THE FUTURE OF JAPAN--PHYSICAL--MORAL--MENTAL
I know by experience, even if the history of the world had not
furnished many examples to prove it, that prophecy is risky. It is a
fascinating pastime inasmuch as it affords the imaginative faculties
full scope, but at the same time it is a mistake to let the
imagination run riot. I have no intention, in considering the future
of Japan, of depicting an Arcadia or a Utopia the outcome of one's
desire rather than of the knowledge that one possesses of the
possibilities of the country and the belief that in due course those
possibilities will become actualities. Of course I admit that I may be
mistaken in my estimate of the future, but I think an estimate of the
future can only be based on a knowledge of the present, and it is upon
that knowledge that I mean to attempt some forecast of what I believe
to be the destiny of Japan.
"The Future of Japan" is a theme that has exercised the pens of many
writers, who have given to the world many and most divergent views in
regard thereto--the result, I think, of regarding the subject from a
narrow or single point of view, instead of looking at it broadly,
boldly, and dispassionately. In respect of a population of between
forty and fifty millions in rapid process of transformation and
taking on perhaps rather hurriedly, and, it may be, some superfluous
or unnecessary attributes of Western civilisation, it is not only
possible but easy to light on many ludicrous incidents and draw
absolutely false conclusions from them. One visitor to Japan, for
example, who wrote a series of essays on that country, since produced
in book form, the laudable object of which was to present to the
British public the real Japan with a view of counteracting the effects
of those "superficial narratives to be found by the dozen in
circulating libraries of the personal views and experiences of almost
every literary wayfarer who has crossed the Pacific," has followed
this bad plan in his remarks on "The Future of Japan." Imitation for
imitation's sake is, or was, in his opinion, a growing evil in Japan.
A certain gentleman, he relates, a wealthy merchant of Osaka, desired
to celebrate the two hundredth anniversary of a copper mine coming
into the possession of his family. The plan he finally decided to
adopt was to present each of his three hundred employees with a
swallow-tail coat. Another Japanese gentleman, who had fallen in with
the habit of the New Year's Day call imitated from the Americans,
improved upon it by leaving on his doorstep a large box with a lid and
this notice above it: "To Visitors. I am out, but I wish you a Happy
New Year all the same. N.B.--Please drop your New Year's Presents into
the box." Over a well-known tobacconist's shop the writer of the book
in question observed the following notice: "When we first opened our
tobacco store at Tokio our establishment was patronised by Miss
Nakakoshi, a celebrated beauty of Inamato-ro, Shin-yoshiwara, and she
would only smoke tobacco purchased at our store. Through her patronage
our tobacco became widely known, so we call it by the name of Ima
Nakakoshi. And we beg to assure the public that it is as fragrant and
sweet as the young lady herself. Try it and you will find our words
prove true." Finally, over a pastry-cook's shop in Tokio he read and
made a note of the following: "Cakes and Infections."
Now what do these several trivial, indeed contemptible, anecdotes
prove? What arguments in regard to a nation of forty-seven millions of
people can be bolstered up by instancing the imperfect acquaintance of
a Japanese pastry-cook with the English language? The writer does not
in so many words delineate the future of Japan as it appears to him,
but he suggests it, and his Japan of the future is quite evidently to
be nothing more or less than a kind of international dustheap whereon
Europe and America have dumped all that is bad and rotten and
deplorable in their modern social and political life. Here is the
inferential forecast of the gentleman in question: "When Japan rings
with the rattle of machinery; when the railway has become a feature of
her scenery; when the boiler-chimney has defaced her choicest spots,
as the paper-makers have already obliterated the delights of Oji; when
the traditions of yashiki and shizoku alike are all finally engulfed
in the barrack-room; when her art reckons its output by the thousand
dozen; when the power in the land is shared between the politician and
the plutocrat; when the peasant has been exchanged for the 'factory
hand,' the kimono for the slop-suit, the tea-house for the music-hall,
the geisha for the lion comique, and the daimio for the
beer-peer--will Japan then have made a wise bargain, and will she,
looking backward, date a happier era from the day we forced our
acquaintance upon her at the cannon's mouth?"
