Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 1919. DEMOCRACY IN JAPAN.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIII, Issue 18, 23 January 1919, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail. THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 1919. DEMOCRACY IN JAPAN.

THAT there has been for a long time considerable political unrest in Japan is evident from the many changes of Ministry which have taken place in recent years, but the actual working of Parliamentary institutions in that country is still only vaguely understood by the outside world. Considerable light is, according to The Times Literary

Supplement, thrown upon Japanese political conditions by a little treatise lately published in Yokohama. This is an English version, by an English barrister practising in tha,t city, of an essay on Constitutional Loyalty written by Hr Yukio -Ozaki, one of the most distinguished of the “younger statesmen” of Japan. Mr Ozaki hag sat continuously in the Imperial Diet since its first session in 1890, and was Minister of Justice in the late Okuma Cabinet. 'He has been a consistent advocate of responsible party government, alid a vigorous opponent of the “clan” government, which is still supreme and u serious obstacle to Japanese constitutional progress. As a young man he was impressed by this supremacy in the offices of government of the “clans'” --i.e,, the natives of the two provinces of Satsuma and Choshu —and throughout his public career he has fought against it, suffering assault and battery and even risking his life. The clan influence is essentially a-military influence, and it is no exaggeration to say that this influence permeates the whole official life of Japan, The military chiefs do pot always take the Government of th© day "into their confidence. For example, the -General Staff is responsible only to the Emperor. It fs not a department of the Government, as is the War department. When the great naval and military expansion was decided upon after the Russo-Jap-anese War, the scheme had been drafted and the approval of the Emperor obtained before the Premier was- informed. “Thus,” says Mr Ozaki, “Minister President as he was in name

he had no part whatever in the decision of schemes of national defence, which are intimately related ta the most important affairs of State, diplomacy, and finance 5 but had the honour of being notified of the result only after the question had been finally disposed of !” “Clan system” and “bureaucracy” are synonymous phrases, the former signifying to the popular mind the extra-Parliaraentary control of militarp and the Jatter of civil affairs. In the one sphere the dominating au-. thority is as powerful, as secretive, and as jealous of its prerogatives as in - the other. “A politician of party origin who finds himself at the head of a department is,” declares Mr Ozahi, “a Minister of Stale in name only; as a matter of fact, he is a veritable prisoner in the enemy’s camp, his secretary being the only partisan he can trust. No matter how able such a statesman, may be, what can he possibly achieve when he finds himself the solitary head of a 'department with a, Vice-Minister and other subordinates who have for many years received favours from his political x enemy—the group of statesmen representing certain clan or bureaucratic influence—arrayed against him both in ideals and sentiment, and his only supporter his own secretary?” Clearly the voice of democracy, as the Western wor!d_jmderstands democracy, is as yet of small account in the government of Japan.