/'' \ \ \ ) \: * ' \ ■ / \ '"^ ■ V / t / ■•f\|\ ^S CORNELL fo6 .UNIVERSITY /ys7 LIBRARY DS Boe.HS?"""""""'™'""-"'"^^ Modern Japan, social— industrial— politj 3 1924 007 828 670 OUNl J^Wt^M^TION T^tt"^^^^ ■pfffpfBif. \^0JX^^ *»^MaTOJ}iz^-,-.. \ GAYLOBO PRINTED IN U.S.A Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924007828670 MODERN JAPAN PROBLEMS OF THE NATIONS Paul Leland Haworth, Ph. D., Editor PUBLISHED AMERICA IN FERMENT . . By Paul Leland Haworth Author of The Hayes-Tilden Election, Recon- struction and Union, George Washington — Farmer, Etc. THE CANADIAN COMMONWEALTH . By Agnes C. Laut Author of Lords of the North, Pathfinders of the West, Hudson's Bay Company, Etc. FRANCE: HER PEOPLE AND HER SPIRIT , By Laukence Jereold Author of The Real France, The French and the English, Etc. MODERN JAPAN By Amos S. Hershey and Susanne W. Hershey Professor Hershey is author of The Interna- tional Law and Diplomacy of the Russo- Japanese War, The Essentials of International Public Law, Etc. MODERN JAPAN SOCIAI^INDUSTRIAL— POLITICAL By AMOS S. HERSHEY jProfasfT tf Political Science and International LatOj Indiana Univartity Auther of The Essentials of International Public Lavt^ The International Law and Diplomacy of the Russo'Jafanese IVar^etc, SUSANNE W. HERSHEY /oa/ INDIANAPOLIS THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY PUBLISHERS Copyright 1919 The Bobbs-Merrill Company PRESS OF BflAUNWORTH & CO. BOOK MANUFACTUREHS , BROOKtYN. N. V. PREFACE This small volume is not a book of impressions ; nor is it a tourist's record of experiences; nor can it be claimed that it is the result of years of study and observation growing out of a prolonged residence in Japan or contact with the Japanese people. Yet, after having devoted the leisure of several years to a study of things Japanese, the authors vis- ited Japan and made their investigations under the guidance of friends and acquaintances — ^native Japa- nese and foreign residents of many years — who were far more familiar than they with Japan, its people, its laws, its traditions and its customs. In fact, they have gathered their information from many sources which would be difificult to indi- cate, nor would it be possible to mention the names of the numerous people who, whether by their writ- ings or by direct personal assistance, have been so very helpful. The authors can here merely express, in a general way, their gratitude and appreciation for such aid, the results of which they have tried to sift and util- ize to the best of their judgment and ability. A. S. H. and S. W. H. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I Cherry Blossoms and Reauties 1 II The Lakd and the People 8 III The Japanese Family 18 IV Progress of the Japanese Woman 31 V The Educational System of Japan .... 48 VI Religion in Japan — Shintoism, Buddhism and Confucianism 80 VII Religion in Japan — Christianity .... 106 ' VIII Industrial Development of Japan .... 124 IX Social and Economic Conditions 147 X Poverty and Social Evils 176 XI Charities, Benevolences and Mutual Aid . . 197 XII The Government and Constitution .... 21S XIII Political Parties and Politics 235 XIV The Expansion of Japan — Korea 254 XV The Expansion of Japan — Manchuria . . . 277 XVI Japanese Aims and Policy in China .... 291 XVII Japan and the United States 319 XVIII Possibilities of War Between Japan and the United States 341 XIX Recent Developments in the International Re- lations of Japan 347 Index 375 MODERN JAPAN MODERN JAPAN CHAPTER I CHERRY BLOSSOMS AND REALITIES When the curious foreigner landed in Japan, over sixty years ago, he imagined that he was en- tering a half-civiHzed country, peopled with semi- barbarians, whose strange customs and polite ways indicated a mere veneer or perhaps an imitation of Qiinese civilization. What, therefore, must have been his delight when he found himself in the midst of a novel and highly developed culture preserved for centuries uncontaminated by contact with out- side influences! When this fascinating and artistic people showed itself eager to learn the secrets of modern civiliza- tion and exhibited a marvelous facility for acquir- ing and adopting Western ideas and machinery, is it surprising that their teachers should have sung the praises of their apt pupils and heralded to the world a somewhat exaggerated idea of their prog- ress and capability? After these facile students had learned that they 2 MODERN JAPAN could walk and even run upon their own feet and could see with their own eyes, they dismissed their instructors (though with generous presents and pro- fuse thanks), entered into trade rivalries with for- eign agents or merchants, and finally demonstrated to the world that they could fight and win real bat- tles in true European style. Is it therefore astonish- ing that the erstwhile benevolent and patronizing attitude of the foreigner should have changed to one of concern or di: approval ? To a certain extent indiscriminate praise gave way to harsh and undia- criminating criticism. Instead of receiving smiles and words of praise, the former protege was often greeted with frowns or sneers, his motives were frequently questioned or misrepresented and his weaknesses exposed or over-emphasized. The Japanese themselves, though certainly more reticent and reserved, had undergone a somewhat similar process of disillusionment. Delighted at first with the novelty and utility of Western ideas and methods, grateful beyond words to their effi- cient instructors, overcome with a sense of their own ignorance and deficiencies, they naturally reveled in their new knowledge and often failed properly to appreciate the merits of their own civilization. In the first mad rush for knowledge and enlight- enment many of the Japanese had lost all sense of proportion and had surrendered themselves to un- discriminating admiration of nearly all things for- ei^. But when it became apparent that Western CHERRY BLOSSOMS AND REALITIES 3 civilization had its defects and blemishes, the Japan- ese began to suspect that their own culture contained elements which were perhaps equal, if not superior, to those of Europe and America. They began to ask, "What would it profit us as a nation if we gained the whole world and lost our own soul?" A reaction set in which led them, at least for a time, to disparage Western ideas and over-value their own attainments and achievements. This reaction has by no means exhausted itself, but beyond question their best minds are dissatisfied with many things foreign and Japanese alike and are looking forward to a sort of fusion of the best and to an elimination of the worst in both civiHza- tions. And if it is true that the Japanese have begun to exhibit a juster and saner appreciation of things Western, is it not time that Westerners began to exhibit a juster and more discriminating apprecia- tion of things Japanese? Is it not time that we realized that while the Japanese may still have much to learn from us, they may possibly be able to teach us something; and that we also should aim at the adoption of the best and the elimination of the worst i'n both Occidental and Oriental civilizations ? The first prerequisite for such a purpose would be ftiller knowledge and a mutual understanding in order that we may know what to accept and what to reject. Though there are honorable exceptions, it must 4 MODERN JAPAN be admitted that too many of the books on Japan hitherto produced have been written either by writ- ers wearing rose-colored pro- Japanese spectacles or in an anti- Japanese spirit of undiscerning criticism. The Japanese themselves have begun to resent the cherry-blossom view of Japanese life almost as much as they resent the vexatious faultfinding inspired largely by the foreigners at the treaty-ports. II It must be admitted that an absolutely just and discriminating interpretation of things Japanese is a difficult and delicate, perhaps impossible, achieve- ment. With the exception of the missionaries and diplomatic and consular officials, most foreigners in Japan are ranged in two opposing camps — ^labeled pro- or anti- Japanese. The visitor is in danger of being haled into one or the other of these camps and thus runs the risk of becoming hopelessly biased or one-sided. In the clubs or at the treaty-ports he is in espe- cial danger of falling into the hands of anti-Japa- nese merchants of narrow outlook and experience ■who are embittered by a sense of defeat or disap- pointment. On the other hand, if he be monopolized by certain types of missionaries or Japanese offi- cials he may become saturated with too roseate a view of Japanese aims, methods and progress. The Japanese are particularly prone to put their CHERRY BLOSSOMS AND REALITIES 5 best foot foremost, and unless one is careful he may be misled by official attentions which tend to conceal rather than reveal social and political defects. If one allows for a certain amount of religious bias, the missionary-educators constitute, on the whole, the best available source of first-hand guid- ance, at least for the student-observer with limited time and a lack of knowledge of the Japanese lan- guage. Intelligent and experienced missionaries are almost the only foreign residents in Japan who really see beneath the mask of Japanese etiquette and succeed in breaking down the reserve of the people. They aJone are as a class sufficiently equipped with that intimate knowledge, charitable tolerance, life-long experience and sympathetiq in- sight which are essential to the tinderstanding of any race. To them the Japanese are just plain ordi- nary folk with the vices and weaknesses of human- kind the world over, but with infinite potentialities for progress. Yet one must not forget that even the best mis- sionaries have their own peculiar limitations, among which are a bias in favor of things Western and Christian and an optimistic faith in the appearance of progress and improvement not always justified by reality. They are perhaps too apt to accept promises for performances, and they do not always appraise at their real value Japanese virtues and ideals as compared with those labeled Christian and Western. 6 MODERN JAPAN III In the interpretation of Japanese life and insti- tutions there is involved a yet more serious diffi- culty than that of weighing evidence or eliminating religious bias. It is that of establishing and main- taining a more or less consistent standard or basis of criticism. As Westerners imbued with Western ideas of progress and development, we are bound to judge with a certain Occidental bias and to apply merely Western standards. If, for example, we should feel it within our province to criticize Jap- anese art, music or literature, we should inevitably judge from a more or less Western point of view. So with Japanese political, social and economic con- ditions and institutions which to us seem rather, primitive or belated in comparison with our own, defective and inadequate as these may be. To Japanese such comparisons must often seem odious and unjust, though i'n a work of this kind comparisons of this sort are unavoidable. How- ever, it must be said that by adopting the forms and standards of Western civilization the Japanese have themselves invited thi's comparison, and it is doubtful whether they would be willing to be judged by any other standard. Like Atnericans of an ear- lier generation, they are believed to be sensitive to unfavorable criticism, though they are supposed not to resent the strictures of sincere friends. In this hght the writers of this book would wish CHERRY BLOSSOMS AND REALITIES 7 to be regarded. Nothing has been set down in malice. Nor has aught been written in the spirit of patronage. Though conscious of the many courtesies received at Japanese hands, the authors have no confidence in friendship which finds expression in a mere exchange of flowery compUments or expressions of mutual good will; nor in that fellowship which ignores the main points of dispute, and carefully conceals short- comings and defects. They can only hope that friends in Japan will not misunderstand or misinterpret their motives in presenting to the public in the succeeding chapters a frank expression of their views. CHAPTER II THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE Like Great Britain, the Japanese homeland is insular in character. The seventy to seventy-five million inhabitants occupy a long, continuous chain of over forty-two hundred volcanic islands in the Pacific Ocean. These islands, of which only about five or six hundred are inhabited, extend over two thousand miles in a longitudinal curve from Kam- chatka in Russian Siberia almost to the northern extremity of the Philippine Islands. They lie from a hundred to five hundred miles distant from the continent of Asia and afford nearly every possible variety of climate and products. The Empire in- cludes Korea, the southern extremity of the Liao- tung Peninsula, the railway zone in Manchuria, and the colony of Formosa. The main island- — ^to most foreigners the real Japan or Nippon — is Hondo or Honshu, a narrow, crescent-shaped island extending northeastward eight hundred miles (1170 miles by railway) from Shimonoseki opposite Fusan in Korea, with an area of over eighty thousand square miles — ^about equal to that of Kansas — an average width of seventy- 8 THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 9 five miles, and a coast-line variously estimated at from forty-seven hundred to sixty-six hundred miles. Honshu has a population of nearly forty millions, and contains the important cities of Tokyo, Yokohama, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe. The triangle formed by the three cities last named constitutes one of the most thickly populated regions of the globe. The southern end of the main island is separated from two much smaller ones — Shikoku and Kiuskiu — by the beautiful Inland Sea, an almost landlocked portion of the Pacific Ocean two hundred and sev- enteen miles in length. To the north of Honshu, separated by the Tsu- garu Strait, lies the island of Hokkaido, formerly known as Yezo, with an area of thirty thousand square miles — about that of South Carolina. Yezo was long left to the hairy Ainu, the aborigines of Japan, and is still in process of colonization. The area of Japan proper is over 142,000 square miles; that of the whole Japanese Empire 257,290 square miltes, not quite equal to that of the single state of Texas. Japan is a country of mountains and valleys sur- rounded by the sea and is indented with numerous bays or inlets, affording many harbors for safe an- chorage, especially on the side facing the Pacific. Like Italy and Greece with regard to each other, Nippon may be said to turn her back upon the sea that separates her from toveted China. There is lo MODERN JAPAN a long chain of mountains running lengthwise through the main islands, or rather two chains which meet in the middle of Honshu, forming the immense upheaval popularly known as the "Japa- nese Alps." Thus in Japan, as the saying has it, "Two voices are there: one is of the sea, one of the mountains, each a mighty voice." The country boasts of at least two hundred vol- canoes, and the delicate instruments of expert seis- mologists are able to detect an average of nearly fifteen hundred seismic disturbances in the course of a year. But flood, typhoon and famine are much more destructive forces, and it may be questioned whether, except in the effect on Japanese architec- ture, earthquakes have materially influenced the art and civilization of the Japanese. More important in its effects on Japanese art and civilization is the climate, which may in general be characterized as very humid, necessitating frequent hot baths with resultant personal cleanliness. Rains are extremely frequent, there being an average of but two hundred fifteen fair days a year in Nip- pon. Owing to the long extent of the islands from the arctic north to the tropical south, the tempera- ture naturally varies from extreme cold to extreme heat. But the climate of the main islands is mod- erate. To the insularity of Japan may be ascribed its immunity from invasion or attack. Only twice in their history have these islanders been even threat- THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE ii ened: once at the close of the thirteenth century when Kublai Khan, after his conquests in China, sent an unlucky armada to the Japanese coasts j and again in 1905, when the ill-fated Russian fleet met with disaster in the Korean Straits. - Like England, Japan occupies a strategic position on the sea which, with the aid of her navy, has made her practically invulnerable to invaders. To the student of Japanese economy, it is of the" first importance to note that, owing to the moun- tainous character of the country, only about one- seventh, i. e., less than fifteen per cent, of the soil is arable or capable of cultivation. In spite of this fact the country is predominantly agricultural and from sixty to seventy per cent, of the people are farmers or peasants. The lack of sufficient arable land for the rapidly growing agricultural population furnishes one of the most difficult problems of Japanese statesman- ship. True it is that there Is still left some margin for reclamation by means of the opening of new and uncultivated land, improvements in method of culti- vation, and a readjustment of farms. By such means it has been estimated that in the course of time (probably in a few generations) the land may be made to yield an increase of over fifty per cent. Furthermore, there is still considerable room for settlers in the northern island of Hokkaido. But the population of Japan proper increases yearly from five hundred thousand to six hundred thousand, or 12 MODERN JAPAN at an annual rate of 1.2 per cent., the rate being nearly equal to that of Italy and inferior only to that of Russia and Germany. Even now Japan is importing over twenty-five million dollars' worth of foodstuffs, including a cheap quality of rice from India, and her imports of both luxuries and neces- sities tend to increase. The average density of pop- ulation surpasses that of Italy, Germany or France, and is only slightly exceeded by that of Belgium, Holland and Great Britain. II The peasants constitute the backbone of the na- tion. They are a hardy, thrifty, laborious folk, content with little and obedient to the point of servility to those in authority. They lead the nor- mal life of the vast majority of mankind at all times and in all places and furnish a good illus- tration of the proprietary State which publicists like Belloc and Chesterton find so attractive. In no other country perhaps is there so large a pro- portion of small farmers owning their farms and the means of production. Nowhere is there a greater appearance of contentment, cheerfulness and prosperity in the midst of rural charm and pictur- esque scenery. Surely here, if an3rwhere, should be found a paradise on earth. Though intensive farming is the rule and irriga- tion is extremely common, there is, judged by West- THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 13 em standards, a great lack of live stock,* and the agricultural methods and implements are, generally speaking, of the most primitive description. Re- cently there has been some progress in fruit culture. Rice is the staple crop, though barley and wheat are also extensively cultivated, and to a lesser degree, the millets, maize, soya beans, buckwheat, potatoes, tea, tobacco, ginseng and so forth. The planting and manufacture of tea is a considerable industry, but has remained curiously stationary for a number of years. Japan is preeminently a land of small holdings. The average area farmed by each family is usually from two to four acres, and most farmers are forcedf to combine agriculture with other occupa- tions. About one-half of the farmers own the land they cultivate subject to a heavy land tax of about fifteen to seventeen per cent. The tenants, who ♦Through the aid and encouragement of the Government there has been great improvement in this respect within recent years. In 1912 there were 1,176,743 horses and 1,399,- 468 cattle in Japan or an average of nearly one animal to each two households, and human labor is in part slowly being replaced by that of animals. Until recently, owing to the absence of cattle, the Japanese consumption of milk, meat and butter was very small. fThis is according to the Japanese Year Books. Pro- fessor Tsumura (See Japan Magazine for July, 1915) says: "Not more than 32 per cent, of those now farming are culti- vating their own land, which leaves at least two-thirds of the agricultural population tenant farmers." 14 MODERN JAPAN constitute the remaining half of the cultivators, must pay an average of about fifty per cent, of the produce to the owner, who pays the land tax out of his share of the proceeds. But when it is noted that the tenant farmer has to pay all expenses inci- dental to fertilizing and sundries out of his half, it may readily be seei that the few acres under culti- vation can hardly produce enough for the barest subsistence of himself and family. That the ma- jority of peasant owners are little better off is indi- cated by the fact that the 5,410,000 peasant pro- prietors of Japan have an indebtedness of at least 541,000,000 yen or an average of one hundred yen, or fifty dollars per household.* In fact, neither the tenant nor the peasant owner could possibly subsist were it not for subsidiary occupations. Chief among these subsidiary occupations are sericulture and filature or the rearing of silk-worms and the reeling of raw silk. These occupy at least a quarter of the households. Then follow the man- ufacture of such articles as braids, matting and ropes from rice straw; the making of matches, pa- per, fans and baskets; beekeeping, weaving, spin- ning, fishing and forestry-work. *This is the estimate of the Japanese Year Book for 1914, page 341. Some authorities make it much higher. Dr. Yokoi, for example, estimates the peasant indebtedness at 1,500,000,000 yen or nearly thrice as much. In one prefecture the money lent averages 320 yen per house. See Japan Weekly Mail for February 18, 191 1. THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 15 Though the number has been increasing within recent years, there are still, relatively speaking, few- Japanese landlords or middle class lancj capitalists with farms ranging from 25 to 75 acres, or even as large as 8 to 10 acres. Hired laborers form a very small class and earn a very small wage, ranging from $5 to $42.50 per year, an average of only $21.67 P^r year or 19 cents per day in the case of men, and $10.97 P^r year or 11^ cents per day in the case of women. Intermingled with these millions of peasant cul- tivators are thousands of petty handicraftsmen and small retailers supplying the villages and country- side with their wares and labor. HI It can hardly be maintained that the lot of these peasants or country and village folk is a happy one. Their economic condition is deplorable and seems to be steadily growing worse. Their mental and spiritiml outlook is necessarily very narrow, and they are naturally extremely conservative, super- stitious and pa.triotic. Except for an occasional festival or pilgrimage to some religious shrine, there is a great lack of recreation and of interests larger than those of the family or village. The peasants toil early and late with little hope of recom- pense or reward. Is it surprising that the young people yearn for the amusements and pleasures of i6 MODERN JAPAN cities ? The peasants make good soldiers but would seem to constitute unpromising material for the de- velopment of a political or industrial democracy. However, the Japanese bureaucracy is doing much to improve and ameliorate the economic con- ditions of the peasants. Many model or experi- mental farms and agricultural stations have been established by the Government, the main or Imperial Agricultural Experiment Station being located at Nishigahara near Tokyo. It has several branch stations at Osaka and elsewhere, and there are also a considerable number of local or prefectural farms and stations. Numerous agricultural institutions are maintained by local funds, and hundreds of lec- turers on agriculture are engaged in disseminating a knowledge of practical and scientific farming. As a consequence, about twenty-five per cent of the farming population may be said to possess some knowledge of scientific agriculture, over a million having attended farming classes or evening schools in 1912. The crown of the system of agricultural education is, of course, the Agricultural College of the Imperial University at Tokyo. Several institutes for the study and investiga- tion of matters relating to sericulture (so impor- tant to the Japanese peasant as a subsidiary occu- pation) have been established, and there are also a number of local sericultural institutes. Especial- ly to be commended are the efforts made by the Government to increase the number and improve. THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 17 the quality of horses and cattle by means of Imperial horse studs and cattle breeding farms. Within recent years the Government has been very successful in creating a spirit of co-operation and mutual aid among farmers. In 1900 a co-op- erative societies law was enacted providing for the organization of co-operative farmers' guilds or so- cieties for obtaining credit on the purchase, sale and production of commodities. At the end of 19 1 3 no less than 10,455 such societies had been formed with a total membership of 1,160,000 of which about eighty per cent, are farmers. Through the credit or loan societies, the hypothec and indus- trial banks of Japan have made considerable loans to farmers at from ten to fifteen per cent, interest, which in Japan is considered to be a low rate, the prevailing rate for a loan on credit having been as high as twenty per cent, and even more. On the whole, it must be said that while the lot of the peasant has been somewhat improved and ameliorated, his condition, judged by Western standards, can hardly be said to be an enviable one. It is only his ignorance of the poverty of that con- dition and a lack of knowledge or experience of the luxuries of modern life that render his existence at all tolerable. But it is this same ignorance, com- bined with poverty, which induces him to submit to his fate with apparent cheerfulness, and even to sell his daughters into the slavery of the Yoshiwara or the modern factory. CHAPTER III THE JAPANESE FAMILY! The whole structure of social and political life in Japan is based on the family. In order to under- stand the Japanese family, full account must be taken of its religious, feudal and patriarchal origins. Since a very early period religion centered closely around patriarchal ideals and gave solidarity to fam- ily customs and observances which in the long run contributed much to the stability and cohesion of the whole nation. Certain collateral social evils have developed, however, along with the system. As in the case of the early Greeks and Romans, the first gods of the Japanese were the deified forces of nature and the dead or ghosts of the dead. In the main, nature-worship and the fear and worship of the spirits of the dead shaped the patriarchal system. The cult of nature- and ancestor-worship or the worship of the so-called kami,* which included all things worthy of veneration, such as stones, moun- *For an explanation of the kami and Shintoism, see infra, chapter vl. i8 THE JAPANESE FAMILY 19 tains, rivers, animals and superior human beings, developed at an early period into Shintoism. Grad- ually a few simple laws for governing the family, clan or community were formulated. These laws were in the course of time reinforced and modified by the advent of the two later religions — Confu- cianism and Buddhism — introduced from China. These new religions soon absorbed Shintoism, or at least the soul of it, but the soul of old Japan — the worship of the kami — remained essentially Shinto. Ancestor-worship means that the spirits of the dead survive and are linked up with the spirits of the living descendants or hover always about them. The happiness and prosperity of the living depend largely upon the peace and happiness of the dead, who in order to continue happy require certain at- tentions from living descendants in the way of rites and ceremonies such as continuing the funereal re- pasts. Should they be neglected, the ancestral spir- its would fall to the rank of malevolent demons and wander about in perpetual misery and unrest. Such spirits often bring retribution upon the living for neglect by inflicting disease upon some member of the clan, or sterility upon the soil. In fact, they often give the living no rest until the sacrifices and offerings of nourishment are renewed whereby they are restored to the tomb and to their divine attri- butes. Clearly the dead take a most important part in the affairs of the living and particularly in the perpetuation of families. In view of this fact, celi- 20 MODERN JAPAN baq' was a grave impiety and calamity : an impiety because he who did not marry put the happiness of his ancestors in peril, a calamity because no ofif- spring meant damnation to him who did not prop- agate. The man who died without a son received no offerings and was exposed to perpetual hunger. II An important canon of this ancestral cult held that the mysterious force which perpetuated life came only from the male. The female was merely a medium for protecting and nurturing this force, therefore she was relatively unimportant in the scheme of life. Herein lies the crux of the religious deification of the male and the subjugation of the female which appears in one form or another among most primitive peoples and religions. Marriage in its early development under the pa- triarchal system was never the joining together of two equal beings to live in equal fellowship. In Japan it was bringing to the son a woman who abandoned her own parents, her own ancestors, her own cult to adopt his, since no one could invoke two series of ancestors. Her prime function from the time of marriage was to bear children to carry on her husband's family cult. Should she, perchance, prove sterile, this was ample ground for her being divorced, though later religious development made provisions against divorce in case the wife were THE JAPANESE FAMILY 21 otherwise satisfactory t(^ the family — that is, docile and submissive — ^by the adoption of a son of near kin or by acquiring a son through a concubine. Should the wife bear children but be otherwise un- satisfactory to her husband's family, she was di- vorced and the children remained in his family, she having absolutely no legal, physical or social claim upon them. Thus we perceive how the patriarchal system established the inferiority of woman, and Buddhist and Confucianist teaching, which centered round the patriarchal ideals, helped to reinforce her sub- jection and subserviency. Since the male was en- dowed with all the life-giving power, the female could not be his equal. Clearly by divine will she was not intended to be ; therefore the wife could not rank with the husband, or the sister with the broth- er. This conception, to be sure, was not confined to Japan only. Up to a comparatively recent pe- riod the idea of the relative unimportance and in- feriority of the female formed the warp to the so- cial fabric of all Occidental life just as it still does throughout the entire Orient Some years ago a social scheme was devised in Japan whereby the woman sometimes remains in her own family and a husband is adopted for her. Under this praictice the woman does not perpetuate the cult of her own ancestors. This duty falls upon the adopted husband who, in turn, abandons his own family ancestors and takes her name. In case 22 MODERN JAPAN the adopted husband is not satisfactory to her fam- ily, he is sent away and the children belong to her family. In any and all cases the ownership of the children is established with the family and not with the parents. But beyond- question the patriarchal system implied the supreme dominance of the male and the absolute subjection of the woman and child, or at least the female child. Yet it is maintained that previous to the fifth and sixth centuries, when Confucianism and Buddhism were introduced, wom- an had more freedom and social privileges than she afterward enjoyed. Since then social and religious teachings have conspired to crystallize the standards which gave to man all the social and domestic priv- ileges and to woman only the domestic duties. Confucianism taught, in a word, that all women are naturally inferior to men; that the husband should have absolute right over the wife. Bud- dhism declares woman to be unclean and a tempta- tion, and the moral code for women is covered by the three obediences: obedience while yet unmar- ried to the father; obedience when married to the husband and parents-in-law; obedience when wid- owed to the eldest son. "Buddhism," Chamberlain* informs us, "was the teacher under whose instruc- tion the Japanese nation grew up." For centuries practically all education was in the hands of the Buddhist priests. ♦Oiamberlain, Things Japanese (sth ed.), page y& THE JAPANESE FAMILY 23 In many respects the teachings of Confucius are above reproach, but undeniably the tenets concern- ing women are barbaric and contemptible to the last degree. They are: I. Women are naturally inferior to men. II. Education of women should be restricted to reading and writing. III. Woman's primal duty is obedience. IV. Men and women (above seven years of age) should not sit together. V. Woman shall have no voice in selecting her husband. VI. The husband shall have the absolute right to rule the wife. VII. Between husband and wife let there be proper distinctions. The great Japanese moralist Kaibara sums up the established womanly and wifely virtues in The Greater Learning for Women as follows: "It is the chief duty of a girl living in the parental house to practice filial piety toward her mother and fath- er, but after marriage her chief duty is to honor her father-in-law and mother-in-law, to honor them beyond her own father and mother — to love and reverence them with all ardor, and to tend them with every practice of filial piety. ... A woman has no particular lord. She must look to her hus- band as her lord, and must serve him with all wor- ship and reverence, not despising or thinking lightly of him. The great life-long duty of a woman is obedience." 