[Illustration: A SIGN OF THE TIMES]
Criticism of this kind, if it may be dignified by that term, no doubt
affords opportunity for what is considered smart writing, and enables
the persons indulging in it to air their witticisms and show their
sense of the humorous, but it not only serves no useful purpose, but,
on the contrary, is pernicious in its effects, inasmuch as it
occasions, not unnaturally, a feeling of soreness on the part of
those, whether individuals or a nation, who are made the subject of
it. Japan has too often been the butt of the humourist. I have no
desire to deprecate humour, which no doubt gives a savour to life, but
that humour which is only exercised at the expense of others, in my
opinion, needs reprobation. As I have said, Japan among nations has
been subjected to too much of it, and it is to be hoped that in future
writers about the country will endeavour to avoid making their little
jokes, or serving up afresh the antiquated chestnuts of the foreign
community.
The future of Japan may, I think, be considered under some half-dozen
headings: The physical improvement of the Japanese race; Its moral
advancement; Its intellectual advancement; Japan's national future;
Her political future; and finally, The influence of the Japanese
Empire on other Far Eastern races and on the world generally.
As regards the physical improvement of the race, I admit this is a
somewhat difficult subject in regard to which to make any forecast.
The stature of the Japanese is undoubtedly small, and the chest
measurement small likewise. At the same time, any one moving about
Japan must have noticed the fact that there are quite a large number
of very tall men and women in the country, and that a goodly
proportion of the inhabitants compare favourably in their physical
attributes with European people. As I have observed elsewhere in this
book, the dietary of the Japanese race has for many centuries back
been almost entirely a vegetarian one. I know very well that
vegetarianism has its advocates, and some of the arguments put forward
in support of it are plausible if not convincing. At the same time, I
think, it cannot be denied that those races which have been in the
habit of eating meat for many centuries have, as regards physique,
demonstrated that whether man was or was not intended to be a
carnivorous animal, his development into a carnivorous animal has at
any rate succeeded in enhancing and developing his physical powers. Of
late years there has been possibly as the result of intercourse with
Europeans, a large increase in the number of the inhabitants of Japan
who eat meat. This tendency on the part of the population is growing,
and I believe in the course of comparatively few years there will be a
radical change in the dietary of the people. This change, if it be
effected, must, I would suggest, have a material influence on their
physique. We all know that food is essential for the building up of
the human frame and its maintenance, and I think there are few people
who would question the fact that the condition of the human frame,
whether in individuals or the aggregates of individuals that we term
nations, must be largely affected by the food partaken of. I,
accordingly, look forward, not immediately of course, to a material
change in the general physique of the Japanese people. I am not, as I
know some persons are, of opinion that that change is likely to be
brought about by intermarriage or unions of a temporary nature between
Japanese and Europeans. There have been a few marriages, and there
have no doubt been a good many unions, but the effect on the national
breed has been small, and though it may be to some extent greater in
the future, I do not look in this direction for any alteration in the
physical characteristics of the Japanese people. That alteration will,
in my opinion, be brought about by a change in the food of the people.
As regards the moral advancement of the Japanese race I shall say
little, for the somewhat paradoxical reason that it is a matter on
which so much might be said. Indeed, this is a subject on which a
definition of the term moral might be advisable before entering into
any prolonged consideration of it. I shall not attempt that
definition, simply because I feel convinced that to do so would be to
provoke controversy. As I have said in this book, moral, morality, and
immorality are all terms that have to some extent lost their original
meaning. I may say briefly in this connection that I use the term
moral advancement simply and solely in respect of the practice of the
duties of life from a high ethical point of view. That is, I know, a
somewhat vague definition, but I think it will serve its purpose. Ever
since Japan has been thrown open to foreigners we have heard a good
deal about morality and immorality, both in the strict and the
perverted sense of those words. The European who came there, male and
female, was, or affected to be, shocked at the relations between the
sexes he found prevailing. He saw prostitution recognised and
regulated. He heard of, and in the old days possibly saw, something of
phallic worship. He witnessed or heard of men and women making their
ablutions together in public wash-houses, and he--sometimes it was a
she--affected to be horrified at such a proceeding. Better, much
better, it was inferred, the custom of the lower classes in England,
never to wash at all, than this horrible outrage on public decency.
