1898. 1903.
Tokyo 1,440,121 1,795,128
Osaka 821,235 988,200
Kioto 353,139 379,404
Nagoya 244,145 284,829
Kobe 215,780 283,839
Yokohama 193,762 324,776
Hiroshima 122,306 113,545
Nagasaki 107,422 151,727
Kanazawa 83,595 97,548
Sendai 83,325 93,773
Hakodate 78,040 84,746
Fukuoka 66,190 70,107
Wakayama 63,667 67,908
Tokushima 61,501 62,998
Kumamoto 61,463 55,277
Toyama 59,558 86,276
Okayama 58,025 80,140
Otaru 56,961 79,746
Kagoshima 53,481 58,384
Niigata 53,366 58,821
Sakai 50,203 --
Sapporo -- 55,304
Kure -- 62,825
Sasebo -- 52,607
The growth of Kure and Sasebo is attributable to the fact that they
have become the sites of large ship-building yards, the property of
the state.
The number of houses in Japan at the end of 1903, when the census was
last taken, was 8,725,544, the average number of inmates in each house
being thus 5.5.
_Physical Characteristics._--The best authorities are agreed that the
Japanese people do not differ physically from their Korean and Chinese
neighbours as much as the inhabitants of northern Europe differ from
those of southern Europe. It is true that the Japanese are shorter in
stature than either the Chinese or the Koreans. Thus the average height
of the Japanese male is only 5 ft. 3½ in., and that of the female 4 ft.
10½ in., whereas in the case of the Koreans and the northern Chinese the
corresponding figures for males are 5 ft. 5¾ in. and 5 ft. 7 in.
respectively. Yet in other physical characteristics the Japanese, the
Koreans and the Chinese resemble each other so closely that, under
similar conditions as to costume and coiffure, no appreciable difference
is apparent. Thus since it has become the fashion for Chinese students
to flock to the schools and colleges of Japan, there adopting, as do
their Japanese fellow-students, Occidental garments and methods of
hairdressing, the distinction of nationality ceases to be perceptible.
The most exhaustive anthropological study of the Japanese has been made
by Dr E. Baelz (emeritus professor of medicine in the Imperial
University of Tokyo), who enumerates the following sub-divisions of the
race inhabiting the Japanese islands. The first and most important is
the Manchu-Korean type; that is to say, the type which prevails in north
China and in Korea. This is seen specially among the upper classes in
Japan. Its characteristics are exceptional tallness combined with
slenderness and elegance of figure; a face somewhat long, without any
special prominence of the cheekbones but having more or less oblique
eyes; an aquiline nose; a slightly receding chin; largish upper teeth; a
long neck; a narrow chest; a long trunk, and delicately shaped, small
hands with long, slender fingers. The most plausible hypothesis is that
men of this type are descendants of Korean colonists who, in prehistoric
times, settled in the province of Izumo, on the west coast of Japan,
having made their way thither from the Korean peninsula by the island of
Oki, being carried by the cold current which flows along the eastern
coast of Korea. The second type is the Mongol. It is not very frequently
found in Japan, perhaps because, under favourable social conditions, it
tends to pass into the Manchu-Korean type. Its representative has a
broad face, with prominent cheekbones, oblique eyes, a nose more or less
flat and a wide mouth. The figure is strongly and squarely built, but
this last characteristic can scarcely be called typical. There is no
satisfactory theory as to the route by which the Mongols reached Japan,
but it is scarcely possible to doubt that they found their way thither
at one time. More important than either of these types as an element of
the Japanese nation is the Malay. Small in stature, with a well-knit
frame, the cheekbones prominent, the face generally round, the nose and
neck short, a marked tendency to prognathism, the chest broad and well
developed, the trunk long, the hands small and delicate--this Malay type
is found in nearly all the islands along the east coast of the Asiatic
continent as well as in southern China and in the extreme south-west of
Korean peninsula. Carried northward by the warm current known as the
Kuro Shiwo, the Malays seem to have landed in Kiushiu--the most
southerly of the main Japanese islands--whence they ultimately pushed
northward and conquered their Manchu-Korean predecessors, the Izumo
colonists. None of the above three, however, can be regarded as the
earliest settlers in Japan. Before them all was a tribe of immigrants
who appear to have crossed from north-eastern Asia at an epoch when the
sea had not yet dug broad channels between the continent and the
adjacent islands. These people--the Ainu--are usually spoken of as the
aborigines of Japan. They once occupied the whole country, but were
gradually driven northward by the Manchu-Koreans and the Malays, until
only a mere handful of them survived in the northern island of Yezo.