24 MODERN JAPAN No less illuminating upon the legal and social status of -women are The Seven Reasons for Di- vorce: "(i) A woman shall be divorced for dis- obedience to her father-in-law, or mother-in-law. (2) A woman shall be divorced if she fail to bear children, the reason for this rule being that women are sought in marriage for the purpose of giving men posterity. A barren woman should, however, be retained if her heart is virtuous and her con- duct correct and free from jealousy, in which case a child of the same blood must be adopted ; neither is there any cause for a man to divorce a barren wife, if he have children by a concubine. (3) Lewdness is a reason for divorce. (4) Jealousy is a reason for divorce. (5) Leprosy or any like foul disease is a reason for divorce. (6) A woman shall be divorced who, by talking overmuch and prattling disrespectfully, disturbs the harmony of kinsmen and brings trouble on her household. (7) A wom- an shall be divorced who is addicted to stealing." Feudalism taught also that woman weakened courage and was an obstacle to the performance of duty. Qearly under the old Confucian-Buddhist feudal code the woman had little or no personal, social or legal standing. In fact, until a comparatively re- cent period the whole world has held to similar ideas concerning women, and has accepted the dom- inance of the male along with the idealization oi, war and its barbarities, and other social absurdities. THE JAPANESE FAMILY 25 Ethical teaching in Japan as well as in most parts of the world has doubtless been partly responsible for the subjection and social segregation of women. The teachings of Paul concerning women are in keeping with those of Confucius and Buddha. Under the old Japanese law the woman could not herself demand a divorce, become head of a house, hold property, contract in her own name, become guardian of her own child or adopt a child in her own name. Luckily in recent years, since the Japanese have become more familiar with European and American civilization, much has been changed by the promul- gation and enactment of better laws concerning women, though public opinion still holds so tena- ciously to the old standards that a woman rarely takes advantage of her legal rights and it is said the courts discourage such action on the part of women by favoring men. However, under the new civil code a married woman may hold property in her own name and she may seek a divorce from her husband for bigamy, adultery, desertion with evil intent, sentence for an offense of grave nature, such cruel treatment or gross insult as make living to- gether unbearable, and for various other causes. Ill In considering the Japanese family one must bear in mind the complete absence of romantic love in 26 MODERN JAPAN marriage and the absence of romantic gallantry in the feudal code of the Samurai. If love develops during wedded life, it must not appear in open demonstration, and whenever the demands of duty are pressing, affection must be renounced for the higher duty. Indeed it has not been an uncommon occurrence for a wife to be sent home because her husband was too fond of her, as too much affection for a wife was considered a sign of weakness and demoralization in the husband, which might lead to neglect of other family obligations. Of loyalty and chivalry there was plenty in Bushido* or the Way of the Warrior — ^but it was always between lord and vassal, master and servant, and never included women, at least not during the last ten centuries. Woman's part in marriage was one solely of duty, necessity and convenience — a matter over which she had no control and which she must ac- cept patiently and resignedly as she did her other obligations. As a child she belonged to her father and his family, and as a wife to her husband and his family. Under such conditions it would seem that the lot of woman was exceedingly hard and cruel, yet she had certain family and community rights of courtesy and respect accorded her and any infraction of these rights was punished by salutary family or community ostracism, often sub- tle in nature, but most effective. Friction, we are *See explanation of Bushido, infra, page 103. THE JAPANESE FAMILY 2-] told, was and still is most uncommon in the Jap- anese family. Although the duties and obligations imposed upon women by rehgion and the patriarchal and feudal systems were heavy and numerous, there were duties and obligations imposed also upon all members of the family, clan or community. No one was free from such responsibilities. A family was a group of persons who were under rehgious obligation to invoke the same sacrifices and to offer funereal repasts to the same ancestors. In the course of time many families had common gods. These families formed a clan or village community and were bound together by worship of a common god which imposed equal duties upon all. The Ujigami was the clan god, or first clan an- cestor, who brought good or bad luck, according as he was treated. If one member of the family or clan offended him, the whole community might suf- fer calamity, hence the obligation of each individual to [conform to the clan requirements. In case of drought or famine the farmer prayed not to the Buddha, but to the Ujigami. If there were plenti- ful crops, it was not the Buddha who was thanked, but the ancient local clan god. A crime or breach of custom committed by an individual was a crime against the family or com- munity and the family or community god. There- fore, it was the business of the community to watch %ach member's conduct and to report all misde- 28 MODERN JAPAN meanors. Even to-day communal feeling runs strong and one is apt to suffer from it since the com- munity may feel and act as one person. Lafcadio Hearn says: "By a single serious mistake a man may find himself suddenly placed in solitary oppo- sition to the common will and most effectively os- tracized. The silence and softness of the hostility only renders it all the more alarming." No wonder the Japanese are a custom- and con- vention-bound people, almost incapable of under- standing Western individualism, or the desire to^do as one pleases. Even the little child is not exempt from the penalties of non-conformity. This, of course, partly explains Japanese reticence, conven- tionality and reluctance to speak frankly when frankness might offend, all of which the Westerner often misinterprets as deceit or disingenuousness and lack of imagination. Formerly the rigid Shinto communal code was made absolutely effective by laws forbidding a stranger to settle in a community without official permission. The official punishments for misde- meanors were physical punishment, ostracism or banishment for a period of years or possibly for life. A banished man became a social outcast. The very fact that he was banished was proof that he had offended his own local gods, and naturally no other local gods would accept him, therefore no com- munity must accept him. For the same reason he could not be allowed to work at his trade or occu- THE JAPANESE FAMILY 29 pation since the labor guilds, which were well or- ganized and powerful, dared not accept him. IV In the light of the old established Japanese family code of social ethics, it is no wonder that progres- sive Japan is puzzled as to how to amalgamate the best Western family and social morality with the best of her own, since she has no intention of un- qualifiedly accepting or adopting Western customs and institutions. While the Japanese absorb and imitate readily, they do not absorb and imitate un- critically ; and they have begun to realize that much of their own civilization is better and preferable to ours and should be preserved. Yet they do not fail to see the evils and burdens fastened upon them by the old patriarchal feudal system, which is perhaps the least disturbed of all their old institutions. Col- lectively and individually the whole nation appears to be casting about for methods of eradicating these family evils. At the same time most of them are hoping to preserve the fabric of the family. Not the least of these family evils is the heavy burden placed upon the eldest son. The custom of the father turning over his business, often in the prime of life, to the eldest son is beginning to be regarded with constantly growing disfavor. By this custom the eldest son assumes the economic re- sponsibility not only of his own parents, his wife 30 MODERN JAPAN and his own children, but of all members of his father's family who are in need of support or as- sistance. With the increased demands of living, this custom often places terrific burdens upon the eldest son aiid yet more onerous duties upon his wife. This change of attitude is only one of many evi- dences indicating that many links of the long chain of family customs and ideals which govern Japanese life no longer hold so tenaciously and will eventually break. The result will be the gradual disintegration of the whole patriarchal system, and a reconstructed, modernized family ethics and morality. CHAPTER IV PROGRESS OF THE JAPANESE WOMAN Since the emancipation of the Japanese woman implies the breaking up of the whole patriarchal system, her social evolution bids fair to be of long incubation and to follow in the rear of all other progressive movements in Japan, The modern progressive Japanese man may have acquired a passion for social development, he may have undergone a radical change of heart in matters of political and economic import, but in matters concerning woman he is apt to be tenaciously Orien- tal and patriarchal and to believe that the best way of preserving the virtues of woman is by keeping her more or less in subjection. Critics and students of Japan agree that in re- spect to the domestic virtues the Japanese wom- an, according to ancient ideals, is irreproachable. She is unanimously conceded to be the most docile, devoted, long-suffering, self-sacrificing and patient of her sex. In fact, she is the incarnation of do- mestic virtue. Her religion is one of untiring, un- complaining service, not in the larger, social sense, but to the family, more especially to the husband and mother-in-law, yet withal she is a Spartan pa- 31 32 MODERN JAPAN triot, as is every one in Japan, including the Japanese child. But the Japanese woman is in no way considered the equal of her husband. As wife she is common- ly addressed Okusama, meaning the honorable lady of the house, though the literal meaning is hon- orable back room, implying retirement and seclu- sion. She is still only the first servant of the house- hold and as such is respected according as she fulfills the standard wifely requirements of docility, pa- tience and service to husband, mother-in-law and family. First and foremost, the Japanese woman is mis- tress of the art of administering to the physical comfort and well-being of the male, and we are told that the average Japanese man has not advanced beyond desiring a wife who can best administer to his personal comfort. One eminent writer main- tains that the ordinary Japanese man is still very vain, loves to be ceremoniously honored and glori- fied in his household as only the old-time wife can serve and glorify. Since the educated woman does not so easily lend herself to such subserviency, the average man will have none of her. Be thi« as it may, certain it is that of all modem progressive tendencies, the Japanese man admires least the freedom and aggressiveness of the modem progressive Western woman. His natural Oriental, patriarchal sex bias and restraint prevent him from studying the progressive woman at close range and PROGRESS OF JAPANESE WOMAN 33 with an open mind as he studies other subjects. Con- sequently, he does not understand her and frequent- ly confounds her with a pushful, loud-voiced, self- indulgent type who wears extremely fashionable clothes and has far less sense of human and family obhgation than has the geisha. Moreover, the Japanese man has long since learned that the Western man rarely measures up to his pretensions of business or domestic morality. If challenged to explain his belated attitude concern- ing woman, the Japanese man is apt to reply that his people have never considered women the equals of men; but that in spite of the romantic and do- mestic indulgences permitted to the Western wom- an, she is by no means treated as man's equal. The double standard of morality, with the terrible pen- alties inflicted mainly upon the woman, furnishes him with one of his most convincing arguments. The fact that in only a few localities are women allowed the franchise constitutes another argument. Still another is that in the evangelical churches women do most of the work, earn and collect much of the money for defraying the expenses, yet the control, honors and emoluments are practically all in the hands of the men. In this manner the Jap- anese man will continue to enumerate the undoubted evidences upholding his criticism, and with consider- able justice. Unquestionably, from the larger world of ideas and social intercourse the Japanese woman is far 34 MODERN JAPAN more completely debarred than is the Western wom- an; and should she have ideas or opinions of her own, it behooves her not to express them in public. Mr. Gulick, in his interesting work entitled Evolur Hon of the Japanese, gives a quotation upon this subject from Captain Brinkely, the editor of The Japanese Mail, who was himself married to a Japa- nese woman and was strongly pro-Japanese. This statement appears to typify the common opinion of foreign critics as to the attitude of the average Japanese man toward woman. "The woman of Japan is a charming personage in many ways, — ^gracious, refined, womanly before everything, sweet-tempered, unselfish, virtuous, a splendid mother, and an ideal wife from the point of view of the master. But she is virtually excluded from the whole intellectual life of the nation. Poli- tics, art, literature, science, are closed books to her. She cannot think logically about any of these sub- jects, express herself clearly with reference to them, or take an intellectual part in conversations relating to them. She is, in fact, totally disqualified to be her husband's intellectual companion, and the inev- itable result is that he despises her." An incident illustrating how crystallized is the bid point of view was related to us by a Japanese lady who, after having lived five years in the States, returned with her husband to Japan on a visit. A friend wished to give them an entertainment, but the husband stipulated that his wife should attend only on condition that the wives of the other guests PROGRESS OF JAPANESE WOMAN 35 would also attend. On the evening of the gather- ing there were a number o£ geisha invited in as entertainers. Along one side of the room sat the wives who on arriving exchanged formal courte- sies with one another, after which they settled in silence to listen to the entertainment and to watch their husbands amusing themselves with the geisha in the intervals of the program. After the Americanized couple returned home, the husband reproached his wife: "Why did you sit like a mimimy during the entire evening and say nothing?" "Did you wish me to appear immodest and un- womanly in the eyes of all your old friends?" was her response. "I have not forgotten that a Japa- nese woman must be silent in public if she wishes to be respected." II Perhaps nowhere among advanced nations is the thin switch of public opinion — particularly concern- ing woman — more stinging than in Japan. Indi- viduals dare not venture far in pursuing their per- sonal inclinations. No matter how enlightened or emancipated in her own mind a Japanese woman may be, she dare not follow out her own convictions. Before all she must "save face" for her husband, for his family and for her own family. If a pro- gressive woman ventured a little too far beyond the 36 MODERN JAPAN accepted proprieties, she would soon find herself hampered at every turn, severely ostracized perhaps if she attempted to introduce any radical social or intellectual innovations for her fellow sisters. Like the forerunners of all great movements, such women in Japan are apt to be considered freakish or un- balanced. So if they wish to succeed they must move slowly and warily and not far in advance of public opinion. It is a notable fact that the major- ity of Japanese women who have been educated abroad and have had the best opportunities for lib- eral training, return home, settle to quiet teaching and conform pretty closely to the old conservative standards of silence and repression. Very few have been able to assert themselves in any prom- inent way and become real progressive leaders. Yet there are isolated evidences of positive agitation, even of revolt, among certain groups of women in the larger centers of Japan. Naturally, readjustment of a radical new order to the conservative old order begets many points of friction or conflict, so among the various groups of radical women there appear many points of dif- ference. But while these new women's movements have made no very appreciable progress in their direct propaganda, they have come into promi- nence through the newspapers and magazines which have given liberal discussion and criticism to their ideas. These ideas have been drawn largely from Suderman, Shaw, Ellen Key, Ibsen and kindred PROGRESS OF JAPANESE WOMAN 3:7 modern Western writers, and the public discussions of these writers have doubtless influenced educated people considerably. It is not so much for political enfranchisement that these progressive women are asking as for participation in a larger social and intellectual life — a. chance for development of per- sonality. Self-conscious expression appears to be the keynote to their demands. The most conspicuous of these organized groups of women is the "Blue Stocking Society" headed by Miss Hiratsuka. The ideas advanced by this or- ganization are somewhat similar to those advocated by the eighteenth century French writers. Some of the leaders have defied custom and dared to indulge openly in social liberties which are wholly antag- onistic to all the old accepted Japanese standards of womanhood. Consequently, the Blue Stocking group have stirred up no little adverse criticism and agita- tion against themselves and their propaganda. As a counter-irritant to the "Blue Stockings," the "True New Woman's Society," led by Mrs. Nishi- kawa, Mrs. Kimura, Mrs. Miyazaki and others, has sprung up. This body has been active both through the press and on the platform, though it has also been denounced and contemptuously criticized. However, its members appear to be thoroughly sane, well-balanced women, asking and aspiring for no more than are advanced Western women who are determined to have a fuller, larger share in the big things of life. These Japanese women are un- 38 MODERN JAPAN willing to have woman remain subject to unreason- able customs and morals formulated entirely by man to suit his own convenience, thereby giving to the man freedom of conduct and action while the woman is kept in subjection to him. Ill But while there have arisen representative groups who have been brave enough to demand fuller emancipation and freedom for women, the great mass of the people are still unmoved and untouched by any ambitions for radical change of the old feu- dal-patriarchal standards. On the other hand, there are many who urge that the best and quickest medi- um for wedging in opportunity for woman is through the child. Japanese men will turn a deaf ear to a direct appeal for widened social and intel- lectual opportunity as such for women, but they are always open to conviction on possibilities for im- proved motherhood because these imply improved children and eventual race betterment. In fact, such opportunities of education as have been opened to women in Japan are motived by a desire to improve wifehood and motherhood, with little or no thought of mere personal or individual development. And while there are a few openings for a fairly liberal education for women, such open- ings are by no means commensurate with the other lines of advancement by the nation or with the PROGRESS OF JAPANESE WOMAN 39 spread of similar opportunities for men. Yet pro- gressive Japanese are coming more and more to realize that in the wake of the breaking up of the old social and political ideals must eventually fol- low the passing of the old belated conventions con- cerning women and the family. As is commonly the case elsewhere among less conventionalized peoples, the women themselves are often most conservative, particularly the women of the upper classes, who are still almost exclusively ornamental and dependent, and live largely in Orien- tal aloofness and seclusion. To be sure, Japanese women have always been the least restricted among Oriental peoples, yet the education of the upper class of women has been and still is formal and orna- mental. It comprises the Chinese classics and poetic art, Japanese music, etiquette of arranging flowers, the tea ceremony, writing a beautiful hand, and flower painting. Besides this, education includes training in the etiquette of formal conduct, such as sitting down properly, the various forms of bow- ing, serving tea, and so forth. All such instruction has value and significance, but one may become proficient in this sort of knowledge and still be hope- lessly ignorant of the larger, more vital things of life. Education among the lower classes is still very rudimentary, and traditional superstition still holds powerful sway over the people. In the rural districts where women Constitute a strong factor in 4Q MODERN JAPAN the direct economic life, that is, are engaged in such occupations as packing tea, raising the silk-worm, helping in the labor of agriculture or other produc- tive activity, they enjoy more social freedom and are less subject to their husbands. But while social equality is more nearly attained in the lower classes, as has always been the case, progress, innovations and non-conformity have been first developed among the middle class. Many educated Japanese men of this class have in theory accepted the abstract prin- ciple of equality for men and women, yet they have formulated the narrowest curriculum for women's education, clearly from the old patriarchal view- point that woman is essentially merely a medium for breeding and housekeeping. Most Japanese still find it impossible to think respectfully of women engaged in any social activity outside of the home. A most hopeful sign, however, Jies in the fact that not only are the educated women of Japan dissatis- fied with conditions, but it is said that there is con- siderable unrest even among the masses of women to whom only a little opportunity has been given; that while Japanese women are masters at repress- ing their real feelings and are able always to appear meek, cheerful and amiable, there are, nevertheless, evidences on every hand of considerable dissatisfac- tion with their narrow, restricted lives» This is, of course, the first essential to progress. One prominent writer has said : "The tragedy of a Japanese woman's life is not in its amiableness. PROGRESS OF JAPANESE WOMAN 41 This is its most attractive feature. But the pathos is in its dumbness, its narrow outlook, its voiceless uncomplaining submission. What is desirable is not something to take the place of amiable qualities but the docility of awakened, active, all-round char- acter and life." This probably expresses what the great mass of Japanese women down in their innermost souls have begun to feel. To be sure, the difficulties of social and family readjustment for Japanese women will be many and great. Imagine, for instance, a trained, scientifically educated woman trying to ful- fil the duties of wifehood and motherhood in an or- dinary Japanese household. Next to her obliga- tions to her husband are those to the will and teachings of the mother-in-law, who, in turn, is in duty bound to instruct her. Ordinarily this would mean that the children must be reared under the old and often harmful and superstitious standards of health, hygiene and morality which are apt to be entirely contrary to the teachings of modem science and reason. But young couples to-day are begin- ning to break away from the old system by having separate establishments when they can afford it. And again we are told that many families are now seek- ing to marry their daughters to the younger sons of families rather than to the eldest sons, although the position of the eldest son is of most importance and significance in the family. The reason for this is that the duties and obligations of the wives of 42 MODERN JAPAN first sons are so heavy, and often burdensome, that parents prefer to have their daughters hold a sec- ondary position in the famihes into which they mar- ry rather than subject them to the heavy responsi- bilities of marriage with the eldest son or head of a family. A gifted widow of our acquaintance was appoint- ed guardian of her own children. This woman was educated, progressive and even radical in some of her convictions, yet she dared not in any open way express her opinions. Not only would such daring have reacted upon her own head but, as she ex- plained, it would have reacted also upon her children, spoiled her daughters' chances for favorable mar- riage, alienated her own and her husband's family, and social penalties would have been visited upon herself and upon all those closely connected with her. Consequently, this wise little woman cautiously checked her rebellious tendencies, though she had found secret methods of expression in writing un- signed articles and by translating articles expressing her views. IV Other beliefs common among the Japanese peo^ pie are that widened social privileges for women increase immorality and that educated women make poor housewives. To the bird habituated to the cage and its de- PROGRESS OF JAPANESE WOMAN 43 moraK'zing restrictions sudden liberty would almost certainly mean immediate or gradual destruction, and sudden unguided or unrestricted liberty would doubtless lead to a similar result among Japanese women. Parents, particularly mothers who have wished to let down the bars for their daughters, hav- ing no background of experience themselves, lose all perspective of what may or may not be ventured. Consequently, the result of giving liberties to young girls has in many cases been unsatisfactory and even disastrous. It is generally conceded that much clan- destinism between young school boys and girls has resulted from the new and unadjusted freedom. Given a third of the social liberty which the American girl takes as a matter of course, the Jap- anese girl would fall an almost certain victim to moral disaster. It does not follow that the Jap- anese girl is inherently weaker or less moral than the American girl. The moral training of the American girl has been focused largely about sex morality — on watchfulness and resistance to the male. She is taught that the direst social penalties will be inflicted upon her who fails to be watchful. The moral teaching of the Japanese girl on the other hand centers about obedience and subserviency to the male. Until she is given over in marriage she has few contacts with the male outside of her own home, and society has as yet made almost no provision for such contacts. Naturally, clandestin- ism will result until a franker relationship between 44 MODERN JAPAN the sexes is established and society arranges for more normal opportunities of communication and association. Before all else the Japanese woman will have to be taught how to use social liberty, 'and the Japanese man how to respect such liberty. The old domestic morality of obedience for women must be revised and re-leavened with resistance and self- assertion; and methods of co-operation and co-or- dination with men must be taught in place of sub- serviency to them. As for educated women making poor housewives, it appears that a few years ago a wave of reaction- ary alarm was spread broadcast in Japan caused by the writings of an eminent German professor em- ployed at the Imperial University. It seems a pity that the Japanese should have been influenced by the German point of view on this subject, since the mass of German people are also belated on questions con- cerning women, are still wedded to the old standards of "Kinder, Kirche und Kochen," and in problems of women's education have progressed little beyond the Japanese. To be sure, when one reflects upon how little wid- ened opportunity, so-called education, social inter- course, and independent action, has achieved for the Western women, particularly the American woman ; how lacking are many in stability, sense of obliga- tion to society and often even to their own families ; how pampered, frivolous and pettish are many, particularly of the comfortable class; how unques- PROGRESS OF JAPANESE WOMAN 45 tionably superior, on the other hand, are the Japanese women in certain qualities that make for stabil- ity and character under their code of suppression and self-sacrifice, one is almost ready to question whether a reversion to suppression and subserviency would not be well for our women. And when one hears the oft-repeated question : "Are not Japanese women good, faithful, docile, patient and indus- trious ; are they not loyal wives and devoted moth- ers, then why change, why disturb them?" one re- flects before answering. But widened privilege in the West is not responsi- ble for the great number of futile, restless women ; but rather social, economic and domestic conditions which still prevent the great mass of fairly well edu- cated women of the comfortable class from finding satisfactory self-expression and a worthy outlet for their ambitions and abilities. Consequently, we see scores of them running hopelessly amuck with orna- mental frivolities like dress, teas, cards and social dissipations of all sorts. But this is a problem quite apart from that of the present-day Japanese woman. V Progressive Japan, like the rest of the civilized world, is not so much in need of devoted mothers as of wise, trained and intelligent mothers; not so much in need of industrious housewives as of scien- tific, businesslike, household managers who know 46 MODERN JAPAN the food values of fis«r,-nce and potatoes and how to combine these food values so as to bring the best results in bone, muscle and bodily strength to the family. In traveling about Japan the casual observer is ever3rwhere impressed with the vast number of chil- dren afflicted with sore eyes, scabby heads and, dur- ing the colder months, with almost continuously run- ning noses, which ultimately must breed catarrh, adenoids, and ear and throat affections of every va- riety. Indeed, one can scarcely imagine a more nauseating sight than a group of these otherwise charming children, almost every one with a running nose and no effort made to correct it, since children are taught never to snuff or to blow their noses in the presence of guests. There are admirers of the Japanese people who maintain that such neglect of the children is the worst blot upon their present- day civilization. Sidney and Beatrice "Webb, in a very able and sympathetic study of modem condi- tions in Japan, testify in no sparing terms on this subject : "There is no general provision for the prevention and treatment of disease, and in spite of apparently endless charity on the part of the very poorly remu- nerated doctors, and various 'charity hospitals' (as they are called) the death-rate is half as much again as in England; with tuberculosis and infantile dis- orders fatally prevalent; and with the children growing up, untreated, with all sorts of eventually disabling complaints. PROGRESS OF JAPANESE WOMAN 4;r "The amount of preventable disease, of unneces- sary disablement and of premature old age and death is costing Japan today more even than its gigantic naval expenditure or its war debt A large proportion of the children of Japan are suf- fering severely from the want of the necessaries of healthy child life. There is very little public pro- vision for orphans or abandoned children; in the absence of any supervision of child birth and in- fancy, the infantile death-rate (in spite of universal breast feeding) is very high, implying much infan- tile disease." Certain it is that the great body of Japanese chil- dren are not suffering from want or neglect, or lack of affection, but chiefly from poverty and from lack of trained, efficient motherhood which would doubt- less in a very large measure reduce these evils. Moreover, the education of the children during the most impressionable and absorbing period of their lives is almost entirely in the hands of the women. Many critics of Japan maintain that until the women of Japan are raised to a higher level of training and are permitted to share in and contrib- ute to the world of ideas and to aid in the solution of present-day social and domestic problems, the higher, social and ethical progress of the whole na- tion is bound to be retarded. CHAPTER V THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF JAPAN The modem educational system of Japan may be said to have been inaugurated in 1871 when the Mumbusho or Department of Education was estab- lished. The year following a comprehensive ed- ucational code was promulgated. The keynote of the system had already been sounded in the last of the five articles of the famous Charter or Imperial Oath of 1869 which also promised deliberative as- semblies and government by public opinion. The articles provided: "Knowledge shall be sought for throughout the world, so that the welfare of the Empire may be promoted." The principles underlying this code of education are more important than the code itself, which has undergone frequent changes and revisions. These principles are thus set forth in the preamble: "It is intended that henceforth universally (with- out any distinction of class or sex), in a village 48 THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 49 there shall he no house without learning, and in a house no indizndual without learning. Fathers or elder brothers must take note of this intention, and bringing up their children or younger brothers with warm feeling of love must not fail to let them ac- quire learning. (As for higher learning, that de- pends upon the capacity of individuals.)"