Japan: Its History, Arts, and Literature/Volume 5/Chapter 3
Chapter III
STEPS OF PROGRESS
One of the most important reforms effected by the Meiji Government was in the field of education. The former rulers of Japan paid comparatively little attention to this matter, and never seem to have considered that any duty devolved on them to provide for the instruction of any section of the people except the samurai. But the statesmen of the Restoration saw that the nation could not be left to equip itself with machinery for studying the arts and sciences of the new civilisation, and saw further that if there was to be any radical progress the people must be compelled to extend their knowledge beyond the Chinese classics. Thus, without loss of time, an extensive system of schools was organised, and education was declared to be compulsory. Every child on attaining the age of six must now attend a Common Elementary School, where during a four years' course instruction is given in morals, reading, writing, arithmetic, the rudiments of technical work, gymnastics, and poetry. Year by year the attendance at these schools increases. In 1898, the latest year for which statistics are published, 4,062,418 children received education out of a total of 7,125,966, the percentage of school-goers being 68.91. The desire for instruction is keener among boys than among girls: of the former, 82.42 per cent attend school, and of the latter only 53.73.
There are 26,322 public Common Elementary Schools, and the total annual cost of maintaining them is £1,715,469. Hence the average yearly expense of each school is £65; the average number of students 154, and the average annual cost per child 8s. 6d., to which the child's parents contribute 1s. 9d. yearly, or 1¾d. per month. These Elementary Schools form part of the communal system, and such portion of their expenses as is not covered by tuition fees, income from school property, and miscellaneous sources, must be defrayed out of the proceeds of local taxation. The tax-payers' burden on this account is £1,150,446, and it thus appears that the four years' course of elementary education given to a Japanese child costs the tax-payer 22s. 6d., and costs the child's parents 7s. The expense to parents will be still less in future, for by an Ordinance issued in August, 1900, it was enacted that whereas the payment of tuition fees had hitherto been the rule, and exemption from payment the exception, hereafter exemption should be the rule and payment the exception. In short, elementary education will be virtually free.
There are, also, 174 public Kindergartens, with an attendance of 15,000 infants, whose parents pay 3d. per month for each child, on the average. In general the Kindergartens are connected with Elementary Schools or with Normal Schools.
Many (4,735) of the Common Elementary Schools have a section where, subsequently to the completion of the regular curriculum, a special supplementary course of study may be pursued in agriculture, commerce, or industry (sewing in the case of girls). For the same purpose there exist also 318 Higher Elementary Schools, to which a child can gain admittance after passing out of a Common Elementary School. The time devoted to these special courses is two, three, or four years, according to the degree of proficiency contemplated, and the cost to the parents is 6d. per month.
If a child, after graduating at a Common Elementary School, desires to extend its education, it passes into a Common Middle School, where training is given for practical pursuits, or for admission to higher educational institutions. The ordinary curriculum at a Common Middle School includes moral philosophy, English language, history, geography, mathematics, natural history, natural philosophy, chemistry, drawing, and the Japanese language. Five years are required to graduate, and from the fourth year the student may take up a special technical course as well as the main course; or, in accordance with local requirements, technical subjects may be taught conjointly with the regular curriculum throughout the whole time. The law provides that there must be at least one Common Middle School in each Prefecture. The actual number is 169, with 2,061 teachers and 49,684 students, being an average of 244 students to each school, and 1 teacher to 24 students. The total annual cost of maintenance is £207,166. Thus each school requires an average outlay of £1,226, of which sum the tax-payers defray £720. A student in a Common Middle School costs the State £2 19s. yearly, and his five years' course represents a local tax of £14 15s. It will be seen, therefore, that when a child has completed its four years in a Common Elementary School and five years in a Common Middle School, its education has cost the public £15 17s. 6d.
Great inducements offer to attend a Common Middle School. Not only does the graduation certificate carry considerable weight as a general qualification, but it also entitles a young man to volunteer for one year's service with the colours, thus escaping two of the three years he would have to serve as an ordinary recruit.
