A HANDBOOK
OF MODERN JAPAN
Uniform with this Work
JAPAN AS IT WAS AND IS: A Handbookof Old Japan. By RichardHildreth. In two volumes. A reprintedited and revised, with notes and additions,by Ernest W. Clement and anIntroduction by William Elliot Griffis.With maps and 100 illustrations. 12mo,in slip Case. $3.00 net.
A. C. McClurg & Co.
Chicago
THE LATE EMPEROR MEIJI TENNO
New Revised Edition
A HANDBOOK
OF
MODERN JAPAN
BY
ERNEST W. CLEMENT
WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
NINTH EDITION
THOROUGHLY REVISED AND BROUGHT DOWN TO DATE
WITH ADDITIONAL CHAPTERS ON
THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR
AND
GREATER JAPAN
CHICAGO
A. C. McCLURG & CO.
1913
Copyright
A. C. McClurg & Co.
1903; 1905; 1913
Copyrighted in Great Britain
UNIVERSITY PRESS · JOHN WILSON
AND SON · CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.
To the Memory of my Father
and my Mother
INTRODUCTION
THIS book, as its title indicates, is intendedto portray Japan as it is rather than as itwas. It is not by any means the purpose,however, to ignore the past, upon which the presentis built, because such a course would be both foolishand futile. Moreover, while there are probably noportions of Japan, and very few of her people, entirelyunaffected by the new civilization, yet thereare still some sections which are comparatively unchangedby the new ideas and ideals. And, althoughthose who have been least affected by the changes aremuch more numerous than those who have been mostinfluenced, yet the latter are much more active andpowerful than the former.
In Japan reforms generally work from the top downward,or rather from the government to the people.As another1 has expressed it, “the government is themoulder of public opinion”; and, to a large extent,at least, this is true. We must, therefore, estimateJapan’s condition and public opinion, not accordingto the great mass of her people, but according tothe “ruling class,” if we may transfer to ModernJapan a term of Feudal Japan. For, as suffrage inJapan is limited by the amount of taxes paid, “theviiimasses” do not yet possess the franchise, and may besaid to be practically unconcerned about the government.They will even endure heavy taxation andsome injustice before they will bother themselvesabout politics. These real conservatives are, therefore,a comparatively insignificant factor in the equationof New Japan. The people are conservativ