did not give them the chance."

"I suppose, then, that your people do not do much business with Japan?"

"Yes, they do; and a very large business."

"Then how is the trade worked? There must be some foreigners who deal with the Japanese direct, and it is to be presumed that the Japanese must pay such people occasionally, as otherwise these transactions would soon cease?"

"Oh, we receive our payments from the merchants in England."

"Do you refer to the Japanese merchants in London, or to English firms ?"

Sometimes we are paid by one, and sometimes by the other."

"And do you have much trouble with the Japanese merchants?"

Occasionally they are rather fidgety about the wording of contracts and about inspection; but they pay promptly. In fact, as far as carrying on a business transaction is concerned, they certainly give us no more real trouble than do the English merchants, and our monetary transactions with them. are quite as safe."

"Then your verdict is that the Japanese traders

in England are honest, and those out there are dishonest ?"

"My dear fellow, go and see for yourself. Talk to the Yokohama and Kobe people who deal with them. They will tell you all about the matter."

The somewhat puzzled business man goes to Japan and talks to the treaty-port people. He is told that the Japanese are all dishonest; that they repudiate their contracts; that they will put him to no end of trouble in getting him to give them estimates and particulars; that they will, generally speaking, suck his brains; and that, if he is unfortunate enough to receive an order from them, they will certainly have no intention of paying for the goods when they have been delivered. That, in a few words, is the gist of the treaty-port opinion of Japanese business morality.

If the new-comer should require further confirmation on the subject, he has only to open one or other of the treaty-port papers, and he can in almost any of them read the same line of argument propounded day by day throughout the year. Almost alone among these newspapers to take a different standpoint is the Japan Mail, which, though it sometimes criticises Japanese methods, does not adopt the same generally condemnatory tone.

It is necessary to emphasize the treaty-port opinion of Japanese business methods here because it was the treaty-port foreigner, in times gone by at all events, who bore the brunt of direct business contact with the Japanese. If our manufacturers

at home have, during all these years, carried on a satisfactory business with the Japanese through his intermediation, then every credit is due to him for sticking to his post under such unsatisfactory cir cumstances. In fact, it would seem that, by taking the risk of such transactions off the shoulders of our manufacturers, he has been almost heroic in organizing and maintaining the trade between Japan and the outer world.

Every credit, therefore, is due to him for having done this, and his opinions on the subject of Japanese business methods demand a great deal of respect and consideration.

There is no doubt, however, that the treaty-port people in Japan have rather got into a habit of unduly bewailing their lot, partially, no doubt, because they are unaware of, or have forgotten, the fact that in most other countries our traders have, as a rule, to face quite as many and as serious business difficulties, although the nature of such difficulties varies with varying circumstances.

The foreign trader in Japan is often wont to regret the fact that he is not in China, for he maintains that the Chinese are conscientious and ideal traders. It has become proverbial that, as traders, the Chinese are honest, and that the Japanese are not; and no doubt on the face of things it would appear that such was the case. But we must not lose sight. of the fact that the conditions of trade between the foreigner and the Japanese are not in the least similar to those in vogue between the foreigner and the

Chinese. It is urged, on the one hand, that a Chinaman's business word is as good as his bond, and that both are good; whereas it is said, on the other, that the bond of a Japanese trader is as worthless as his word in his dealings with a foreigner; for it is alleged that, while he does not hesitate to break a verbal contract, he looks upon any written document as a mere empty formality. Certain it is that such document will be practically worthless in assisting the foreigner to recoup himself legally.

The intricacies of the Chinese character have been very ably dealt with in Colquhoun's recent work, China in Transformation; and to those who wish to study that subject I would recommend a perusal of that work.

Suffice it for me to say that, if the Chinese are honest in business, it is the only sphere of honesty in which they excel. It is generally admitted that official and high-class Chinamen are dishonest in their politics and their administration. With them. bribery, corruption, extortion, and every other commercial vice are accentuated to an extreme degree, and it is certain that there is a no more accomplished and persistent thief in the world than the lower-class Chinaman.

Then how is it that the Chinese trader who deals with the treaty-port foreigner turns out to be an ideal of all that is honorable in business matters, as we are so often told? The simple answer to this question is, that until now the Chinaman has been absolutely in the foreigner's hands.