EDUCATION AND RELIGION
The government of Japan is a constitutional monarchy in which the
emperor not only claims to rule by divine right but by right of
divine birth. He is described as Heaven born, and according to the
accepted history there has been no break in the family line for
twenty-five hundred years. Among no people on earth has there ever
been more universal respect shown, or implicit obedience yielded,
to the reigning family. There never has been a revolt of any
consequence against the emperor, although there have been numerous
conflicts between the shoguns. For about twelve hundred years, from
670 to 1868, the shoguns were, however, the actual rulers, and while
they never questioned the sovereignty of the emperor, they did not
allow him to retain much more than the empty title.
The shoguns were military rulers and a number of them were men
of great force and executive ability. First, the Fujiwara family
controlled the country through the shogunate for nearly four hundred
years; then for a century the Taira and Minamoto families alternated
in the exercise of power; then came the Hojo family and others of
less importance until finally the Tokugawa family became supreme
in the shogunate and continued in power for something like three
hundred years. The emperor lived at Nara until about 1600, when
the capital was moved to Kyoto, where it remained until less than
forty years ago. Tokyo, on the other hand, was the seat of the
shogun power, and there is a very noticeable difference between the
two cities. The shoguns fortified their castles and required the
feudal lords to keep headquarters in Tokyo. One cannot go through
the palace in which the emperor lived permanently without noticing
how plain it is as compared with the castle (both at Kyoto) in
which the shogun resided for a few days during his annual call
upon the emperor. While it may seem strange that the real rulers
never attempted to become emperors in name, it only shows their
intelligence, for by not insisting upon the recognition of the
royal family they were probably more successful in maintaining the
real authority than they would have been had they questioned the
divine right of the immemorial rulers.
During the early part of the last century there began to be a
reaction against the shogun, and when he agreed to the treaties
opening the country to foreign intercourse, his action was taken
advantage of by the friends of the emperor. When the feudal lords
of Choshu attacked the foreign ships at Shimonoseki Strait, the
shogun was compelled to pay an indemnity of three million dollars
and he attempted to chastise the Choshu leaders. His forces were
defeated and he died soon afterward. The emperor seized upon this
event and with the aid of the influential lords of Choshu and
Satsuma abolished the shogunate in 1868. The new shogun accepted
the situation without a struggle and those of his followers who
attempted a resistance were soon routed.
Everything in modern Japan dates from 1868, which is called the
restoration. While in the restoration the emperor was acknowledged
as the sole and absolute ruler in whom all authority was vested,
still it was really the beginning of constitutional government,
for the emperor voluntarily promised his people a constitution, a
promise which was not finally fulfilled until 1889.
The fervor of patriotism that restored to the emperor his original
authority wrought wonders in Japan. The feudal lords came forward
and voluntarily turned their vast estates over to the emperor and
relinquished the authority which they had exercised over their
tenants; then they joined with the samurai (their former retainers)
in supporting the emperor in abolishing all social distinctions.
From that day to this the country has grown more and more
democratic, the reforms working from the upper classes down.
In 1889 the constitution promised by the emperor was promulgated. It
was prepared largely by Marquis Ito who visited Germany and modeled
the document after the Prussian constitution. The legislative
power is vested in a diet consisting of two houses, one resembling
the English house of lords, and the other resembling our house of
representatives. The upper house is composed of the princes of the
royal blood, marquises (these sit by virtue of their rank), counts,
viscounts and barons, selected from among their respective classes,
men of erudition or distinguished service appointed by the emperor,
and one representative from each prefecture or state, selected by
the highest taxpayers. The members of the diet, except those who
sit by virtue of their rank, receive two thousand yen (one thousand
dollars) per year. The members of the house of representatives are
divided among the states in proportion to the number of franchise
holders; last year they numbered three hundred and twenty-three and
were voted for by seven hundred and fifty-seven thousand franchise
holders. The franchise holders numbered less than ten per cent of
the men of voting age, there being a property qualification which
excludes from suffrage more than nine-tenths of the adult males.
[Illustration: ADMIRAL TOGO.]
The emperor appoints the governors of the various states, and these
need not be selected from the states over which they preside. The
emperor has the right to convoke and prorogue the diet and to
dissolve the house of representatives; he also has the right to
issue urgency ordinances when the diet is not in session, the same
to be submitted for approval to the next session.
