370 COMPARATIVE LAW 



The men cut off their topknots and had their hair dressed in Western 

 fashion; they discarded their loose native dress and began to wear 

 tight practical European dress; they now build their government 

 offices, schools, and other public buildings in European style; they 

 began to eat beef, the partaking of which had been regarded as 

 something sacrilegious. It is needless to say that these political, 

 economical, and social revolutions, which extended to every depart- 

 ment of life, occasioned the necessity for corresponding reforms in 

 the laws of the country, which could not be met by fragmentary 

 legislation. Sweeping legislation by way of codification was the only 

 way of keeping up with the rapid strides which Japan had taken 

 during the past three decades. 



The second and more immediate cause of the codification of the 

 civil law was the earnest desire on the part of the Japanese people 

 to put an end to the existence of the extra-territorial jurisdiction 

 which had been granted by earlier treaties to the sixteen Treaty Powers 

 of Europe and America, and to resume the civil and criminal juris- 

 diction over the subjects and citizens of the Treaty Powers, residing 

 or traveling in the country. At the time that we first entered into 

 commercial treaties with Western Powers, it was quite natural and 

 reasonable that they should demand the reservation to themselves 

 of jurisdiction over their own respective subjects and citizens. This 

 was indeed necessitated by the great difference between their own 

 laws and institutions and those of Japan, while the habits and customs 

 of the people were also quite unlike. We saw the necessity and justice 

 of acceding to their demand, but at the same time felt that the 

 existence of such a legal anomaly was a disgrace to the country, and 

 wholly incompatible with that scrupulous regard for the integrity 

 of territorial sovereignty which ought to characterize the intercourse 

 of independent friendly nations. So from an early date in the present 

 reign, attempts were repeatedly made to revise the treaties and 

 expunge from them the abominable extra-territorial clause. But 

 every time we were met by the objection that our laws were in- 

 complete. Although as a matter of principle, we did not admit the 

 justice of the foreigners' objection to obeying the laws of the country 

 to which they chose to resort, we were obliged, in fairness, to re- 

 cognize the reasonableness of their objections. 



After many years of difficult diplomatic negotiations, it was at 

 last agreed that the treaties should be revised and the extra-terri- 

 toriality should be abolished; and, at the same time, the Japanese 

 Government undertook to frame codes of laws and put them in 

 operation before the new treaties should go into effect. 



The above-mentioned two causes, one internal and the other 

 external, combined to make the work of codification one of the 

 most urgent necessities of the time. As a preliminary step to the 



