Treaties, Laws and Speeches

WHOLESALE AND RETAIL TRADE IN THE BIG SIX CITIES¹

—As Shown By the Census of Materials—

CABINET INFORMATION BUREAU

RETURNS of the census taken of materials on August 1, 1939, have been published by the Cabinet Bureau of Statistics, although the publication contains only a part of the returns, being limited to those relating to the kinds of business and the number of stores by types of business operation. This kind of census, which has seldom been attempted in other countries, has furnished valuable data for establishing the war-time economic structure, by showing distinctly through what channels the daily necessaries of the people are distributed.

In this census the different kinds of trades are classified into 48 categories according to the articles dealt in; such as cereals, confectionery and bread, drinks and condiments, footgear and native umbrellas, firewood and charcoal, secondhand articles, etc. The stores are classified into 11 groups according to the types of business in which they are engaged; such as department store, retail trade, producers' retail trade, wholesale and retail trade, street-stall, wholesale trade, foreign trade, producers' cooperatives, consumers' cooperatives, other types of joint sale and purchase, and brokers. The detailed figures given for each of these items throw a revealing light on certain phases of the commercial system in this country. In the number of stores, Tokyo stands, as might be expected, away at the head of the list, with 219,887, Osaka coming next with 121,306. A similar disparity is seen in the number of retail stores, the figure for Tokyo being 133,444 in contrast to 70,583 for Osaka. In the ratio of stores to the total number of families in each city, however, Nagoya comes first and foremost with 191 stores per thousand families; followed by Kyoto with 180 stores; Osaka with 179; Kobe with 170; Tokyo with 167; and Yokohama with 166.

An outstanding feature in the returns of this census is the great number of stores dealing in foods and drinks, which amount to 43 per cent of the total stores in Tokyo, 54 per cent in Yokohama, 43

¹ The "Big Six" cities of Japan are: Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, Yokohama, and Kobe.

per cent in Nagoya, 45 per cent in Kyoto, 43 per cent in Osaka, and 47 per cent in Kobe. Bakeries and confectioneries far outnumber any other classes in each city, and this fact is highly significant for a country where war-time control is exercised with increasing intensity on the consumption of sugar. On the other hand, an interesting local feature is to be noticed in the number of dry-goods stores in Kyoto, and also in that of stores selling footgear [blot] in Nagoya, on which the castle city prides itself.

The figures for department stores are insignificant as compared with those for general stores; Tokyo leads far ahead with 26, followed by Osaka and Kyoto each with 11, Nagoya 6, Yokohama 4, and Kobe 3.

The complete tabulated returns of this census will be published toward the end of 1940. The tables subjoined show the respective number of stores in the Big Six Cities, grouped according to 5 major types of business operation selected out of 11. The articles enumerated are limited, for want of space, to the first 13 items, out of the 48 in each case. Stores run by governmental and semi-governmental institutions are excluded from the figures.

NUMBER OF STORES IN TOKYO BY TYPES OF BUSINESS OPERATION

NUMBER OF STORES IN YOKOHAMA BY TYPES OF BUSINESS OPERATION

NUMBER OF STORES IN OSAKA BY TYPES OF BUSINESS OPERATION

NUMBER OF STORES IN KYOTO BY TYPES OF BUSINESS OPERATION

NUMBER OF STORES IN NAGOYA BY TYPES OF BUSINESS OPERATION

NUMBER OF STORES IN KOBE BY TYPES OF BUSINESS OPERATION