The constitution contains a bill of rights. Among other rights the
Japanese subjects shall enjoy freedom of religious belief "within
limits not prejudicial to peace and order and not antagonistic to
their duties as subjects," and "within the limits of law" they
shall enjoy "the liberty of speech, writing, publication, public
meeting and association." After the Tokyo riots which followed the
announcement of the treaty with Russia an urgency ordinance was
issued restraining the press and certain newspapers were suspended
under this ordinance, but it is probable that this urgency ordinance
will be vigorously discussed at the coming session of the diet.
The emperor is assisted in the discharge of his executive duties by
a prime minister and nine department ministers; besides these he has
the advice of a privy council, composed of elder statesmen, of which
Marquis Ito is now the president.
Each state has what corresponds to our legislature, and each city
has a council; both of these bodies are elective and to the city
council is entrusted the selection of the mayor.
They have a judiciary, federal and local, appointed for life, but
no jury system. Among the laws is one forbidding aliens to own
property, although this is avoided to some extent by long time
leases. There is also a law by which a debt descends with the
property to the oldest son, even though the debt may exceed the
property.
Through the courtesy of Hon. N. W. McIvor, former consul general at
Yokohama, now engaged in the practice of international law, I had an
opportunity to meet a number of governors and congressmen and found
them, as a rule, an intelligent and accomplished body of men, many
of them having finished their education abroad. Their most famous
minister of finance, Count Matsukata, bore some resemblance to J.
Pierpont Morgan.
They have politics in Japan. The promise of a constitution seems
to have been given by the emperor before there was any general
agitation for it, but as about twenty-one years elapsed between the
making of the promise and the realization of the hopes excited by
it, there was a period of discussion. As early as 1874 several of
the ministers joined in a petition asking for the promulgation of
the promised constitution. Their memorial being disregarded they
resigned their offices and became the founders of a democratic
party. They called themselves liberals and their efforts resulted
in an imperial rescript issued in 1881, fixing 1889 as the date
for the beginning of constitutional government. Marquis Ito is now
the leader of the liberal party, which had one hundred and thirty
members in the house of representatives in 1904.
[Illustration: PRESIDENT OF DIET--JAPAN.]
In 1882 Count Okuma organized the progressive party, which had
last year a membership of ninety in the house of representatives.
This is known as the party of the opposition, Marquis Ito's party
being the power behind the throne. There is not as much difference
between the platforms of these parties as between the platforms of
the two leading parties of our country, but of the two Count Okuma's
party is the more radical. The count himself is a born leader and
exerts a large influence upon the politics of his country. When
premier some years ago he lost a leg by the explosion of a bomb,
thrown with murderous intent by a political opponent, but it did not
diminish his zeal in the prosecution of reforms. The fact that there
were in the last diet one hundred and thirty who styled themselves
independents shows that there is a considerable body to which the
opposition party can appeal when the minister makes an unpopular
move.
[Illustration: BARON KENTARO KANEKO.]
Besides the party organizations there are a number of societies
formed for the study of political questions. There are economic
associations in a number of the cities, composed of the leading
business and professional men. I met the members of these societies
at Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya and was impressed with the attention that
they are giving to economic problems. They have in Tokyo another
organization called the Political Economy Association which deals
more directly with matters of government. The society formed by the
men who were educated in America, known as the Friends of America
(Baron Kaneko is one of the leading members), takes a deep interest
in all matters relating to government and political economy.
The leading political question in Japan to-day, in so far as it
affects domestic affairs, is whether the cabinet shall be selected
by the emperor, regardless of the prevailing sentiment in the house,
or be made to conform to the will of the people as expressed through
their representatives. At present the emperor's councilors are
chosen at his own discretion and the states of Satsuma and Choshu
have had a controlling influence in the selection of the emperor's
advisors. The democratic sentiment of the country is at this time
crystallizing in favor of the demand that the emperor take for his
premier the leader of the popular party, as the king of England
does. However much this reform may be delayed by circumstances, it
is bound to come if Japan is to recognize the rights of the people
to govern themselves.
In the cities, sanitation furnishes a most difficult problem. At
present there is little sewage, although there is a pressing need
for it.
In the industrial development of Japan the people must meet the
problem of child labor and also consider the shortening of the
length of the working day. Women now work twelve hours in the
factory and one cannot see them and the children at toil without
asking whether Japan can afford to impair the strength of the next
generation for any advantage which may be derived from such long
hours and such youthful labor. This subject is likely to be brought
before the next session of the diet.
In some reforms Japan has moved more rapidly than the United States.
