JAPAN.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 549, 22 March 1876, Page 3

JAPAN.

The last mail from Japan, says a contemporary, brings some particulars concerning the introduction of compulsory military service, which was enforced by a decree dated the sth of November last. This decree is preceded by a proclamation of the Mikado, announcing that the time has arrived for suppressing one of the unjust and arbitrary laws of the feudal system, and for reverting to the ancient system, " under which every male citizen was a soldier, and the army was composed of the entire nation." This idea is developed by the DaijoDaijin in the preamble to the new law. After pointing out that the despotism of the middle ages had created the s-pecial guard of samourais who alone had the right to wear and to use the sword, and that the Imperial authority, when it had resumed its rights, diminished the pay of the samourais and forbade them to wear the sword, forming at the same time the nucleus of a regular army, the Day in states that any army which is not composed of all classes of the nation must be more or less a sort of praetorian guard, and that this is why military service must be made universal. " This is the true meaning of compulsory service, which leads to the formation of a really national army, and the determination of the right of each individual citizen to contribute to the defence of the country in danger—a right which will enable all Japanese the better to understand their duty towards the law and the Emperor, and which will prove to them that they are bound to give their labor to their country in time of peace, and shed their blood for it in time of war." The decree which accompanies this declaration enacts that every Japanese who has completed his twentieth year shall, if his number is drawn in the conscription, serve three years in the active army, and receive military instruction in his province. The time of service wi'l be reduced to two years for those whose military instruction is complete, and soldiers who obtain certificates of good conduct will be drafted into the Imperial Guard. Every soldier who passes a satisfactory examination will be admitted into the military college for officers, but if appointed non commissioned officer or officer he will have to serve for seven years, and will then be passed into tho reserve. The reserve and the territorial armies are to consist of soldiers whose time of service has expired and of men who have escaped the conscription.