Part 44

The house of representatives unanimously approved this programme. By the bulk of the nation, however, it was regarded with something like consternation, and a very short time sufficed to demonstrate its impracticability. From the beginning of 1907 a cloud of commercial and industrial depression settled down upon Japan, partly because of so colossal a programme of taxes and expenditures, and partly owing to excessive speculation during the year 1906 and to unfavourable financial conditions abroad. To float domestic loans became a hopeless task, and thus one of the three sources of extraordinary revenue ceased to be available. There remained no alternative but to modify the programme, and this was accomplished by extending the original period of years so as correspondingly to reduce the annual outlays. The nation, however, as represented by its leading men of affairs, clamoured for still more drastic measures, and it became evident that the government must study retrenchment, not expansion, eschewing above all things any increase of the country's indebtedness. A change of ministry took place, and the new cabinet drafted a programme on five bases: first, that all expenditures should be brought within the margin of actual visible revenue, loans being wholly abstained from; secondly, that the estimates should not include any anticipated surpluses of yearly revenue; thirdly, that appropriations of at least 50,000,000 _yen_ should be annually set aside to form a sinking fund, the whole of the foreign debt being thus extinguished in 27 years; fourthly, that the state railways should be placed in a separate account, all their profits being devoted to extensions and repairs; and fifthly, that the period for completing the _post bellum_ programme should be extended from 6 years to 11. This scheme had the effect of restoring confidence in the soundness of the national finances.

_National Debt._--When the fiefs were surrendered to the sovereign at the beginning of the Meiji era, it was decided to provide for the feudal nobles and the samurai by the payment of lump sums in commutation, or by handing to them public bonds, the interest on which should constitute a source of income. The result of this transaction was that bonds having a total face value of 191,500,000 _yen_ were issued, and ready-money payments were made aggregating 21,250,000 _yen_.[25] This was the foundation of Japan's national debt. Indeed, these public bonds may be said to have represented the bulk of the state's liabilities during the first 25 years of the Meiji period. The government had also to take over the debts of the fiefs, amounting to 41,000,000 _yen_, of which 21,500,000 _yen_ were paid with interest-bearing bonds, the remainder with ready money. If to the above figures be added two foreign loans aggregating 16,500,000 _yen_ (completely repaid by the year 1897); a loan of 15,000,000 _yen_ incurred on account of the Satsuma revolt of 1877; loans of 33,000,000 _yen_ for public works, 13,000,000 _yen_ for naval construction, and 14,500,000 _yen_[26] in connexion with the fiat currency, we have a total of 305,000,000 _yen_, being the whole national debt of Japan during the first 28 years of her new era under Imperial administration.

The second epoch dates from the war with China in 1894-95. The direct expenditures on account of the war aggregated 200,000,000 _yen_, of which 135,000,000 _yen_ were added to the national debt, the remainder being defrayed with accumulations of surplus revenue, with a part of the indemnity received from China, and with voluntary contributions from patriotic subjects. As the immediate sequel of the war, the government elaborated a large programme of armaments and public works. The expenditure for these unproductive purposes, as well as for coast fortifications, dockyards, and so on, came to 314,000,000 _yen_, and the total of the productive expenditures included in the programme was 190,000,000 _yen_--namely, 120 millions for railways, telegraphs and telephones; 20 millions for riparian improvements; 20 millions in aid of industrial and agricultural banks and so forth--the whole programme thus involving an outlay of 504,000,000 _yen_. To meet this large figure, the Chinese indemnity, surpluses of annual revenue and other assets, furnished 300 millions; and it was decided that the remaining 204 millions should be obtained by domestic loans, the programme to be carried completely into operation--with trifling exceptions--by the year 1905. In practice, however, it was found impossible to obtain money at home without paying a high rate of interest. The government, therefore, had recourse to the London market in 1899, raising a loan of £10,000,000 at 4%, and selling the £100 bonds at 90. In 1902, it was not expected that Japan would need any further immediate recourse to foreign borrowing. According to her financiers' forecast at that time, her national indebtedness would reach its maximum, namely, 575,000,000 _yen_, in the year 1903, and would thenceforward diminish steadily. All Japan's domestic loans were by that time placed on a uniform basis. They carried 5% interest, ran for a period of 5 years without redemption, and were then to be redeemed within 50 years at latest. The treasury had power to expedite the operation of redemption according to financial convenience, but the sum expended on amortization each year must receive the previous consent of the diet. Within the limit of that sum redemption was effected either by purchasing the stock of the loans in the open market or by drawing lots to determine the bonds to be paid off. During the first two periods (1867 to 1897) of the Meiji era, owing to the processes of conversion, consolidation, &c., and to the various requirements of the state's progress, twenty-two different kinds of national bonds were issued; they aggregated 673,215,500 _yen_; 269,042,198 _yen_ of that total had been paid off at the close of 1897, and the remainder was to be redeemed by 1946, according to these programmes.

