The Japan of To=Day.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 19 July 1910, Page 4

The Japan of To=Day.

DAWN OF A NEW JSRA-. (Daily Mail Tokio Correspondent.) The Japan of to-day is a country emerging from crisis into hope. Five years have now 'passed since the treaty of Portsmouth was signed, briiiigiiig to an end a war under tho influence of which, in. the .form (if heavy taxation greater' in proportiom bo tboif ability to betir it than that bonne by any other nation, the .ja'paiiie.se people are still .struggling. Under .the optimistic influence of the war's successes there came a commercial "boom," and despite (the experience of only a decade previously, following the Japan-China .. war, the times seamed highly prosperous. Companies were floated, each of whose capital stock was reckoned in millions, where prior to the war few dared to talk in thousands. There was a mushroom growth of these companies. People without a penny to their nani.esi blossomed out as ccMipaiiy promoters. Huge sums went iiito dii'ectors' pockets renre-seutiii-g premiums that had been paid to purchase morely the right to subscribe to shares. In a few months an aggregate of over a thousand million yen of stock \yas floated upon tilw public, whioli if it had been called wpon to produce a tenth of tlie money, would 1 have beeji unable to meet its obligation. For over a year THIS "BOOM" continued, until, toward the close of 1907, a . succession of commercHvl s'.wndals, together with the wave of depression which swept ■ over the «-hole world at tliis time, brought about ilJie crisis from which the country is only now beginning to recover. With a population greater by onefifth than that of England, but with only a tenth of the tirade, Japan had no reserves against a period of depression, and be-r vital power was i seriously affected. Trade had been marked' by a continuous decline in the past three years, and this means much to a young country, whore a steady growth is essential to norm ail development. But the turning point has arrived, and the exhibition is its onward and visible sign. The reaction has taught caution, but « now era has already begun, and Japan is to-day once more a nation of hope a«ul strenuous Activity. Almost boundless markets lie at Japan's very doors, and already the foreigner is beginning to fool tlie effects of her competition. What is to stop her from •becoming itlie England of the "East in other than naval mattersl . One factor slie has to contend with, however, which may ■prove serious-her progress must be maintained in markets where keen voinpctition already exists, where Americans, GERMANS, FRENCH, and English struggle for the mastery. Go wherever she will in Korea, Manenuria, the Middle- kingdom, and beyond, few markets are itnexploited. But trade must be built up, and it is being steadily built u t p with the aid of the State. Politics and commerce go hand in band, and in order to secure the. latter the Japanese Government does not hesitate to help the merchant in ways, direct and indirect, which are difficult for the British mind to appreciate. This is a phase of commercial enterprise that the British art yet .strangers to; but it must bo realised that the .lapane.se Government is, first and foremost, military and commercial, and Japanese merchants part of a machine. It is not for nothing that the Japanese have studied foreign systems for 'orty years; the result in the conviction that progress will Ik> all the surer if it is State-aided and State-directed.

As in trade, so in other ■■i-rt-nient.s of Japanese life, this is o time of reflect ion and consolidation. The Japanese people arc now finding themselves, as it were, after n generation of uncertain and feverish struggle in the ruts of Western civilisation—at one period mad after foreign fashions, at another showing their dislike and- contempt for nil 'iJIIXGK IVOHBIGN. While in titoe groat ewies tlie inilueuce or Western li!e lias Ikicl its elkct, the mass of the nation "oI iiwuns uuvli-aiigecl. liic wife tilt lOlUnvs helniKi lier husband in tlie ritreetj walking ~.; ft short uistiilicc, iii fcliu rear, becaiiise it Ls the custom to do so, But the custom is deeply significant. The time has arrived u'lic'ii 'tlu: value of tlie Japanese w«llUUl's training is to be finally tested. Her Jit e hitherto has been severely domestic, and she lias ne/ei been far from her natural protector, eitiier father, brother, or husband, lint ibhe changes of the tunes are driving her into the factory, into bho big cities, and into the schools. This divorce results from the home is v)ne of the direct results of the growth of industrialism and the Westenvation of the country. The movement is but a recent one. . The life-blood of I tlie factories, ithe products of which eompeto with those of other nations in tire Asiatic markets, is the young female operative, whose pitiaiblo iw.v aucl hard results of international Competition in traclo. She is a victim to the <K:onoinic necessity of ■.•■heap production. Despite >a new outfit of foreign laws, the average man in Japan still ■Uikes a strictly ORIKXTAL VIEW of woman. Xo one can be more conscious of her humilating legal position thaji the educated Japanese wotnuii, who in these latter days has oonie under so much refilling influence in the modern school. She recently made an attempt to remedy her disabilities n the form of a petition to the Diet. This document was signed by a hundred of ! the foremost women of Tokio, prayuig that the marriage laws ho altered. The petition was duly read, in *-he Diet, and it provoked nothing but laughter.- Yet/ in many ways women are taking a more prominent part in the life'of the country year by year, and their influence is sn'roly growng. Xo radical clement such os is represented by the Suffracefcl.es at home has yet made its a«oearance: but we *ire not unacquainted with the Socialist woman agitator. The beat example, however, of the woman's movement is seen in snvh a society as the Bosh in Blub, which was formed recently with the obieof carrying out the precepts r, e the Imperial Boshin Rescript commending loyalty and exhorting ithe Desjpl« to thrift. Loyalty to the Emperor and the EXOOUHAGJOTfiNT OF THRIFT are the mainsprings of this society, and, while there is nothing in nfr <>1 a radical nature, there can be m, dioiibt that the members of this body, all women of the better classes, realise the need for improvement in the status of women generally and are quietly working in thai direction. When it is considered that the men outnumber the women by about one million, that itihe marriage rate and birth rate are steadily decreasing, andthat divorces a.nd stillbirths are much higher in this country tha,n in Europe, it will he apparent that tlibro are many problems demanding atten,tion. , Tlie task of extracting and: bidding that which is best! in West and Knst is in progress in Japan to-day. V\ e *vho know tHie Japaaiese know thai they v>i\] ultimately succeed, loii who studv the panorama of their national life .as *tl is displayed it the Jarinjiese ExhihEion in London will find there the qualities— pluck, natiencp. discrimination—whiohl ensure for -Jive nation ,i greait future.