The graduate of a Common Middle School can claim admittance, without examination, to a High School, where he spends three years preparing to pass to a University, or four years studying a special subject, as law, engineering, or medicine. By following the course in a High School, a youth obtains exemption from conscription until the age of twenty-eight, when one year as a volunteer frees him from all service with the colours. There are six High Schools with a total attendance of 4,664 students, and the instructors number 351, or 1 to every 13 students. A High-School certificate of graduation entitles its holder to enter a University without examination, and qualifies him for all public posts.
In addition to the schools already enumerated, which may be said to constitute the machinery of general education, there are Special Schools (6) and Technical Schools (74), where instruction is given in agriculture, commerce, mechanics, applied chemistry, navigation, electrical engineering, aquatic productions, art (pictorial and applied), veterinary science, sericulture, and various branches of industry. There are also 17 apprentices' schools, classed under the heading of "elementary," where courses of not less than six months and not more than four years may be taken in dyeing and weaving, embroidery, the making of artificial flowers, tobacco manufacture, sericulture, reeling silk, pottery, lacquer, wood work, metal work, or brewing. On the average, each of these schools has 67 students and 6 teachers, and costs £520 annually, or £7 15s. per student. The tax-payers contribute £355 yearly towards the support of each school, and the expense to the student is about 2s. 6d. per month.
Normal Schools are maintained for the purpose of training teachers. There are two High Normal Schools, — one for males, the other for females, — the former having 555 pupils, the latter 171; and there are 47 common Normal Schools, with 7,302 male students and 879 females. Great difficulty is experienced in obtaining a full complement of teachers for elementary public schools. The total number required is ninety-five thousand, approximately, and the number actually available is only sixty-four thousand. That is mainly due to the very small emoluments given for such service. Out of sixty-four thousand teachers now employed in elementary schools, only fifty get as much as £48 a year; eleven thousand have less than £10 annually, and the salaries of forty-nine thousand range from £11 to £24. Considering that a common labourer now earns £18 a year, the insufficiency of teachers' emoluments is apparent.
There are two Imperial Universities, one in Tōkyō and one in Kyōtō. The latter is not yet fully organised. The former has 205 professors and instructors and 2,463 students. Its colleges number six, — law, medicine, engineering, literature, science, and agriculture, — it has a University Hall where postgraduate courses are studied, and it publishes a quarterly journal giving accounts of scientific researches which indicate not only large erudition but also original talent.
All the figures given above are independent of private educational institutions. Of these there are 1,600, employing 5,346 teachers and having 149,230 pupils. The tendency of the system pursued by the State is to discourage private education, for unless a private school brings its curriculum into accord with that prescribed for public institutions, its students are denied the valuable privilege of exemption from conscription, as well as the other advantages attaching to State recognition. Further, the disposition to present large sums for educational purposes has not yet become widely effective among private individuals in Japan. Voluntary contributions in aid of public schools aggregate about £90,000 annually, but the efforts made by the people on this account are still comparatively insignificant.
At first, when the above system was introduced, students showed a dangerous inclination to neglect hygienic considerations altogether, and abandon themselves wholly to the task, of acquiring the new knowledge rapidly. It seemed as though the rising generation was destined to lose its physical stamina altogether, and to take for permanent companions consumption, impaired vision, and stunted stature. Many gifted youths perished on the threshold of promising careers, and others barely survived as invalids. Happily foreign teachers assisted to correct this fatal tendency by example or advice, and the Government, appreciating the danger, took steps to encourage gymnastics and athletics of every kind. Marked improvement resulted. It cannot yet be said that the Japanese youth shows anything like the absorbing avidity of the Anglo-Saxon for out-door games and sports, but he takes keenly to base-ball, rowing, bicycling, and lawn tennis, and he begins to think of developing thews as a business only second to that of acquiring knowledge. If there is excessive application to study, it is on the part of girls, for they are spurred by a hope that the possession of knowledge will raise them from the position of inferiority to which the strong sex has condemned them. Yet even girls are now adopting the habit of walking to and from school, where also they are encouraged to frequent the playground and the gymnasium. Public opinion is still too tyrannical, however, to tolerate cycling by women. A very few courageous ladies run the gantlet of adverse criticism from their friends and of insulting epithets from boors in the streets; but the general feeling of the gentle, self-effacing Japanese woman is that she must bow to all prejudices which affect her pleasures alone.