Like the Malay and the Mongol types they are short and thickly built,
but unlike either they have prominent brows, bushy locks, round deep-set
eyes, long divergent lashes, straight noses and much hair on the face
and the body. In short, the Ainu suggest much closer affinity with
Europeans than does any other of the types that go to make up the
population of Japan. It is not to be supposed, however, that these
traces of different elements indicate any lack of homogeneity in the
Japanese race. Amalgamation has been completely effected in the course
of long centuries, and even the Ainu, though the small surviving remnant
of them now live apart, have left a trace upon their conquerors.
The typical Japanese of the present day has certain marked physical
peculiarities. In the first place, the ratio of the height of his head
to the length of his body is greater than it is in Europeans. The
Englishman's head is often one-eighth of the length of his body or even
less, and in continental Europeans, as a rule, the ratio does not
amount to one-seventh; but in the Japanese it exceeds the latter figure.
In all nations men of short stature have relatively large heads, but in
the case of the Japanese there appears to be some racial reason for the
phenomenon. Another striking feature is shortness of legs relatively to
length of trunk. In northern Europeans the leg is usually much more than
one-half of the body's length, but in Japanese the ratio is one-half or
even less; so that whereas the Japanese, when seated, looks almost as
tall as a European, there may be a great difference between their
statures when both are standing. This special feature has been
attributed to the Japanese habit of kneeling instead of sitting, but
investigation shows that it is equally marked in the working classes who
pass most of their time standing. In Europe the same physical
traits--relative length of head and shortness of legs--distinguish the
central race (Alpine) from the Teutonic, and seem to indicate an
affinity between the former and the Mongols. It is in the face, however,
that we find specially distinctive traits, namely, in the eyes, the
eye-lashes, the cheekbones and the beard. Not that the eyeball itself
differs from that of an Occidental. The difference consists in the fact
that "the socket of the eye is comparatively small and shallow, and the
osseous ridges at the brows being little marked, the eye is less deeply
set than in the European. In fact, seen in profile, forehead and upper
lip often form an unbroken line." Then, again, the shape of the eye, as
modelled by the lids, shows a striking peculiarity. For whereas the open
eye is almost invariably horizontal in the European, it is often oblique
in the Japanese on account of the higher level of the upper corner. "But
even apart from obliqueness, the shape of the corners is peculiar in the
Mongolian eye. The inner corner is partly or entirely covered by a fold
of the upper lid continuing more or less into the lower lid. This fold
often covers also the whole free rim of the upper lid, so that the
insertion of the eye-lashes is hidden" and the opening between the lids
is so narrowed as to disappear altogether at the moment of laughter. As
for the eye-lashes, not only are they comparatively short and sparse,
but also they converge instead of diverging, so that whereas in a
European the free ends of the lashes are further distant from each other
than their roots, in a Japanese they are nearer together. Prominence of
cheekbones is another special feature, but it is much commoner in the
lower than in the upper classes, where elongated faces may almost be
said to be the rule. Finally, there is marked paucity of hair on the
face of the average Japanese--apart from the Ainu--and what hair there
is is nearly always straight. It is not to be supposed, however, that
because the Japanese is short of stature and often finely moulded, he
lacks either strength or endurance. On the contrary, he possesses both
in a marked degree, and his deftness of finger is not less remarkable
than the suppleness and activity of his body.
_Moral Characteristics._--The most prominent trait of Japanese
disposition is gaiety of heart. Emphatically of a laughter-loving
nature, the Japanese passes through the world with a smile on his lips.
