Expenditures of the Russo-Japanese war / by Gotaro Ogawa.

EFFECTS ON PUBLIC FINANCE

II7

tary and naval men who served in the war suddenly swelled
the expenditures for pensions. Such increases in expenditures
became a heavy burden on our national finance for a considerable time, hampering the execution of various new enterprises
which necessarily followed the termination of the war. After
the war, new expenditures were required for the country's
outward expansion, i.e., for the maintenance and development of the rights and interests acquired in Manchuria and
Korea as the result of the war, as well as for the administration and development of the southern half of Saghalien
(Karafuto), which now became Japan's possession. Considerable outlay was also demanded for internal reconstruction and development, i.e., for the resumption of the undertakings suspended on account of the war, as well as for other
enterprises which became necessary after the war. On inquiring into the sources that supplied these expenditures, as we
have already noted, the greater part of the war expenditures
was supplied by public loans, the rest being paid out of the
general revenue from increased taxation and the retrenchment
of ordinary expenditures and other sources, while to meet the
increase in the expenditures for public debt and pensions,
which was a direct result of the war, the war taxes which were
to be abolished at the end of the year after the war were
retained. The expenses for various new enterprises started
after the war were raised for the most part by loans.
Moreover, the expansion of expenditures after the war necessitated, besides the continuance of the war taxes, the enforcement of a further increase of taxation.
EXPANSION OF EXPENDITURES
The Russo-Japanese War marked a turning-point in the
public finance of Japan. Looking over the annual expenditures (including special accounts), we find that the figures
after the war amounted to several times those before the war.
The annual expenditures before the war (I900-3) were about
330,000,000 yen, comprising 220,000,000 yen for ordinary
expenditures and Ioo,ooo,ooo yen for extraordinary expendi