* It is characteristic of the Japanese that special emphasis is placed upon the utilitarian advantages of an education. "The only way in which an individual can raise himself, manage his property and prosper in his busi- ness and so accomplish his career, is by cultivating his morals, improving his intellect, and becoming proficient in arts; the cultivation of morals, the improvement of intellect and proficiency in arts can- not be attained except through learning. This is the reason why schools are established Every man only after learning diligently each ac- cording to his capacity will be able to increase his property and prosper in his business. Hence knowl- edge may be regarded as the capital for raising one's self; who then can do without learning? Those who wander about homeless, suffer from hunger, break up their houses, and ruin themselves, come to such a pass, because they are without learning." It can hardly be said that the educational system of Japan in its present form was fully established prior to the reforms of Mari Yurei, a Minister of From Kukuchi's translation in his Japanese Education, pages 68, 69^ so MODERN JAPAN; Education who issued a new or thoroughly revised code of education in 1886. In 1890 there was is- sued the famous Imperial Rescript on Education which may be said to form the basis of Japanese education, at least in its moral and political aspects. This document, being a sort of Japanese Bible, is of such interest and importance that no apology is needed for its insertion in full: "Know ye. Our subjects : "Our Imperial Ancestors have founded Our Em- pire on a basis broad and everlasting, and have deeply and firmly implanted virtue; Our subjects ever united in loyalty and filial piety, have from generation to generation illustrated the beauty there- of. This is the glory of the fundamental character of Our Empire, and herein also lies the source of Our education. Ye, Our subjects, be filial to your parents, affectionate to your brothers and sisters; as husbands and wives be harmonious, as friends true; bear yourselves in modesty and moderation; extend your benevolence to all ; pursue learning and cultivate arts, and thereby develop intellectual fac- ulties and perfect moral powers; furthermore, ad- vance public good and promote common interests; always respect the Constitution and observe the laws; should emergency arise, offer yourselves courageously to the State ; and thus guard and main- tain the prosperity of our Imperial Throne coeval with heaven and earth. So shil ye not only be Our good and faithful subjects, but render illustrious the best traditions of your forefathers. "The Way here set forth is indeed the teaching bequeathed by Our Imperial Ancestors, to be ob- THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 51 served alike by Their Descendants and the subjects, infallible for all ages and true in all places. It is Our wish to lay it to heart in all reverence, in com- mon with you. Our subjects, that we may all attain to the same virtue." In commenting upon this Rescript, Baron Ku- kuchi says: "Our whole moral and civic educa- tion consists in so imbuing our children with the spirit of the Rescript that it forms a part of our national life." He also tells us: "A copy of this Rescript is distributed from the Department of Ed- ucation to every school in the Empire, whether governmental, public, or private, of any grade whatsoever; those given to governmental schools are actually signed by the Emperor." The Rescript is essentially Confucian in its con- tent and teaching. Loyalty to the Emperor, which in- cludes patriotism to the country and filial piety, are emphasized as the two cardinal virtues. Portraits of the Emperor and Empress are distributed to ev- ery school, and these and a copy of the Rescript are kept in a special place; and on public occasions the same respect must be paid to these portraits as if their Majesties themselves were present in person ; in other words, they are actually worshipped. Thus it will be seen that the Imperial Rescript in a very real sense forms the basis of the religion as well as the education of the Japanese nation, and must neces- sarily influence tremendously the national, educa- tional and ethical outlook of the entire people. 52 MODERN JAPAN. II Education in Japan is entirely under the control or supervision of the Government. The adminis- tration is determined by Imperial ordinance rather than by laws submitted to the Diet. The agencies of control are of two kinds — central and loced. The central agency is the Department of Education head- ed by the Minister who sits in the Cabinet. There is also a higher Council of Education with merely advisory but important powers. For purposes of control, the whole country is divided into seven ad- ministrative divisions, with an inspector for each division. For administrative purposes (including educa- tion), Japan proper is divided into three Fu and forty-three Ken* whose govemorsf or prefects have charge of matters educational in their respective provinces or prefectures. Each prefecture, exclusive of the Shi or cities, is subdivided into Gwn or sub- prefectures. Alongside the sub-prefectures are the Shi (cities or towns), and underneath the sub-prefec- tures are the Cho and Son (villages). These various ♦The distinction between a fu and ken is one of name only. tThese officers are appointed by the Emperor on the recommendation of the Cabinet Like the French prefects of whom they are a copy, they serve in a double capacity as State officials charged with a part of the general adminis- tration of the State, and as local representatives or heads of the prefectural administration and interests. THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 53 units or bodies have elected assemblies with certain powers of self-government. Subject to the control, supervision and inspection of the Central Govern- ment, they exercise certain rights, privileges and duties in connection with the schools. Thus there are schools and colleges established and maintained by the prefectures and (in fewer number) even by the sub-prefectures. But the expense of elementary schools is for the most part borne by cities, towns or villages or by unions of these. This naturally in- volves a certain amount of local control. Some higher and special schools are directly maintained and controlled by the Central Government, while a number of private schools are under more or less government supervision. The public schools of Japan are supported by taxation, endowments and tuition fees. Tuition fees were charged in all schools until the year 1900 when, in accordance with the principle of obligatory attendance then introduced, it was ordered that ele- mentary education should be free wherever possi- ble. By 1906 only about five per cent, of the ordi- nary elementary schools collected slight fees from less than ten per cent, of the pupils of these schools.* In the higher elementary schools tuition fees are still collected in the majority of cases. In middle schools they are the rule rather than the exception. *Kukuchi, Japanese Education, page 145. About the same percentages still held in 1910-11. See table in 38th Annual Re- i'ort of the Minister of Education, page 75. 54 MODERN JAPAN Attempts to create endowment funds for school purposes have not been very successful in Japan. Such funds have been created by local governments in some instances and there is a fund of several mil- lion dollars for additional allowances to common school-teachers. But the main endowment has been the Educational Stock Fund which was created in 1899 by setting apart for educational purposes the sum of ten million yen or five million dollars out of the Chinese indemnity. This fund was unfor- tunately appropriated by the War Chest during the Russo-Japanese War, though since 1900-01 there is a National Education Fund, consisting of con- tributions from both the treasury and the provinces, created as supplementary to the Stock Fund. The total amount of this fund in 1911-12 was $1,689,937 of which over $1,000,000 was granted as loans to cities, towns and villages. Japan probably spends less money for educational purposes than any country in the world having an efficient school system. The total expenditure for public schools paid out by provincial and com- munal treasuries in 1911-12 was almost $40,000,000 of which nearly three-fourths or $29,000,000 went to the support of common schools. The total amount expended by the Department of Education in 1910-11 was $4,500,000. The two main items in this expenditure were $750,000 for general edu- fcation and $2,434,814 for the Imperial universities and other institutions. THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 55 III There are three main grades or kinds of primary and secondary schools in Japan: the elementary, middle and high schools. At the base of the educational system are the elementary schools. The purpose of these is de- scribed in the Imperial Ordinance of 1900: "Elementary schools are expected to give chil- dren the rudiments of moral education and of civic education,* together with such general knowledge and skill as are necessary for life, while due atten- tion is paid to their bodily development." Elementary schools are divided into ordinary and higher elementary schools, though the two may be combined into one school. Since 1907 the course of an ordinary elementary school extends over six years and is compulsory. The main subjects taught in the schools during the first four years are morals, language, arithmetic and gymnastics ; to which may be added drawing, singing and manual work and sewing for girls. In recent years geography and science were added, as well as military drill for boys. The higher elementary schools (which are not compulsory) are for those children who, having completed the tourse of six years, wish to receive *By civic education is meant "education specially adapted to make the child a good subject of the Emperor and a useful member of the community."— Kukuchi, page 115. S6 MODERN JAPAN a higher gfeneral education, though not intending to enter the middle school for boys or a high school for girls. The course of these higher elementary schools usually extends over two years, though it may be extended to three or even four years. The subjects taught are morals, language, arithmetic, Japanese history, geography, science, drawing, singing and gymnastics, with sewing for girls and military drill for boys. To these may be added manual work, agriculture or commerce for boys, and manual work for girls. Provision may also be made for teaching English. After a Japanese boy has completed the six years compulsory course of an ordinary elementary school, he may leave school altogether, continue his studies in a higher elementary school or enter a middle school (theoretically, at least), or certain local agri- cultural, commercial or apprentice schools. If he has completed two years of the higher elementary course, he may possibly enter a normal school or one of the considerable number of the city agricul- tural, industrial or commercial schools provided by a ken or city. As stated in an Imperial ordinance, the object of middle schools is "to give a higher general educa- tion necessary for men," or, as explained by a lead- ing authority,* "a general education or liberal cul- ture necessary for those who are to be of middle or ♦Baron Kukuchi, op. cit., page 205. THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 57 higher social standing." But really the middle school is used mainly by those who are desirous of obtaining the instruction needed for entering a college or university. So they have largely become mere preparatory schools. The course of a middle school, which corresponds to our high school, extends over five years. The subjects taught are morals, the Japanese language and Chinese classics, one of three foreign languages (English, French or German), history, geography, mathematics, natural history, physics and chemistry, law and economics, drawing, singing and gymnas- tics.* Most emphasis is placed upon the Japanese and foreign languages. Of the foreign languages, English is almost exclusively taught, though the results are far from satisfactory. After her completion of the six yearS* compulsory course in the ordinary elementary school, the aver- age Japanese girl has comparatively little opportu- nity for further study. During recent years, how- ever, great progress has been made in providing for girls the means of secondary education. There are now a considerable number of so-called high schoolsf and normal schools for girls, and of other institu- ♦Foreign languages or history and geography may be sub- stituted for law and economics, and drawing for singing. tit is gratifying to note that the number of public and private high schools for girls increased from 192 in 1910-11 to 297 in 1912-13. The number of pupils increased from 55,882 to 74,316. The number of graduates in 1912-13 was 16,396. See Japan Year Book for 1915, page 258. 58 MODERN JAPAN tions which offer better opportunities for technical, professional and industrial training. The object of high schools for girls, as stated in an Imperial ordinance, is "to give higher general education necessary for women;" or, as explained by Baron Kukuchi,* "general education and culture necessary for those who are to be of middle or higher social standing." The course usually ex- tends over four years, though a fifth year may be added. The subjects taught are the inevitable morals, the Japanese language, a foreign language (either English or French), history and geography, mathematics, science, drawing, domestic manage- ment, sewing, music and gymnastics."f If the Japanese youth who has completed his five- year course in the middle school desires to enter an Imperial university, he attempts to secure admission to one of the eight high schools provided for this purpose. Or if he has had the necessary training, he may enter a higher normal school or prepare for an industrial or professional career at one of the higher technical schools, a college of commerce, a *0p. cit., page 273. fForeign language may be omitted or made optional, while drawing and music may be dispensed with entirely. E/luca- tion and manual work or any subject approved by the local authorities may be added, provided the hours of instruction are not increased more than six hours per week. In con- nection with morals, special attention is paid to deportment and manners; in domestic management, to nursing and the cpre of the aged and of children. THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 59 medical college or such an institution as the Sapporo Agricultural College. For the young Japanese wom- en there are few such opportunities. The high schools (formerly known as high middle schools) were originally designed to give special or professional education, as well as preparatory in- struction necessary for entering the universities; but their primary purpose seems to have been lost sight of, and they are now almost wholly used as institutions or colleges preparatory to a university career. There are eight such high schools main- tained by the Government. These schools have each three sections or departments, the 'course in all cases extending over three years. The first section is for those wishing to enter the college (in the university) of law or literature; the second is for those intending to enter the college of science, en- gineering or agriculture; the third for those wish- ing to enter the college of medicine. In the first section emphasis is naturally placed upon such sub- jects as logic, elementary law and elementary poli- tical economy ; in the second and third sections upon mathematics and the appropriate sciences. In all sections are taught ethics, Japanese language and gymnastics, and until recently (1911) two of the three leading Western languages were required.* *The languages usually studied are English, French and German. In some fields, as in medicine, German is required. In 191 1 it was arranged to make one language compulsory and the other optional. 6o MODERN JAPAN IV There is in Japan a very ample* provision of normal schools designed to train teachers. They are divided into ordinary and higher normal schools >vith separate schools or classes for either sex. The course of study in the ordinary normal school extends over four yearsf in the case of male and three years in the case of female pupils, usually preceded by one year's preparatory course. Those eligible for admission have completed the second year of a higher elementary school or its equivalent. The subjects taught are pretty much the same as in the middle schools with the addition of pedagogy (theory and practice). Applicants for admission to a Japanese normal school must be of good moral character and have a strong healthy physique. To this end they are sub- jected to a strict medical examination and a most searching inquiry. The regulations prescribe that those admitted shall be furnished with the cost of their board and clothing, while tuition is free. The *Each prefecture is obliged to maintain at least one normal school with an elementary school attached. Since 1897 the Government has encouraged the establishment of at least two schools, one each for male and female pupils. In 1907 there were 69 normal schools, of which 27 were for male and ig for female pupils, while there were 23 schools for both sexes. tThere is also provision for a one-year course for grad- uates of middle schools or of girls' high schools. THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 6i students are lodged in dormitories and subject to strict discipline. A special efifort is made to incul- cate a spirit of loyalty and patriotism. In return for these privileges they are required after gradua- tion to serve for a certain period as elementary school-teachers in the locality in which they grad- uated. In addition to the ordinary normal schools there are at Tokyo and Hiroshima two higher normal schools which train male teachers for normal schools, middle schools and high schools for girls; also two higher normal schools for girls in Tokyo and Nara. Of late years, more especially since the Russo- Japanese War, there has been in Japan a tremen- dous impetus in the direction of technical, industrial and professional education. There are now many technical, agricultural and commercial schools, pri- mary and secondary grades, including numerous sup- plementary technical schools, as also a number of special technical schools or colleges. Among these may be especially noted the Marioka higher school of Agriculture and Forestry, the five higher com- mercial schools at Tokyo, Kobe and elsewhere, seven higher technical schools, the Tokyo Fishery Insti- tute, the Mining School at Akita, the Sericulture School at Uyeda, six special schools of medicine, the Tokyo Foreign Language School, the Tokyo Fine Art Academy and the Tokyo Academy of Music. 62 MODERN JAPAN y At the head of the public educational system of Japan are the four Imperial universities. First in rank and importance is the Imperial University of Tokyo consisting of a university hall and six colleges, viz. : law, medicine, engineering, literature, science and agriculture. These last are not colleges in either the English or American sense. They rather correspond to the German fac- ulties of philosophy, jurisprudence, medicine and theology. The university hall is a post-graduate institution designed for purposes of research. At the end of five years post-graduate students who have presented a satisfactory thesis receive the de- gree of Hakushi (Doctor). The college of law has by far the greatest num- ber of students.* It is divided into three sections — ■ law, politics and economics ; the subjects of study in each section being divided into compulsory and elec- tive. The course of study for law has recently been reduced from four to three years. 'At the same time the privilege which university graduates for- merly enjoyed of entering the bench or bar on diploma was withdrawn. *Out of 5,240 students enrolled in December, 1913, 2,422 were registered in the college of law; 846 in that of medicine; 663 in engineering; 414 in literature; 158 in science; and 740 in agriculture. There were 271 post-graduate students in university hall. See Japan Year Book for 1915, pages 261- 262. THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 63 In the college of medicine there are two sec- tions — ^medicine and pharmacy, with courses of four and three years respectively. The college of en- gineering has nine sections with three-year courses. In the college of literature there are three sections —philosophy, history and literature, each with a course of three years. The Imperial University of Kyoto is similarly or- ganized except that there are only four colleges, namely, of law, medicine, literature, and science and engineering. The Imperial University of Tohoku at Sendai (established in 1901) has a college of science, a school of agriculture (at Sapporo), a medical course and an English course. It distinguished it- self from the others (in 1913) by admitting three women to a special course by examination — a. nota- ble and promising innovation in the history of the higher education of Japanese women. The Imperial University of Kyushu at Fukuoka (established in 1910) consists thus far of but two colleges, namely, of medicine and engineering. For the maintenance of the universities of Tokyo and Kyoto the Government makes an annual appro- priation of about six hundred and fifty thousand dollars and five hundred thousand dollars respec- tively. The presidents are appointed by the Em- peror on the recommendation of the Cabinet. At the head of each college is a director appointed from among the professors by the Minister of Education. 64 MODERN JAPAN The supreme deliberative body of the university is the senate presided over by the president and consist- ,ing of the directors and a professor froni each college chosen by his colleagues. In each college there is a faculty meeting presided over by the director. But the senate and faculty meetings are mere advisory bodies, the final decision and responsibility resting with the directors, the president or the Minister of Education. Professors are appointed by the Emperor on the recommendation of the Minister of Education, though the initiative in respect to appointment or promotion is taken by the president after consulting the faculty. That the system does not always work without friction is shown by the crisis at Kyoto University in 19 14. In consequence of the arbi- trary dismissal of seven professors by the president, a number of professors of the law college, who claimed the right of being consulted in the matter of appointments and dismissals, resigned. The dif- ficulty appears to have been adjusted by an under- standing that the faculty should be taken into the confidence of the president with regard to such matters. The Japan Mail called this an "uncondi-' tional surrender" on the part of the professors. In engaging foreign professors, who were for- merly in the majority, the consent of the Diet is nec- essary. But the services of foreign scholars have been gradually dispensed with until there are now only about a dozen left in the University of Tokyo. THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 65 VI In addition to the public schools of Japan, there p.re a considerable number of private institutions. These are mainly mission schools, the missionaries having been pioneers in the field of education in Japan. Among private institutions for higher education, the most important are unquestionably the Keio- gijuku, Waseda and Doshisha Universities. These and other similar institutions are largely reser- voirs for students failing to enter the Imperial Uni- versity or not prepared to do so. The Keio-gijuku in Tokyo was founded as early as 1895 by the famous Fukuzawa, sometimes re- ferred to as the Benjamin Franklin of Japan, a great educator, scholar and philosopher on Western lines, who contributed much to the awakening of modem Japan. The university proper is divided into four departments, namely, of economics, law, political science and literature. In accordance with the moral code of its illustrious founder, a special attempt is made to inculcate a sense of independence and self-respect — virtues, so it is claimed by many Japanese critics, too much neglected in the public and government schools. Keio University boasts of five thousand graduates, and in 1912 there were enrolled in the university department 2,492 students. Waseda University was founded at Tokyo in 1882 by Cotmt Okuma to encourage freedom of inves- 66 MODERN JAPAN tigation and "provide young men with an easy means of attaining advanced knowledge." The university department comprises colleges of politics and economics, literature, commerce, and science and engineering. The institution boasts of over ten thousand graduates and a total enrollment of 6,622 students in 1913, of whom 2,035 were registered in the various colleges, 500 in the academies, 358 in the higher normal school and 2,313 in the higher pre- paratory school. The above institutions, it is fclaimed, are especial- ly adapted to the training of public spirited and in- dependent citizens, free from governmental and bureaucratic influences so fatal to initiative, origin-, ality and progress. The Doshisha University was founded at Kyoto in 1875 under Christian auspices by the celebrated educator Dr. Nishima. It comprises academic, col- legiate and theological departments in addition to a girls' school. It claims eighteen hundred alumni and an enrollment of 840 students. This school is largely indebted to the United States both for teachers and financial support, and is acknowledged to be one of the best institutions in Japan. Another promising institution is the Meiji Sem- mon Gakko founded in Kiushiu in 1909 by Mr. Yasukawa who furnished an endowment of $1,650,- 000 — ^the most notable instance of a private endow- ment of an educational institution in Japan. Courses extending over four years ate provided in mining. THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 67 metallurgy, mechanical and electriceil engineering and applied chemistry. Except for the two higher normal schools for girls at Tokyo and Nara, the Japanese Government has failed to make any provision for the higher education of women. Since 1900 Miss Tsuda has conducted an excellent higher school for girls in Tokyo called the Women's English Institute. It admits to its three years' course only those possess- ing scholarship equal to that of graduates of a girls' high school. In 1914 it had 146 students and 163 alumni. More important and promising for the future is the so-called Japanese Women's University founded in 1 90 1 at Tokyo by Mr. Naruse, who believes that the education of women should be guided by three principles. They shall be educated (i) as human beings, (2) as women and (3) as members of the community. To this end emphasis is placed upon the three principles of ( i ) self-activity or self-help, (2) the psycho-physical principle or co-operation between soul and body and (3) the socio-individual- istic principle of the relation between society and the individual. Self-respect and service are be- lieved to be the most important special female vir- tures for the development of which the founder has instituted various organizations for self-training and self-government, such as moral tendency, ex- periment study, health, order, economy, cooking, committees and the cherry-maple associations. 68 MODERN JAPAN Three-year courses in domestic science, litera- ture, English and education are provided to which students are admitted who have had the equivalent of a five years' course in a girls' high school. Besides the attached schools, there is also to be a three years' post-graduate course, and the university is looking forward to the establishment of medical, musical, fine arts and other departments. It is admitted that the standards are not sufficiently high to merit the name of university, but it is hoped that these may be gradually raised as conditions permit In 1912 the Women's University had 1,277 graduates, and a total of 529 students in the university proper. VII In viewing the Japanese educational system as a whole, it will be noted that the Japanese do not be- lieve in co-education. They do not object to it in the elementary schools where boys and girls are usu- ally taught in the same schools and often in the some classes, though even here they are separated whenever practicable. This is due to the old estab- lished custom of bringing up the sexes separately. Even primary education is not wholly free and is only compulsory for six years, though it extends to both sexes. During these years there is a very high percentage of attendance, but there is some reason ■for thinking that, owing to the method of computa- tion, Japanese statistics on this head are not wholly THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 69 reliable. According to the statistics furnished by the Department of Education, the ratio of attend- ance in 1912-13 was 98.80 per cent, for boys and 97.62 per cent, for girls, an average of 98.23 per pent. There were 25,673 elementary schools, with 7,037,430 pupils and 158,601 teachers — ^an average of about 45 pupils to one teacher.* The majority of teachers (five-sevenths) are men, though the num- ber of women teachers is constantly increasing. The salaries of teachers in elementary schools range from four or five dollars to twenty-five or thirty-five dollars per month. The minimum as fixed by the law of 1907 is five dollars for men and four dollars for women. The average in 1911-12 was a trifle over nine dollars. In criticizing these wages, account should of course be taken of the low cost of living in Japan, but the salaries, nevertheless, seem pitifully small. Some compensation may per- haps be found in the good social position and pres- tige of members of the teaching profession among a deferential people, and in a pension system which grants a retiring allowance ranging from one-fourth to one-half the regular salary after a service of from fifteen to forty years. The Japanese school boy or girl has longer hours and shorter vacations than the American child. Summer vacation is much shorter, usually lasting ♦For criticism of these figures see Pieters in the Christian Movement in Japan for I0o6, page 57. ^o MODERN JAPAN only four or five weeks in July and August; and, though there is no school on Sundays, Saturday is a school day in Japan, and the number of "holidays, exclusive of Sundays, must not exceed ninety in any one year. The number of school days each year is therefore between 220 and 240 as compared with about 147 in the United States. The number of hours per diem is also probably greater. In ele- mentary schools it ranges from twenty-one to thirty hours per week. In the secondary schools and tech- nical schools it is often still greater. In consequence of certain abuses and scandals which had arisen in connection with the use of text- books, the rules regulating their compilation and adoption were revised by Imperial ordinance in 1903. According to these new rules all readers and elementary text-books on morals, Japanese history and geography must be uniform and copyrighted by the Department of Education. All other text-books used in elementary schools must be approved by the Department or compiled under its direction. The publication and sale of these texts is subject to the strictest supervision and control. The result has been a great reduction in the price of these books, amounting in some cases to as much as seventy per cent, and great improvement in their quality, at least as regards binding and paper. On the other hand, such control does not permit any questioning of certain old traditions which the more enlightened public can no longer accept as facts. THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 71 VIII Perhaps the most unique and i nteresting feature o f Japanese ed ucatioiTrs its insTstoice on the~Eeach- ing of mo rals~an3 patriotism rfraH-prim anrafl(t"sec- ondary schools. In the departmental r egulati ons governing elementary education, the following direc- tions are 'gfvenjwiffiTefera "The teaching of Morals must be based on the Imperial Rescript on Education, and its aim should be to cultivate the moral nature of children and to guide them in practice of virtues. "In the ordinary elementary course, easy precepts appropriate for practice concerning such virtues as filial piety and obedience to elders, affection and friendship, frugality and industry, modesty, fidelity, courage, etc., should be given, and then some of the duties towards the State and society, with a view to elevate their moral character, strengthen their will, increase their spirit of enterprise,^ make them value public virtues and foster the spirit of loyalty and patriotism. "In the higher elementary course, the above must be further extended and the training given made still more solid. "In the teaching of girls, special stress must be laid on the virtues of chastity and modesty. "Encouragement and admonition should be given by means of wise sayings and proverbs and by tales of good deeds, so that children may lay them to heart."* *Kukuchi, Japanese Education, page 150 ; cf., pages 217 ff. 72 MODERN JAPAN In all the elementary schools, as also in the girls' high schools, two hours per week are devoted to this subject and one hour in the middle schools.. Normal school students receive from one to two hours' instruction in ethics. In the elementary schools at least, a great efifort is made to present the subject in as attractive and concrete a way as possi- ble.