The petty ills of life do not disturb his equanimity. He takes them as
part of the day's work, and though he sometimes grumbles, rarely, if
ever, does he repine. Exceptional to this general rule, however, is a
mood of pessimism which sometimes overtakes youths on the threshold of
manhood. Finding the problem of life insolvable, they abandon the
attempt to solve it and take refuge in the grave. It seems as though
there were always a number of young men hovering on the brink of such
suicidal despair. An example alone is needed finally to destroy the
equilibrium. Some one throws himself over a cataract or leaps into the
crater of a volcano, and immediately a score or two follow. Apparently
the more picturesquely awful the manner of the demise, the greater its
attractive force. The thing is not a product of insanity, as the term is
usually interpreted; letters always left behind by the victims prove
them to have been in full possession of their reasoning faculties up to
the last moment. Some observers lay the blame at the door of Buddhism, a
creed which promotes pessimism by begetting the anchorite, the ascetic
and the shuddering believer in seven hells. But Buddhism did not
formerly produce such incidents, and, for the rest, the faith of Shaka
has little sway over the student mind in Japan. The phenomenon is
modern: it is not an outcome of Japanese nature nor yet of Buddhist
teaching, but is due to the stress of endeavouring to reach the
standards of Western acquirement with grievously inadequate equipment,
opportunities and resources. In order to support himself and pay his
academic fees many a Japanese has to fall into the ranks of the physical
labourer during a part of each day or night. Ill-nourished, over-worked
and, it may be, disappointed, he finds the struggle intolerable and so
passes out into the darkness. But he is not a normal type. The normal
type is light-hearted and buoyant. One naturally expects to find, and
one does find, that this moral sunshine is associated with good temper.
The Japanese is exceptionally serene. Irascibility is regarded as
permissible in sickly children only: grown people are supposed to be
superior to displays of impatience. But there is a limit of
imperturbability, and when that limit is reached, the subsequent passion
is desperately vehement. It has been said that these traits go to make
the Japanese soldier what he is. The hardships of a campaign cause him
little suffering since he never frets over them, but the hour of combat
finds him forgetful of everything save victory. In the case of the
military class--and prior to the Restoration of 1867 the term "military
class" was synonymous with "educated class"--this spirit of stoicism was
built up by precept on a solid basis of heredity. The _samurai_
(soldier) learned that his first characteristic must be to suppress all
outward displays of emotion. Pain, pleasure, passion and peril must all
find him unperturbed. The supreme test, satisfied so frequently as to be
commonplace, was a shocking form of suicide performed with a placid
mien. This capacity, coupled with readiness to sacrifice life at any
moment on the altar of country, fief or honour, made a remarkably heroic
character. On the other hand, some observers hold that the education of
this stoicism was effected at the cost of the feelings it sought to
conceal. In support of that theory it is pointed out that the average
Japanese, man or woman, will recount a death or some other calamity in
his own family with a perfectly calm, if not a smiling, face. Probably
there is a measure of truth in the criticism. Feelings cannot be
habitually hidden without being more or less blunted. But here another
Japanese trait presents itself--politeness. There is no more polite
nation in the world than the Japanese. Whether in real courtesy of heart
they excel Occidentals may be open to doubt, but in all the forms of
comity they are unrivalled. Now one of the cardinal rules of politeness
is to avoid burdening a stranger with the weight of one's own woes.
Therefore a mother, passing from the chamber which has just witnessed
her paroxysms of grief, will describe calmly to a stranger--especially a
foreigner--the death of her only child. The same suppression of
emotional display in public is observed in all the affairs of life.
Youths and maidens maintain towards each other a demeanour of reserve
and even indifference, from which it has been confidently affirmed that
love does not exist in Japan. The truth is that in no other country do
so many dual suicides occur--suicides of a man and woman who, unable to
be united in this world, go to a union beyond the grave. It is true,
nevertheless, that love as a prelude to marriage finds only a small
place in Japanese ethics. Marriages in the great majority of cases are
arranged with little reference to the feelings of the parties concerned.
