VIGNETTES OF NIPPON

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXII, Issue 4641, 18 May 1938, Page 2

VIGNETTES OF NIPPON

SOME STRANGE CUSTOMS. A LAND OF CONTRASTS. Japan is a feudal country, in which it is justifiable to take a man's life for "dangerous thoughts." Living conditions of the peasant and his family have remained unaltered for 500 years. He cannot afford the white rice he grows. He buys cheap Saigon rice. The townsman lives in a wood-and-paper house, for which he pays perhaps 3s 6d a week. His electric light and fuel will cost about 2s a month. He buys an outfit of working clothes for lis. He can furnish his home for £2.

Breakfast for six—probably comprising bean soup, rice, pickles, and tea —will cost about 4d. A seat at the cinema costs 3d or less. Saki (rice wine) can be bought for 8d a quart, lager for 4d or 5d a pint. Apples are three for a penny, bananas %d each, peaches 10for3%d. Sixpence for 50 is an average price for cigarettes. In Japan only two classes of women count, —the grandmother and the mother-in-law. To them a wife must accord obedience even more than to her husband.

In a Tokio tram a man gets up to give his seat to a boy— not to a woman. It is the woman who holds open the door.

The male child is all-important. His mother will call his "Honourable Moon Sir."

There are said to be 4,000,000 girls under 15 in houses of ill-fame.

A man can obtain a divorce merely by writing three lines on a sheet of paper. He gives his wife permission to marry another. The Emperor is a divinity, a living god whose name must not be mentioned in conversation.

The worst oath used by a Japanese is to call another man "Other-than-to-be-expected fellow." Service in the army is universal and compulsory. All men are on the army list until they are 40. Everyone is taught the virtue and honour of dying for the Fatherland. In the town propaganda blasts its way into the home, instilling contempt and hatred for the Westerner.

Japan has warplanes, battleships, and tanks. She has also crippling taxation, povery, and malnutrition.