And then the merchant or the trader who came to Japan, he also prated
about commercial immorality, and the prevalence of untruthfulness
among the Japanese with whom he did business. And in other directions
too there were criticisms passed upon Japanese manners and customs,
and many of these were condemned and denounced as immoral or wicked
very often for no better reason than that they differed from those
that obtained in Europe. However much or little ground there may have
been for these charges against the Japanese people, I am not now
concerned to discuss. One thing I will remark--that the Japanese
possess two religions which, whatever their effects and no matter to
what extent superstition may have been engrafted on them, have always
held up a high moral standard. And if one dips even cursorily into the
writings of the ethical teachers of Japan in the past, we invariably
find the inculcation of an exalted standard of morals. Indeed, the
practice of the Japanese people at the present time, as in all times
in regard to the relations between parents and children, of wife to
husband, of the people to the State, have been beyond criticism. In
these matters Western nations have much to learn from them. Since the
opening of the country to Europe, the Japanese Government has shown
itself alive to European criticism on many points. It has effectually
stamped out phallic worship; it has, in deference to European
susceptibilities, abolished mixed bathing in the public wash-houses;
and in various other ways it has striven in the direction of raising
the standard of moral conduct throughout the country. That it has not
attempted to put down prostitution, but, on the contrary, has
recognised and regulated it, has been made a charge against it. The
Japanese Government has most likely come to the conclusion that
prostitution cannot be put down, and such being the case it has
decided that, with a view of obviating those evils which are the
outcome of it, the only alternative is to regulate it. I admit that in
an ideal state of existence prostitution would not exist, but no
country in the world has yet reached or approximated that ideal state.
The evil of prostitution is just as flagrant in Europe as in the East,
but Japan so far alone among the Great Powers of the world has seen
fit to tackle this difficult and delicate matter, and to some extent
regulate it. That her rulers look forward to the time when the
Yoshiwara shall have ceased to exist I firmly believe, and I am
convinced that they mean to do everything possible towards that
consummation. But the rulers of Japan are not mere sentimentalists;
they have to recognise facts, and recognising facts they have done
what seems best to them under the circumstances.
As regards commercial morality, I believe even the European merchants
and traders in the country admit that there has of late years been a
marked improvement. In old Japan commercialism was looked down upon.
Making a profit out of buying and selling was regarded as degrading;
those who indulged in such practices were despised, and not
unnaturally the trader, finding himself a member of a contemned class,
lived down to the low level on which he had been placed. In old Japan
traders, in the presence of the Samurai, were, when addressing him,
required to touch the ground with their foreheads; when talking to him
they had to keep their hands on the ground. Such a state of things, of
course, has long been effete, but the influences thereof remained for
a considerable time after the acts had ceased. There has now been
effected a revulsion of feeling in such matters. Commerce is honoured,
trade is esteemed, and the Japan of to-day is convinced of the fact
that on her commerce, trade, and industries the future of the country
largely depends. Men of the highest rank, men of the greatest culture,
men of the deepest probity are now embarked in trade and commerce in
Japan; the whole moral atmosphere connected with trade has changed,
and there are at the present time no more honourable men in the whole
commercial world than those of Japan. In this matter there has
undoubtedly been an enormous advance in ideas and ideals. This
advance, I believe, is destined to extend in other directions--indeed,
in every direction. The Japan of to-day has, I think, so far as I have
been able to gauge it, a feeling--a deep feeling, which perhaps I can
best describe as _noblesse oblige_. It is sensible of the position the
country has attained; it is full of hope and enthusiasm for the future
thereof; it believes implicitly that it is incumbent on it not only to
attain but to maintain a high moral standard in every direction. It
has been urged as against the Japan of to-day by a writer on the
subject that Spencer and Mill and Huxley have been widely read by the
educated classes, and that Western thought and practice as to the
structure of society and the freedom of the individual have been
emphasised throughout the country. I confess to feeling no alarm in
regard to the moral future of Japan because it has perused the works
of the three philosophers named. It gives me no trepidation to read
that Mill's work on "Representative Government" has been translated
into a volume of five hundred pages in Japanese and reached its third
edition. I am, on the contrary, pleased to learn that Japan of to-day
is concerned about culture, desirous of reading the works of those
great philosophers whose names are among the immortal. There are no
principles enunciated in any of the books of Spencer, Mill, or Huxley
that, so far as I know, can undermine the moral character of the
Japanese. On the contrary, I believe that a perusal of the writings of
those great men will tend to assist the Japanese into a clearer
understanding of moral principles, and in a desire to apply them to
the duties of life. I look forward with great hope and a pronounced
confidence to the moral future of Japan. Everything that I have seen
in the country, everything that I have been able to learn respecting
the people thereof--the ideas prevailing, the teaching given in its
schools and universities, the whole trend of thought in the land, the
literature read and produced, the aspirations, in fact, of the
Japanese people to-day--lead me to think and to believe most firmly
that in the Japan of the future we shall witness a nation on a higher
moral plane than any of those with which the history of the world
acquaints us.