But at this point the empire became involved in war with Russia, and the enormous resulting outlays caused a signal change in the financial situation. Before peace was restored in the autumn of 1905, Japan had been obliged to borrow 405,000,000 _yen_ at home and 1,054,000,000 abroad, so that she found herself in 1908 with a total debt of 2,276,000,000 _yen_, of which aggregate her domestic indebtedness stood for 1,110,000,000 and her foreign borrowings amounted to 1,166,000,000. This meant that her debt had grown from 561,000,000 _yen_ in 1904 to 2,276,000,000 _yen_[27] in 1908; or from 11.3 _yen_ to 43.8 _yen_ per head of the population. Further, out of the grand total, the sum actually spent on account of war and armaments represented 1,357,000,000 _yen_. The debt carried interest varying from 4 to 5%.

It will be observed that the country's indebtedness grew by 1,700,000,000 _yen_, in round numbers, owing to the war with Russia. This added obligation the government resolved to discharge within the space of 30 years, for which purpose the diet was asked to approve the establishment of a national debt consolidation fund, which should be kept distinct from the general accounts of revenue and expenditure, and specially applied to payment of interest and redemption of principal. The amount of this fund was never to fall below 110,000,000 _yen_ annually. Immediately after the war, the diet approved a cabinet proposal for the nationalization of 17 private railways, at a cost of 500,000,000 _yen_, and this brought the state's debts to 2,776,000,000 _yen_ in all. The people becoming impatient of this large burden, a scheme was finally adopted in 1908 for appropriating a sum of at least 50,000,000 _yen_ annually to the purpose of redemption.

_Local Finance._--Between 1878 and 1888 a system of local autonomy in matters of finance was fully established. Under this system the total expenditures of the various corporations in the last year of each quinquennial period commencing from the fiscal year 1889-1890 were as follow:--

Total Expenditure Year. (millions of _yen_).

1889-1890 22 1893-1894 52 1898-1899 97 1903-1904[28] 158 1907-1908 167

In the same years the total indebtedness of the corporations was:--

Debts Year. (millions of _yen_).

1890 ¾ 1894 10 1899 32 1904 65 1907 89[29]

The chief purposes to which the proceeds of these loans were applied are as follow:--

Millions of _yen_.

Education 5 Sanitation 12 Industries 13 Public works 52

Local corporations are not competent to incur unrestricted indebtedness. The endorsement of the local assembly must be secured; redemption must commence within 3 years after the date of issue and be completed within 30 years; and, except in the case of very small loans, the sanction of the minister of home affairs must be obtained.

_Wealth of Japan._--With reference to the wealth of Japan, there is no official census. So far as can be estimated from statistics for the year 1904-1905, the wealth of Japan proper, excluding Formosa, Sakhalin and some rights in Manchuria, amounts to about 19,896,000,000 _yen_, the items of which are as follow:--

_Yen_ (10 _yen_ = £1).

Lands 12,301,000,000 Buildings 2,331,000,000 Furniture and fittings 1,080,000,000 Live stock 109,000,000 Railways, telegraphs and telephones 707,000,000 Shipping 376,000,000 Merchandise 873,000,000 Specie and bullion 310,000,000 Miscellaneous 1,809,000,000 -------------- Grand total 19,896,000,000

Early Education.

_Education._--There is no room to doubt that the literature and learning of China and Korea were transported to Japan in very ancient times, but tradition is the sole authority for current statements that in the 3rd century a Korean immigrant was appointed historiographer to the Imperial court of Japan and another learned man from the same country introduced the Japanese to the treasures of Chinese literature. About the end of the 6th century the Japanese court began to send civilians and religionists direct to China, there to study Confucianism and Buddhism, and among these travellers there were some who passed as much as 25 or 30 years beyond the sea. The knowledge acquired by these students was crystallized into a body of laws and ordinances based on the administrative and legal systems of the Sui dynasty in China, and in the middle of the 7th century the first Japanese school seems to have been established by the emperor Tenchi, followed some 50 years later by the first university. Nara was the site of the latter, and the subjects of study were ethics, law, history and mathematics.

