COUNTRY OF CONTRASTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21647, 13 November 1933, Page 3

COUNTRY OF CONTRASTS

At a recent meeting of the Education Committee of the British National Council of Women, Miss Buslie. of the Church Missionary Society, who has spent 10 years in Japan and throucb work has been in close touch with the life of the country, spoke on the subject of "Modern Girl in Japan." The rapidity with which Japan has evolved her present stage of civilisation, said Miss Buslie, is shown in the way in which the crudest contrasts are found side by side. The Japanese izirJ is a bundle of contradictions. The "Moga," as the modern type is called, has short skirts and waved hair, uses lip-stick and carries the latest fashions in handbags. Beside her is another young woman in typical Japanese dress, with the traditional plastered hair, carrying her possessions neatly tied in a silk handkerchief. Education is 011 modern lines, and girls can begin in a kindergarten and proceed to a university, though it was only in 1870 that the first girls' school —a mission school —was opened. Two years later the Government took up the work of education. Women can be, and are, doctors, dentists, teachers, actresses, nurses, etc. Marriage is regarded as woman's ultimate goal. Women in the country work in the fields and feed the silk worms, and they also become workers in the factories. But as they live in and their wages are sent to their fathers, tlie.v are practically slaves, until their contract is out. The full emancipation of women in Japan is still far off, but much has been accomplished in a short time.