The rapid growth of journalism is another fact that forces itself on the attention of every one observing Japan's modern career. In describing the life of the cities during Tokugawa times, it has been shown that the people were not altogether strange to the uses of the newspaper. As early as the beginning of the seventeenth century, a sheet called the "reading for sale" (yomiuri) was hawked about the streets of Yedo by a vendor who cried his wares in the familiar European style of later times. This embryo journal was in manuscript. It contained accounts of natural calamities, conflagrations, fights, vendettas, and other striking events. Another more aristocratic sheet, called the "official intelligence" (go-sata-gaki), was compiled by the chief of the tea-cult in the Shōgun's palace and sold privately. Its contents were taken chiefly from the archives of the Government Secretariat, and consisted of appointments and dismissals of officials, copies of administrative ordinances, and notes on current events. Neither of these publications attained permanent vogue or suggested any expansion of the enterprise. Not until 1863 did a real newspaper make its appearance. Its publisher, Fukuda Meiga, was inspired by the hope that if fuller knowledge of foreign countries were disseminated among the people, the policy of national exclusion might become distasteful. He therefore made translations of the Batavia News, and published them in the form of a journal printed from wood-blocks. The following year (1864) Joseph Hiko — a Japanese who had just returned from the United States, where he had lived since boyhood, having been rescued from a sinking junk and carried to San Francisco by an American ship — combined with two of his countrymen to publish a periodical which they called shimbunshi (newspaper), a term destined to become permanent in the language. As yet, movable types were not employed. But that innovation followed quickly on the establishment of English journals for the foreign community in Yokohama, and during the stirring times at the fall of feudalism the demand for news became so keen that one journal after another made its appearance. At first the tone of these sheets reflected the anti-foreign, anti-progressive spirit of the conservative section of the nation, and their influence seemed so pernicious that the Government prohibited their publication and treated the editors as malefactors. But the incongruity of such a policy being quickly perceived, the veto was revoked in 1 869, and journalistic enterprise received official sanction within certain limitations. All discussion of religious questions, of politics, and of legal problems was interdicted; a general injunction forbade the publication of matter prejudicial to public peace or good morals; official permission had to be obtained before issuing a journal, and the power of fining or imprisoning editors, publishers, and printers, as well as that of suspending or suppressing a newspaper was vested in administrative officials without any recourse to courts of law. It might have been foreseen that the young journalists of Japan, whose ideas of press liberty were derived from European theories, would not readily submit to these restrictions. A bitter struggle commenced between, on the one hand, irresponsible editors who were influenced partly by honest faith in the value of free speech, but mainly by a desire to embarrass the Government, and, on the other, responsible officials who either believed that society was not yet ripe for the full enfranchisement of newspapers, or were unwilling to place in the hands of their political opponent weapons which threatened to prove inconveniently effective against themselves. The public, of course, took the part of the editors, and each sentence of imprisonment or fine pronounced against them brought a fresh access of popular sympathy. If there was occasional abuse of power on one side, there certainly were frequent abuses of privilege on the other. Devices, often unscrupulous and sometimes ingenious, were employed by the editors to gain popularity or to bring the Government into ridicule. On one occasion they organised imposing funeral rites in honour of journals that had been suppressed by Ministerial order. The defunct sheets, placed in a coffin, were borne in solemn procession to the temple of the Goddess of Mercy, where Buddhist priests chanted litanies for the dead, journalists and political agitators read threnodies or burned incense, and all the pomp, parade, and ceremony proper to aristocratic obsequies were observed. The story of this struggle for liberty reads strangely in the context of such a history as that of Japan under the Tokugawa Shogunate, when the Government made its autocratic power felt in every sphere of daily life, and the people never thought of resisting any order, however arbitrary, whether it related to the nature of their food or the fashion of their garments. In the Meiji era, on the other hand, although scarcely a month passed that did not see an editor fined or imprisoned, a newspaper suspended or suppressed, the representatives of the press grew constantly more defiant, the demand for journals more urgent. The first daily paper, the Mainichi Shimbun (daily news), was published in 1871, and in 1879, despite the severity of the law, there were one hundred and ninety-two journals and periodicals with a total annual circulation of over eleven millions.
