College, also at Tōkyō, founded and still maintained by Count Ōkuma, an eminent politician, leader of the Progressist party. The scholastic establishments of the Protestant missionaries like wise nil a considerable place in public esteem.
Only a small percentage of Japanese students board at their respective schools. In Tōkyō alone there are (May, 1904) no less than 1861 lodging-houses, which make their living by putting students up and feeding them cheaply. The system is not without its drawbacks, especially on the side of morals.
Female education is officially provided for by the Higher Normal School for Girls already referred to, by seventy-nine High Schools, the Peeresses' School, etc., etc. Of the many private institutions, the Industrial School for Girls is the largest. The University for Women, established at Tōkyō in 1901, granted 120 degrees in 1904. Nor, in even so slight a sketch as this, is it possible to omit reference to the numerous educational societies which, for a series of years past, have done good work throughout the country. The military drill, too, which figures in the curriculum of all government schools, deserves notice. It was made obligatory in 1886, and has produced excellent results both on the physique and the spirit of the scholars. Various European sports, though not insisted on, are encouraged. Baseball seems to be that to which the young fellows take most kindly. Even the girls are now made to pass through a course of gymnastics.
The leading idea of the Japanese Government, in all its educational improvements, is the desire to assimilate the national ways of thinking to those of European countries. How great a measure of success has already been attained, can be best gauged by comparing one of the surviving old-fashioned literati of the Tempō period (A.D. 1830-1844) with an intelligent young man of the new school, brought up at the Tōkyō University or at Mr. Fukuzawa's. The two seem to belong to different worlds. At the same time it is clear that no efforts, however arduous, can make the Europeanisation complete. In effect, what is the situation? All the nations of the