Wherever she has waterworks in her cities, they are owned and
operated by the municipalities. She also has a telegraph system and
a telephone system operated by the national government. Telegrams
are sent at the same rate to all parts of the empire and the service
is satisfactory.
The telephone service is not so good. While it is all right as
far as it goes, the system is not extended as rapidly as the
demand requires. In Tokyo, for instance, those who want to install
telephones have to wait until someone discontinues his 'phone or is
willing to sell it, and a bonus is often demanded. If the local
telephones were owned by the city and only the interurban lines
managed by the imperial government, the service would respond more
quickly to the needs of the community.
The Japanese government also owns and operates a part of the
railroad system, and in doing so employs nothing but native help. I
traveled on both the government and private lines and could not see
that they differed materially so far as efficiency was concerned.
[Illustration: MR. OKURA, A SUCCESSFUL JAPANESE BUSINESS MAN.]
The first-class fare is about four cents per mile (in our money) the
second-class about two cents and the third-class (nearly all the
travel is third-class) about one cent. A reduction of twenty per
cent is made on return tickets, a reduction of from twenty to thirty
per cent on commutation tickets, and a reduction of from forty-five
to eighty per cent on season tickets for students. This reduction
to students might be imitated to advantage in our country. The
government road is all, or nearly all, double track and has the
latest safeguards for the protection of passengers at depots. The
Japanese are much given to meeting friends when they arrive and
escorting them to the train when they leave, and this custom has led
to the sale of platform tickets for one cent (in our money).
Japan has two educational problems: First, the increase in the
percentage of those going from the primary to the middle schools;
and, second, the cultivation of an ideal which will connect a
respect for manual labor with intellectual advancement. To-day a
large majority of her people work with their hands and at labor
which forbids the wearing of good clothes. It is probable that the
education of the masses will show itself to some extent in improved
methods and in the more extensive use of animals and machinery,
but there must remain a large amount of work which requires daily
contact with the soil. The rice crop grows in the mud and cannot
be harvested by machinery; the fields, too, are so small that they
cannot well be cultivated with the aid of animals. The farmers'
boys and girls are now going to school and gradually adopting the
European dress. Will they be content to return to the paddy fields
when they have finished their education? Some of the young men pull
'rikishas in the daytime in order to earn money to attend school at
night. Will their learning make them unwilling to do hard work? Or
will they substitute the cab for the 'rikisha?
Japan faces the educational problem that confronts the civilized
world, viz., how to put behind a trained mind an ideal which will
make the educated citizen anxious to do service rather than to be
waited upon. Tolstoy's solution of the problem is "bread labor,"
that is, physical toil sufficient to produce what one eats. This he
believes will teach respect for labor and by dignifying it unite
all parts of society in sympathetic co-operation. Has any better
solution been proposed?
With a broader educational foundation Japan will find it necessary
to extend the suffrage. At present the right to vote is determined
by a strict property qualification, but there is already an urgent
demand for the reduction of the tax qualification, and it will
not be long before a large addition will be made to the voting
population.
The most serious national problem with which Japan has to deal
is that imposed upon her by the attempt to extend the sphere of
her political influence to Formosa on the southwest and Korea
on the northwest. The people of Formosa do not welcome Japanese
sovereignty and an army of some six or seven thousand is kept on
that island to support Japanese authority.
But Korea presents a still more delicate and perplexing situation.
For more than a thousand years a feud has existed between Japan
and Korea and two attempts have been made by the former to invade
the latter, the last about three hundred years ago. At that time
a number of captives were carried back to Kagoshima where they,
as before mentioned, introduced the art of making what has since
been known as Satsuma ware. The fact that the descendants of these
captives lived in a colony by themselves for three centuries without
intermarrying with the Japanese is sufficient evidence of the
feeling entertained toward them by their captors.
To aggravate the matter Japan has been engaged in two wars, first
with China and then with Russia, over Korea, and it was also the
cause of one civil war in Japan. Having driven China from Korea ten
years ago and now having driven Russia out, she is undertaking to
exercise a protectorate over the country. When it is remembered that
Korea is separated from both Manchuria and Siberia by an imaginary
line and that the Koreans themselves regard the Japanese as
intruders, some estimate can be formed of Japan's task. In a future
article on Korea I shall speak on this subject more at length,
but the matter is referred to here because the experiment is as
dangerous to Japan as it is to Korea.
Will Japan be able to accomplish what other nations have failed to
do, viz., exercise a colonial power without abusing it and without
impoverishing herself?
[Illustration: A SHINTO GATE AT NARA.]