The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, morning News and The Echo. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1923. JAPAN'S FUTURE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 269, 10 November 1923, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, morning News and The Echo.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1923. JAPAN'S FUTURE.

For the cause that lack* asmntan**. For the wrong that needi reaittanve, For the future in the distance, Ansl the good that we can do.

Now that the first shock of the tei rible catastrophe that has overwhelm* Japan has to some extent expendei itself, there is being evinced a wide spread curiosity as to tne effects whicl this tragic occurrence may produce upoi the future development of the countr; and its people. The material injury i certainly enormous in extent, or whei estimated by any possible standard o cost or expenditure. But it is certaii that within a very few years the Jap anese with their great commercial am industrial activity, and with thei natural courage and tenacity of pur pose to aid them, will recover their los ground. It may even be argued that th destruction of Tokyo and Yokolmin; may ultimately prove to be a bleesin; in disguise, as these cities were moetl; ill-built and primitive slums, and th ground will now be cleared for their n construction on more progressive am more highly civilised lines. On th material side it may be assumed that , comparatively short period of time will obliterate the traces of the great earthquake and even its actual consequences. But there are other possibilities in regard to the social and political evolution of the country which provide an interesting field for speculation and conjecture. It is only to be expected that this tremendous cataclysm, breaking down for the moment all social and official distinctions between different ranks,and destroying so many of the outward and visible signs of power and authority, should have the effect of loosening men's minds from the bonds of convention and tradition and encouraging the deeire i for greater freedom and wider independence of thought and action. Now this • aspiration toward a higher conception of social and political liberty is one of | the most strongly marked character-! istics of Japanese life at the present j time. It was not possible for a people so intelligent and so highly imitative,: having adopted the material advantages. of Western civilisation, to shut their, eyes to the great tendencies of the age ' represented by such terms as Liberalism I and Democracy. And as a matter of) , fact within the past twenty years— ever since Japan's great triumph over, Russia freed the country from the danger I of foreign aggression—Liberal ideas have, made way among the Japanese. But it' has been well said that in Japan Lib-! eralism is still only a sentiment and' not a force. Originally the Government! of Japan was a feudal despotism, and when the old order of things passed , away forty or fifty years ago, the new i constitution provided carefully against < the incursion of democratic claims Upon the preserves of the ruling class. With a limited franchise and a system of I Government; which makes Ministers and Cabinets responsible not to the people but the Throne, Japan is still virtually a mediaeval despotism; and the resolute resistance of the Conservative faction r to 'all demands for a radical change in J the constitution had produced bitter ' antagonism between the classes and the 1 masses long before the earthquake came. , There is, In fact, a close analogy between the political system of Japan and the Kaiserism which the Great War and , the German revolution have so recently i displaced. In each case we note the - complete absence of "responsible" or constitutional government of the British type, and in each case the "power behind the' Throne" is a militaristic clique virtually holding the reins and forcing their country at their own arbitrary discretion to enter upon schemes of aggression and conquest. In Japan the militarists and not the national Parliament or the people have been answerable for the discreditable course that Japan has followed in her dealings with China. But though the militarists are still upheld by the powerful mediaeval * traditions that go back to the days of the Daimios and the Samurai, there has ' been evidenced of late vehement opposition to their policy and to the character of the system that they maintain, and this hostility has mostly taken the form of a public demand for political and electoral reform. The present suffrage " is limited by an age qualification and a '• property qualification with the effect of confining electoral rights to lees than one-fourth of the adult males, and thoee the wealthiest. For years past the masses have been agitating for the enlargement of the electorate, and since the earthquake the demand for the abolition of the property qualification } has been forced vigorously to the front. - The latest news is that the Government r intends to introduce a Bill admitting to I the franchise all males over 25 years; and if this proposal becomes law this it sudden advance toward the democratic goal may be credited quite reasonably to the levelling and disorganising effects Q of the earthquake.