No sooner did the Diet commence its sittings in 1891 than a bill was introduced for removing all restrictions upon freedom of speech. Already (1887) the Government had voluntarily made a great step in advance by divesting itself of the right to imprison or fine editors by executive order. But it reserved the power of suppressing or suspending a newspaper, and against that reservation a majority of the Lower House voted, session after session, only to see the bill rejected by the Peers, who shared the Government's opinion that to grant a larger measure of liberty would certainly encourage licence. Not until 1897 was this opposition overcome. A new law, passed by both Houses and confirmed by the Emperor, took from the executive all power over journals, except in cases of lese-majesty, and nothing now remains of the former arbitrary system. The result has falsified all sinister forebodings. A much more moderate tone pervades the writings of the press since restrictions were entirely removed, and although there are now 829 journals and periodicals published throughout the Empire with a total annual circulation of 463,000,000 copies, intemperance such as in former times would have provoked official interference, is seldom displayed to-day.
The quality of journalistic writing in Japan is marred by extreme and pedantic classicism. There has not yet been any real escape from the trammels of a tradition which assigned the crown of scholarship to whatever author drew most largely upon the resources of the Chinese language. A pernicious example in this respect is set by the Imperial Court. The sovereign, whether he speaks by rescript or by edict, never addresses the bulk of his subjects. His words are taken from sources so classical as to be intelligible only to the highly educated minority. Several of the newspapers affect a similar style. They sacrifice their audience to their erudition, and prefer classicism to circulation. Their columns are a sealed book to the whole of the lower middle classes and to the entire female population. Under any circumstances Japan labours under the terrible disadvantage of having a written language much more difficult to understand than her spoken language, and these journals seem bent upon making her misfortune as painful as possible. Others, taking a more rational view of the purposes of journalism, aim with success at simplicity and intelligibility, and thus not only reach an extended circle of readers, but also are hastening incidentally the advent of great reform, the assimilation of the written and spoken languages, which will probably prelude that still greater desideratum, abolition of the ideographic script. Apart from this pedantic defect, the best Japanese editors have caught, with remarkable aptitude, the spirit of modern journalism. Twenty-five years ago, they used to compile laborious essays, the construction involved, the ideas trivial, the inspiration drawn from Occidental text-books, and the alien character of the source hidden under a veneer of Chinese aphorisms. To-day, they write terse, succinct, closely reasoned articles, seldom diffuse, often witty, and generally free from extravagance of thought or diction. Yet, with few exceptions, the profession of journalism is not remunerative. Very low rates of subscription and almost prohibitorily high charges for advertising are chiefly to blame.[1] The vicissitudes of the enterprise may be gathered from the facts that whereas 2,767 journals and periodicals were newly started between 1889 and 1894 (inclusive), no less than 2,465 ceased publishing. The largest circulation at present recorded is about thirty thousand copies daily.