* Thus the first lesson deals with "The School." There follow lessons on such subjects, as "The Teacher," "PunctuaUty," "Be Studious," "Play," "Father and Mother," "Friends," "His Ma- jesty," "The Body," "Manners," "Neighbors," "Good Children," "Honesty" (illustrated by Wash- ington and the cherry tree), "Loyalty" and "Good. Japanese." There is, however, much dissatisfaction with the results of this boasted system of moral instruction. Some complain that the teachers, having lost faith in the old system of Confucian ethics, are unable to teach, by precept or example, a living moraUty. Others find fault with the method. They say that moral instruction should permeate all teaching and not be relegated to special hours. The missionaries criticize the attempt to separate morahty and reli- gion and the effort to secularize moral education. One critic says: "The moral teaching does little ♦The interested reader will find the whole system of ele- mentary education in morals amply treated in Kukuchi, chapter ii. For the teaching of morals in the middle schools, see Ibid, chapter i6. THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 73 good. The teachers do not command respect." Some point to the laxity of sexual and commercial relations in Japan as evidence of the failure of the system. By way of partial reply to some of the above criticisms, it might be urged that apparently there is little stress laid in this teaching upon sexual moral- ity (except for women), and that the Japanese are making a real and sincere effort to cure their com- mercial vices. In one respect at least the system appears to be successful. It does succeed in incul- cating a spirit of loyalty, obedience and national patriotism which is unexcelled, except perhaps in Germany. To be sure, this spirit may have the de- fects of its virtues and may be dangerous in its ulti- mate efforts both upon Japan and the rest of the world, as in the case of Germany. It may raise more demons than it can exorcise. Of real political edu- cation or practical training for the higher duties of citizenship, there is very little evidence. One of the most serious defects of the Japanese educaHonaFiystem is the~ma3equacy™or financial support and The" failure ^oTfrake-ample provision for secondary" an"d"Tiigfi"^"EducatiDn~ or "fo" provide sufficient accommodations "for the aspiring youth of Japan. Dr. Ni'tobe remarks on this head :* "I believe there is nothing that chills the genial current of the youthful soul more than the inade- *The Japanese Nation, page igo. 74 MODERN JAPAN quate number of collegiate institutions in our coun- try. Thousands of young men in the most ardent and aspiring period of life feel the very door of hope slammed in their face It hurts me to confess how sadly our Government fails to meet the educational demands of young Japan." Though theoretically all boys who have completed the ordinary elementary course are qualified to enter a middle school, the accommodations in these schools are so limited that competitive examinations are necessary at most schools, resulting in the rejection of nearly forty per cent, of the applicants. The num- ber of such schools is also insufficient. In 1911-12 there were but three hundred and twelve public and private middle schools with nearly six thousand in- structors and almost one hundred and twenty-five thousand pupils. The case is even worse in the high schools (university preparatory), normal schools. Imperial universities and government tech- nical and professional schools, where the rejections run from sixty-five to eighty-five per cent. Indeed, it might be said that some of the single states of the American Union compare favorably with the Japanese Empire in making provision for secondary and higher education. Perhaps no comments upon Japanese education have aroused so much interest and controversy as Dr. Eliot's* criticism of the system as being too *See Eliot, Some Roads Towards Peace, published by the Carnegie Peace Endowment (1914), page 50. THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 75 uniform and stereotyped. Some of the Japanese critics are disposed to admit the justice of this criticism, while others either deny or justify the conditions which prevail. There can be little question of the justice of Dr. Eliot's criticism in so far as the secondary schools are concerned. The system is too rigid and me- chanical, the curriculum is too crowded, the teach- ers and pupils are overtaxed, the knowledge taught and acquired is often superficial, there is too much cramming for needless examinations, and the teach- ers are frequently untrained and inexperienced. The Imperial universities especially are sometimes des- ignated as official factories for the training of bureaucratic officials, and there is much dissatisfac- tion with the lack of initiative and fondness for abstract theories which are said to characterize pro- fessors and students alike at these institutions, ten- dencies encouraged, it is said, by the Mumbusho or Department of Education. In short, it would seem that in Japan, as elsewhere, and especially in Amer- ica, mere instruction has been mistaken for educa- tion, with the result that growth is often impeded rather than developed by the system. The product tends toward uniformity, mediocrity and superfici- ality. Th ejndividua l is adapt ed to the system rather thari the syst em to T he indiviHu al. Intellectual iriitia- tive and independent thinking are not common and not encouraged. Utilitarian ideals prevail and ab- sorb most of the trained energy of the nation. 76 MODERN JAPAN IX One of the main impediments to real educational progress in Japan is the use of Chinese ideographs to represent sounds as well as words in the kand of the Japanese alphabet, and the adoption of Chi- nese words and Chinese ideographs into the Japa- nese language. A Japanese scholar is supposed to be familiar with some six thousand out of nearly fifty thousand Chinese characters, of which about three thousand are commonly used and one thousand three hundred and sixty may be employed in the elementary schools. This involves a knowledge of possibly several distinct sounds and different mean- ings in the case of each character and the ability to write them in several styles. Chinese literature forms an almost integral part of Japanese literature, and consequently the study of the Chinese classics is deemed an essential part of the education of a Japa- nese student just as Latin and Greek were formerly considered a necessary part of the education of a Western scholar or gentleman. Some twenty-five years ago two associations were formed — one for the exclusive use of Japanese kana, and the other for the introduction of Roman let- ters ; but, being in advance of their time, they grad- ually declined and finally disappeared. More re- cently a new association has been formed for the purpose of substituting Roman letters for the kana as well as for Chinese ideographs. This movement THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 77 promises to be more successful, but the pathway to this desirable and, it would seem, almost necessary reform, will probably prove long and difficult; for there are a vast number of stupid conservatives in Japan as well as in other countries. The difficulties of acquiring a reading and writ- ing knowledge of the Japanese language, not to speak of Chinese ideographs, are so great that a study of their school statistics would make the Jap- anese appear to be much more literate than they really are. It is said that at the most only about fifty per cent, of the Japanese, having received an ordinary elementary education, could possibly read a simple religious tract or newspaper in their own lan- guage, and that comparatively few could read a po- litical pamphlet or editorial. Many have lost their former ability to read. A graduate of a middle school eighteen years of age has not, it is said, mas- tered Japanese sufficiently well to be able to under- stand an essay or leading article. In their intense pursuit of practical and abstract kriowledg'ti Jayanese-ed uc aLors for artime neglected the needs_,ol'^e ^^Z:- ^^ ^^^ defect has been largely remedied, and gymnastics form an impor- tant part of the curriculum in all elementary and secondary schools. English and American games, such as lawn tennis, boating, baseball and even foot- ball, are becoming increasingly popular. The nu- merous excursions for mixed purposes of pleasure, exercise and knowledge, which are undertaken un- 78 MODERN JAPAN der the guidance of the instructors, form a pleasing and prominent feature of Japanese school life. One very pronounced aspect of Japanese educa- tion is its utilitarian and increasingly practical or vocational character. As in the United States, edu- cation is commonly regarded as a means rather than as an end and, while idealistic and altruistic aims are not v\^holly lacking, even more than in America the prevailing purpose appears to be a desire to get on in the world, to acquire wealth, fame or position, and to succeed or gain substantial rewards in the struggle for existence. But it must be admitted that in spite of disadvan- tages and many drawbacks, such as poverty and inexperience, the educational progress of the Japa- nese has been most remarkable. The Japanese youth is extremely aspiring, energetic and ambitious, and he is usually determined to make the best of his opportunities. Indeed, he frequently overworks and succumbs in the fierce competition for entrance to the secondary schools or universities. His teach- ers, however untrained and ill qualified for their task, are usually devoted and self-sacrificing to an extraordinary degree. For example, many univer- sity professors devote a considerable proportion of their meager salaries to the lodging and "entertain- ment" of needy and worthy students. The school- teacher is the person most respected in an average Japanese village, and the scholar occupies a highly honorable place in Japanese society. THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM 79 At a Japanese university there is much which might be criticized in the way of a general lack of hotels or dormitories, the existence of bad living conditions and the want of proper provision for the care and welfare of students; there is nevertheless an admirable spirit of fraternity and democracy and a praiseworthy absence of display of wealth, snob- bishness or family and class distinction. In Japanese educational institutions the mode of life is, in fact, almost Spartan in its economy and simplicity, and intellectual superiority is the only recognized pass- port to distinction or success. Would that this could be said for American universities ! CHAPTER Vr RELIGION IN JAPAN — SHINTOISM, BUDDHISM AND CONFUCIANISM The three fundamental religions of Japan are Shinto, Buddhism and Confucianism. The oldest of these religions is Shinto, the "Way of the Gods," or, more properly speaking, of the kami* It is a native cult and seems to have arisen in remote antiquity. In its earlier or more archaic form it consisted of the legends and myths of Old Japan and constituted a species of nature- and an- cestor-worship of families and clans or village com- munities somewhat similar to the early religions of Greece and Rome. After the introduction during the early centuries of the Christian era of Chinese literature and philosophy, the whole mass of legends, myths and superstitions was organized into a sys- tem for a political purpose — support of Imperial power. *The term kami was thus explained by Motoori, one of the great expositprs of Shinto, writing during the latter part of the eighteenth century : "The term kami is applied in the first place to the various deities of Heaven and Earth who are mentioned in the ancient records, as well as to their spirits which reside in the shrines where they are worshipped. Moreover, not only human beings, but birds, beasts, plants and trees, seas and mountains, and all other things whatso- 80 RELIGION IN JAPAN 8i By some eritics Shinto is hardly accounted a re- ligion at all in the true sense, since it is without creed, scripture, dogma or moral code. Native com- mentators have explained the absence of an ethical system* as being due to the innate perfection of Japanese humanity which needed not the ministra- tions of Chinese sages or Western missionaries. But the unethical character of Shintoism is in all proba- bility due to historical rather than to psychological ever which deserve to be dreaded and revered for the extra- ordinary and preeminent powers which they possess, are called kami. . . . Among kami who are human beings I need hardly mention first of all the successive Mikados — with reverence be it spoken. . . . Then there have been numerous examples of divine human beings both in ancient and modern times who, although not accepted by the nation generally, are treated as Gods, each as his several dignity, in a single province, village or family. . . . Amongst kami who are not human beings I need hardly mention Thunder. There are also the Dragon, the Echo, and the Fox, who are kami by reason of their uncanny and fearful natures. The term kami is applied in the Nihongi and Manyoshiu to the tiger and wolf. . . . There are many cases of seas and mountains, being called katni. It is not their spirits which are meant. The word was applied directly to the seas or mountains them- selves as being very awful things." Ashton's Shinto, pages 6-7. Cf. Knox, The Development of Religion in Japan, pages 28-29. "Kami is simply that which is above us, so that the word may even now be applied to the Government and to all su- perior objects which excite the feelings of awe and rever- ence." — Knox, op. cit., pages 29-30. ♦According to Professor Kume, one of the leading modern authorities on Shinto, the ethical teaching of Shinto may be summed up in one word — makato or Truth. "'Be true,' was the sum of Shinto morals. ... A Japanese of the masses. 82 MODERN JAPAN causes. However this may be, religion need have no moral basis other than custom, and the relation- ship between religion and ethics appears at all times and in all places to be very uncertain. Certainly in the universal sense of religion as characterizing the attitude of the human mind toward supposed supe- rior, mysterious or infinite powers, Shinto may be regarded as one of the most interesting and impor- tant, if undeveloped, religions of the Orient. The practical teaching of Shinto may perhaps be summed up in two single commands: "Fear the Gods and obey the Emperor," and "Be pure (or clean) in heart and body."* While its emphasis even in these days, has little fancy for the high-sounding names, 'humanity,' 'justice,' and so forth. . . . The precept of all precepts, the foundation of moral teachings, the ulti- mate end of Shinto purifications by wind and by water, can be implied in that one word — makato. . . ." He cites the fol- lowing poetic aphorism of a famous Japanese poet-patriot: "The kami blesseth. Not him who prayeth, But him whose heart strayeth Not from the way of makato." See Okuma's Fifty Years of Japan, volume II, page 37. ♦Professor Kume cites the following hymn as expressing the true meaning of Japanese purification : "Pure be heaven. Pure be earth. Pure be within, without. And the six roots ;" the six roots signifying the five sense organs and the heart, the organ of feeling. See Okuma, op. cit., page 27. RELIGION IN JAPAN 83 upon cleanliness is largely ceremonial in origin and character and the idea of purity implies no corre- spdnding conception of moral impurity or sin, these ideals have not been without profound influence upon Japanese habits, character and disposition. And the value of Shintoism in developing the senti- ments of loyalty and patriotism can scarcely be over- estimated. Chamberlain* distinguishes three periods in the evolution of Shinto. During the first period — down to about A. D. 550 — ^the Japanese seemingly had no notion of religion as a separate institution. They worshipped the living Mikado and paid homage to the gods; that is, to deceased members of the Im- perial family and to the names of other great men. They ofifered prayers to the god of fire, the wind- gods, the god of pestilence, the goddess of food and to deities presiding over the gate, the cauldron, the sauce-pan and the kitchen. They also had a system of purifications for wrong-doing or for bodily de- filement, the purifying element being water. They had no idea of a code of ethics and had made no effort to systematize the simple notions of the peo- ple regarding things unseen. "There was neither heaven nor hell, — only a kind of neutral-tinted Hades. . . . Shinto may be said, in this first phase, to have been a set of ceremonies as much political as religious." ^Things Japanese, page 419 ff., from which the above pass- age is condensed. 84 MODERN JAPAN The introduction of Buddhism in the middle of jthe sixth century of the present era inaugurated the isecond period of Shintoism, which lasted to about the close of the seventeenth century. The exalted moral code, gorgeous ritual and profound meta- physics of Buddhism proved too much for the puny fabric of Shintoism, and further growth of that faith in the direction of a formal religion was stopped. "All that there was of religious feeling in the nation went over to the enemy. Tlie Buddhist priesthood diplomatically received the native Shinto gods in their pantheon as avatars of ancient Bud- dhas." The third period in the history of Shintoism be- gan about 1700 and continues down to the present time. Under the peaceful rule of the Tokugawaj dynasty of Shoguns, "the literati of Japan turned their eyes backward on their country's past Old manuscripts were disinterred, old histories and poems were put in print, the old language was stud- ied and imitated. Soon the movement became re- ligious and political, not to say chauvinistic. The Shogunate was frowned on, because it had sup- planted the autocracy of the heaven-descended Mi- kados. Buddhism and Confucianism were sneered at because of their foreign origin. Shinto gained by all this. The great scholars Mabuchi (1697- 1769), Motoori (1730-1801), and Hirata (1776- 1843) devoted themselves to a religious propaganda. » . . . This order of ideals triumphed for a mo- RELIGION IN JAPAN 85 ment in the revolution of 1868. Buddhism was disestablished and disendowed and Shinto was in- stalled as the only State religion. ... At the same time thousands of temples, formerly Buddhist or RyoburShinto [mixed Buddhist and Shinto], were, as the phrase went, 'purified' ; that is, stripped of their Buddhist ornaments, and handed over to Shinto keeping. But as Shinto had no root in itself, — ^being a thing too empty and jejune to influence the hearts of men, — Buddhism soon ral- lied. . . . The whole thing is now a mere shadow, though Shinto is still in so far the official cult that certain temples are maintained out of public mon- eys, and that the attendance of certain officials is required from time to time at ceremonies of a semi- religious, semi-courtly nature." Nevertheless Shinto is still a living religion in Japan. It is the religion of the reigning dynasty and the Court, and the majority of Japanese are still probably SHnto-Buddhist at heart. The god- shelf is still found in most Japanese homes. In one sense all patriotic Japanese, including professing Christians, are Shintoist, for they practically all join in certain Shinto ceremonies on occasion, and all pay homage to the Emperor. Most of them con- tinue to perform acts of devotion to their ances- tors. If they did not such neglect would be oifensive to the whole family. In 1912 Japan still contained 127,076 Shinto shrines with 14,352 priests or ministers divided be- 86 MODERN JAPAN tween thirteen officially recognized sects.* The great national shrine at Ise has acquired renewed prestige since the Russo-Japanese War in consequence of visits by the late Emperor and other distinguished men. There have also been attempts to breathe new life into Shi'ntbism on the part of several Japanese scholars, Dr. Inoye Tetsujiro, for example. A con- siderable measure of success has attended the estab- lishment of two new quasi-Shinto sects by two peas- ant women, though their practices are said to savor greatly of superstition and licentiousness. In gen- eral, Shinto priests do not enjoy a particularly good reputation for learning or ability. There are no regular rules for ordination, and only a relative few are well qualified for their work. There are still in Japan many forms of animism, fetichisraj divination and various other kinds of magic fostered and shel- tered by Shinto as well as Buddhist priests. "Yet Shinto," says Knox, "is more than a code of ceremonies, for in a true sense it embodies the religion of the people. Its stories of the gods are little more than fairy tales; the laborious works of the great scholars who attempted to main- tain its inerrant truthfulness, their exegesis, apolo- getics, and reconciliations, merely encumber the shelves of antiquarian scholars; but, none the less, perhaps all the more, Shinto holds a large place in the people's hearts. . . . The legends, cosmol- ogy, and pseudo-history are not the rehgion, and its power is not in dogmas nor in forms of worship; ' *Japan Year Book (1915), pages 221-222. RELIGION IN JAPAN 87 it is a spirit, the spirit of Old Japan, Yamato da- mashii. "The essential fact in Shinto is the religious pa- triotism of the people. To them Japan is a divine land, and their devotion expresses itself in loyalty to the Emperor. With this loyalty combines a faith in the continued existence of the heroes of the past, and their inspiration of the nation in its toils and aspirations. The Emperor is not a god, in our mod- ern sense, nor is the land an abode of supernatural beings, but, true to the ancient meaning, 'divine' signifies superior, worshipful, that to which one bows in adoration and gives himself in consecrated service. The belief in the (continued power and in- spiration of the spirits of the past, though taken over from the Chinese, has become essential, yet rests on no argument and is embodied in no dogma. It has no clear vision of a heaven or hell, or of any state of rewards and punishments. In emotionad content it can scarcely be distinguished from our Western reverence for the saintly and heroic dead, while its influence on the living is akin to the pa- triotic feelings excited by our recognition of a pre- cious inheritance in the patriots of ages past. Thus Shinto is witness to an abiding reality. Though its forms perish, its substance remains beyond the reach of hostile criticism and argument. If its doctrine be vague, and its emotions with difficulty described, this is because it belongs to those powerful feelings which are only partly differentiated, and in this it remains a true representative of primitive religion, of the simple feelings which persist, their interpreta- tion being restated with man's progress in knowl- edge. Shinto will survive — ^not in its dates, nor its genealogies, not in its theory of the descent of its sov- 88 MODERN JAPAN ereign from Ame-terasu-no-Mikoto, nor in its le- gends and cosmology, but in the affections of the people, their trust in the national powers and des" tiny, and their confidence that there is a something more than their present strength and wisdom which directs and aids and on which they may rely. The 'something more' may receive new names, but the faith will abide while Japan works out a future greater and more glorious than the fabled Age of the Gods."* II As stated above. Buddhism, or the "Way of the Buddhas," was introduced into Japan by way of Korea during the middle of the sixth century A. D., when it effected that wonderful transformation of Japanese art and civilization which may be compared with the recent revolution wrought by the introduc- tion of Western scientific knowledge and machinery during the Meiji era of enlightenment. The Buddhism which entered Japan was that of the Greater Vehicle from northern India and China as distinguished from the Lesser Vehicle of Ceylon and Southern India. In its long historical development of over a thou- sand years in India and China, Buddhism had under- gone a tremendous transformation, having gathered unto itself many new doctrines and strange deities. ♦Knox, Religion i» Japan, pages 77-79- RELIGION IN JAPAN 89 It had, in fact, expanded into a system which was, in many respects, diametrically opposed to the teach- ings of Gautama, the founder of Buddhism. According to Rhys-Davids, one of the greatest authorities on Buddhism, the essential doctrines of Buddhism are : ( i ) the impermanence of all things human or divine; (2) that sorrow or pain is the result of the great delusion of individuality, sepa- rateness, or self; or, in other words, all evil is due to the erroneous illusion expressed in the sayings, "This is I," "This is mine" ; (3) the doctrine of the karma, or the fate which makes us temporary links in a long chain of cause and effect, thus binding us for countless ages to an endless series of past and future existences. From this apparently endless chain of existence (itself assumed to be an evil) in various and mani- fold forms, Gautama provided a means of escape or salvation in the present life through which peace or perfect rest {Nirvana) might be attained. This was by following the Middle Way of the Noble Eightfold Path, consisting of Right Views (free from superstition or delusion). Right Aspiration (high and worthy of the intelligent, worthy man). Right Speech (kindly, open, truthful). Right Con- duct (peaceful, honest, pure). Right Livelihood (bringing hurt or danger to no living thing). Right Effort (in self-training and in self-control), Right Mindedness (the active, watchful mind), and Right Rapture (in deep meditation of the realities of life). 90 MODERN JAPAN In the Greater Vehicle this relatively simple body of teaching is obscured, perverted or overlaid with no end of superstitions and metaphysical concep- tions. "Buddha is no longer the historical Gautama, nor is the truth identical with his system. As sim- ultaneously he was visible to men and Gods in a human body under the Bo tree, and was present in eternal, unchangeable, spiritual communion with the Absolute, so Buddha is at once the historical per- sonages who have taught successively the truth to men, and the Absolute itself The histor- ical Gautama occupies a subordinate place since a way is opened for belief in many Buddhas, and sal- vation in Nirvana is replaced by the desire for the attainment of Buddhahood and absorption in the Absolute."* "The two Vehicles indeed have many points of difference," says Knox. "The 'Little' has to do with only one Buddha, the historic Gautama, While the Greater Vehicle obscures his importance in a multi- tude of mythical Buddhas past and present and to come; the Little Vehicle sets forth Nirvana as the object of attainment, the Greater strives after Bud- dhahood, and teaches that each disciple may become like the Master and aid in the salvation of others; the Little Vehicle refuses to speak of the ultimate questions, and is a religion without a God or a soul, the Greater is metaphysical through and through, and sets up again these ontological entities. But I ♦Knox, The Development of Religion in Japan, page 97. RELIGION IN JAPAN 91 the chief difference, that in which all the rest con- verge, is in the doctrine of the Absolute. Gautama is represented as dissuading his disciples from seek- ing it, while in the Greater Vehicle its understand- ing is the end of endeavor, and believers are ever mindful of its presence behind the phenomenal world."* The following is an old Buddhistic hymn descrip- tive of the bliss of one who has attained the state of Nirvana or Right Rapture : "Blessed are we who hate not those who hate us ; Who among men full of hate, continue void of hate. Blessed are we who dwell in health among the ail- ing; Who among men weary and sick, continue well. Blessed are we who dwell free from care among the care-worn. Who among men full of worries continue calm. Blessed indeed are we who have no hindrances. Who shall become feeders on joy, like the Gods in their shrine of splendour."t The new religion made rapid progress soon after its introduction into Japan. It brought with it the arts, handicrafts and vastly superior civilization of China. It built magnificent temples, introduced medicine, created dramatic poetry, imported an army of artists and skilled workmen of all sorts, and so *Knox, op. cit., pages 101-2. ■fCf. Nitobe, The Japanese Nation, page 148, and Rhys- Davids, Buddhism, page 171. 92 MODERN JAPAl/ lifted the hitherto crude and semi-barbarous Jap- anese to a much higher stage of culture than they had ever dreamed of. By the year 621 many tem- ples had already been built through the work of missionaries encouraged by the regent Shotuku. In 710 was founded the great monastery at Nara. In 754 the reigning Mikado and the Court were con- verted. But there still remained the conversion of the great masses of the common people who clung to their native Shinto cult. This was accomplished by the priestly craft of the brilliant and learned monk Kobo Daishi, who also invented the Japanese kcma or phonetic syllabary of forty-seven letters. Kobo obtained from the great goddess at Ise a revelation to the effect that all Shinto deities or kami are in- carnations of Buddha. There was thus introduced into Japan early in the ninth century that form of Shinto or Mixed Buddhism known as Riyohu, which may be said to be the popular religion of Japan down to the present day. Except in a few places Shinto, as a religion, almost disappeared, and for almost a thousand years was little more than a mere m3rthol- ogy or "the shadow of a mythology."* Yet its soul or spirit survived, and it is difficult to say whether in the fusion process Buddhism was Shintoized or Shinto Buddhaized. The average Japanese appears to have given this matter no consideration, for he *GrifHs, The Religion of Japan, page 21 1. RELIGION IN JAPAN 93 continues to lead a double religious life without thought or fear of consequences. However, there have been in Japan a number of revivals of Buddhism which have resulted in the for- mation of new schools or sects. As a result of the first of these movements, early in the ninth century, there were founded two great sects — ^the powerful Shingon Shu or Sect of the True Word, and the famous Tendai Sect. Though of Chinese origin, each represented a hospitable form of Japanized Buddhism, both accepting the Shinto deities as in- carnations of Buddha. The Shingon Sect, which is still one of the most popular, was introduced by Kobo Daishi in 806. "His system shows Buddha is the center of a world of ideas which exists behind and within the unreal world of appearances. The center of the world of ideas is Dai Ni'chi, identified by the common people with the sun, and around him are the four Buddhas of contemplation representing the highest abstrac- tions, and around these group aftef group signifi- cant of genera and species, until the individual is reached. This is the 'diamond' world, unchanging and real, while the phenomenal world is also grouped around Dai Nichi, who is represented not now as the sun surrounded by four planets, but as the center of the lotus with eight Buddhas about him as petals. Thus he, or better IT, is the center of all things, real and phenomenal, and correspondingly there are two ways of salvation, by meditation and knowl- 94 MODERN JAPAN edge, an^ by a righteous life. The end of the 'Wa/ is reached when perfect knowledge is attained and the individual is absorbed in the Infinite. In popu- lar language we become Buddha. Thus was the his- toric Buddha himself absorbed, and as his individ- uality disappeared so has his distinctive teaching and glory, for he remains in the system only as one of the four Buddhas of contemplation, a symbol of the highest abstraction, one of the last ideas which remain before all is swallowed up in the Absolute."* The Tendai Sect, parent of many sects, intro- duced by Dengyo in 805, is eclectic and highly meta- physical and combines various ways of salvation. It is no longer very numerous, continuing to live in its branches rather than in the parent stock. Its teachers have been called the Jesuits of Buddhism. The Zen Sect, introduced in the twelfth century, the members of which have been referred to as the Quakers of Japanese Buddhism, is also highly meta- physical and contemplative. It seeks salvation main- ly through meditation and suggestion. Its chief tenet reminds one strongly of one of the fundamen- tal sayings of Christ: "Look carefully within and there you will find the Buddha." Though not nu- merous, the Zen priests and philosophers have exer- cised a great influence on Japanese thought and prac- tical life, more particularly on the military class or Samurai, who practised Bushido. *Knox, op. cit., page 99. RELIGION IN JAPAN 95 The great period of religious reformation in Ja- pan was the twelfth century. In 11 75 Honen founded the important Jodo or Pure Land Sect. In the midst of the mazes of Buddhistic sutras* and their eighty-four thousand doctrines, Honen discov- ered a new and simple path leading to the Western Paradise so ardently desired by many northern Buddhists to whom the Nirvana did not greatly ap- peal. According to the new teaching, metaphysical speculation and doctrinal controversy are unneces- sary for salvation, which is obtained through the merits of Amida Buddha. There was thus intro- duced a Buddhistic doctrine of justification by faith somewhat analogous to that emphasized by Luther in Christian Europe. There also appeared in the twelfth century per- haps the greatest of the Japanese religious reform- ers, Shinran, who founded the Shin Shu or True Sect of the Pure Land. This Japanese Luther was a radical who taught an extreme form of Buddhistic Protestantism both in theory and practice. He not only emphasized the doctrine of justification by faith through belief in Amida alone, but his follow- ers, who have been called the Methodists of Bud- dhism, believe in sudden conversion and sanctifica- *Near the large Japanese temples there may be found a large wooden bookcase which contains the 6,771 books of the Buddhistic canon. In lieu of reading these volumes, one may acquire merit by turning this case which revolves on a pivot — a device still simpler than Honen's discovery. 