PREFACE
It is my first duty, as well as my greatest pleasure, to explain that this monograph was prepared in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at the State University of Iowa. My major work in this University was in Political Science under the direction of Professor Benjamin F. Shambaugh. I was at the same time studying Sociology and Political Economy under Professor Isaac A. Loos.
The preparation of this monograph was first of all suggested by the absence in foreign libraries of a literature dealing with the Politics—especially the political ideas—of modern Japan. The economic phenomena of modern Japan have been much written about in foreign languages,[1] but the domain of political thought has been left singularly untouched. Dr. Iyenaga's Constitutional Development of Japan, and Mr. H. Furuya's System Représentatif au Japan (Bruxelles, 1899) are, so far as I am aware, the only works of the kind published in English and French respectively. Admirable as are these works, these authors do not discuss the development of political ideas which wrought out marvelous changes in modern Japan. That such an important and interesting subject as the political ideas of a nation, which is now steadily coming to the front in the arena of the international rivalry, has been ignored, is a matter of profound regret. The modest ambition of the author of this monograph is to break the ground with the hope of directing attention to a hitherto uncultivated field.
- ↑ Of the many works presenting the economic phases of Japan the following are worthy of special reference: T. Fukuda, ...