The flagrant blemish of Japanese journalism is recklessness in attacking private reputations. No one is safe, not even a lady. Villanous and wholly baseless stories are circulated without any attempt to investigate their truth, and sometimes with full knowledge of their falsehood. There are journals which actually boast of opening their columns for the publication of any tale anonymously contributed. They recognise no responsibility except that of providing entertainment for their readers. Sometimes the unique object is blackmail; sometimes the market for gossip is alone considered. And a strange fact is that the victims of these slanders suffer in unremonstrating silence. Newspaper editors are neither flogged nor cited before law courts. This patience is largely attributable to a conviction that contemptuous indifference is the most becoming demeanour in the presence of such unscrupulousness. But the law is also to blame. It provides no effective remedy. Recourse to a tribunal of justice means that the defendant must be hunted from court to court, and that after perhaps a year or eighteen months of weary proceedings, he escapes at last with a nominal penalty. Stranger still is the blindness of journalists — of course there are several honourable exceptions — who fail to see that by taking continual advantage of the tolerance of contempt, they are doing their best to become really contemptible. Already the press occupies a very low place in the estimation of educated Japanese. They recognise its political capabilities, but regard journalism on the whole as a low calling. Public opinion does not help: its restraints are practically inoperative in Japan. People uncomplainingly endure many things besides journalistic abuses. They endure vexatious slowness in the transaction of administrative affairs; they have no effective perception that public servants, being paid by the public, should really be servants of the public ; they utter not a word of protest against abuses which in Europe or America would arouse a storm of indignant denunciation. Never was there a nation whose customs illustrate more forcibly the old saying that what is everybody's business is nobody's business. It would seem at first sight that this habit of mind may be the result of traditional submissiveness to authority. But that explanation is not sufficient. Men who in local assemblies, in the Diet, in the columns of the press and on the platform, show little respect for officialdom, would not be likely to adopt an entirely subservient mien on other occasions. Besides, displays of long-suffering are not confined to the people's attitude towards those in power. The mood may be observed in all the affairs of daily life. Nuisances of every description, obtrusive, noisy, or noisome, are endured without open protest. The fact is that courtesy and philosophy combine to dictate a show of indifference. A Japanese finds it abhorrently rude to take querulous notice of a neighbour's habits or idiosyncrasies, whatever discomfort or inconvenience they may cause himself, and no character seems to him less respectable than that of a fussy, sensitive person. Men guided by such rules of conduct do not make vehement exponents of public opinion, however agreeable they may be as units of society.
As to the Japanese official, different opinions have been expressed. According to some, the occupants of high positions are polite and obliging, whereas the juniors are veritable Jacks in office, always ready to abuse the little brief authority with which they are clothed; according to others, they are one and all thoroughly courteous and serviceable. Probably a subjective element is mingled with both views. The Japanese official's demeanour depends on the manner in which he is approached. His natural tendency is to be urbane and helpful, but he resents the de-haut-en-bas style of address adopted towards him by many foreigners, and is a little annoyed by criticisms generally founded on ignorance. Certainly in no other part of the world is it possible to find police-constables who treat the public with more uniform civility, and the conduct of the policeman is probably the least fallible criterion. Yet at times these same policemen have been guilty of cruel roughness in apprehending foreign disturbers of the peace, and there has followed the usually exaggerated outcry on the part of local foreign journalists whose sense of proportion is much marred by their spurious patriotism. What may be fairly stated in extenuation of any violence occasionally resorted to by the police is that they have to deal with very difficult conditions at the open ports. The big, muscular, foreign sailor, primed with liquor and craving for a fight, disdains the notion of having Oriental hands laid on him, and finds it intolerable to be haled to prison by a diminutive Japanese. He resists so efficiently that some of the native constables have become persuaded of the necessity of clubbing him at the first symptom of opposition. Such cases, however, are exceptional. As for the average foreigner, it may be truly said that beyond the limits of the treaty ports, beyond the districts where his own masterful way has given umbrage or his own misunderstood familiarity bred contempt, he finds everywhere civility and a sunny welcome. If association with him has not improved the manners of the Japanese towards him, the responsibility must be at least divided. On the whole, however, there is no country where a stranger can be more certain of freedom from unpleasant molestation of every kind than in Japan.