96 MODERN JAPAN tion. They do not believe in fasts, pilgrimages, ' channs or other forms of religious magic so freely practised by most Buddhists. Like Luther, Shinran himself set the example of marriage for the clergy. Shin Shu is to-day the largest, most influential and active sect of Japanese Buddhism.* In the thirteenth century was founded the Nichi- ren Sect by way of protest or reaction against the Shin and Jodo Sects. Nichiren was an ultra-pa- triotic and democratic saint who incorporated all pos- sible Buddhistic superstitions and idolatries into his system. In contrast to the Pure Land Sects, he em- phasized the importance of salvation by works, and his followers are for the most part very narrow and sectarian, refusing to intermarry with members of other sects and regarding themselves as the only true Buddhists. They are very noisy, superstitious and much given to pilgrimages. They have been called the Salvation Army or Ranters of Buddhism. Within recent years there has developed a recru- descence of Buddhistic thought and activity, partic- ularly among those of the Shin Sect. Opinions dif- fer as to the value of this movement known as the New Buddhism, which seems to have been inspired by modern science and Christian activities. Dr. Sawayanaga, for example, thinks that, though *In 1912 it had 19,620 temples and 15,781 priests as com- pared with 14,22s temples and 10,452 priests of the Soto or sub- Jodo Sect. See tables on page 225 of Japan Year Book for 191S. RELIGION IN JAPAN 97 founded on the idea of progress, it has failed to make much progress along social lines. The young men, even if educated at the universities, are not equal to the old priests. Buddhism has been crowded out by the higher education. This is perhaps the opinion of a conservative. Dr. Takakusa is more optimistic. He considers the new religion ethical, practical and philosophical as compared with the formalism, superstition, idle speculation and theo- logical dogmatism of the orthodox Buddhism. Dr. Murakana complains that the new Buddhists have no message for the old, ignorant and the weary- laden.* Dr. Kato is pessimistic. His finding is that Buddhism is in a pitiable condition and that within recent years it has gone from bad to worse. The fault is not, he says, with Buddhism, which as a religion is superior to Christianity, but with its priests, who are greatly inferior to Christian pas- tors. Dr. Inoue represents the new sect as a pow- erful body doing good work; and, like the new Christianity, is engaged in preaching ethics, charity and various kinds of social reform. On the whole, it may be said that Japanese Bud- dhism, though considerably weakened by its contact with modern science and Christianity, is by no means moribund or hopelessly debased, as seems to be the case in China. In its purer or mixed forms, it is ♦These opinions are gathered from the Religious Sum- maries in the Japan Mail (weekly) for igio-12. 98 MODERN JAPAN still the predominant religion of the middle and lower classes, and the Shin Sect in particular is show- ing si^s of increasing regeneration and activity. For some years Buddhist priests have taken an ac- tive interest in education and social reforms, more especially in charity and prison reform. Vast sums have been collected for temple building, though it might be supposed that the publicity given to the Hangwanji temple scandal of 1914* would tend to discourage such contributions. There have also been recent attempts to revive Buddhistic propaganda in Thibet, Central Asia and China.t Buddhistic services are conducted in the army, at factories and among the poor; while associations in imitation of such organizations as the Y. M. C. A. are being organized. Buddhists have also esiah- lished Sunday-schools, temperance and reform so- cieties, orphan asylums, deaf and dumb schools, hos- pitals, prisoners'-aid-soci'eties and free lodging houses. They have also founded mission schools, even for women and young girls; they are educat- ing many of their young priests in Western science *For the main facts of this disgraceful scandal, see Japan Year Book for 1915, page 223. fin its weekly issue dated July 17, 191S, the Japan Mail reports that some thirty representatives of the various Bud- dhistic sects of Japan were shortly to visit China under the auspices of the Buddhist Club for the purpose of promoting a complete understanding between the Buddhists of the two countries. The Japanese demands on China in May, 191S1 included a provision for Buddhistic propaganda. RELIGION IN JAPAN 99 and philosophy and at the universities; they are puWishing and distributing many pamphlets and magazines, not to mention translations of their own sacred writings. We have been told that they have even appropriated the Sermon on the Mount and other Christian writings, as well as imitated such forms of Christian activities as sermons, revivals and so forth. We may yet see a form of Christian- ized Buddhism or Buddhaized Christianity.* Ill Confucianismf appears to have entered Japan through Korea at about the end of the fourth cen- tury, A. D., though it does not seem to have exerted *For many of these facts, we are indebted to Rev. A. K. Reischauer, a profound student of Japanese Buddhism, fConfucianism is usually referred to as an ethical system rather than a religion. This is true in one sense, yet it is also true that this ethical system has some of the character- istics of religion. In most religions (including many forms of Christianity) worship plays the leading role, and ethics is relegated to a more or less subordinate place. In Confucianism this relation is reversed. Confucius and his followers were indifferent to worship, but recognized the existence of dieties and demons who were to be reverenced, though kept at a distance. But Confucius accepted and encouraged the wor- ship of ancestors. The religious character of Confucianism is, however, especially shown by its attitude toward Heaven which plays the role of a Providence like the Christian God, the German Emperor or the Japanese Mikado. See Knox, op. cit, lecture 6, lOo MODERN JAPAN a great influence prior to the seventh century, when a Central University was established at Kyoto, to- gether with schools in the provinces where Chinese text-books were used. During the seventh, eighth and ninth centuries there were direct and continuous communications with China, and numerous schol' ars wrote Chinese verse and prose or lectured on the Confucian classics ; but, owing to the subsequent cessation of official relations, Chinese learning and jcivilization in Japan suffered a decline during and after the tenth century. However, these blessings were revived during the thirteenth century through the introduction, by priests of the Zen Sect and others, of the so-called Sung school* of Confucian learning which arose in *"This branch of Confucianism is a system of thought founded by the Ch'ing brothers and Chutsze and other scholars of the Sung dynasty. It is elaborated on the dual- istic basis of n and ki (the former indicating the naturally existent idealistic principle and the latter the materialistic principle). In this respect its scope of study is far removed from that of the original Confucianism. . . . During the Sui and Tang dynasties, Buddhism predominated throughout the Chinese Empire, and eventually almost stifled Confucianism. r . . Among a great many Confucianists of the Sung dynasty, Chutsze (1130-1200), above all, grasped the spirit of Bud- dhism, and using it as a framework, clothed it with the flesh and blood of Confucianism, and thus evolved the theory of the dualism of n and ki above referred to. It was largely due to his strenuous efforts that vitality was restored once again to decadent Confucianism. . . . This Sung school of learning, introduced into Japan . . . brought vitality to the Confucian- ism of the day, and qualified it to be taken for a standard of RELIGION IN JAPAN loi China during the twelfth century and exerted a pow- erful influence upon subsequent Chinese and Japanese cultural development. It was particularly that form of revived Chinese Confucianism known as the Shushi philosophy which attracted lyeyasu, the fotmder of the Tokugawa Shogunate during the early part of the seventeenth century, who made it the authorized system of education.* lyeyasu's attraction for the Shushi philosophy seems to have been due to its emphasis upon the virtue of obedience. Yet he was himself a good deal of a philosopher, as shown by the following oft- quoted passage from his pithy sayings: "Life is like unto a long journey with a heavy burden. Let thy step be slow and steady, that thou stumble not. Persuade thyself that imperfection and inconvenience is the nature of mortals, and there will be no room for discontent, neither for despair. When ambitious desires arise in the heart recall the days of extremity thou last passed through. For- bearance is the root of quietness and assurance for- ever. Look upon wrath as thy enemy. If thou moral conduct." — Prof. Inouye, in Okuma's Pifty Years of Japan, volume II, pages 46-47. *"The system he [lyeyasu] encouraged was established by Shushi (Choo He), a Chinese, who was born in 1130 and died in 1200. Shushi was also a statesman, an historian, and a philosopher. He succeeded in organizing a system of thought which claimed to be Confucian, but was in reality a new system based on the teachings of the Confucian classics and influenced by Buddhism and Taoism." Armstrong, Light from the East, page 35- 102 MODERN JAPAN knowest only what it is to conquer, and knowest not what it is to be defeated, woe unto thee; it will fare ill with thee. Find fault with thyself rather than with others." It was during the period of the Tokugawa Sho- gunate (i 603-1867) that Confucianism reached its highest point of development and exercised its most powerful influence in Japan. The principles of the various schools of the Sung learnir^' as taught by a long line of able scholars and educators, were generally accepted by the upper classes of Japanese society. Confucian education formed the character of the ruling and warrior classes of this period, the Biishido practised by the Samurai being essentially a modified form of Confucianism; and, though this ethical and religious system has suffered a great de- cline during the Meiji period of Enlightenment, the majority of the creators of New Japan were Con- fucianists. Consequently the soul or spirit of Con- fucianism still largely permeates the educational system of Japan, influences the outlook of the Japa- nese mind and controls the habits of the people, more especially within the domain of domestic or family life. IV Bushido, meaning literally Military-Knight-Ways, is a form of Oriental stoicism. It has been defined as "a code of morals which enjoins loyalty, cour- age, self-control, honor, moderation, a sense of jus- RELIGION IN JAPAN 103 tice and shame, politeness, sincerity and benevo- lence." Like European chivalry, it was a product of feudalism, but it lacked the individualistic ten- dencies and chivalrous attitude toward women of its Western counterpart. Its central principles were a sense of honor and loyalty to superiors. Though Bushido was formerly the particular possession of the Samurai class, it has, doubtless in a form greatly attenuated, become the property of the whole nation. It still exerts a powerful influence, especially in the form of loyalty to the reigning dynasty. In the process of acclimatization into Japan, Chi- nese Confucianism, like all things foreign, underwent considerable modification, yet retained its essential characteristics. The fundamental social teaching of Confucius and his followers is that of the five relationships and the resulting five essential virtues. These virtues are humanity or benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and sincerity. The five relationships are the relation between ruler and ruled, involving loy- alty; that of parent and child, enjoining fihal piety; that of husband and wife implying a reciprocal ob' servance of the duties of benevolence and obedience; that between the elder and younger brother, and the relation between friends, necessitating mutual fidelity. In the Chinese system the paramount relation is that between parent and child, involving the prac- tice of humanity or benevolence and filial piety. I04 MODERN JAPAN "The great precept of humanity is 'Subdue thyself and return to propriety.' It is to behave abroad as if receiving a guest, to employ the people as if as- sisting at a great sacrifice, not to do to others as you would not have them do to you, and to have no mur- muring against you in the country or in the family. Thus loyalty is the chief expression of humanity, though it may be practised towards inferiors and friends and generally in the service of others. It includes dignity, reverence, indulgence, sincerity, earnestness and kindness. The superior man never forsakes it, but obtains his name by it, and in all emergencies cleaves to it. But no inferior man pos- sesses it."* In Japan, on the other hand, the loyalty which was emphasized was that of obedience to superiors. Filial piety or obedience to and reverence for par- ents is also emphasized, but is subordinated in the Samurai code of Bushido to loyalty to feudal supe- riors. Confucius exalted courage, but it was moral courage rather than the martial valor of the war- rior. In Japan moral bravery was transmuted into the military virtues desirable in a race of warriors. Confucianism has practically lost its hold even upon the intellectual classes of Japan, though its humanitarian and ethical principles are deeply Implanted in their minds and characters. Some of its spirit and much of its teaching may even be said *Knox, Religion in Japan, page 145. RELIGION IN JAPAN 105 to have formed a part of Japanese education both in the home and in the school and thus to have per- meated the nation at large. Within recent years there has also been a more or less conscious revival of Confucianism through the establishment of Con- fucian societies, but they have not excited much interest. Many of the intellectuals of Japan still profess Confucianism in a somewhat lukewarm fashion. CHAPTER VII RELIGION IN JAPAN CHRISTIANITY I Christianity was introduced into Japan in the middle of the sixteenth century* by Jesuits working under Portuguese auspices. Though progress was somewhat slow at the outset, the seed sown did not fall on stony ground. Fertilized by commercial motives, it soon brought forth a good harvest, espe- cially among the daimios and their retainers of Kiu- shiu. Within a generation, the Jesuits could boast of one hundred and fifty thousand converts, perhaps *The famous Spanish missionary to the Indies, Francis Xavier, landed at Kagoshimo in August, 1549. He was not very successful in this new field, having made less than one thousand converts, mainly in the southern island of Kiushiu, during his stay of twenty-six months in the country. , His journey to Kyoto was wholly fruitless from a religious point of view. He soon discovered that one of the main impedi- ments to the adoption of Christianity by the educated Japa- nese was that the "Chinese had evidently heard nothing about a personal Creator." He therefore determined upon his futile mission to China under the impression that "if the Chinese adopt the Christian religion the Japanese also will abandon the religions they have introduced from China." He died near Canton on December 2, 1552. The citations are from Murdock's History of Japan, volume H, page 64. 106 CHRISTIANITY 107 one per cent, of the population. The eagerness of the local princelets for the Portuguese trade vastly aided the work of the Jesuit missionaries, who pro- ceeded to convert the rulers and then persuaded them "to proscribe all non-Christian cults within their domains. In some cases only a day's notice was granted for those who would not adopt the foreign religion to quit their ancestral homes, the images of Buddha were hacked to pieces and the native temples given over to the flames."* At the time of his assassination in 1582 the cele- brated Nobunaga, the leading feudal chieftain of Japan, still treated the Jesuits with marked favor. Nobunaga's successor, Hideyoshi (a great ruler who made himself master of Japan before his death in 1598, effected the temporary subjugation of Korea, and even aspired to the conquest of China), also favored the missionaries during the first five years of his reign. But having had his attention called to the fact that the Jesuits were devoting most of their time to the conversion of men of noble birth, he became suspicious, and began to fear that the "propagation of the faith wetdd be prejudicial to the safety of the Empire."^ I. • ♦Chamberlain, Things Japanese, page 323. For details, see Murdoch, op. cit., chapter 3. fThis is also the main key to the subsequent persecution of the Christians by lyeyasu and his successors. The citation in italics is from the missionary Froez's famous Narrative of the Death of the Twenty-six Crucified, written in 1597, the year of this tragic event. io8 MODERN JAPAN Hideyoshi's first "bolt from the blue" came in ^S^T' when he suddenly issued an edict ordering all foreign priests to leave Japan within twenty days. But the order was not fully executed, and Hideyoshi withheld his hand until 1597, when he ordered the arrest and crucifixion of six Franciscans, three Jap- anese Jesuits and seventeen Japanese Christians (mostly domestics of the Franciscans), who were conducting a religious propaganda in defiance of his orders and their express pledges. It is said that this outburst of fury cm the part of Hideyoshi was due to an incident which i's worth relating because of the light it throws upon the sit- uation. Toward the end of 1596 a richly-laden Spanish galleon called the San Felipe had been stranded on the Japanese coast and her valuable cargo confiscated in accordance with Japanese law. In his desire to impress the local authorities, the pilot of the vessel — to quote the ecclesiastical his- torian Charlevoix, "inflicted a wound on religion which is still bleeding." He produced a map of the world and pointed out the vast extent of the Spanish dominions. On being asked how it was that so many countries had been brought under the rule of one man, he replied : "Our Kings began by sending into the countries they wanted to conquer priests who induced the peo- ple to embrace our religion; and when they have made considerable progress troops are sent who combine with the new Christians, and then our CHRISTIANITY 109 Kings have not much trouble in accomplishing the rest."* Like his great predecessor Hideyoshi, lyeyasu, founder of the Tokugawa Shognnate, being eager for foreign trade, tolerated the foreign priests dur- ing the early years of his rule. But, whether wear- ied at last by the unseemly squabbles between the Jesuits and Franciscans, who omitted no opportu- nity to calumniate each other, or whether convinced that the Christians were conspiring against the Gov- ernment, lyeyasu instituted a change of policy and early in 1614 ordered the suppression of Christianity and the deportation of all foreign priests. It should, however, be noted that during lyeyasu's lifetime, not a single European missionary was exe- cuted. The first executions of foreign priests oc- curred in 161 7, i. e., a year after lyeyasu's death, lyeyasu was well informed regarding contemporary events in Europe. This we know from his conver- sations with Will Adams, an English pilot in the Dutch service who was in high favor with the Sho- gun during the first quarter of the seventeenth cen- tury, lyeyasu is even said to have sent an emissary ♦Murdoch, volume II, pages 287-88. Chamberlain, who also relates this incident in briefer form justly observes (Things Japanese, page 325 n.) : "History repeats itself; for \ the conduct of Europe towards China in our own day ex- hibits precisely the same medley of genuine piety on the part of the missionaries, and shameless aggression on the part of the countries which send them out." no MODERN JAPAN to Europe to study the customs and institutions of Christians at home. In view of the conditions in Europe at this time, it can hardly be a matter of surprise that his report was highly unfavorable. The edict of 1614 marks the beginning of a war to the death between Christianity and the Japanese Government, a struggle which resulted in the prac- tical extinction of Christianity after the Christian Shinabara Revolt of 1637-38 and the exclusion of the Portuguese,* who were suspected of having fo- mented the revolt. Duri'ng this period there was placed upon the public notice-boards of Japanese roadsides and villages the following inscription: "So long as the Sun shall warm the earth let no Christian be so bold as to come to Japan, and let all know that the King of Spain himself, or the Christian's God, or the great God of all, if he vio- lates this command shall pay for it with his head." II The policy of suppression was officially main- tained until 1873, when the prohibition of Christian worship and teaching was revoked, though the prac- *The Spaniards were excluded in 1624. Three years earlier all Japanese had been forbidden to leave the country. Nearly three hundred thousand Christians were massacred, suffered martyrdom, or were forced to recant; and at the close of this rebellion the ports and coasts of Japan were sealed to all foreigners except to the Chinese and a few Dutch traders who were permitted to reside and trade in semi-captivity on the island of Deshima near Kagasaki. CHRISTIANITY in tice of strict exclusion in matters of trade had been abandoned twenty years earlier (1853-4), when Commodore Perry's squadron had begun to pry open the doors of Japan. The first Protestant missions were established in 1859 under American auspices and the first modern Catholic mission in 1864. Progress was naturally slow at first, and by 1872 no more than ten converts had been baptized, but the number of converts in- creased rapidly during the decade from 1878 to 1888. Then set in a period of reaction, due largely to the failure of treaty revision, which considerably retarded the growth of Christianity in Japan. Since then so-called Christian activities have considerably broadened and deepened in scope and intensity, but the residts measured by the number of churches and converts can hardly be a source of unmitigated sat- isfaction to zealous workers and their supporters.* *The statistics of Christian Churches in Japan for 1913 published in the Japan Year Book for 191s (page 228) give a total of 1,356 churches, 2,255 Japanese and foreign pastors, and 164,054 believers as compared with 1,731 churches, 2,198 native ministers and foreign missionaries (including, in this case, their wives), and 192,573 members in 1909. (See Japan Year Book for 1913, page 93.) During this same period the number of Roman Catholic churches had apparently de- creased from 232 to 189 and of Russo-Greek from 265 to 131. Of the 164,054 communicants in 1913, 65,615 are registered as Roman Catholic, 14,206 as Russo-Greek, 21,018 as Nippon Kristo, 13,356 as Japan Methodist, etc. There were 1,506 Japanese pastors as compared with 749 foreign missionaries. There seems also to have been a deterioration in the qual- ity of the native (Japanese) ministry. Galen M. Fisher, ill 2 MODERN JAPAN The causes of the retardation or comparative fail- ure of the Christian movement in Japan are many and various. They are probably to be found pri- marily in the characteristics and institutions of the Japanese people rather than in any lack of devotion or wrong method of propaganda on the part of the missionaries. In the first place, the present-day Japanese are extremely patriotic — not to say chauvinistic. The "Soul of Japan," the Yamato Damashi, still beats strongly in the Japanese breast. Rooted in ancestor- and Mikado-worship and wedded to old or hallowed customs, this old Japan spirit is instinctively hostile to things foreign, more particularly to those of a religious nature. And many of the emphatic issues of Western morality have hitherto been considered of secondary importance in the old code of Japan. During the early Westernizing period, which lasted, roughly speaking, from 1870 to 1885, Chris- tianity shared in the enthusiasm for things Occi- dental, which pervaded many Japanese circles. Cer- Secretary of the Y. M. C. A. in Japan, sounds the following warning: "A generation ago the Christian ministry was the leader in all departments of progressive thought and activity, but to-day it is but a camp follower. . . . The rising roar of materialistic development and the loud voice of irreligious and anti-Christian thought are threatening to drown out the voice of the Christian pulpit." The Christian Movement in Japan for 1913, page 30. Cf. D. B. Schneder on "Christian Education in Japan" in the Christian Movement for 1912, pages 66-67. CHRISTIANITY 113 tain leading publicists and educationalists — among them the famous Fukuzawa — even advocated the profession of Christianity as a means of winning the good-will of foreigners. "Granted," said these counselors, "that the Christian dogmas are a bitter pill to swallow, let the pill be swallowed without chewing, for the sake of its after effects."* Ill Religious freedom is guaranteed by the Consti- tution, &.nd the Japanese Government has always wisely insisted that the public schools be free from all sectarian intrusion. It has, to a certain extent, even discouraged the teaching of religion in private schools. On the whole it must be said that the atti- tude of the Japanese bureaucracy (including that of *Cited from Walter Dening, Japanese Modern Literature, page 171, in the Transaction of the Asiatic Society of Japan, volume XLI, part I (1913). Mr. Dening adds: "In giving this advice, Mr. Fukuzawa was careful to let it be known that he himself took no interest in religion whatever. . . . Religion is very much like a garment (to a typical Japanese like Mr. Fukuzawa) to be put on or taken off as expediency dictates." Mr. Dening also cites Dr. Kato, one of Japan's leading philosophers during the Meiji period, as saying: "If asked what are my own views on religion, I reply that I dislike all religions equally and resort to philosophy. Relig- ion is not needed for educated people. But the majority of people are not educated. It is for these that religion is designed." This was said in the course of an argument in favor of the teaching of religion in government schools. 114 MODERN JAPAN the Department of Education) is decidedly edd to- ward all religion, and more particularly toward Christianity. This is no mean obstacle to religious propaganda in a country where the people are greatly influenced by the views and temper of the oflRcial class. One reason for this attitude is the undoubted suspicion that loyalty to the throne may be undermined and nationalism endangered by Christian teaching. Another reason for the relative failure of the Christian propaganda has been found in the utili- tarian character of the Japanese mind. We fre- quently hear it said by Japanese themselves that their fellow-countrymen are wanting in «ithusiasm for truth for its own sake. Whether this is a ra- cial characteristic or a mere stage in their historical development it is impossible to say, but it seems to be a pure assumption to claim that the possession of such a quality would favor the spread of "Chris- tian truth." One unquestionable source of confusion to the Japanese seeker after religious "truth" has been the many conflicting voices calling to him from the West. Not only are there more or less conflict- ing doctrines of the various sects, but the intelligent and diligent inquirer must soon have discovered that the Western nations were not really Chris- tian in theory or practice. It was not merely that the merchants, sailors and tourists with whom he came in contact failed in the practice of the Chris- CHRISTIANITY 115 ticin virtues, but an impartial study of the history of the so-called Christian civilization of the West must have convinced him that, in marked contrast to the printed Gospel, its historical pages were steeped in corruption and bloodshed. Not merely this, but obviously leaders of Western thought had long since begun to doubt the truth of much that was taught and printed concerning their religious teachings. There were the eighteenth cen- tury deists like Voltaire, Rousseau and Montes- quieu; the English utilitarians like Hume, Mill and Bentham ; the evolutionists like Darwin, Spencer and Huxley; and finally the higher critics like Strauss, Bauer and Renen. Then there were the materialistic tendencies of the age which turned the energies and interests of men into commercial and industrial channels. There were also the problems of politics and diplomacy which had a superior attraction for the youth of Japan. Some of the leaders of Japanese thought rallied to the defense of old Japanese ideals and teachings. Dr. Inoue, for example, in the interest of national- ism and conservatism, made several severe attacks on Christianity; Sewayanagi defended the practice of loyalty and filial piety as the true basis of Japa- nese morality; Dr. Kato applied the doctrine of evolution to Confucian ethics ; and Professor 'Ane- zaki began to present a new interpretation of Bud- dhism in suj^sed harmony with the teachings of ii6 MODERN JAPAN modem science and philosophy. Says Dr. Gulick,* a leading Christian missionary : "The Christianization of Japan is an enterprise the magnitude of which probably no one adequately appreciates. It involves not only the presentation of the Gospel to the forty or fifty millions who have not as yet heard it, — that were a relatively easy thing to do, — it involves in addition the thorough- going discussion of the respective postulates of Buddhist, Confucian, Shinto and Christian faiths. Convincing evidence must be offered of the supe- riority of Christianity in providing rational founda- tion for moral and spiritual life. As yet it can not be said that the great debate between Christianity and the other faiths in regard to fundamentals has more than begun. The thoughtful men of the na- tion, its university professors and political leaders, are saying with practical unanimity that, while Christian morality is excellent in daily life. Chris- tian philosophy and metaphysics are weak and Chris- tian ethical theories insufficiently grounded. "Although it is beyond question that Western democratic civilization has influenced Japan pro- foundly and brought her into harmony with Chris- tian principles in many important respects, yet it is also true that the Christian view of the universe and of men is either unknown to, or consciously rejected by, the vast majority of her educated men. They profess either agnosticism, like so many in the West, or Buddhism, which means usually a vague, pantheistic philosophy. To Christianize Japan, her thoughtful leaders must be brought to see the ra- *Cited in the Christian Movement for 1913, pages 165 ff. CHRISTIANITY 117 tional and moral weakness inherent in Buddhism and the superiority of Christianity in these respects, and also to accept personally the moral and spir- itual leadership of Jesus."