It might be supposed that conjugal fidelity must suffer from such a
custom. It does suffer seriously in the case of the husband, but
emphatically not in the case of the wife. Even though she be
cognisant--as she often is--of her husband's extra-marital relations,
she abates nothing of the duty which she has been taught to regard as
the first canon of female ethics. From many points of view, indeed,
there is no more beautiful type of character than that of the Japanese
woman. She is entirely unselfish; exquisitely modest without being
anything of a prude; abounding in intelligence which is never obscured
by egoism; patient in the hour of suffering; strong in time of
affliction; a faithful wife; a loving mother; a good daughter; and
capable, as history shows, of heroism rivalling that of the stronger
sex. As to the question of sexual virtue and morality in Japan, grounds
for a conclusive verdict are hard to find. In the interests of hygiene
prostitution is licensed, and that fact is by many critics construed as
proof of tolerance. But licensing is associated with strict segregation,
and it results that the great cities are conspicuously free from
evidences of vice, and that the streets may be traversed by women at all
hours of the day and night with perfect impunity and without fear of
encountering offensive spectacles. The ratio of marriages is
approximately 8.46 per thousand units of the population, and the ratio
of divorces is 1.36 per thousand. There are thus about 16 divorces for
every hundred marriages. Divorces take place chiefly among the lower
orders, who frequently treat marriage merely as a test of a couple's
suitability to be helpmates in the struggles of life. If experience
develops incompatibility of temper or some other mutually repellent
characteristic, separation follows as a matter of course. On the other
hand, divorces among persons of the upper classes are comparatively
rare, and divorces on account of a wife's unfaithfulness are almost
unknown.
Concerning the virtues of truth and probity, extremely conflicting
opinions have been expressed. The Japanese _samurai_ always prided
himself on having "no second word." He never drew his sword without
using it; he never gave his word without keeping it. Yet it may be
doubted whether the value attached in Japan to the abstract quality,
truth, is as high as the value attached to it in England, or whether the
consciousness of having told a falsehood weighs as heavily on the heart.
Much depends upon the motive. Whatever may be said of the upper class,
it is probably true that the average Japanese will not sacrifice
expediency on the altar of truth. He will be veracious only so long as
the consequences are not seriously injurious. Perhaps no more can be
affirmed of any nation. The "white lie" of the Anglo-Saxon and the
_hoben no uso_ of the Japanese are twins. In the matter of probity,
however, it is possible to speak with more assurance. There is
undoubtedly in the lower ranks of Japanese tradesmen a comparatively
large fringe of persons whose standard of commercial morality is
defective. They are descendants of feudal days when the mercantile
element, being counted as the dregs of the population, lost its
self-respect. Against this blemish--which is in process of gradual
correction--the fact has to be set that the better class of merchants,
the whole of the artisans and the labouring classes in general, obey
canons of probity fully on a level with the best to be found elsewhere.
For the rest, frugality, industry and patience characterize all the
bread-winners; courage and burning patriotism are attributes of the
whole nation.
There are five qualities possessed by the Japanese in a marked degree.
The first is frugality. From time immemorial the great mass of the
people have lived in absolute ignorance of luxury in any form and in the
perpetual presence of a necessity to economize. Amid these circumstances
there has emerged capacity to make a little go a long way and to be
content with the most meagre fare. The second quality is endurance. It
is born of causes cognate with those which have begotten frugality. The
average Japanese may be said to live without artificial heat; his paper
doors admit the light but do not exclude the cold. His brazier barely
suffices to warm his hands and his face. Equally is he a stranger to
methods of artificial cooling. He takes the frost that winter inflicts
and the fever that summer brings as unavoidable visitors. The third
quality is obedience; the offspring of eight centuries passed under the
shadow of military autocracy. Whatever he is authoritatively bidden to
do, that the Japanese will do. The fourth quality is altruism. In the
upper classes the welfare of the family has been set above the interests
of each member. The fifth quality is a genius for detail. Probably this
is the outcome of an extraordinarily elaborate system of social
etiquette. Each generation has added something to the canons of its
predecessor, and for every ten points preserved not more than one has
been discarded. An instinctive respect for minutiae has thus been
inculcated, and has gradually extended to all the affairs of life. That
this accuracy may sometimes degenerate into triviality, and that such
absorption in trifles may occasionally hide the broad horizon, is
conceivable. But the only hitherto apparent evidence of such defects is
an excessive clinging to the letter of the law; a marked reluctance to
exercise discretion; and that, perhaps, is attributable rather to the
habit of obedience. Certainly the Japanese have proved themselves
capable of great things, and their achievements seem to have been helped
rather than retarded by their attention to detail.