Japanese officials are divided into four grades: the first comprising those that receive their commissions direct from the Emperor and are entitled to report personally to him; the second, those that receive their commissions through the Minister of a Department and have the entrée to the Palace on State occasions; the third, those commissioned similarly to the second, but not having the entrée to the Palace; and the fourth, those temporarily engaged and having the status of mere employés. There is also another classification into nine ranks, each having two classes. The place occupied by an official in this list is granted by the Emperor as a recognition of merit, and the designation is prefixed to the name, like a title, in official documents. Thus Sho-ni-i Koshaku Itō, "First-grade Second Rank Marquis Itō;" or Ju-sammi Danshaku Iwakura, "Second-grade Third Rank Baron Iwakura." Admission to officialdom is by examination, except in the case of candidates possessing certain duly attested educational qualifications.
The following table shows the number of officials belonging to the Central Government and their respective emoluments:—
| Officials. | Total Number. |
Total yearly Emoluments. |
Average yearly Emoluments. Yen. | ||||||
|
259 | 01,010,540 | 03,962 | (£397) | |||||
|
4,269 | 04,296,208 | 01,006 | (£101) | |||||
|
38,082 | 09,094,462 | 238 | (£24) | |||||
|
26,266 | 04,186,500 | 159 | (£16) | |||||
|
68,876 | 18,587,710 | 269 | (£27) | |||||
There has been of late years a steady tendency towards increase in the number of Central-Government officials. In 1893, the total was only 45,508, against 68,876 at present, and the emoluments aggregated 10,745,348 yen, whereas they now aggregate 18,587,710 yen. Undoubtedly the establishment is too large. In several of the State Departments the officials are so numerous that they serve merely to impede each other. Such a state of affairs in the early years of the Meiji era was partially extenuated by the fact that the Government had to find employment for many impecunious samurai, victims of vicissitudes for which they were not themselves responsible. But that excuse has lost all validity and yet the abuse continues. The party politicians inveighed strongly against it during the epoch when every stick served them to beat the "clan" dog. But when they themselves arrived within reach of administrative power, their conception of its perquisites proved to be still more elastic than that of their predecessors.
For purposes of local administration the whole Empire (with the exception of Hokkaido, which has a special form of government) is divided into 47 prefectures (ken), 653 counties (gun), 48 towns (shi), and 14,734 districts (cho or son). The three metropolitan prefectures of Tōkyō, Ōsaka, and Kyōtō are called fu, and the districts are divided into "urban" (cho) and "rural" (son), according to the number of houses they contain. The prefectures are named after their chief towns.
In the system of local administration full effect is given to the principle of popular representation. Each prefecture (urban or rural), each county, each town and each district (urban or rural), has its local assembly, the number of members being fixed in proportion to the population. There is no superior limit of number in the case of a 
Threshing Grain.
The work of railway building was commenced by the Meiji Government in 1869, and the first line — that between Tōkyō and Yokohama, a distance of eighteen miles — was opened for traffic in 1872. But private capitalists showed no inclination to engage in such enterprise, and when at length in 1888 a company — the Nippon Tetsudo Kaisha (Japan Railway Company) — was projected, its organisation could not be completed until the Treasury guaranteed eight per cent on the paid-up capital for fifteen years. Progress was slow at first, so that in 1888 the total length of lines in operation was only 318 miles, of which 205 miles had been built by the Government and 113 by private enterprise. Thenceforth the work of construction proceeded more rapidly, so that the average annual addition made to private lines until the close of 1899 was 208 miles, and that made to State lines, 40 miles.
The total length of lines open for traffic at the end of 1899 was 3,639 miles, of which 833 miles had been constructed by the State and 2,806 miles by private companies. The expenditure on account of State lines had been 70,000,000 yen, in round numbers, or 84,034 yen per mile; and that on account of private lines, 187,000,000 (including debentures and loans), or 66,286 yen per mile. The difference in cost of construction is explained by the facts that portions of the State roads were built before experience had indicated cheap methods; that extensive works for carriage building, repairs of locomotives, etc., are connected with the Government lines, and that it has fallen to the lot of the State to undertake roads running through districts that present exceptional engineering difficulties, such districts being naturally avoided by private companies. The number of passengers and the quantity of goods carried over all the lines during 1899 were 102,115,942 and 18,820,034 tons, respectively; the gross earnings amounted to 38,219,272 yen, and the working expenses to 18,833,217 yen, leaving a net profit of 19,386,055 yen. Thus the working expenses represented forty-nine per cent of the earnings, and the net profits averaged a little over seven and a half per cent of the invested capital.
