Abstract
The future Japanese standard of living will depend largely on that country's industries and their maintenance. In turn, those industries must depend on their mainspring, energy. And finally, since coal, oil, and electricity provide this power and are to a certain extent interchangeable, and since Japan lacks oil and coal, she must depend for energy on electricity developed chiefly from water power.
Electricity in Japan attained late but thorough popularization. Today more than 90 per cent of Japanese homes are wired for electric lights, and in 1937, just before the China incident, electric lighting was probably more prevalent in Japan than any place else in the world. Despite these impressive statements, however, most Japanese homes are but dimly lit, due to the use of only a few light bulbs of low wattage. In 1941 the average number of bulbs per family was 4.2.
