LAND OF RISING SUN

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 83, 5 October 1931, Page 8

LAND OF RISING SUN

CHICAGO JUDGE ON JAPAN

EASY DIVORCE

Prefacing his remarks by pointing out that the country is peopled by 82 million inhabitants,' and ranks, fifth in size among the nations of the world in point of population, Judge Collyer, of Chicago, gave an address, on Japan at the luncheon, held to-day by the Wellington, branch of the EnglishSpeaking Union. Judge Colly er is a much-travelled American who hag visited most of the countries of the world, and some of them many, times. He skid that he had never seen as many babies as he saw in Japan, where every man- and woman- appeared to bo carrying a baby. It was not, however, until Japan came-to odopt western ideas that she rose, within the course of a little more than half a century, to the position which she now holds, in which her counsel is always sought in any international conference. Judge Collyer referred to the strong opposition that had been met with when the present Emperor, before ascending the throne, decided to make a trip to Europe to study foreign customs, and subsequently introduced many of these i customs into his own country. The Emperor is the 124 descendant of his line, and no other, country, except the kingdom of Abyssinia can claim to possess a line of rulers which has occupied the throne for an unbroken sequence of 3000 years. It was their enlightened Emperor who forbade the Japanese to have so much as a thimbleful of wine at the inaugural function when he ascended the throne, Judge Collyer remarking that drinking was one of the habits that Oriental people had adopted from Western countries. Eeferring to the women of Japan, Judge Collyer said that they are regarded more or less as chattels, and have no claim on their husbands even for the necessaries of life. When he was in the country he had been approached by Japanese women who had asked him to do what he could to/secure for them some of the freedom and consideration that they had seen enjoyed by American and European \ women. Divorce in Japan mad 6 even the Reno system of "thirty days, thirty dollars," seem difficult in comparison. All that was necessary was for the husband to call in a neighbour and lodge a complaint, just or unjust, against his wife, and the Japanese were too courteous for any questions to -be asked regarding the strength of the grounds for the decree.