The Government has in hand a programme involving the construction of 1,230 miles of new railways, and private companies — which number 103 in all — have obtained charters for building 961 miles, the former work involving an outlay of 114,500,000 yen, and the latter an outlay of 60,000,000. Thus the roads actually in operation and those immediately projected total 5,830 miles, and the capital involved will aggregate 431,500,000 yen.
The programme of railway construction, as originally planned and subsequently carried out in great part, had for its basis a grand trunk line extending the whole length of the main island from Aomori on the north to Shimonoseki on the south, a distance of 1,153 miles; and a continuation of the same line throughout the length of the southern island of Kiushiu from Moji on the north — which lies on the opposite side of the strait from Shimonoseki — to Kagoshima on the south, a distance of 232¾ miles, as well as a line from Moji to Nagasaki, a distance of 163½ miles. Of this main road, the State undertook to build the central section (376 miles), between Tōkyō and Kobe (viâ Kyōtō); the Japan Railway Company undertook the portion (457 miles) northward of Tōkyō to Awomori; the Sanyo Railway Company undertook the portion (320 miles) southward of Kyōtō to Shimonoseki; and the Kiushiu Railway Company undertook the lines in Kiushiu. The whole road is now in operation with the exception of two sections measuring 45¼ miles and 89¼ miles, respectively, namely, the part of the Sanyo Railway between Mitajiri and Shimonoseki, and the part of the Kiushiu Railway between Kumamoto and Kagoshima. It is not literally correct to say that this main trunk line has been constructed as originally planned. The first project was to carry the Tōkyō-Kyōtō road through the interior of the island so as to secure it against enterprises on the part of a maritime enemy. Such engineering difficulties presented themselves, however, that the coast route was ultimately chosen, and though the line through the interior was subsequently undertaken, strategical considerations have not been allowed to govern its direction completely. The programme of construction is rendered sufficiently clear by a glance at the map.
When Japan began to build railways, much discussion was taking place in England and India as to the relative advantages of the wide and narrow gauges, and so strongly did the arguments in favour of the metre-gauge appeal to the Indian Government that it adopted the latter in 1873, although some five thousand miles of wide-gauge roads had already been built. The English advisers of the Japanese Government maintained similar views, and it resulted that the metre (3 ft. 6 in.) gauge was chosen. Some fitful efforts made in later years to change the system proved unsuccessful, and there is now little reason to foresee any departure from the metre gauge. The lines, too, are single, for the most part: only 250 miles of double track exist out of the 3,639 miles of road that have been built; and as the embankments, the cuttings, the culverts, and the bridge-piers have not been constructed for a double line, any change now would be very costly. The average speed of passenger trains in Japan is 18 miles an hour, the corresponding figure over the metre-gauge roads in India being 16 miles, and the figure for English parliamentary trains, from 19 to 28 miles. British engineers surveyed the routes for the first lines, and superintended the work of construction, but within a few years the Japanese were able to dispense with foreign aid altogether, both in building and managing their railroads. They also construct carriages and wagons, but not locomotives, for though one was successfully built at the Kobe workshops under the superintendence of a British engineer, the enterprise did not continue. The lines are well ballasted, but the carriages are not comfortable, and the points and signal arrangements are of old patterns. Nevertheless there is tolerable immunity from accidents and irregularities, and seeing that the working expenses average only 49 per cent of the gross earnings, whereas the corresponding figure in England is 55, it can scarcely be doubted that the management is tolerably efficient, though facilities and arrangements for the carriage of goods are still in a somewhat undeveloped condition.