* IV Many of the Japanese Christians seek to free themselves from the influence or control of foreign missionaries; some have backslid; others are merely nominally Christian; many advocate what they call a Japanized or Japanicized Christianity. Naturally we ask what is meant by a Japanized Christianity ? In the first place, what is most ardently desired is apparently a Christianity free from foreign influ- ence or control — a national or independent church. The Japanese have been remarkably free from sec- tarian differences and hostilities. Even the antip- athy which once existed between Buddhists and *Dr. Gulick adds: "In the divine Providence, Japan has been brought to a unique place among the non-Christian nations. She first of them all is attempting to establish a civilization practically Christian. But she is attempting this without accepting either the underlying postulates or the con- scious faith on which that civilization has been built." This tribute is perhaps unique as coming from a foreign mission- ary. But the assumption which Dr. Gulick and so many other missionaries make that "constitutional government, pop- ular education, daily press, publishing houses, modern juris- prudence, postal and telegraph systems," etc., are essentially Christian, seems strained, to say the least. ii8 MODERN JAPAN Shintoists on the one hand and Christians on the other has largely disappeared. The Japanese are naturally tolerant and, with the exception of certain sects like the Nicheren, are fairly free from all forms of religious bigotry or fanaticism. The Japanese attach little importance to matters of creed or doctrinal differences of any sort. They are not strongly attached to fixed beliefs or ortho^ doxies of any kind. Many of them have accepted what in Western America at least would be re^ garded as the most radical, if not heretical, teach- ing. For example, the Reverend Ibuka, principal of the Meiji Gakim* an important Presbyterian college in Tokyo, in speaking of the changes in in- centive to mission work, is reported to have said that Japanese Christians had dropped from their vocabularies such words as heaven, hell, the future life, eternity and the soul. For these they have substituted such words as home, r'-^racter, society, love and social reform. Whereas formerly it was the object of mission work to save men from eter- nal punishment, its purpose now is to civilize those who are still uncivilized. The claim is frequently made that just as this people have modified and adapted Buddhism to their spiritual needs, largely ignoring its pessimism, as- ceticism and spirit of other worldliness; so they *See Japan Mail (weekly) for "May 28, igia For similar expressions, see Lawton, The Sm-pires of the Bast, volume I, chapter xxiv. CHRISTIANITY 119 are free to Japanicize Christianity, rejecting the latter's theology, strange doctrines, mysteries and superstitions. Is it not the mission of the Japanese to fuse and harmonize everything — to accept the good and reject the evil in all things? It is not true, as sometimes claimed, that the Jap- anese are irreligious or even indifferent in their attitude toward things religious, though it seems to be a fact that in this as in other respects they are, like the Chinese, very pragmatic. Truth and virtue appear to this people primarily as means of national development rather than as ends in themselves. Be- cause of dissatisfaction with moral, social and po- litical conditions, there has been manifest during recent years a desire for a new or improved religion. It is claimed that there are a large number of non- affiliated Christians who have accepted Christ as a sort of moral or spiritual guide and who seek to practise His gospel as embodied in the Sermon on the Mount, much as a Roman of the Stoic School might be supposed to have regarded himself as a follower of Epi'ctetus or Marcus Aurelius. There are many others who try to combine the best of the teachings of Buddha, Christ and Confucius as a source of inspiration or a guide to conduct. An interesting attempt to aid in "breaking down the barriers of race and nationality," encourage a "better understanding between the East and the West" and "promote the progress of civilization by international co-operation" is that inaugurated by I20 MODERN JAPAN the Association Concordia, formed in 19 13, and including in its membership a number of the most eminent publicists and men of action in Japan as well as a few distinguished foreign missionaries. The object of this organization, as explained in the prospectus, is not to fuse the religions of the Orient and Occident or to propagate personal views or par- ticular faiths; "its sole aim is to study the thought of the world, whether ancient or modem. Eastern or Western, in a spirit of fairness, and candor, and thus to foster a deeper mutual sympathy and respect on the part of the representatives of the two great civilizations which, as has been said, are destined to flow together in one mighty current." The first enterprise of the association, so it was announced several years ago, was to have been the publication of a review "devoted to the study of the various problems in the fields of religion, philosophy, ethics, sociology, education, literature, etc." Plans were also formulated to give lecture courses, for the publication of various sorts of literature, for open- ing the way for the interchange of visits of distin- guished scholars representing the best thought of the East and the West, and for international conferences. But we would not wish to be understood as main- taining that the Christian movement in Japan has wholly failed. If it has not been as successful as in CHRISTIANITY 121 Korea, that has been mainly due to less favorable conditions, such as the greater strength of Bud- dhism and the spirit of nationalism. But even in Japan the leaven of Christianity, the work of the numerous missions, and the influence of leading missionaries is still a powerful influence for good, more especially in the fields of education and social reform. The pioneer work of such men as Brown, Hep- burn, Verbeck, Williams and Dr. Greene can never be forgotten. The founding of Doshisha University by Dr. Nakamura was particularly important. The educational work of the numerous mission schools, more especially in calling the attention of the Japa- nese to the importance of education for girls, has been of the highest value. In fact, the modem mis- sionary of the best type in Japan, as, indeed through- out the Orient generally, is essentially an educator — ^an envoy of the West to the East, representing certain intellectual and spiritual ideals of Western civilization which are largely misrepresented by its commercial and official representatives. This edu- cational role of the missionaries is too frequently overlooked by many of those who have little sym- pathy with, or perhaps appreciation of, some of their purely religious or propagandist activities. In one field — that of social welfare work — the missionaries have an almost virgin field — an oppor- tunity for cultivation too little appreciated even by themselves or their supporters. The Japanese have 122 MODERN JAPAN been very slow to see the importance of such work. Until quite recently, for example, lepers have every- where obtruded themselves upon the public in Japan. It was left for a Christian woman, a Miss Riddell, to begin in 1890 the appUcation of a proper remedy — lepers' hospitals — to this state of affairs. Many other forms of social welfare work, such as orphan- ages, schools for the blind, deaf and dumb, homes for discharged prisoners, maternity hospitals and kindergartens owe there inception to Christian workers. The Japanese Y. M. C. A., though not compar- able in the extent of its educational and other activi- ties with that of China, is doing excellent work, more especially in establishing much needed student homes or hotels in some of the leading educational centers, including the Imperial University at Tokyo. The Y. W. C. A. is similarly engaged in Bible study and establishing hostels for girls. The W. C. T. U., under Christian auspices, is devoting itself to the reform of abandoned women and many other kinds of social service, as well as to temperance propa- ganda. The Salvation Army, backed by Christian workers in general, has conducted several vigorous campaigns against the social evil, more particu- larly against the notoriously disgraceful conditions existing in the Yoshiwara or licensed quarter of Tokyo. Taken as a whole, the Christian workers of Japan are becoming more alive to the importance of social welfare work as well as the salvation of CHRISTIANITY 123 the individual soul, and are beginning to feel the need of trained social workers in the various fields of activity. Some of them are even turning their attention to the wretched conditions of factory life, and are urging remedial or preventive legisla- tion. In other words, they are beginning to see that in the modern industrial world Christianity of the old individualistic type must be supplemented by a knowledge of social conditions and environment, and that scientific method, diagnosis and prescrip- tion are as necessary in the work of prevention and cure as are the Christian virtues of faith, hope and love. CHAPTER VIII INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF JAPAN With the awakening of Japan and her struggle for international recognition arose the need for ex- panding trade and for industrial readjustment. Japan realized that in order to develop her people and country along progressive lines she must create possibilities for greater well-being. If she wished to build schools and railroads and maintain a sub- stantial army and navy, the people must pay for them. Obviously more wealth must be created. This could not be accomplished merely by developing domestic trade; foreign commerce must be devel- oped as well. So in order that she might keep pace with her other lines of progress Japan plunged into industrial activity and the struggle for world mar- kets. Scores of foreign mechanical engineers and experts were employed by the Government to teach the people methods of organizing business and of exploiting their natural resources and mechanical arts. Hundreds of students were sent to Europe and America to study Occidental methods of for- estry, mining, manufacturing, shipbuilding and busi- ness organization. In the course of a few years 124 INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 125 this accumulation of knowledge was applied to the industrial readjustment of Japan. Meanwhile the Japanese Government fostered in- dustrial initiative and enterprise; in short, anything that would enable capital quickly to develop native industries and to force an opening into the world markets was encouraged. The results were stupendous. The mining of coal, zinc, copper, sulphur, magnesia and other ores and metals was prosecuted vigorously. Laws governing the exploitation of these products were passed. Docks, harbors and an adequate fleet of merchant vessels were built, largely by private capital. In order to assure and encourage a marine business, merchant vessels were subsidized by the Government with the stipulation that such vessels be put in the service of the Government in case of war. Further- more, manufactories, great and small, equipped with Western machinery, sprang up mushroom-like all over Japan, so that we have to-day a unique situation paralleled probably nowhere else in the world. Side by side with established modem machine methods combined with the soulless scramble in competitive trade, one still sees the widespread use of the hand- loom and other primitive implements for spinning, weaving, dyeing and designing. In fact, while the foreign trade of Japan is almost wholly in machine- made articles, a universal demand perseveres among all classes of the Japanese themselves for new and original patterns, weaves and color combinations 126 MODERN JAPAN .which will doubtless preserve the hand-looms and the hand-made articles for years to come. Yet withal, in her larger industrial development, Japan has had serious handicaps, inasmuch as she has very little skilled labor, comparatively little iron and produces no wool or cotton. This implies the importation of vast quantities of machinery, pig iron and all her cotton and wool and many other raw materials; also the necessity of Competing in the world markets with products made by more skilled hands and better paid labor than her own. In a word, Japan is self-supporting only in the preparation of her national Hquors, in soya brewing and the manufacture of silk, matches, porcelains and a few other articles; while her factories, min- ing, printing and many other trades are still worked with foreign machinery. II The two most important minerals of Japan are coal and copper. There are large deposits of an- thracite, although a brown bituminous of good qual- ity is the predominant coal. With the acquisition of certain rights in Manchuria, Japan has added other rich deposits, so that according to her geolog- ical surveys her complete supply of coal is enormous ; her annual output averaging now over twenty-one million tons. Copper is also abundant and is now being mined INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 127 in every district in the country. The total output annually approaches forty-three million yen in value. Japan to-day ranks third among copper-producing nations. Petroleum and sulphur are perhaps second in im- portance. While the present yield of petroleum is not extensive, due to inadequate capitalization and prospecting, yet the survey has revealed a narrow petroliferous strata extending throughout the coun- try following the western coast of islands from Karafuto to Taiwan. Sulphur would naturally be found in a volcanic country like Japan, and it has been one of her oldest exports, having been shipped to Holland and China as early as the fifteenth century. Gold and silver are also fairly abundant. The total annual yield of gold amounts to over seven billion yen, while silver does not exceed fifty-one million, though the output of both is steadily in- creasing. Zinc, and a small amount of lead and tin, are found, but for lack of suitable smelting machinery the zinc ores have been shipped to Germany for refining. Iron is also found, but in quantities wholly in- sufficient to supply the pressing needs of Japan, amounting only to about three and one-half million annually. Thus far the bulk of her raw material for producing pig iron has been imported from the Taiyo mines in China. The urgent demand for 128 MODERN JAPAN this raw material accounts partly for Japan's keen desire to acquire a foothold in China. Thus it may readily be seen that the exploitation of the minerals and metals of Japan has kept abreast of her other industrial activities. There are now in the country about 9,500 mines and about 229,308 mine workers. While Japan has prosecuted her mining with considerable vigor, she has also made wise, legal provisions and established a system of inspection which conserves her natural resources most carefully. Under these laws the owner of the land does not own the mineral rights. Such rights belong to the State. The right of prospecting is granted to the first applicant. A land owner in default of applying first for prospecting privileges may be supplanted on his own land by another. The privilege of mining may not extend over less than forty-one acres and more than eight hun- dred and twenty acres. Prospecting rights are granted for two years from the date of registration. A mine in operation pays an annual tax of one per cent, on the value of the products, excepting gold, silver and iron ores. When mining operations interfere with the own- er's use of the surface, a certain amount of land is requisitioned for the use of the concessionaire, who in turn must lease the surface; or if the owner so desires, the concessionaire must purchase the use of the land he requires for not less than three years. INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 129 In case of disputes arising they must be submitted to the mining inspector. Should his decision be regarded as unsatisfactory, an appeal may be made by the parties concerned to the Minister of Agricul- ture, or in case of further disputes, to the ordinary courts of law. Five mining inspection offices have been estab- lished which ejfercise control over such matters as ventilation, construction and the use of explosives. Each concessionaire must prepare and submit to the inspection office a set of rules for his workmen, stating the number of working hours, the nature of the work, the scale of compensation in case of in- jury, etc. This is to prevent harsh treatment of the workmen by the employers and thus to lessen the chances of disturbances. Until 1900 a foreigner was not permitted to par- ticipate in a mining venture. Since then a foreigner enjoys equal privileges with a native if the com- pany is formed by native Japanese. However, the mining regulations of 1905 empower the Minister of Agri'culture and Commerce to grant, cancel or suspend mining or prospecting rights and also to delegate part of his authority to the min6 inspection officials. Although some of the mining in Japan is estab- lished and conducted in a first class up-to-date man- ner, much is still belated and inefficient, due to the use of antiquated machinery and to the lack of capi- tal to develop the mine properties. I30 MODERN JAPAN III In her process of industrial expansion Japan has developed and improved many other industries be- sides mining. Forestry and fishing of every variety have been encouraged. At present no less than a million families are engaged in the various fishing enterprises. In 1897 the Government took over the Fishing Training School established by the Japanese Fishing Association, and since then has done much to instruct and train those engaged in this industry. In matters of forestry and re-forestration Japan has been no less alert and progressive. The Japa- nese have always guarded their forests. Perhaps no other people in the world has such an innate love of trees, such a sympathetic appreciation of their beauty, and the quality of the various woods, their grain and their possible utility. Since a very early period the Japanese have been taught to safeguard their forests, and they have not been allowed to cut recklessly or without special permission. Early fores! laws were passed both by the provincial governors and by the Central Government as well. Commis' sioners of forestry and subordinate officials were appointed who oversaw the cutting of timber and the replanting of saplings when trees were cut. During the struggles of the Middle Ages the con- tending factions often resorted to fire or pillage, although the forests in which temples or shrines had been built were usually respected ; consequently, tem- INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 131 pies and shrines were commonly built with a view to keeping the forests sacred and to protecting them from all forms of abuses. Doubtless this attitude of respect for the woods and trees has subtly influ- enced and helped to mould the Japanese character. At present the wooded land of Japan constitutes about seventy per cent, of the entire area or 54,164,- 786 acres, and over half of it is owned by the State. Much of this forest is more or less inaccessible, due to the very mountainous nature of the country. Previous to the Restoration of 1868 all effort was directed toward preserving the forests in their primitive state, but with the sudden and steadily growing demands for timber in shipbuilding, rail- road supplies, telephone and telegraph poles, there resulted some reckless cutting. However, the Gov- ernment proceeded promptly to correct or regulate this abuse and to study more scientific methods of conservation, replanting, and the utilization of the by-products of the forests. Trees have been plant- ed to prevent soil denudation, sand shifting, floods, avalanches and as a means of protection against winds and tides ; also as a means of feeding springs, attracting fish and to compose "scenery." Scientific methods have been adopted of utilizing by-products, such as the underbrush and grasses for fuel and fer- tilizers, the seeds and acorns for producing oils and waxes, the barks of various trees for tanning and dyeing, and the stones for building, landscape gar- dening and the manufacture of pottery. 132 MODERN JAPAN This is typical of the thrift of the Japanese and of their progressive point of view and teachable- ness. When contrasted with the laxity and waste- fulness of the natural resources in our own country, and with the pitiable results in wasted, denuded lands and consequent famine, floods and innumer- able other evils, resulting from wastefulness and neglect in China, one feels that we have much to learn from the Japanese. The revenue in Japan derived from the products and by-products of the forests amounted in 1910 to over ten million yen, though the expenses were heavy and left a net revenue of only seven million yen. In five years the productivity of the forests increased over sixty per cent. The State forests are managed by the Government through the Imperial Household Department, and over the peoples' forests the Government exercises a supervision in accordance with the forest laws. At present there are over sixty institutions in which forestry is taught. Some of these schools are devoted to the exclusive teaching of forestry, but in forty-eight the subject is taught subsidiary to other major subjects. There is perhaps no better illustration of Japan's efficient conservation methods than in connection with her production of camphor. Since 1899 the camphor business has been a government monopoly. Japan to-day leads in the world's supply of this com- modity. INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 133 Previously the refiners used only such portions of the trees as yielded the largest amount of cam- phor at a minimum of expense and effort. The re- sult was over-production and such very low prices that the refiners were scarcely able to pay the tax upon it. Every effort is now made to conserve the supply, and prevent the previous waste, over-pro- duction and adulteration. At present the refiners sell their product to the Government at the price de- termined by the market. It is roughly estimated that the present supply of camphor trees may last forty or fifty years, though it is hoped the supply may be made permanent by continuous planting. Already the Government has set out millions of young camphor plants. Salt is also a government monopoly, produced mostly in Formosa and shipped in large quantities to Japan proper. It is hoped that in time salt will be produced in even greater quantities than at pres- ent. IV Many of the newer industries of Japan owe their inception to the Government. The idea in initiat- ing these enterprises was to demonstrate to the peo- ple how such industries might be developed, how trade might be exp^ited and expanded. Between 1 880- 1 883 most of these government enterprises were sold to private companies, although a few were 134 MODERN JAPAN retained, such as works which supplied the military stores, steel foundries, the mint, printing offices and still others, like the tobacco, soya, salt, sake and cam- phor. In 1907 the railroads were nationalized and it is thought that in time insurance, matches and sugar may also be taken over by the Government. It would appear from the nationalization of so many industries that the Japanese were strongly inclined to Sociahsm. As a matter of fact the Gov- ernment is almost foolishly hostile to any and all Socialistic propaganda as such. The nationalized industries have been taken over, not with a view tp serving the public with a first rate commodity, pro- duced under ideal labor conditions and careful man- agement, but solely with the purpose of obtaining a large revenue. The salt business alone nets the Government a profit of ten million yen annually, and the tobacco monopoly over fifty million yen. During a period of twenty-five years the export trade of Japan has increased thirteen fold until now it approximates one billion yen. The United States is Japan's best customer, taking at least one-third of her complete output. China ranks second, and Great Britain third. The leading exports are raw silks, cotton, yams, matches, fancy matting, tea, camphor, marine pro- ducts, coffee and coal. In the textile industries the manufacture and export of silk ranks first In fact silk covers one-third of her whole export trade. In silk-raising Japan ranks second to China, which INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 135 leads the world. Over two and a half million fami- lies are now engaged in this occupation, many select- ing it as an avocation in connection with fanning or fishing. The United States takes two-thirds of Japan's whole output of raw silk. Among the textile industries cotton ranks second in importance. The raw material has been pur- chased chiefly from China and India. Formerly considerable amounts were purchased from the United States, but during recent years purchases from the United States decreased steadily while those from China and India more than doubled. Through the opening of the Panama Canal, Japan has been somewhat stimulated to increase her cot- ton purchases in the United States, though our cot- ton trade with Japan is still far less than formerly. American cotton has been largely supplanted by the cheaper and poorer grades from India and Egypt, but there if still a field for increased sales of finer cottons if the trade possibilities were properly studied and wisely handled. Since 1891 the total value of raw cotton annually imported into Japan has increased from eighty million to one hun- dred and sixty million yen. At present Korea is growing a little cotton, and government experts now predict that if all the suit- able waste and inferior agricultural lands in Korea were planted in cotton there would be a total of one hundred and seventy-five thousand acres with an annual yield of one hundred thousand bales. 136 MODERN JAPAN Experts further maintain that the spinning busi- ness in Japan is now organized upon lines which Jrlearly indicate a determination to obtain a place of predominance in this industry. The spinners and weavers are closely aflfiliated, and the Government has given such encouragement as will counterbalance the disadvantages which Japan may have in com- peting with other countries. Already the sales of British and American cotton fabrics have been largely supplanted in Manchuria and have decreased considerably in many parts of China, while the sales of Japanese goods have been steadily increasing, even during periods of financial depression. In a word, British and American manufacturers are now competing for markets against State-aided enter- prises. In order to assist these vast trade and in- dustrial activities, the Japanese Government has been forced to borrow heavily from other nations, chiefly from England, where she has procured mon- ey at a low rate of interest not exceeding five per cent. Thus we have the curious anomaly of West- ern nations, chiefly England, fiu"nishing Japan with cheap money in order that she may supplant the trade of England and other nations in Oriental and even Occidental markets. Clearly Japan- has not failed to learn Western methods of "big business," and it is interesting to note how she is quietly but isurely beating the Westerner at his own "game." Japanese experts themselves maintain that in time they will dominate the Oriental trade in the INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 137 coarser cotton threads, although they do not hope to compete in the finer threads. This should fur- nish a good suggestion for American cotton manu- facturers. Vi Perhaps in no line of industrial enterprise has Japan become quite so efficient as in developing her merchant marine by purchasing and building vessels, by extending and increasing steam routes, by securing favorable trade treaties and by sending experts to foreign countries to study trade methods, industrial conditions and opportunities for wedging in Japanese goods. In 1 87 1 the Japanese merchant marine comprised only forty-six ships with a tonnage of 17,948. By 1 914 the gross tonnage of steamers amounted to 1,538,000 and that of sailing vessels to 494,000.* For the encouragement of shipping and ship- building the Government long since established a system of paying bounties and subsidies. Until 1910 a ship of from seven hundred to one thousand tons gross, manufactured of iron or steel, approved after authorized inspection, received twelve yen for every ten tons gross and a ship of one thousand tons gross and upwards received twenty yen. If the engines of the steamer as well as the vessel itself were of Japanese manufacture, five yen extra per unit of horse-power were granted. A subsidy was *See Japan Year Book for 1916, page 509. 138 MODERN JAPAN also given of twenty-five sen (twelve and one-half cents) per ton gross for every one thousand miles traveled by a ship of one thousand tons gross with a full speed of ten knots; ten per cent, extra for every five hundred tons gross ; and twenty per cent, additional for every additional knot above ten knots speed. New laws came into force covering the period 1910 to 1914 which required that subsidized vessels be home-built steel steamers of over three thousand tons gross, not more than fifteen years old and hav- ing a speed of twelve nautical miles per hour. The rate of subsidy for such vessels was fifty sen or less per ton gross for every one thousand nautical miles with an extra ten per cent, of the above sum for an additional speed of a nautical mile per hour. For foreign built vessels under five years old put on service with the sanction of the authorities, only half the subsidy was allowed. For vessels built according to special plans approved by the Govern- ment, an extra twenty-five per cent, of the shipping subsidy was granted. The subsidy was reduced on a graduated scale for older vessels. Since 19 14 many of the subsidies have been still further reduced, as the shipping lines have become well established and prosperous. Besides bounties and suhsidies other inducements have been offered to encourage shipbuilding as well as other industrial enterprises. Money was loaned to the banks so INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 139 they in turn could loan at as low as two per cent, to assist worthy enterprises. Clearly such inducements furnished a tremendous stimulus to Japanese shipbuilding, so that to-day Japan is building large and excellent steel ships of twenty thousand tons and over. As early as 1904 there were already sixty-two ship companies, besides many individual ship owners, and the number has been steadily increasing. In 19 14 there were four- teen ships built with a total tonnage of 66,329, while in 191 5 orders were placed for fifty-one ships with a total tonnage of 212,100. The two most important lines are the Nippon Yusen Kaisha and the Toyo Kisen Kaisha. The pas- senger service on some of the Japanese lines in details of comfort, such as cleanliness, good food and personal service, at a moderate price, are prob- ably second to none in the world. By many who have traveled upon various boats of the best estab- lished Japanese lines, the service has been pro- nounced unsurpassed. The freight service, we are told, is no less effi- cient and reasonable in cost, due, it appears, to the study and careful management of all details — pre- cisely the secret of the excellence in the passenger service. "So efficient has the Japanese shipping service become," remarked a British sea-captain, who has sailed the Eastern seas for twenty years and has :i4Q MODERN JAPAN made a careful study of shipping matters, "that if the British do not soon wake up and improve their belated methods, they will no longer be able to com- pete with the Japanese in Eastern waters." Besides the regular subsidized lines, there are many so-called outside lines and thousands of tramp-boats engaged in regular coasting service or in over-sea trade getting a foothold in China, India, South America, Australia and the remotest sea is- lands. Indeed, it is claimed that Japanese ships are found in every open port and river in China. Besides, Japan possesses an enormous mosquito fleet composed of junks and small steamers plying every- where irl Chinese waters, all of this contributing much to the common purpose of expanding Japanese trade. The coastwise trade of Japan is forbidden to all steamers not under the national flag, though by treaty arrangement some ocean-going steamers car- rying passengers are given freight-carrying privi- leges. A number of schools for the training of marine officers have been established, the most useful one of which is the Tokyo Mercantile Marine College. Besides these schools, there are various marine asso- ciations for the mutual benefit and instruction of their members. Another factor which must not be overlooked in Sts tremendous benefits to Japanese trade is the Panama Canal. A passage through this canal INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 141 shortens the journey between Yokohama and New York — Japan's largest tea and silk market — ^by twelve days. This naturally insures a great saving of freight and will faciliate a wider Japanese- American trade. But, in spite of this great increase in trade, up to 19 1 5 the imports have exceeded the exports. In 1913 the export trade amounted to 632,460,213 yen ; the excess of imports was more than 97,000,000 yen. In 1914 the exports totaled 591,101,461 yen while the excess of imports was only 4,634,244 yen. The European war has naturally brought about con- siderable commercial irregularity which resulted in an excess of exports for the first time in the ex- perience of modern Japan; these exports totaling 682,095,000 yen while the imports amounted only to 518,653,000 yen, making the export excess 163,- 442,000 yen, and this excess is constantly on the increase. VI There has been and still is much discussion and difference of opinion concerning the business customs and conditions of Japan. Be this as it may, there is no doubt that the ethics of trade in Japan during the past fifteen years has undergone a process of rehabilitation and improvement quite in keeping with her progress in trade. While the old Samurai Code was strict and exacting upon many points of 142 MODERN JAPAN | honor, at the same time it sanctioned double-dealing / more or less. Indirect methods were preferable to/ direct methods and so persistently was this empha- sized in conduct that the language developed along lines which made it nearly impossible to put a point in a direct, straightforward manner, or to make a contract which could not be evaded. In feudal times, merchants were classed lowest in the social hierarchy. Barter for gain was de- spised and condemned as a low practice. Naturally, with such a stigma upon business occupations, only the lowest classes of people engaged in them. Prior to the Restoration the great masses of the Japanese people were very poor, living on a minimum scale, with wretched food, scant clothing and bad housing. With the awakening of the whole nation came a general desire for better and more food and cloth- ing, for travel, education and diversion. Since money only can procure these advantages, a desire for money and respect for gainful occupations began to increase. But business methods were not in- eluded in the Japanese code of morality and natur- ally, with their pressing new desires, the people did not always resist the many temptations opening up before them. When Japanese goods first found their way Into foreign markets they were so pleasing and satisfac- tory that orders were promptly sent in for additional supplies. Then it was that adulteration, shortage in weights and lengths, substitution of inferior mate- INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 143 rials and defective workmanship became common, in fact, so common that the Japanese people readily gained the reputation of being knaves and tricksters. And not only did they resort to the simpler prac- tices of adulteration, short weights and measures, but they soon began to develop subtler practices like making inferior imitations of standard and well- established European goods. In time trade-mark piracy became a widespread practice, and China as well as Japan was flooded with the inferior pirated articles. Naturally, this despicable practice added greatly to Japanese business disrepute, and it re- mained uncorrected until 1909 after the combined diplomatic pressure of the great Western manu- facturers was brought to bear upon the Japa- nese Goverimient. Even the present law provides protection to the owner of a trade-mark only in case that mark has been registered in Japan previous to the regfistering of the pirated mark, and a protest must be made against such piracy within three years after the owner has registered. This, it may readily be seen, does not insure a very great degree of pro- tection to the foreigner. In the subtler mal-practices of business, trade-mark piracy had companion practices. A merchant would contract for shipments of foreign goods and when they arrived, if the markets were depressed or if he thought he might force down the original price by leaving the goods on the shipper's hands in Japanese ports, the purchaser would not hesitate to repudiate 144 MODERN JAPAN his contract. By this method he could frequently repurchase the goods he had originally ordered at a much reduced figure. This and other similar dishonorable and despic- able practices became quite common during the earlier years of Japanese trade development — ^prac- tices no worse and not so different from the early Yankee methods, some substantial remnants of which — not even excepting trade-mark piracy — American business still retains. But naturally such unsavory business methods brought in time all Jap- anese merchants and merchandise into disrepute. pThe honest suffered as well as the dishonest, and Japanese goods, which had so quickly become pop- ular in the markets, suddenly began to be regarded with disfavor, and orders did not increase as they should. It was the realization of these facts which led the Japanese Government in 1884 to take action to organize and control business with a view to stim- ulating legitimate enterprises and putting an end to disreputable methods which unquestionably have done great damage to Japanese trade. This action resulted in the organization of trade guilds. These guilds, backed by the Government, decreed that Jap- anese goods should be examined before they were allowed to leave the country, and if short weight or measure, adulteration or substitution of inferior materials was discovered, drastic punishment would follow. In some cases quantities of condemned goods were burned publicly merely to show to the INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 145 world that trade dishonesty would no longer be per- mitted. The result of this drastic action has beeti that trade methods have been greatly improved and trade guilds have become a factor of tremendous importance. They had so multiplied that by 19 14 there were 916 commercial guilds established with a membership of more than a million, though in all there were over six thousand guilds, including those dealing with agriculture, fishing and forestry. In 1 90 1 legislation was enacted which provided for the amalgamation of credit, purchasing, sales and production guilds. This was an effort on the part of the Government to control business. In various ways the government authorities keep in constant touch with the guilds; give them expert advice on occasion; and discuss with them subjects of mutual advantage. When struggling enterprises are in need of assistance, the Government makes grants of money to stimulate them, and when nec- essary uses its power to induce them to act in ac- cordance with the best interests of the nation. In- deed, these guilds are nothing more nor less than powerful trusts supported by the Government. In addition to the industrial guilds there are fifty-four chambers of commerce scattered throughout the country, their purpose being to discuss and improve methods for developing trade. Bounties are also granted by the Government to assist various enter- prises, and money at low interest is often loaned for the same purpose. 