general, and are even told that Japan is only "playing" with parliamentary and representative institutions, that her popular assemblies are mere "toys," her constitutional government is all a "farce," and her new civilization is nothing but a "bib." Such criticisms, however, result either from ignorance or from a wrong point of view. It is undeniably true that, viewed from the vantage-ground attained by popular institutions and constitutional government in many Occidental nations, Japan is still lagging behind. It is not fair, however, to judge her by our own standards; the only just way is to estimate carefully the exact difference between her former and her present conditions. This the author has tried to do elsewhere in a pamphlet1 on "Constitutional Government in Japan," in which he has given a sketch of the workings of the Japanese Constitution during the first decade, or period, of its history. From that he quotes the following conclusions:

The progress made during the first decade of constitutional government in Japan was considerable. In the first place, popular rights were largely expanded by the removal of most of the restrictions on freedom of the press and public meeting; as much extension of the electoral franchise as seems warranted was accomplished; and public opinion, as voiced in the newspapers and magazines, was wielding an increased and constantly increasing influence.

1 Published in the "Annals of the American Academy of Politi cal and Social Science."

On this point the "Japan Times" says: "No one who goes into the country and compares the present degree of the people's political education with what it was ten years ago, can fail to be struck by the immense progress achieved during that interval."

In the second place, the character of the two Houses of the Imperial Diet has greatly improved. The inexperienced have given way to the experienced, the ignorant to the intelligent; so that, after six elections, the personnel of the House of Representatives is of a much better quality, and the House of Peers has been quickened by the infusion of new blood. Experience, as usual, has been a good teacher.

In the third place, the Cabinet, theoretically responsible to the Emperor because appointed by him on his own sole authority, is practically responsible to the Imperial Diet and must command the support of a majority of that body. Hereafter it would seem that dissolution of the Diet is not likely to occur as often as dissolution of the Cabinet.

The one weak point in this situation is that, although the principle of party cabinets is thus established, its practical application is difficult of realization, simply because there are no true political parties in Japan. There are many so-called "parties," which are really only factions, bound together by personal, class, geographical, or mercantile ties, and without distinctive principles. One "party is actually Count Ōkuma's following; another is

Count Itagaki's; another is called "the business men's party"; another is composed of politicians of the Northeast; and another tries to maintain the old clan alliances.1

But it is, nevertheless, true that "Japan is at length passing out of the epoch of persons and entering the era of principles," when, of course, will speedily come the development of parties. It is not, perhaps, strange that the personality of the great statesmen who made New Japan possible has been felt for so long a time, nor that the able men of the rising generation have begun to chafe a little under the prolonged control of those older statesmen. But, as the "Japan Times " says, "the conflict between the old and the new elements of political power, the so-called clan statesmen and the party politicians, has been so far removed that the time is already in sight when the country will see them working harmoniously under the same banner and with the same platform." Such is apparently the case in the Seiyukwai, Marquis Itō's new party, organized in 1900, the closing year of the first decade of Japanese constitutionalism. And this problem of political parties is the great one to be solved in the second period of constitutional government in Japan.

We may, therefore, conclude that the working of the new system of government has, on the whole, been satisfactory. We must acknowledge, with the "Japan Mail," that "it would be altogether extrava

1 See Appendix.

gant to expect that Japan's new constitutional garments should fit her perfectly from the first. They are too large for her. She has to grow into them, and of course the process is destined to be more or less awkward." We must agree with Marquis Itō, the author of the Constitution, not only that there has been the experimental period, but also that "excellent results have thus far been obtained, when it is remembered how sudden has been the transition from feudalism to representative institutions." We ought, indeed, to bear in mind, that, when the Constitution was promulgated, Japan was only eighteen years out of feudalism and twenty-one years out of military despotism; so that, by both the Oriental and the Occidental reckoning, New Japan had only just come "of age" politically. She seems, therefore, deserving of the greatest credit for the progress of the first decade of constitutionalism.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

"The Story of Japan" (Murray); " Advance Japan " (Morris), and "The Yankees of the East" (Curtis), give some information here and there about the government of Japan. But especially helpful are Wigmore's articles in the "Nation" and "Scribner's Monthly," Iyenaga's "Constitutional Development of Japan," Knapp's "Feudal and Modern Japan," Count (now Marquis) Ito's "Commentaries on the Constitution of the Empire of Japan," and Lay's "History of Japanese Political Parties" (Transactions Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. xxx. part iii.).

CHAPTER X

LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT

OUTLINE OF TOPICS: Local government under feudalism; periods of modern local self-government; gradual development therein; prefectural assemblies; candidates and electors; standing committee; sessions; business; speaking; petitions; how bills become laws; powers of prefectural assemblies, theoretical and practical; residents and citizens of cities, towns, and villages; rights and duties of citizens; administration in city, town, and village; city council; town and village officials; city assembly; assemblymen; powers of city assembly; town or village assembly; special provisions for towns and villages; administration of territories; pacification of Formosa; colonial government; policy in Formosa; political progress in Japan. - Bibliography.

W

E have already noted incidentally in pre

ceding chapters some of the steps in the development of local self-government in Japan; and now we must treat that subject more particularly. First it is well to observe in passing that the steps from feudalism to local self-government were not so difficult as might be imagined; for under the feudal system local government by clans had prevailed.1 And yet when feudalism was abolished, the reconstruction of local government was entered upon slowly and cautiously in order to minimize jealousies and other obstacles.

1 See valuable papers by Simmons and Wigmore in Transactions Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. xix. pp. 37-270, and vol. xx., Supplement, part i., pp. 41-62.