The growth of Japan's mercantile marine during the Meiji era must not be omitted from the story of her modern development. In 1870 she possessed only 35 steamers, their total registered tonnage being 15,498 tons, with 11 sailing vessels of foreign rig, aggregating 2,454 tons; that is to say, a commercial fleet of 46 vessels, having a tonnage of 17,952 tons. The figures for 1899 were: steamers, 1,221 (total registered tonnage, 315,168 tons), and sailing vessels, 3,322 (total registered tonnage, 269,032), making a fleet of 4,543 ships with a tonnage of 584,200 tons. She has now regular steamship services to China, to Vladivostock, to Korea, to Australia, to Formosa, to British India, to North America, and to Europe. Moreover, she is in a position to use her large army for over-sea purposes, a fine fleet of transports being at all times procurable. Much of this development has taken place since the conclusion of the China-Japan war in 1894-1895, the Government having included in its post-bellum programme a law granting liberal aid to ship-builders and ship-owners. Japan is not yet able, however, to build iron vessels in her own dockyards. She understands the work of construction, and can turn out large steamers by importing materials from abroad. But she has not hitherto possessed an iron foundry capable of meeting the wants of her ship-builders, nor have her iron mines furnished a sufficient supply of good ore. Both deficiencies are now on the point of being remedied, a large foundry having been erected at Wakamatsu in Kiushiu, and arrangements having been made to supplement the home supply of ore by recourse to China. A factory for rolling steel plates is also in contemplation, and it may be confidently predicted that before many years the Japanese will be able to build their own warships and to manufacture their armaments.
- ↑ See Appendix, note 12.
Note 12.—The highest rate of subscription to a daily journal is twelve shillings per annum, and the usual charge for advertisements is from sevenpence to one shilling per line of twenty-two ideographs (about nine words).
- ↑ See Appendix, note 13.
Note 13.—The total local expenditures area little over 40 million yen annually. They increased from 25 millions to 40 millions in a period of five years (1895-1899), but the increase is not an evidence of extravagance in administration, as 11 millions of it was devoted to useful public works, and nearly 2 millions to education. Revenue to meet these outlays is derived from five taxes,—land-rate (131⁄3 millions), house-tax (51⁄3 millions), business tax (23⁄4 millions), and miscellaneous tax (31⁄2 millions). A large sum is obtained from property owned by the local administrations, and the Central Treasury grants aids to the extent of 41⁄2 million yen. The system of local taxation is complicated, but, speaking generally, two kinds of impost have to be paid, first, a prefectural tax, and, secondly, a town or district tax. Some of the local taxes are levied on the basis of the national tax—in which case the former must not exceed a certain fixed fraction of the latter; some are levied independently, as taxes on houses, vehicles, and draft-animals. A marked distinction is made between vehicles or animals kept for hire and those maintained by private individ- uals, and the same principle of graduation observed in the case of the income tax is applied to the house tax, so that the burden decreases rapidly as the poorer classes are reached.
- ↑ See Appendix, note 14.
Note 14.—The mayor of a town (shicho) is nominated by the Minister of State for Home Affairs from among three men chosen by the town assembly.
- ↑ See Appendix, note 15.
Note 15.—The number of police-offices in the Empire (including Formosa) is 13,821, and the total number of police officials of all grades, 32,910, or 1 for every 1,421 of the population. The police force has been increased by 4,591 during the past five years, but of that increment the newly organised force for Formosa represents 2,934. There are 365 tribunals of justice, presided over by 1,201 judges with the assistance of 471 public procurators and 5,987 clerks. It has been complained that the number of tribunals and their personnel are not sufficient to discharge the business coming before them. The criticism is probably just, but statistics show that the courts perform their functions rapidly, for in 1897—the latest year included in the published records—they dealt with 313,571 cases altogether, namely, 7,654 appeals and 133,472 first-instance cases, in civil suits; 8,507 questions of conciliation; and 8,723 appeals, and 155,215 first-instance or magisterial cases, in criminal matters.