146 MODERN JAPAN Obviously foreign competition with Japanese trade is not competition with individuals or corpora- tions ; it is competition of American or European or other individuals or corporations with the Japanese Government. In a word, the Japanese Government which is so hostile to Socialism for the laboring classes has, with the possible exception of Germany, adopted more Socialistic methods than any other nation in the interest of the exploiters of capital and industry. Some critics of Japanese methods contemplate with alarm the great advantages which such meth- ods give to Japanese industries Competing in the world markets. Others maintain that the principle of taxing the whole people to endow and subsidize capitalistic interests is unsound and pernicious and can not persist. The reply to the latter criticism by the authorities responsible for such methods — ^how- ever fallacious the retort may be — is that it has worked satisfactorily and that the rapid expansion of trade has brought excellent returns to the whole people, enabling all classes to pay the taxes and to live on a much improved scale; consequently, there IS no protest against it. Moreover, the authorities doubtless feel that by combining this method of the government subsidy and supervision of trade with efficient methods of production and obtaining mar- kets, they have a certain dominant advantage which leaves them nothing to fear in competing with the present-day individualistic methods of other nations. CHAPTER IX SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS With the sudden and rapid increase in the de- velopment of Japan's natural resources and the es- tablishment of many new industries on a large scale, numerous changes have come about and many evils have developed in the social and economic life of the people. When Japan began to cast about for a world- wide trade sh? knew she must compete with the highly specialized industrialism of the Western world, and in order to do this quickly she must necessarily adopt the methods and machinery of her competitors. Yet she was still greatly handicapped, inasmuch as capital was scarce and could be had only at exor- bitant rates and there was no labor skilled in modern methods. Therefore, her only chance of competing seemed to be by selling cheap goods made by cheap unskilled labor. As previously stated, the Govern- ment tried to aid various approved enterprises as much as possible. Some were established outright and disposed of later to private corporations; others 147 148 MODERN JAPAN were subsidized or aided by loaning capital at low rates of interest. Nevertheless, in spite of the stu- pendous efforts made by the Government, many of these initial enterprises either proved unprofitable or failed outright. In business management and in economy of time and energy there appeared to be great waste and inefficiency. Old established business habits and formal customs could not easily be abandoned or re- constructed. The old methods were slow, easy- going, wasteful and, in the long run, costly. And not only were the hours long and wages low, but conditions of safety and sanitation were extremely poor — so poor that the rate of accidents, sickness and death was exceedingly high, and the material and machinery of the various industries were almost invariably inferior. In brief, most of the conditions of labor were belated and unsatisfactory, and many have not yet been greatly improved. Moreover, the Government appears to be con- vinced that if Japan wishes to hold and extend her markets, the workers must be paid as little as possible, hours must be long and holidays few. Naturally the Government wishes those initiating of taking over the various new enterprises to succeed, yet she has taken little thought for the welfare of the workers. The masses of the Japanese people are very poor. Their struggle for bare existence is terrific. The peasant is forced to work very hard to cultivate his ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 149 bit of land, which is usually tied up with debt to the professional money-lenders at an exorbitant rate of interest. To live, even on a minimum scale, the peasant and all members of his household must work far into the night at subsidiary occupations, such as match-box, sandal or brush making, seri- culture and hand-loom weaving. When thousands of peasant children, chiefly girls, are recruited into the factories to work from twelve to sixteen hours per day, the Government excuses itself from inter- fering by pointing out that the hours are no longer than those they have been accustomed to at home. Such are the sophistries with which the authori- ties of Japan, just as the authorities of our own and other countries, have salved their consciences. Doubtless such sophistries will continue to prevail until workers become intelligent and enterprising enough to demand justice for themselves collec- tively. II During the past twenty years wages have more than doubled in Japan, but the increased demands of living have exceeded the advance in wages and the economic standards among the laboring classes are still so low they may scarcely be compared with those of Western countries. Skilled laborers, even now, receive only one-eighth of what laborers of the same class receive in America and one-third of what I50 MODERN JAPAN they receive in England, and Japanese women work- ers receive from one-third to one-half less than men. Bricklayers are among the highest paid workers, but their average does not exceed fifty cents a day. However, authorities appear to differ on the eco- nomic value of cheap labor. Some claim that it has been a great advantage in competing for trade, while others maintain that low economic standards invariably result in inferior amount and quality of production and that Japan is to-day suffering great- ly for lack of skilled, efficient labor, as well as from lack of equipment. It is commonly conceded that it takes two or three skilled Japanese to achieve as much as one American or European. Before 1867 no labor-saving devices had ever been employed in the mining industries. Then an Englishman, Erasmus Glover, and an American named Pumpelly first introduced the use of explo- sives. After the advent of the Meiji era, 1868, the Government took over for a time a number of the larger mines. Foreign mining experts were em- ployed, modem machinery was introduced and though the output of ores, metals, coal and petro- leum was greatly increased, nevertheless, according to the government reports, a number of these enter- prises proved to be financial failures, while others were sold eventually to private persons in whose hands, in the course of time, most of the enterprises prospered. But because of the great cost of out- fitting and of the lack of finances, the equipment is ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 151 inadequate and inferior, the mining, in consequence, is not deep and is generally considered wasteful and dangerous. The miners live usually in large, Community dwellings provided by the employers. Those with families have a separate room or two, and those without families live in large common rooms. Generally, when the mines are remote from the larger centers, the operators furnish provisions at a low price. This, it is claimed, helps to keep the workers satisfied and prevents them from demand- ing increased wages on the pretext of increased cost of living. This is only one of various devices em- ployed to keep wages low and to prevent wage- earners from any organized effort to improve their condition. That mining is dangerous because the provisions for safety are inadequate is indicated by the number of casualties. In 1913 the total number of em- ployees at eleven of the leading mines numbered 262,163. The totcil number of casualties was 35,- 512, nearly fourteen per cent, of all the workers. Of this number there were 730 deaths, 889 severely wounded and 33,793 slightly wounded. Naturally, the rate would be still higher at the more poorly equipped mines. The highest wage paid per day of from eight to eleven hours, to men workers at the metal mines, is 69 sen (34/^ cents) ; the lowest is 42 sen (21 cents). Women mine workers generally receive less than 152 MODERN JAPAN half as much as the men, and children less than one-third. Wages at the collieries average a little more. Considerable emphasis is placed upon the aid given to the families of disabled and deceased work- ers, but upon close examination of the statistics giv- en one finds that the sums paid are at best scandal- ously paltry. Five yen (two dollars and fifty cents) — sometimes a little more — is the amount usually donated toward the funeral expenses of a deceased worker, injured in the mines. The amount paid for relief to "bereaved families" in case of death varies from ten to forty yen (five to twenty dollars). Hospital expenses are gaierally either shared or paid in full by the operators when there are no mine hos- pitals. At the better class of mines mutual aid societies have been established, in which monthly payments are made by the workers to a common relief fund. The operators contribute to these funds also, but there appears to be no uniform rule or custom regu- lating the operators' contributions. At the smaller mines there seems to be provision for teaching the children of the employees, while at the larger mines the operators either provide teachers for the children of the workmen or sub- sidize the public schools. Since many of the chil- dren are employed at the mines, the educational re- sults must be unsatisfactory. It is clear that many of the old feudal customs ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 153 and feudal ethics have been carried over into mining as well as into other industrial pursuits. The oaths of chiefs and proteges swearing loyalty and obe- dience have been adopted by the "bosses." These oaths, we are informed, practically insure obedience to the boss whether he is right or wrong. And since the "bosses" at the various mines keep in com- munication with one another, their power over the workers is very great. While they may co-operate to assist a faithful workman, their power to crush and defeat one who may be considered disloyal or rebellious is almost absolute. Ill For years after the introduction of modern mining methods the workmen appeared to be tran- quil and satisfied. But later their attitude seems to have become ominous. In the wake of the Chino- Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars the bur- dens of taxation upon all classes were extremely heavy and for the working classes they were almost unendurable. Every commodity was taxed, yet the Government continued its policy of making large army and navy appropriations. These burdens, coupled with the increasing opportunities of the capitalists for shameless exploitation of labor, at length drove the naturally peaceful and submissive Japanese proletariat to desperation. Li'ttle by little their desperation took form in uprisings now here, 154 MODERN JAPAN now there, until by 1907 petty strikes and violent outbreaks of various sorts appeared to have become epidemic. In some cases there was ruthless burn- ing and destroying of industrial plants and employ- ers' dwellings, cutting of telephone wires, throwing of bombs, and employers were sometimes driven to flee for safety. Since it wished to continue its policy of heavy taxation for naval and military expansion, the Gtov- ernment, instead of frankly facing the facts of the situation, began to cast about for some other than the real cause for the constantly increasing violence and industrial eruptions. A flourishing Socialistic movement which had been initiated about 1901 and had acquired influ- ence among certain classes of workmen appeared to offer the best pretext upon which the Government might foctis the blame for the increasing industrial insurrections. Originally this Socialist movement was organized by a small group of college-bred men who met to study the works of Karl Marx and other Socialis- tic writers. They called themselves Social Demo- crats and inspired such alarm in the Government that they were soon disbanded by Count Ito and his Cabinet. In 1903 the first Socialist Congress was evoked at O'saka by members of the disbanded organization. In November a newly constituted body began pub- lishing the People's Journal. Through writings and ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 155 public meetings a few Socialists tried to rouse the industrial classes to organize and to make some concerted effort to resist the terrible abuses which were being imposed on them. Unquestionably these Socialists did veliemently denounce the militaristic party and their merciless policy of taxation for mili- tary expansion, and when the strikes occurred it was found in a few cases that the strike leaders were Socialists. Not only was the proletariat affected by these "dangerous" doctrines, but some eminent members of the aristocracy had also become converts, and in their home provinces fearlessly proclaimed their ideas. All this became most alarming to the oligar- chic-militaristic Government, which from the be- ginning had been apprehensive of a Socialistic movement and which now resorted to measures of suppression. As the movement progressed the Gov- ernment became more and more hostile and con- cluded that inasmuch as the Socialists were sowing seeds of discord between the workers and employ- ers, they were an evil influence in the country and must be stamped out.* One after another of the Socialist publications were suppressed; a law was passed which forbade the formation of a political party without the con- sent of the Government, and police orders were *See Le Japan Modern, by I,udovic Nandeau, pages 239- 244. 156 MODERN JAPAN issued against holding Socialist meetings or confer- ences. In time a regular crusade was inaugurated against the whole Socialistic movement. Foreign publications like the works of Tolstoi, Zola, Macau- lay, and even Goldsmith's harmless Vicar of Wake- field, were put under the ban. Indeed so ridiculously fanatical did this crusade become at one time that harmless books which merely included Social in the title were interdicted. The climax to this tyranny was the arrest by the Government in May, 1910, of a group of twenty- six supposed conspirators, twenty-four of whom were condemned the following November and sen- tenced to death for Use majeste. The sentences of twelve of this group were later commuted to life imprisonment, but the remaining twelve were exe- cuted. This was apparently an effective blow to Social- ism in Japan and since that time the Government has never relaxed in its fanatical vigilance to keep down all propaganda of Socialistic doctrines. We have been informed on good authority that the prop- aganda is being still continued in an educational way, and that ultimately it will again come to the front in a more rational and intelligent organiza- tion of the working classes. Meanwhile the Government has expanded its mo- nopolistic enterprises along Socialistic lines, though these chiefly benefit the State and not the working people. ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 157 As a result of the many petty strikes and upris- ings, some concessions in increased wages and im- proved conditions for the workers were granted, but the concessions made, it was claimed, were en- tirely due to the "generosity of employers." As has been stated, some laws affecting mine labor have been passed, but they mainly concern mine con- struction, compensation, ventilation and the regula- tion of hours in the mines. Five mine inspection offices have been established, with a view to having regular inspection, reducing abuses and lessening the chances for organized disturbances. Yet the weight of governmental authority is still directed toward defending and upholding the capi- talistic classes and their present methods of exploit- ing labor. And not until the working classes be^ come more intelligent and more ready to break away from the old feudal ideals of loyalty and obe- dience to employers will there be much chance for improvement. Individual rebellion or initiative is still generally deprecated among the lower classes themselves. This alone would prevent organized effort on a large scale from succeeding rapidly. While some concessions have been granted and some improvements made in the occupations in which male workers predominate, in the textile in- dustries where women workers prevail little has been achieved. The textile industries, chiefly cotton and silk spitming and weaving, are perhaps to-day the most important industries in Japan. IS8 MODERN JAPAN IV When Japan adopted the Western system of manufacturing, her dominant idea was to learn to produce cheaply and to find markets quickly ; conse- quently, she adopted the strictly mechanical methods of production of the Western world with little con- cern for the social or ethical welfare of the workers. To-day factory conditions in Japan are perhaps the worst in the civihzed world — ^the darkest blot on her map of wonderful progress and achievement. Thousands of workers — mostly women and children — ^are recruited from all parts of the country to feed the factories which have multiplied faster than workers could be obtained. There are now more than a million factory workers, seventy-three per cent, of whom are females — mostly girls under twenty years of age — ^and children. The majority of female workers are engaged in the spinning, weaving and dyeing industries ; seventy per cent, live in the factory compounds or quarters, i. e., under the direct control or supervision of the factory managers. In the larger factories one thou- sand to fifteen hundred are frequently housed in a single [compound. A high fence usually encloses a compound of several acres which contains the fac- tory proper, large dormitories for sleeping accom- modations, sometimes a theater, hospital and store furnished with general supplies, and possibly a Bud- dhist-Shinto shrine or small place of worship. The ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 159 hospitals at some of the best factories are clean, tidy and well equipped, while others are unsanitary and are pest houses of contagion. Ordinarily there are no charges to the workers for hospital service. The theaters are generally attractive and at the best factories some effort is made to keep the amuse- ments clean and wholesome, but more often the entertainment is vulgar and indecently suggestive, at least from the Western view-point; though it is doubtful whether in the long run they are any more vulgar and demoralizing than are the London music- halls or the American vaudeville or picture shows. The purpose of these theaters is to amuse the work- ers of the compound so that they may be prevented from going elsewhere to seek amusements. The dormitories are usually flimsy, cheaply built oblong buildings divided into sleeping compart- ments, each of which is furnished with from eight to twenty sleeping pads placed closely together. At a few of the factories there is sufficient sleeping space and equipment so that the pads may be ven- tilated, but at the great majority of places the pads and bedding are in constant service, the night work- ers taking possession of the fouton while they are still warm after the day-shift workers have left them. Such unsanitary conditions are dangerous and contribute much to the high rate of tuberculosis and other diseases prevalent among the workers. In ordinary times working hours vary from elev- en to fourteen per day, but they are considerably i6o MODERN JAPAN longer during periods of commercial pressure. The following is the program for the night-shift workers at one of the best factories in Japan: At 6 p. M. the workers go on duty. There is one-fourth hour rest at 9 o'clock; one-half hour for dinner at mid- night; one-fourth hour rest at 3 a. m.; off duty at 6 A. M., after which the workers have bath and breakfast. At 9 a. m. they go to bed and sleep until 3 or 4 p. M. ; lunch is served from 4 130 to 5 p. m. They have one holiday every ten days, when they change over to the day-shift. On such occasions the workers are allowed to go out of the compound either accompanied by a delegated employee or sometimes in groups of three or four unattended, though they must return to the compound by 6 or 7 p. M. At some of the smaller factories the work- ers are less carefully supervised, but in case they stay out very late their names are publicly posted in the factory. In many factories the conditions are, to say the least, badly behind the times. The ventilation is generally poor; the oil and lint in the atmosphere are very obnoxious. As far as we could ascertain, up to 1915 there had been no lint consumers installed in all Japan. Various methods of speeding are re- sorted to. At some places captains of groups are appointed to urge on the workers, the group accom- plishing the most within a stipulated period receiving a banner. At some factories rice balls and other cooked ECONOMIC CONDITIONS i6i food are passed to the workers at the machines so that they may continue working with one hand while using the other to eat. At many places there is but one rest day or holiday a month or one every fort- night. In changing from the night- to day-shifts there are f reqtxently only the quarter- and half-hour periods of rest allowed during a continuous stretch of twenty-four hours. This in itself is nothing short of a social crime. At some of the factories and even at the gov- ernment factories women carry children upon their backs while working. The excuse offered is that women with children from distant towns often seek employment and since workers are scarce they are taken on. Naturally the children must be cared for. When small they are carried about on the mothers' backs, but as soon as they are large enough they are put at some light work. Many employers maintain that child-labor is so inefficient that it does not pay, but they give small children light work merely to placate the mothers. With the rapid increase of the textile industries the demand for workers is very great and continu- ous. Under the present deadly system the endur- ance of the workers does not last long, and the in- dustrial mill must constantly be fed with fresh human grist. :i62 MODERN JAPAN There are two methods of recruiting: through advertising, when the workers deal directly with the employers; and through recruiting agents, who are pften merciless and unscrupulous fellows who go from house to house and from district to district beguiling the innocent peasants and their young girls with alluring descriptions of the pleasant, re- munerative and instructive opportunities which fac- tory life has to offer. Parents are told that their (children, by not very hard work, can earn sufficient to live well and to lay by extra money either for a marriage portion or to help pay off the parents' mortgage or other debts. Often the agents exhibit samples of writing and sewing from the factory children's classes — held an hour or two daily before the twelve-hour shift begins. These samples are compared with samples of writing and sewing by children of the same age from the public schools, the factory samples being always superior. The theaters, parents are told, are places of amusement designed to keep the workers from leaving the com- pound. The natural conclusion drawn by the peas- ants is that here is an opportunity to transfer their daughters from the hard, endless toil at home to places where they will be protected, where they will receive good instruction, earn their own support and isave a little money all at the same time. The peasant is almost invariably in pinched cir- cumstances, and is able, only by the most strenuous effort and assisted by all members of the family, to ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 163 eke out the barest subsistence in favorable seasons. In seasons of famine peasant families frequently face literal starvation. Consequently, parents lend a ready ear to the pleasing overtures of the factory recruiter and are soon persuaded to bind over the daughters — never the sons — for a period of from three to seven years' service in the factories — a pe- riod of almost absolute slavery. When the simple-hearted peasant girls arrive at the factory, everything is different from the account given them. The working day is twelve hours, with extra hours added when business is pressing. The housing is crowded and the food is often poor. Every move of the worker, even her correspondence, is supervised, and guards are on duty to prevent run- ning away. Sometimes girls and children enter certain lines of industry as apprentices.* They receive their board and lodging from the managers, but no other remuneration. The apprenticeship, according to the contract, usually lasts from five to seven years. At the end of that time the worker receives from eight to fifteen dollars. Sometimes the supervision is so strict that even the mother is not allowed to visit the daughter during the apprenticeship. Such one-sided privileges naturally breed abuses. *See an extremely able article by K. Kuwata entitled "Die gegenwartige Lage der Arbeiter in Japan," published in the Archiv fiir Socialwissenschaft und Social Politik, Bd. xxxv, Heft 3 (1912). i64 MODERN JAPAN Conditions in the small factories appear to be the worst, since only a few rest days are granted, such as New Year's day, the three national holidays, and a few festival days. Sunday is not observed. Some factories grant the day off when the workers are changed from the night- to the day-shift, but this merely means a free day after working all night. Payment is usually monthly, though in some pro- vinces it is semi-annually or annually. Many factories have saving rules whereby a cer- tain sum is set aside each month for the worker. IThe manager holds the savings in trust and mean- while has the use of this money, as the savings may not be withdrawn until the expiration of the con- tract. Sometimes there are conditions which enable the worker to draw out the savings before the ex- piration of the contract, but usually the conditions are so hard that it makes the opportunity almost impossible. In fact, the compulsory saving system is in most cases only another link in the chain which fetters the worker to the employer. At the larger factories where the dormitory system prevails, large flimsy buildings accommodate the workers. These are often as crowded as are the slum-quarters of large cities. The housing is fr^ but the workers pay for their food and clothing which is generally furnished at a minimum cost. The dor- mitories are enclosed by a high fence which includes all the factory buildings. Although only women are housed within the enclosure, the protection is ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 165 not generally effective. With the change from the day- to the night-shifts, men workers can readily come and go to and from the compound, and as the sleeping apartments in the dormitories are easily ac- cessible — merely a matter of pushing open the slid- ing windows or doors which run the length of the sleeping apartments — ^all sorts of sex irregularities may occur. To be sure sex immorality is not so seriously condemned in Japan as with us, at least not until there are serious results. Then usually the unfortunate girl is sent away. In the smaller country towns, factory workers are commonly housed and fed by the manager. The outer doors to their sleeping apartments are gener- ally locked at night to prevent their getting away. Sometimes the manager rents houses to accommo- date his workers, but the dwelling places are su- pervised by the recruiting agents, who sometimes permit immoral license with the double purpose of keeping the workers better satisfied by adding a lit- tle to their incomes and incidentally adding also to the income of the agent himself with whom the profits of immorality are shared. Thus it can readily be seen how many shameful abuses may result through this system from which there is almost no legitimate release before the worker is reduced to utter worthlessness by disease or bad health. Thousands of such releases are granted annually, and the broken-down workers either return home to linger in misery for a time, i66 MODERN JAPAN then die, mostly with tuberculosis, or they go over to clandestine or licensed prostitution, hoping to find life a little more endurable. Parallel with the continuous dismissal of broken-down workers is the incessant demand for fresh workers — ^the inevitable result of a system cruel as it is wasteful and de- structive, and dangerous to the future welfare of the whole nation if it continues uncorrected. In justice to some of the best factory employers, it must be said that a few have made real efforts to improve the condition of their workers. The working day is eleven hours; good hospitals are furnished; theaters with carefully selected amusements are pro- vided; the holidays have been increased; the dor- mitories are not so crowded but that the bedding may sometimes be ventilated; the food is good though simple and furnished at a very low cost; children under twelve are not received ; and the sav- ings may be had on demand. At such well con- ducted factories there is no lack of workers, as is commonly the case. But the number of sudi places is so small that the relative reisults upon the great body of workers are practically negligible. Among all the memories we retain of Japan — most of which are pleasant ones — ^perhaps the most vivid and depressing was one carried away after a social hour spent at one of the factories in Osaka with an expert Japanese children's entertainer in charge of the evening. About nine o'clock, after having worked twelve ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 167 hours, from four hundred to six hundred girls, clean and fed, crowded into a room and knelt Japanese fashion, one against the other upon the matting be- fore us. We sat upon a platform face to face with this group. We asked no questions [concerning the ages of the workers, but judged they ranged from nine to twen- ty years. Some were sWeet-smiling little girls cud- dling up closely to the motherly older ones. A few had bright, pleasant faces, but most of them ap- peared dull, listless and exhausted, and when the vivacious entertainer began they showed little inter- jest or hope of being amused. As the entertainer moved about, snapping his fin- gers with animation at certain climaxes, the children brightened and some laughed heartily, but many in the midst of their laughter drooped their heads and fell over upon the shoulders of those next them, limp with exhaustion. In a few minutes many were asleep, and most of those sleeping held their mouths wide open which indicated adenoids or other nasal affections. The agony of watching this group of young girls and children struggling to keep awake and to keep their aching bodies from collapse became almost unbearable. Indeed their faces betrayed keen suf- fering as the program continued. Yet here was only one illustration of the condition of many thou- sands of young workers in Japan. Tom from their homes, many at such a tender age that it seems the 1 68 MODERN JAPAN direst cruelty to deprive them of family surround- ings