READ CAREFULLY It Will Make The Year Book Worth More To You GENERAL DIVISION The book is divided into two major sections, namely, Japan and Manchoukuo. Complementing these sections are four appendices, viz., Who's Who, Business Directory, Bibliography and Learned and Social Institutions, in addition to a General Index. HOW THE PARTS ASSIST EACH OTHER The parts, mentioned above are so arranged and edited as to permit comprehensive understanding of each independent of the others. The trained reader will find immediately, however, that each section can be made to complement the others considerably in a number of cases. For instance, given a specific subject either on Japan or Manchoukuo to review, the reader may look up the item in the General Index. If there is any prominent person connected with the activity, his name may be found in the Who's Who. If the biography further mentions his affiliations with learned or social institutions, or companies, the standing of such may be found either in the Business Directory or in the appendix on Learned and Social 7-stitutions. If there are books to be read on any line of affair of liic two countries, the Bibliography will be found to contain the list of the latest authoritative works. This is only one of many ways in ' which the sections, related as a unit, may help the reader in locating all the important information on the two countries. STATISTICS There are approximately 1,200 tables in this book. The sources of the tables will be found at the end of the respective chapters in which they appear. The sign "...." indicates that the figure is not available at the time of writing or that it is non-existent. The sign "-" indicates that the figure is either nil or negligible. MAP The map of Japan, Manchoukuo and adjoining territories, supple- mented with this issue, contains some 4,000 place names. By referring to the "Map Index" in the 1936 issue any place name may be easily located by key numbers and letters corresponding to squared areas on the map. IDENTIFYING CHINESE CHARACTERS In view of the existence of a large number of different Chinese characters of identical pronunciation, the Who's Who gives the cor- responding Chinese characters of the names entered of Japanese and Manchoukuoans. DIAGRAMS As a consequence of the increasingly important role which the larger business organizations of Japan are taking in Japanese finance, commerce and industry, diagrammatic charts of nine of the representa- tive concerns, showing their spheres of influence, have been appended to the Business Directory section of this issue. A list of other diagrams is given in the Table of Contents. ADVERTISEMENTS Advertisers are representative of establishments of high standing, and their advertisements will be found in the pages preceding and following the contents of the book. Inquiries concerning our adver- tisers are welcomed, and will be attended to promptly.