A WOMAN BANKER

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 100, 21 January 1918, Page 3

A WOMAN BANKER

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT IN JAPAN EAST FOLLOWS WEST When Asa Hirooka wag a little girl she wanted to be a. boy. That was because she believed all the privileges she wished to enjoy were confined to the other sex. j\sa Hirooka is now a Japanese woman, and early in lifo she rebelled—that was somo fifty years ago, she- admits—rebelled against tho conventions of her country. Aβ she grew older sho determined to throw off the shackles of customs that bound the Japaueso woman of her younger days. Sho succeeded so well that she became the first modern hanker of Japan, and took on coal-mining and life insurance as side issues. Later in years she became interested in thß study of philosophy, and to-day is an ' earnest Christian and social reform worker. ' Lucia B. Harriman tells tho interesting story of the life of Madam Hirooka in "The World Outlook." Sho says :—

It was in the,garden of her Borne in Osaka, that central dynamo of industrial Japan, that Madam Hirooka told me the story of her lifo, a record of the ever-fascinating struggle for the expression , of individuality, made doubly difficult hero in the Orient, where the individual—particularly if she has' the ill-luck to be a woman—is lost in tho family, the real unit of sooiety. ,

. Throughout the interview—which-was carried on through the medium of an interpreter, a charming girl student of Doshisha Girls' School, a representative typo of the coming woman of Japan—it interested me to obsorvo that the term "woman's movement," which we used frequently during our conversation, was always expressed in English. Another expression that was never translated but used by Madam Hirooka at frecment intervals was "strong will."

These two expressions form tho keynotes to her entire career. Sho possessed the latter, doubtless an inheritance from a male ancestor, and she believed from her childhood in tho

former, although it hns only been within tho past few years that she gavo it a name. To-day she is Japan's foremost exponent of tho woman movement. Her entire life has been a protest against tho inequalities of tho sexes as emphasised by tho laws and oustoms of her people.

"When did you resolve to assert yourself?" I asked her early in our conversation.

"Early in my girlhood, ,, she replied. "The nioro I thought about it the,more determined I was that a girl should be "!>ated as a human boiug—not as a slave. No expression of this feeling escaped me, however. Outwardly I was a typical Japanese girl, meek, submissive, dutiful, , self-effacing. Then at the age of seventeen came marriage and deliverance of a sort. To the average Japanese woman marriage is only a shift in tho obediences, from that of one's own parents to that of tho husband and his parents. "My husband was nine years older than I and the nominal head of the great firm of Hirooka, which, like that of my father's family, carried on the financial affairs! the money-lendiug, etc., of the Daimios—the feudal lords of the nation. Actually my husband regarded money-making as vulgar and beneath his notice. With others of V.is kind lie spent the greater part of his time at the fashionable tea ceremonies and at geisha entertainments. "This gave me my opportunity. As soon as my husband left in the evening I would begin my studies. I taught myself to read and write the Chinese characters. I purchased a sorobau, and taught myself mathematics. I bought books and devoured them. There were comparatively few to be had, for wo were still a hermit nation, shutting ourselves in, and the West, and all it had to give us, out. Science, politics, industry, Western literature, and arts were all closed books to iis before the Restoration, for wider the Tokugawa shogunate there had been 300 years of isolation from the rest of the world, with emphasis .'aid on luxurious living and elaborate social customs to while away the time of {he rich and idle.

"Ona of the few books that I was able to obtain explained the American banking system to me. I knew that our business was in the same state as that of many another bjj family—on tho verge of dissolution; that unless someone undertook its management ?nd directed it with close attention to detail it was bound to fall. I knew I could do this. I tingled to show my ability, to use my newly-acquired knowledge. "But that a woman should engage in business, particularly that which related to money matters and high finance, was unheard of, unwomanly, disgraceful. I knew it would mean ostracism, jealous criticism, ridiculo, and opposition from every Bide. But 1 knew that I was strong enough to battle against oven these, and I set myself to my task with the consent of my husband, who was both sceptical of my ability and indifferent to my ambitions."

What Madam Hirooka was able-' to accomplish is writ large in the history of Japan's modern business development. She notion]? put her hueband's business f "in excellent condition, saving it from failure at the time of the Restoration in 1868, when all about them went to the wall, but developed into a modern banking business on Western lines —the first in the history of the nation, ■which now has more than 5000 national and private banking establishments. • Not content with this demonstration of her business ability. Mme. Hirooka. with far-sighted wisdom, forecasted the development of Japan's industries, her cotton and silk manufactories, her railways and shipping interests, and advanced the idea of the necessity for the development of Japan's coal mines, specifically those on the island. of Kyushu.

This met with stubborn opposition from her business associates. Mining was looked upon with the same scorn that an Englishman looks upon "trade ,, —not to be mentioned in polito society. Not being able to overcome the antagonism of her family and associates, Mme. Hiroolca determined iinon the undertaking without their aid. Sho went to Moji, and inspected the land, leased it from the j Government, and personally directed tho development of the mines. This was in 1879, when she was but twenty-eight years old.

Desnite the predictions of failure, for mining without modern machinery and trained mon was regarded as a great speculation, Mme. Hirooka's venture proved an unqualified success and in ten years she was able to sell out the greater part of her business to the Mitsui company at a large profit, reserving a small share which she rceentlv sold to the Government for a half-million yen.

Another enterprise in which Mme. H'rooka h."s been a pioneer is life insurance. The closing out of her- mining interests left her free to return to Osaka, where she enlarged the hank and formed a life insurance company, called the Asnhi Company, with a capital of 2,000,000 yen._ This has since been consolidated with other companies, and is now known as the Vai,do Seimei Hoken Kaisha.

To-day, Mme. Hirooka, at the age of sixty-five, although as keenly interested as ever in her business, has relinquished much of its personal supervision to her son-in-law, who, as a yoshi (an adopted son) carries on the family business and perpetuates the family name, which lie adopted on his marriago to her only daughter. At sixty lime. Hirooka began tlu> study of philosophy. At sixty-two she became interested in Christianity, studied its message, and accepted it. Today she has pledged herself to spend the remaining years allotted to her in disseminating its truths and working for the advancement of the women of her country, who, she assured me, needed more than any other one thing "to develop strong -wills."

Many men in Japan, Mme. Hirooka confided in me, favoured Christianity except for its moral code and its attitude toward women. Once, in a conversation with the late Prince Ito, he had assured her that he thought Christianity "good on the whole, but tea strict in its moral standards." She had come to realise, she told me, that "only Christian ideals would lift women to the place they had a right to' occupy, side by side with men."

Within the past year, to thq surprise even of herself, Mme. Hirookn, lias launched forth as a public speaker. She. is forceful and dynamic; her talks to the hundreds of women, whose secluded lives have been the practical working out of that ■ same hook of morals which Mme. Hirooka f,o despised in her .youth, are along Christian and practical lines. Mine. Hirooka many yenrs ngo adopted Western dress, and just as she demands that her frocks ho foreipr, so has she built her house—a handsome mansion in the Biihiirhs of Osaka. She hns made concessions to the family by addinc Japanese rooms, where her grandchildren spend much of thoir time when they are not studying under an American governess. "How long will it tako to bring it all about?" I asked. "At least fifty ..-years," slw replied. "I shall not be hprf to seo it, but it will come." <