and to herd them together indiscriminately away from all home and humanizing influences, their bodies were being so rapidly and surely de- stroyed that one was certain that these, like thou- sands of others, would shortly be numbered among the other thousands of physical wrecks which are turned out annually from these factories of human destruction again to be replaced by thousands of other fresh young girls who in turn will be destroyed by the same merciless process. All this transpires in the land of Nippon where rdatioms between parents and children, between employer and em- ployee, are so much lauded and declared to be so much superior to similar relations among Western peoples. On every hand in the course of our inves- tigations we had been assured of the fine attitude of benevolence and consideration on the part of the Japanese employer and of the gratitude and appre- ciation on the part of the Japanese workers. In- deed, many had maintained to us that industrial relationships were so superior in Japan that there was really no need of laws to restrain employers or to protect the workers who so generally appreciated the benevolent treatment which they received. VI For years the old established Confucian disdain of legal education and the old benevolent paternal ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 169 ideals of feudalism furnished the backbone to the tenacious resistance to legal reform. The chief pro- moters of modem industrial enterprises were them- selves members of the ruling class under the old feudal regime. Naturally those most opposed to industrial reforms were the industrial leaders and business men, many of whom were closely related to government officials. As early as 1895 a Society of Social Politics was formed in Japan composed chiefly of university professors, business men and statesmen, with the purpose of bringing newly developed social and industrial abuses into the field of discussion. Noth- ing tangible was accomplished, however, until 191 1, when Law No. 46 was finally promulgated. But this led to no direct social consequence since the law, after haying been passed, was carefully shelved to await the time when the small sum of fifty thousand yen might be appropriated to provide inspection offi- cials to see that the law was enforced. It is extremely interesting to note the nature of much of the public discussion during the years of agitation for legislative action — it is so tyirical of the old Japanese view-point. Baron Shibusawa — the leading Japanese finan- cier, a Confucianist and one of the most public spir- ited and representative patriots — in a series of a "Hundred Talks," published later in two large toI- umes, perhaps best reflected the mental attitude common among his class. I70 MODERN JAPAN Social and family problems, he declared, were not to be solved simply by law. The relation existing hitherto between capitalists and laborers had been a family relation. To establish this relation on the basis of rights and duties would have the effect of creatitag distance between classes. Let the rich ful- fill their obligations to society as rich. Let the poor perform their duties as poor exerting themselves. Let the upper and lower classes mutually forbear and give way to one another. Thus social harmony and good feeling would be maintained. Industrial laws, he feared, would become the source of agitation be- tween capitalists and laborers. He feared also that limitation as to age and hours of work would meet with opposition among laborers. They desired to work as long as possible and to eause their children to work in order to increase the family earnings. The law would thwart their purposes. Moreover, workmen lived in unsanitary condi- tions in their own homes and they would prefer higher wages to sanitary improvements in factories. In a word, the bill, the object of which was to befriend the laborers, was calculated to grieve and disappoint them. Baron Shibusawa's remedy was to revert to the Confucian-feudal ideals. Let the relation between capitalist and laborer be that which existed between parent and child, between prince and retainer. In opposing factory legislation the feudal ideals were generally advocated. During a discussion be- ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 171 fore the Society of Social Politics, Mr. G. Kolay- ashi, counselor of the Imperial Government' Rail- wayis, offered an opinion which is still held largely in Japan. In reply to an argument that the proposed factory laws were intended to put down the strong and protect the weak, particularly women and chil- dren, he asked: "What need is there for factory laws in view of the excellent spirit among the Japan- ese people ? In the West where this fine spirit was not known, where the strong oppressed the weak, the necessity for factory laws was recognized a hun- dred years ago, since it was necessary to restrain capitalists. In Japan the laboring people prefer long hours. The people are poor. Old, young, men, women and children alike have to exert them- selves; competition is keen, and Japan cannot bring about the industrial conquest of other strong nations except by cheap labor and long hours." This latter statement furnishes the key to all the opposition to industrial legislation. In more def- inite terms, it implies — Succeed we must, and only by long hours and cheap labor can this be accom- plished. So let us not disturb the beautiful old customs by which master and servant are bound together. Seventy years ago, it must be remembered, simi- lar ideas and conditions dominated England, and twenty years ago they were commonly prevalent in the United States. But in Japan opposed to powerful men like Baron Shibusawa and Imperial 172 MODERN JAPAN Counselor Kolayashi advocating the old feudal ideals, are a few strong, fearless men like Pro- fessors Toda and Kuwata, Mr. E. Komaxia of the House of Lords and President of Keio University, Dr. Soyeda, Member of the House of Lords, and a minority group of eminent and similarly minded men who vigorously denounced these belated ideals — ^the lack of public concern for the welfare of the workers and for the future social welfare of the nation, the lack of economic intelligence and the blind and cold-hearted neglect of workers by states- men and the State. During all this agitation the majority of the Jap- anese people remained indifferent to existing condi- tions, and in face of such powerful opposition to re- form it took great courage to persist on the part of the reformers. Even men of powerful social and political influence scarcely dared speak out openly and frankly. We knew personally of one eminent Japanese who, though he openly advocated reform, dared not state conditions as he knew them actually to be; consequently, he went to the pains of writing a se- ries of able articles exposing the exploiting system of Japan and suggesting legislation to abolish the prevalent abuses. These articles he published in a prominent English paper under an assumed English name and afterward had them copied and circulated in Japan, with a view to quickening the pressure at home. ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 173 VII But let us inquire into the legislation actually achieved. In 1909 legislation for the control of factories was first taken in hand. A bill was for-- mulated, considered by a committee appointed by the Diet and finally — ^because of disagreement-— withdrawn. In 1910 a draft of a second factory law was made, but, like the first, failed to be enacted. This bill in a slightly amended form was passed by the Diet in January, 191 1. The time when the act was put into operation was left to be fixed by Imperial ordinance. Originally it was intended that the year following its passage would see it in force. In January, 1912, it was announced that this would be done in 1914. The delay was neces- sary to await financial adjustments and the appro- priation of fifty thousand yen for supervisory offi- cials. Early in 19 15 a further postponement until April, 19 1 6, was announced. But once more there was difficulty and disappointment. In May, 1916, it appears certain regulations did not meet with the approval of the Privy Council and the bill was to be amended and ready for final adoption in Septem- ber. It was at last published in the Official Gazette as an Imperial ordinance so it is not Hkely to meet with further changes or delay. The original proposals of this act have been changed until it is claimed that the bill is merely a shadow of its original form. Perhaps the worst 174 MODERN JAPAN feature is the exemption of all the State factories from this law. There is also a special provision allowing an extension of working hours in factories engaged in raw silk and silk textiles. Special privi- leges for some industries have of course aroused prompt inquiries from the textile industries. Why should not such privileges be extended to them also ?, Children under ten years are excluded from fac- tory work. The original law fixed the age at twelve, and even the ten-year-old provision may be cancelled by special permission from the authorities. Children from ten to twelve may be employed only on certain light work and not over six hours per day, and provisions must be made so they may complete the six years' prima;ry course. Obviously, after children have worked six hours they are in no condition to take up their studies. Even in the original law of 191 1, as has been stated, there were many loopholes for evasion. For example, one provision required that children un- der twelve years of age should not be employed in the factories. At the same time another provision declared that children under fifteen were not to be employed longer than twelve hours per day. An- other provision decreed that twelve hours should be the maximum day — except at times of special busi- ness pressure. The regulations of 19 16 provide for the gradual reduction of hours for young persons and women, commencing at fourteen hours per day, then to thirteen and finally to twelve, the process of reduction covering a period of fifteen years. ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 175 When it is taken into account that only two holi- days a month are granted and that the intervening periods of rest during working hours are usually not over thirty minutes, it still leaves conditions de- plorable. In fact, the new law is almost a farce, since it promises so little relief to the workers. But while the enactment and eventual application of this law as it now stands can have no momen- tous social results, the fact that the Government itself has been moved to pass legislation indicates that a few enlightened, public-spirited men have succeeded in the face of powerful and persistent oppositibn in rousing and crystallizing enough influ- ential opinion to bring about some action in the right direction. This in itself is a real triumph and should give courage to the agitators to continue the strug- gle. Meanwhile general education in Japan is becom- ing more and more popular, and public opinion is certain to become stronger and less tolerant of the present ghastly exploitation of human life. It is to be hoped also that in time the glorification of submission and obedience in women will become less potent, and that women themselves may be roused to a sense of the injustices forced upon them and will cease to be so docile and submissive to employers, who for mere pecuniary gain in a few years destroy them physically and relegate them to the great masses of social wastage with no hope, no prospect, and no outlook but misery and death be- fore them. CHAPTER X POVERTY AND SOCIAL EVILS By some modem writers it is claimed that while there are many poor in Japan, there is Httle actual poverty or pauperism. Under the old feudal sys- tem this "was unquestionably true. In old Japan there were few vast fortunes. Comparatively speaking, the whole people were poor. But under the modern industrial system, greater accumula- tions of wealth are possible and the old story is repeating itself — the rich are becoming richer and the poor poorer. The burdensome taxes resulting from two wars have been the strongest factor tending to force mul- titudes of the poorer classes into the outer poverty lines. Wages have generally risen, but living com- modities have gradually been so heavily taxed as to result in the poor having far less than formerly; while for many thousands the struggle for the bar- est and often most wretched existence is a truly desperate one. Every large city of Japan may now boast of its slum quarters in which conditions of wretchedness are nowhere surpassed. Tokyo has its Shitaya 176 POVERTY AND SOCIAL EVILS 177 quarter where multitudes are herded together in the lowest degree of human degradation. In streets like the Shin Ami Cho there are about three hundred and fifty tiny two- and three-mat houses (six and nine feet square) occupied by people too poor to possess the rags which cover them at night. For one-half sen, or a fourth of a cent per night, they rent sleeping space and are often crowded in upon the floor of these tiny compartments with a whole family' or with other unfortunates like themselves. For half a sen they rent the miserable coverings made of dirty rags or pieces of clothing, and some- times in the severest weather a whole family must cuddle together under the one covering. In Shitaya there are several larger houses for the sleeping ac- commodation of detached people, where sleeping space with rag coverings are rented at from one to two sen per night. At these places men, women and children are huddled together as closely as possible upon the floor in filthy rags infected with vermin. While housing conditions in Shitaya and in corre- sponding quarters of other cities are detestable, the feeding of these multitudes is still more revolting. One may literally say they are fed upon garbage.* Fish heads and entrails, partly decomposed fruits, rice and other cooked and uncooked vegetables, com- pose their diet. There are established restaurants in some of the poorest quarters of the larger cities *Cf. Henry Dumolard, Le Japon politique, economic et social, chapter viii. 178 MODERN JAPAN where a meal of garbage collected from the hotels, restaurants, tea houses or hospitals, is served for from two to five sen (one to two and one-half cents), at a handsome profit. It is said that men have made and are making small fortunes in such collections and dispositions of garbage. One would suppose that in the midst of such dire poverty there could be no opportunities for great gain. But in Japan, as in most countries, the usurer, the speculator, the landlord, commonly reap their richest harvests in the exploitation of the poor. One item of stupendous exploitation is in the rent- ing of the wretched shacks called two-mat houses. The cost of building one of these is about 20 yen ($10.00). They rent commonly for 4 sen per night (4j4 with mats). During the year the rent would amount to 1,460 sen or 14.6 yen — ^about 70 per cent, on the capital invested. Sometimes this amount is almost doubled by renting mere sleeping space. In such cases, even with taxes and the paltry repairs deducted, the net profits may amount to one hundred per cent, annually. Equally large profits, it is said, are reaped from the sale and rental of filthy, ragged clothing and bedding; also in the pawning business where often even the family's supply of food is put in pawn for the day. It is not an uncommon custom, we were informed, for a family to pool their paltry gains at the end of the day in order to purchase enough rice, sweet potatoes, or what not, to last during the next day. After POVERTY AND SOCIAL EVILS 179 eating from this supply at night and again in the morning the remainder is then put in pawn in ordef to get a few sen for materials to start some petty business in the morning, like purchasing straw to make sandals or bamboo for baskets. If the day's earnings permit, the food is redeemed at night, leav- ing a good profit with the pawnee. The Japan Mail of August 29, 1915, contained an editorial on the relief work in the slums of Tokyo which claimed there were then in that city about 205,800 persons who were forced to receive relief from the Imperial Charity Fund and Association and similar organizations. Many imagine that only tramps, vagabonds, ped- dlers, cripples and beggars inhabit these slum quar- ters, but investigators have found that rickshaw men, artizans of various sorts, petty merchants, men who go about repairing household utensils, rag and paper collectors, sweepers, in fact all sorts of people who have fallen into poverty inhabit these quarters. Naturally sex promiscuity, infanticide and dis- ease of all sorts are very common in such districts. Indeed, they are pest-breeding centers and most city governments do little or nothing to improve or ameliorate conditions. Thousands of these people, it is claimed, are too poor even to pay the residence tax which does not generally amount to more than ten or twenty cents a year. Cities in turn give as little public service as possible. The lighting is extremely scant and the sanitary service shameful. i8o MODERN JAPAN In the city of Kobe, for instance, we visited a s^- tion in Fukiai which contained 1,944 one-room, two- mat (six by six feet square) houses. There were eleven blocks which housed 7,510 persons. Most of the alleys on which the houses are built were mere passageways with an open trench extending down one side through which flowed a sluggish little stream of water. Some of the inhabitants were washing food, others were washing pieces of cloth- ing in the water. At the upper end, in a comer of three of the crowded alleys entirely exposed to the public gaze was an open vat with a mere iron rail about it, which served as a community toilet. The human excrement in the vat was overflowing and running down into the water trench in which peo- ple, only a short distance away, were washing food and clothing. Although these vats are emptied every day or two by peasants who purchase the con- tents for fertilizing purposes, yet the accommoda- tions in these congested quarters are inadequate and indecent, to say nothing of the grave dangers to the public health. "Does not the city ever clean up these pest places?" we inquired of our guide who was show- ing us about through the city streets. "Yes, usual- ly before festival days," was the rejoinder. We were further informed that several well-intentfoned Japanese in Kobe who were desirous for better conditions for the very poor people had repeatedly appealed to the authorities for improved lighting and POVERTY AND SOCIAL EVILS i8i sanitation for these quarters, but no action Had re- sulted. Japanese always remind one that even in the most wretched quarters facilities for bathing are always free. Bathing originally was included in the relig- ious rites of the Japanese as of other Oriental peo- ples, and it has become one of the normal functions of life, almost as important as eating. In the bet- ter quarters of large cities, diseased persons may not enter the public bath, but in the very congested slum districts, where diseases of all sorts prevail, the public bath, which is a vat of very hot water into which many individuals enter one after another, after a preliminary soaping, must be a medium for transmitting disease and contagion. Moreover, the clothing of the people in the slums do not have the appearance of receiving the same religious atten- tions as do their bodies. II The abject poverty of Japan is by no means gonfined to the congested districts of the larger cit- ies. As has been stated in a previous chapter, the cultivated land is much overcrowded, and the peas- ant on his small holdings is commonly unable to eke out an existence for himself and his family except by engaging in some subsidiary occupation at which each member of the family may turn a hand during every spare moment of the day. But even in pros- i82 ' MODERN JAPAN perous times the peasant usually has no margin for economies which might tide him over periodical calamities like floods, famines and earthquakes. When such adversities do come, invariably there are thousands of peasant families who face literal starva- tion and without charitable aid could not survive. Floods and famines, however, do not appear to be the worst inflictions constantly menacing the peas- ants. Numerous uncontrolled and merciless money- lenders are the leeches who constantly sap the life and hope of the poor farmers as well as of many other classes high and low, including tradespeople and petty officials. The vast majority of petty land holdings are heavily mortgaged and at such extortionate rates of interest as would crush the prosperous, to say noth- ing of the poor. These rates vary from twenty to fifty per cetit. compounded monthly. In some cases they mount even to one hundred and two hundred per cent. Such shameful usury coupled with the other heavy taxes imposed by the Government upon every commodity, every necessity — ^and some are taxed several times in different ways — ^have un- doubtedly combined to create these vast hordes of destitute poor who nimiber not thousands but millions. In 19 14 tKe Government made the startling an- nouncement that during the previous winter nine million people in the northern districts of the Em- pire, including the Hokkaido, were in pressing need POVERTY AND SOCIAL EVILS 183 of assistance. From an article on "Relief Work" by the Rev. J. P. Neone, one learns that the suffer- ing among these people in the rural districts at such periods is most acute. "Thousands possess no bed- ding, except a few old rags, no fuel, and no food." In the face of such distress, it is not so astonish- ing that parents are induced to bind over their daughters — often little girls — into slavery of the most shameful kind. At such periods of acute des- olation the recruiting agents for the factories and for the Yoshiwara (prostitute quarters) are always on hand, going from door to door, teUing the poor ignorant people how daughters may save their families from starvation and may lay by extra mon- ey for themselves by doing service in these places for a period of years after which they may return to their homes. When facing such hopeless dis- tress on the one hand and such rosy redeeming pros- pects on the other, parents readily bind over their daughters for a period of from three to seven years either to the great factories or to the prostitute quarters, little dreaming what martyrdom their chil- dren must usually undergo. The methods of recruiting for the factories have already been discussed. Those for the Yoshiwara are similar, excepting that the contracts call for a lump sum to be paid the parents in advance. This leads to a discussion of the question of li- censed prostitution in its various phases — ^an insti- tution established and controlled by the State. 1 84 MODERN JAPAN III The Yoshiwara is an ancient institution of Japan, but the present system of State-licensed prostitution was established in 1872 on the advice of a British army surgeon then in the employ of the Japanese Government with a view to lessening the abuses and horribly degrading conditions of social vice con- trolled by private individuals and political scoun- drels. The Western world looks aghast upon a State that permits parents practically to sell their daughters into lives of shame and slavery and itself shares richly in the profits. Ghastly as the practice is and loudly as it should be denounced, yet the self-right- eous, superior attitude which most Occidental writ- ers assume in the discussion of this institution as it is established in Japan is almost ludicrous, since it must be acknowledged that the social evils as existing in Western lands, and particularly in our own large cities, are far more degrading for both sexes and far more merciless and immoral in their effect upon the young women victims concerned than is the case in Japan, An example of smug superiority typical of so many Occidental writers, particularly British, is found in Lawton's Empires of the Far East* He says : "It is not realized that in the midst of a cotm- *Volume I, page 724. POVERTY AND SOCIAL EVILS 185 try which, perhaps, more than any other part of the world, has been endowed with the glorious beauties of nature, thousands of women, and even little girls are enslaved in a condition of moral degradation that has no parallel in lands where the teachings of Christianity are accepted." This sort of comment indicates either supreme ignorance of the conditions of prostitution as they exist in Western countries or an intolerable phari- saical twist of mind. The statement would doubt'- less be more literally true of conditions in Western lands if it read : "Permitted by the National Gov- ernment, and local governments sharing often in the shameful profits of their exploitations, thousands of women and little girls are allowed to be enslaved in a condition of moral degradation that has no parallel except in lands where the teachings of Chris- tianity are accepted."* It must also be remembered that sex morality has not been rated the highest morality for Japanese women as it has been for Western women. Self- sacrifice for a high purpose was formerly rated of greater importance socially. Consequently, Japa- nese social ethics decreed that a woman might de- file her body but not her soul to save her family *For data concerning vice conditions in Western countries, see The Social Evil in Chicago by the Vice Commission; Kneeland's Commercialized Prostitution in New York; Flex- ner's Prostitution in Europe; and Sanger's History of Pros- titution. i86 MODERN JAPAN from death, starvation, extreme suffering, or her husband from disgrace. Until recent years, since the teachings of Christianity have somewhat influ- enced the thought concerning social standards, daughters were respected, even lauded, for such sac- rifices, just as the sons were lauded for laying down their lives for their retainers, and now for the Mi- kado or their country. Prof. Rein, writing as early cis 1884, says : "In the opinion of all those who are actually acquainted with the facts relating to this subject, the fallen woman in Japan is never found to occupy so low a position as in our own great towns. On the contrary, the inmates of the Yoshi- wara are not despised but pitied by the better classes of society; and indeed it is known that they are pursuing their degraded avocation from no fault of their own, but at the will of their parents or near- est relatives, who have for the most part sold them in their early years to the proprietors of houses of public resort, where they are trained in various branches, but more particularly in the arts of Aspa- sia, until the time arrives when they are fit to turn them to account as slaves of their masters."* The practice of parents selling daughters purely for gain has not been uncommon.! "In plain lan- guage," says Lawton, "some parents are not slow to bring all the pressure of that family system of auth- ority which has been so inconsiderately extolled, to *Rein, Japan, page 432. tLawton, Empires of the Par East, volume I, page 728. POVERTY AND SOCIAL EVILS 187 bear upon their daughters in order to induce them to quit a life o£ virtue for a bondage of vice from which they themselves may receive the ill-gotten proceeds. . . . Moreover, it is notorious; and in addition there are thousands of instances where, if the relatives are not actually parties to the evil con- tract, they are, at least, constant receivers of the re- sultant earnings." IV As has been stated, the Yoshiwara, or segregated quarter of prostitution, is an old institution in Ja- pan. It was regulated by legislation as early as 1 61 7, with a view to lessening and controlling, more or less, the various evils associated with vice, such as kidnapping children for evil purposes and prevent- ing prolonged and costly debauches; also with a view to facilitating the hunting down of criminals who so often take refuge in vice quarters. A custom which indicated that prostitution is not frowned upon seriously by the public is the frequent practice of locating the segregated quarters close to the temples. In fact, there are many places where the temples are on one side of a street and the houses of pleasure on the opposite side. Often the main road leading to the temples passes through the licensed quarters. "On the great temple festivals," Rein informs us, "they [the inmates of the Yoshi- wara] have to march in the procession in their best i88 MODERN JAPAN attire and to serve the dishes at the feast given by some high official." Indeed, it has always been the custom on festival days for the people, even the bet- ter classes, to go with their families, including the children, to the Yoshiwara to watch the gay, bril- liant spectacles given by the inmates. In Japan as elsewhere there are grades and classes of public women. The geisha are the public singers or entertainers. Commonly they are recruited as children, or they are adopted as orphans or kid- napped with a view to preparing them for public life. When quite young they are trained in dancing, singing, posing, story-telling, playing the sami- sen, in pretty manners ; in short, in all the arts and wiles of conduct which will eventually make them attractive to men. Rarely are they given any moral training beyond being docile and obedient. Natur- ally, they are ill-fitted to resist the temptations by which they are constantly beset later as public en- tertainers. Very commonly they are first corrupted by their so-called foster fathers, who afterward hire them out as mistresses to natives or foreigners for a short period of time, or as concubines. When the masters wish to change, the girls return to their foster parents and are hired out as entertainers, or as the trade may indicate. But some of the geisha appear to manage their own lives fairly well, and with more independence than any other classes of women in Japan. Some have married, and are to-day living legitimate con- POVERTY AND SOCIAL EVILS 189 ventional lives in high places. Up to a very recent period the geisha were omnipresent at all public and even private functions of importance from the Court down. At mixed social gatherings it has been an imperative custom for wives to exchange formal courtesies and then to retire to one side and remain silent and demure while the geisha performed, after which the husbands amused themselves with the geisha while the wives looked on. But it must al- ways be remembered that loose, familiar conduct is never seen in public in Japan. Good form is al- most invariably observed. Of late years there has begun to be considerable reaction against this old- established custom. A movement against the om- nipresence of the geisha, conducted by Madam Ya- jima and her W. C. T. U. following, has made such an impression that even during the recent cor- onation festivals the geisha were largely eliminated from the Court functions. The common joro (prostitutes), and even the higher classes of courtesans, led a very different life from that of the geisha. They are recruited when young by agents — ^men or women, who follow recruiting as a business — ^and are also given some training with a view to preparing them for later duty. In short, practices corresponding to those of the white slave trade of which we have so re- cently become aware have long been common in Japan as elsewhere. "It is a positive fact," says De Becker in The Nightless City, "that some evil- I90 MODERN JAPAN minded persons make it a regular profession to take in the daughters of the poor people under the pre- text of adopting them as their own children, but when the girls grow up they are sent out to service as concubines or as prostitutes, and in this manner the persons who have adopted them reap a golden harvest." In considering the problem of prostitution in Ja- pan, it must be borne in mind that almost no young women engage in this profession of their own free will. Generally they are bound over by a firm and fast contract made by parents or guardians after the girl has first formally appealed in writing to the Government for permission to engage in the prac- tice. It is true that in order to safeguard* the applicant as much as the system will permit, she must appear in person at the police station, where she is closely questioned and warned against taking such a fatal step. She is then required to file a document, usu- ally through one having power of attorney, giving full details of her necessity for becoming a pros- titute. She is also questioned concerning her birth, parents or relatives, the place where she intends to practise, the name she will adopt, her proposed term of service, her present means of livelihood ; in brief, regarding everything pertaining to her life. This application must be accompanied by the documents *De Becker, Nightless City, pages 333-334. POVERTY AND SOCIAL EVILS 191 of consent signed and sealed by the proper parties, i. e., her family. "Strictly speaking," Lawton in- forriis us,* "the law places itself on the right side. Theoretically, the girls are free to choose their own way in life. In reality, they are bound hand and foot, just as much as though they wore chains and manacles." In a word, the Japanese girl may in no wise follow her own will. After official permission to practise prostitution has been granted the applicant must undergo a med- ical examination before the contract with the brothel keeper is made. The contract is then executed, signed, sealed and witnessed. Usually a sum of money is paid in advance to the parents or guardian, for which the girl gives service until the debt is cleared. During her period of service the girl re- ceives food, clothing, medical attention — all of which comes out of her portion of her earnings. Unfail- ingly she is encouraged to be extravagant in the brothel, and the charges made for all she receives are so exorbitant that often instead of liquidating her debt at an early period, as she hopes always to do in the beginning, fresh charges are added con- stantly to her account, and her debt increases. Perhaps the worst feature of the contract is the practice of having a guarantor who may be held legally responsible for the loans by the brothel keeper, in case the girl by some chance does not *I