466 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



TOKYO TEIKOKU DAIGAKU (IMPEEIAL UNIVEKSITY 



OF TOKYO). 



By NAOHIDE YATSU, RIGAKUSHI, 



FELLOW IN ZOOLOGY, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. 



TN" the recent outburst of literature upon Japan and things Jap- 

 -■- anese, one can not help feeling as he surveys the field that the 

 European has but a scanty idea of the opportunities which the young 

 Japanese enjoys for securing a thorough grounding in the learning of 

 western nations. The average American or European is apt to think, 

 that, aside from military and naval matters, the Japanese education 

 of to-day is largely, if not exclusively, an Asiatic one. It may, there- 

 fore, be of interest to refer to the organization of the higher education 



in Japan as it is being carried out at the present day. In this connec- 

 tion, I think, I may safely say that few foreigners realize the anxious 

 care with which during the past score of years the emperor and his 

 advisers have established the higher education of Japan on a basis as 

 broad as that of the European universities, and at the same time, have 

 aimed to mold in it the best elements of learning of both the west 

 and east. And if this is not understood, still fewer foreigners realize, 

 I think, the extent and character of the less modern form of education 

 in Japan. Indeed, on the other hand, according to some recent writer, 

 one might even fancy that Japan had no true learning before the ad- 