Not until 794, the date of the transfer of the capital to Kioto, however, is there any evidence of educational organization on a considerable scale. A university was then opened in the capital, with affiliated colleges; and local schools were built and endowed by noble families, to whose scions admittance was restricted, but for general education one institution only appears to have been provided. In this Kioto university the curriculum included the Chinese classics, calligraphy, history, law, etiquette, arithmetic and composition; while in the affiliated colleges special subjects were taught, as medicine, herbalism, acupuncture, shampooing, divination, the almanac and languages. Admission was limited to youths of high social grade; the students aggregated some 400, from 13 to 16 years of age; the faculty included professors and teachers, who were known by the same titles (_hakase_ and _shi_) as those applied to their successors to-day; and the government supplied food and clothing as well as books. The family schools numbered five, and their patrons were the Wage, the Fujiwara, the Tachibana (one school each) and the Minamoto (two). At the one institution--opened in 828--where youths in general might receive instruction, the course embraced only calligraphy and the precepts of Buddhism and Confucianism.

Combination of Native and Foreign Element.

The above retrospect suggests that Japan, in those early days, borrowed her educational system and its subjects of study entirely from China. But closer scrutiny shows that the national factor was carefully preserved. The ethics of administration required a combination of two elements, _wakon_, or the soul of Japan, and _kwansai_, or the ability of China; so that, while adopting from Confucianism the doctrine of filial piety, the Japanese grafted on it a spirit of unswerving loyalty and patriotism; and while accepting Buddha's teaching as to three states of existence, they supplemented it by a belief that in the life beyond the grave the duty of guarding his country would devolve on every man. Great academic importance attached to proficiency in literary composition, which demanded close study of the ideographic script, endlessly perplexing in form and infinitely delicate in sense. To be able to compose and indite graceful couplets constituted a passport to high office as well as to the favour of great ladies, for women vied with men in this accomplishment. The early years of the 11th century saw, grouped about the empress Aki, a galaxy of female authors whose writings are still accounted their country's classics--Murasaki no Shikibu, Akazome Emon, Izumi Shikibu, Ise Taiyu and several lesser lights. To the first two Japan owes the _Genji monogatari_ and the _Eiga monogatari_, respectively, and from the Imperial court of those remote ages she inherited admirable models of painting, calligraphy, poetry, music, song and dance. But it is to be observed that all this refinement was limited virtually to the noble families residing in Kioto, and that the first object of education in that era was to fit men for office and for society.

Education in the Middle Ages.

Meanwhile, beyond the precincts of the capital there were rapidly growing to maturity numerous powerful military magnates who despised every form of learning that did not contribute to martial excellence. An illiterate era ensued which reached its climax with the establishment of feudalism at the close of the 12th century. It is recorded that, about that time, only one man out of a force of five thousand could decipher an Imperial mandate addressed to them. Kamakura, then the seat of feudal government, was at first distinguished for absence of all intellectual training, but subsequently the course of political events brought thither from Kioto a number of court nobles whose erudition and refinement acted as a potent leaven. Buddhism, too, had been from the outset a strong educating influence. Under its auspices the first great public library was established (1270) at the temple Shomyo-ji in Kanazawa. It is said to have contained practically all the Chinese and Japanese books then existing, and they were open for perusal by every class of reader. To Buddhist priests, also, Japan owed during many years all the machinery she possessed for popular education. They organized schools at the temples scattered about in almost every part of the empire, and at these _tera-koya_, as they were called, lessons in ethics, calligraphy, reading and etiquette were given to the sons of samurai and even to youths of the mercantile and manufacturing classes.

Education in the pre-Meiji Era.

When, at the beginning of the 17th century, administrative supremacy fell into the hands of the Tokugawa, the illustrious founder of that dynasty of shoguns, Iyeyasu, showed himself an earnest promoter of erudition. He employed a number of priests to make copies of Chinese and Japanese books; he patronized men of learning and he endowed schools. It does not appear to have occurred to him, however, that the spread of knowledge was hampered by a restriction which, emanating originally from the Imperial court in Kioto, forbade any one outside the ranks of the Buddhist priesthood to become a public teacher. To his fifth successor Tsunayoshi (1680-1709) was reserved the honour of abolishing this veto. Tsunayoshi, whatever his faults, was profoundly attached to literature. By his command a pocket edition of the Chinese classics was prepared, and the example he himself set in reading and expounding rare books to audiences of feudatories and their vassals produced something like a mania for erudition, so that feudal chiefs competed in engaging teachers and founding schools. The eighth shogun, Yoshimune (1716-1749), was an even more enlightened ruler. He caused a geography to be compiled and an astronomical observatory to be constructed; he revoked the veto on the study of foreign books; he conceived and carried out the idea of imparting moral education through the medium of calligraphy by preparing ethical primers whose precepts were embodied in the head-lines of copy-books, and he encouraged private schools. Iyenari (1787-1838), the eleventh shogun, and his immediate successor, Iyeyoshi (1838-1853), patronized learning no less ardently, and it was under the auspices of the latter that Japan acquired her five classics, the primers of _True Words_, of _Great Learning_, of _Lesser Learning_, of _Female Ethics_ and of _Women's Filial Piety_.

