but of all social, intellectual, moral, and religious reforms; the open door, not of material civilization only, but also of the gospel of Jesus Christ.1

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

"The Real Japan" (Norman), chaps. v., xiii.; “Advance Japan" (Morris), chap. xiii.; "The New Far East" (Diosy), especially chap. vii.; "Heroic Japan" (Eastlake and Yamada); "The Awakening of the East" (Leroy-Beaulieu), chap. ix; and "Japan in Transition” (Ransome), chap. xv.

1 Several paragraphs are here republished, by permission, from "The Standard," Chicago.

CHAPTER XII

LEGAL JAPAN

OUTLINE OF TOPICS: Justice in Old Japan; new codes; list of same; crimes and punishments; convicts; police; arrest; trials; courts; judiciary; prisons; legalized prostitution; crusade against social evil; rescue homes, etc. - Registration. - Taxation. - Foreigners under Japanese law; restrictions upon them.-Leasing land. — Mines. —- Railways.-Banking, insurance, etc.; kinds of corporations; foreign associations; Japanese corporations. - Foreigners in business. - Bibliography.

T

HE difference between Old Japan and New Japan is quite clearly evident when one comes to the study of law and jurisprudence. It would be very misleading to affirm that the administration of justice was a farce; and yet socalled legal decisions were too often arbitrary and tyrannical. The feudal lords were too much inclined to visit summary and cruel punishment on slight pretext; and altogether too few were the men like Oöka, the justice and wisdom of whose decisions won for him the title of "Japanese Solomon." As a matter of fact, there was in Old Japan, as Wigmore has abundantly shown,1 "a legal system, a body of clear and consistent rules, a collection of statutes and of binding precedents." The chief characteristics of

1 See his voluminous work in Transactions Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. xx., Supplement.

Japanese justice under the old régime, as indicated by Wigmore, were the following: (1) Making justice "personal, not impersonal," by balancing "the benefits and disadvantages of a given course, not for all time in a fixed rule, but anew in each instance," and thus "to sacrifice legal principle to present expediency"; (2) the feudal spirit, especially in criminal law, as illustrated by the use of torture, humiliating forms of procedure, and awfully severe punishments; and (3) the attainment of justice, "not so much by the aid of the law as by mutual consent," by means of definite customs, applied, however, "through arbitration and concession," so that there was "a universal resort to arbitration and compromise as a primary means of settling disputes," and only a dernier ressort to the process of law. These characteristics should be noticed, not merely on account of their historical value, but in explanation of certain traits still prominent even in New Japan.

But Modern Japan is pretty well equipped with a system of new codes, based on European models, yet showing some modifications to suit Japan's peculiar needs. This codification along Western lines was strongly opposed by the conservatives, who insisted that national codes, "interpreting national needs," should be naturally developed in due course of time. But this opposition was overcome by the demands for treaty revision and the recognition of Japan in the comity of nations; for Occidental powers would not remove their extra-territorial jurisdiction and

leave their nationals to the mercy of Japanese courts, unless the laws were codified according to Western models.

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A list of the new codes is taken, with slight modifications, from Chamberlain's Things Japanese," which has been especially helpful in the preparation of this chapter.

The new codes resulting from the legislative activity of the present reign are: (1) the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure, drafted by Monsieur Boissonade, on the basis of the Code Napoleon, with modifications suggested by the old Japanese Criminal Law; these were published in 1880, and came into force in 1882; the Code of Criminal Procedure was, however, revised in 1890, in order that it might be uniform with the Code of Civil Procedure, according to the provisions of (2) the Law of the Organization of the Judicial Courts, promulgated in the month of February, 1890, and put into force on November 1 of the same year; (3) the Code of Civil Procedure, which went into effect at once; (4) the Civil Code, and (5) the Commercial Code, which were put into force in 1898; and (6) divers statutes on miscellaneous subjects.1

There are, according to the Japanese Criminal Code, three kinds of crimes, of two degrees, major

1 These new codes are available in English, as follows: The Civil Code, by Gubbins; the Civil Code and the Commercial Code, · by Lönholm and Terry; the Commercial Code, the Criminal Code, and the Code of Civil Procedure, in official translations.

A trial in Japan, as in France, is of the "inquisitorial" type, and is conducted by the judge (or judges) alone. "All questions by counsel must be put through him. Counsel do not so much defend their clients as represent them." Witnesses are sworn, so to speak, by "a solemn asseveration," without "any religious sanction"; and this takes the form of a written document "duly signed and sealed." The government is represented by the public procurator, who seems to combine in one person the duties of inspector, grand jury, and prosecuting attorney. Hearsay evidence is admitted; and circumstantial evidence has no small influence.

Japanese courts are organized according to the French system, with some modifications along German lines. They are four in kind, from the Local Court, through the District or Provincial Court, and the Court of Appeal, up to the Supreme Court. The local courts have jurisdiction over police offences and some minor crimes; the district courts conduct preliminary investigations and have jurisdiction over crimes; the courts of appeal hear new trials; while the supreme court hears criminal appeals on matters of law. Japanese courts are very solemn places, with strict regulations as to costume, ceremony, and conduct.

The Japanese judiciary is, by this time, pretty much weeded out of the old judges with antiquated notions, and consists very largely of comparatively young men, educated in the modern systems. A