Closely connected with the moral advancement of Japan is its
intellectual advancement. I have referred to the statement made by a
writer that the Japan of to-day is addicted to reading the works of
certain English philosophers, and that one of these books translated
into Japanese had run through several editions. This fact is typical
of the intellectual ferment, the thirst for knowledge of all kinds
that exists in the country to-day. That craving is not for
philosophical works alone; it extends to and embraces every form of
literature of an instructive or enlightening character. It is in
evidence in the higher schools and the universities of the country; it
is to be witnessed in the many periodicals which exist for the
promotion of culture and the spread of knowledge. This intellectual
ferment, as I have, I think, appropriately termed it, is extending
rapidly, and is, I believe, destined to assume much greater
proportions. The literature of the world is at the present time
literally being devoured by Young Japan. I do not regard this literary
voracity as the mere outcome of curiosity, or as in any way
symptomatic of mere mental unrest. Young Japan appears, like Lord
Bacon, to take all knowledge for its field of study, and in accord
with the philosophical principles of that great man, the principles of
utility and progress, to be concerned with everything that can
alleviate the sufferings and promote the comforts of mankind. Of
course, at the present time this condition of craving for knowledge is
confined, from the point of view of numbers, to a small portion of the
people. But the intellectuals of every country are in a minority--in
some countries in a miserable minority--and the influence they
exercise is never proportionate to their numbers. At the same time the
intellectuals of Japan are, in view of the fact that the country has
for some short time been open to Western influences, an amazingly
large proportion of the population. I am of opinion that this
intellectual movement in Japan is destined to widen considerably, and
that its influence on the people will be immense. During the whole
history of the world the potency of mind over matter has been the
greatest wonder. In these present days this potency is even more
pronounced, and mere brute force is nowadays only made effective when
it is influenced and regulated and organised by mind. I regard the
intellectual development of Japan as one of the most pleasing features
that have accrued from its contact with Western civilisation. I do not
mean to suggest that there was an intellectual atrophy in the country
prior to those influences making themselves felt, but there was an
isolation which is never good for intellectual development. The
broader the sympathies of nations, as of individuals, the wider their
outlook, the better for their mental progress. When Japan was in a
condition of isolation the literature available for her people was
limited both in style and quantity. Her people now have at their
disposal the intellect of the whole civilised world, the great
thoughts of the great men of all ages. And it is pleasing to be able
to relate that no more appreciative readers of the world's classics
are to be found than the young intellectuals of Japan to-day. I have
said that I regard this intellectual enthusiasm as one of the most
pleasing features of modern Japan. That it is destined to have great
results I am firmly convinced. I believe, and I am not naturally an
optimist, that in the Japan of the future, the not far-distant future,
the world is destined to see a nation not only morally but mentally
great, a nation which will develop in conjunction those high moral
qualities which will give it what I may term a pronounced, a
well-defined character, and an intellectual greatness superior to that
of ancient Greece and Rome, because restrained and illumined by the
predominance and potency of moral characteristics which those great
nations did not possess.