JAPAN 



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JAPAN 



three hundred and four hundred members. 

 Members of the House of Representatives, 

 379 in number, are chosen by popular vote 

 limited by certain income qualifications. Not 

 all parts of the empire are represented, but 

 the tendency is toward the extension of the 

 franchise and toward making ministers respon- 

 sible to the Diet instead of to the emperor. 



The capital of the empire is Tokyo; the 

 other cities of chief importance are Kyoto, 

 Osaka, Yokohama, Nagasaki, Kobe, Hiroshima 

 and Hakodate, the chief of which ace described 

 under their titles. 



Army. The army of Japan, organized on a 

 European basis in 1884, proved its efficiency 

 in the successful struggles with China and Rus- 

 sia (see History, below). As in European 

 countries, military service is universal, all able- 



bodied males from seventeen to forty being 

 liable to service, and while the active army 

 on a peace footing is 250,000, including officers 

 and men, and on a war footing is about three 

 times that number, it is estimated that 1,700,- 

 000 trained men could be quickly put into the 

 field; and the total number who could be- 

 called upon is not far below 3,250,000. 



Navy. Only since the war with China has 

 Japan had a navy worthy to rank with the 

 navies of the other great countries. In 1916 

 it stood fifth among the naval powers of the 

 world, ranking next below the United States, 

 with twelve dreadnoughts, thirteen older 

 battleships, thirty-seven cruisers, thirty-seven 

 torpedo boats, sixty destroyers and fifteen sub- 

 marines. The officers and crews number about 

 51,000, but this is capable of rapid increase. 



History of Japan 



Formative Period. The very early days of 

 Japan are as hazy as are its own landscapes 

 in the foggy season. Here and there a figure 

 looms, as Jimmu Tenno, who is supposed to 

 have founded the present reigning dynasty 

 in 660 B.C.; but the outlines are not distinct, 

 and the mist soon settles down again. After 

 A. D. 500 facts may be stated more definitely, 

 the first certain event being the arrival from 

 Korea in 652 of Buddhist missionaries; the 

 next, the opening up of that intercourse with 

 China which resulted in the acceptance of 

 Chinese standards and Chinese civilization. 

 The centuries that followed saw a marked 

 growth in culture, and especially a centraliza- 

 tion of the government. In these early years, 

 too, began that seclusion of the mikado which 

 until very recent times served to make him in 

 the eyes of his people a sort of divine mystery, 

 reverenced, but not loved. 



The Middle Age. This was for the most 

 part a period of civil strife, lasting from the 

 twelfth to the seventeenth century. The mili- 

 tary caste became very strong, and the chief 

 general, or shogun, gained a power which was 

 far greater than that of the emperor. In time 

 the mikado became almost a myth, and it was 

 the able shogun lyeyasu who in the late six- 

 teenth and early seventeenth centuries restored 

 a measure of tranquillity to the strife-torn 

 country and established finally that feudal 

 routine from which Japan did not emerge 

 until the middle of the nineteenth century. 

 Meanwhile, in 1542, Portuguese Roman Catho- 

 lic missionaries had brought to the island em- 



pire Christianity, which in spite of opposition 

 spread rapidly. 



Foreign Intercourse. For a time the Portu- 

 guese had trading relations with Japan, but in 

 the sixteenth century these were forbidden, 

 and for more than two centuries the empire 

 remained shut up within itself. The avowed 

 principles of the government were to "prevent 

 the introduction of new ideas" and to "preserve 

 unchanged the condition of the native intelli- 

 gence," and foreign vessels were not allowed to 

 touch at any Japanese port. But in 1854 

 Commodore Matthew C. Perry appeared in a 

 Japanese harbor with a squadron of United 

 States vessels, and fairly forced from the se- 

 cluded nation a treaty of friendship and com- 

 merce. Other countries were not slow to take 

 advantage of this American success, and port 

 after port was opened up to trade. Bitter was 

 the protest on the part of the "Japan for 

 Japanese" patriots, but the other policy pre- 

 vailed and the seclusion of Japan was ended. 

 In 1867 the shogun was forced, by reason of 

 his reactionary tendencies, to resign, and in 

 the next year the office was abolished. What 

 was virtually a new empire was created. 

 American and European educators, statesmei 

 soldiers and seamen were invited to reorganii 

 practically every department of the nati( 

 life; Western laws were introduced, feudalis 

 was abolished, and in 1889 a constitution 

 proclaimed. The court emerged from its k 

 seclusion, and the Japanese had the pleasui 

 of seeing their ruler at public gatherings, 

 Western peoples are wont to do. 