Thus it may be said that the system of education progressed steadily throughout the Tokugawa era. From the days of Tsunayoshi the number of fief schools steadily increased, and as students were admitted free of all charges, a duty of grateful fealty as well as the impulse of interfief competition drew thither the sons of all samurai. Ultimately the number of such schools rose to over 240, and being supported entirely at the expense of the feudal chiefs, they did no little honour to the spirit of the era. From 7 to 15 years of age lads attended as day scholars, being thereafter admitted as boarders, and twice a year examinations were held in the presence of high officials of the fief. There were also several private schools where the curriculum consisted chiefly of moral philosophy, and there were many temple schools, where ethics, calligraphy, arithmetic, etiquette and, sometimes, commercial matters were taught. A prominent feature of the system was the bond of reverential affection uniting teacher and student. Before entering school a boy was conducted by his father or elder brother to the home of his future teacher, and there the visitors, kneeling before the teacher, pledged themselves to obey him in all things and to submit unquestioningly to any discipline he might impose. Thus the teacher came to be regarded as a parent, and the veneration paid to him was embodied in a precept: "Let not a pupil tread within three feet of his teacher's shadow." In the case of the temple schools the priestly instructor had full cognisance of each student's domestic circumstances and was guided by that knowledge in shaping the course of instruction. The universally underlying principle was, "serve the country and be diligent in your respective avocations." Sons of samurai were trained in military arts, and on attaining proficiency many of them travelled about the country, inuring their bodies to every kind of hardship and challenging all experts of local fame.

Unfortunately, however, the policy of national seclusion prevented for a long time all access to the stores of European knowledge. Not until the beginning of the 18th century did any authorized account of the great world of the West pass into the hands of the people. A celebrated scholar (Arai Hakuseki) then compiled two works--_Saiyo kibun_ (_Record of Occidental Hearsay_), and _Sairan igen_ (_Renderings of Foreign Languages_)--which embodied much information, obtained from Dutch sources, about Europe, its conditions and its customs. But of course the light thus furnished had very restricted influence. It was not extinguished, however. Thenceforth men's interest centred more and more on the astronomical, geographical and medical sciences of the West, though such subjects were not included in academical studies until the renewal of foreign intercourse in modern times. Then (1857), almost immediately, the nation turned to Western learning, as it had turned to Chinese thirteen centuries earlier. The Tokugawa government established in Yedo an institution called _Bansho-shirabe-dokoro_ (place for studying foreign books), where Occidental languages were learned and Occidental works translated. Simultaneously a school for acquiring foreign medical art (_Seiyo igaku-sho_) was opened, and, a little later (1862), the _Kaisei-jo_ (place of liberal culture), a college for studying European sciences, was added to the list of new institutions. Thus the eve of the Restoration saw the Japanese people already appreciative of the stores of learning rendered accessible to them by contact with the Occident.

Commercial Education in Tokugawa Times.

Commercial education was comparatively neglected in the schools. Sons of merchants occasionally attended the _tera-koya_, but the instruction they received there had seldom any bearing upon the conduct of trade. Mercantile knowledge had to be acquired by a system of apprenticeship. A boy of 9 or 10 was apprenticed for a period of 8 or 9 years to a merchant, who undertook to support him and teach him a trade. Generally this young apprentice could not even read or write. He passed through all the stages of shop menial, errand boy, petty clerk, salesman and senior clerk, and in the evenings he received instruction from a teacher, who used for textbooks the manual of letter-writing (_Shosoku orai_) and the manual of commerce (_Shobai orai_). The latter contained much useful information, and a youth thoroughly versed in its contents was competent to discharge responsible duties. When an apprentice, having attained the position of senior clerk, had given proof of practical ability, he was often assisted by his master to start business independently, but under the same firm-name, for which purpose a sum of capital was given to him or a section of his master's customers were assigned.

Education in Modern Japan.