JAPANESE GIRLS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 955, 27 December 1933, Page 9

JAPANESE GIRLS.

Still Prejudice Against Higher Education. STRONG AMERICAN INFLUENCE. “ Had I daughters growing up in Japan instead of sons,” declared the Baroness Ishimoto, while in the United States on a lecture tour, *'l would never consent that they receive the sort of education which I was given (states the “Christian Science Monitor”). “ I was educated at the School for Peeresses; and I was taught to bow, to arrange flowers, to play music, to make poems, and to write with India ink and brush. I was trained solely to be a wife. But it is imperative now that our girls be given the kind of instruction which will fit them to be self-supporting and to take their places in the new Japan which is rising around them.” The Baroness Ishimoto is said to be the first Japanese woman to earn her extensive American tour by lecturing and writing as she goes along. Deeply interested in her people, the Baroness, after her marriage with the son of Baron Sinroku Ishimoto, Japan’s Minister of War during the Russo-Japa-nese struggle, went with her husband to live in the coalfields of Japan. Here they stayed for three years, living on his salar}% and studying the needs of their people. Having concluded that Japan’s greatest problem is her overpopulation, Baroness Ishimoto is now advocating that her country control its birth rate, rather than reach out for new land. Many Girls Have Jobs. “There is'still prejudice a-plenty in my country against higher education for women,” the Baroness explained, “ but as the struggle for livelihood becomes keener more and more people are beginning to see the working girl is an asset to any family.” When the college girls receive their graduation certificates (only five or six women in Japan have completed the Government school requirements for a college degree) the majority of them set out to look for jobs. A few of the girls whose families are very wealthy continue their education. Quite a few college girls teach. Others have qualified as medical doctors. But none of them are allowed to enter the legal profession. (There is a Bill up now to permit wom.n to practice law. Indeed, it comes up in the Diet every year, and every year, so far, has been defeated.) Nor will any of them attempt obtaining a foothold in business, the Baroness said, for all of the wellpaid jobs at present go to .Tien. These Japanese college girls who have gone out into the world do not lease their own apartments and drive their own cars as do many of the American business girls, but they have money for books and clothes and theatres and restaurants. Many of them hope to save a sufficient amount for a visit to America. Money for Enjoyment. The fortunate young college-trained women of Japan who secure good jobs are able to have many enjoyments with the money they earn. They all flock to the American movies. They like popular music—even the latest American jazz. And they seek out the American tearooms, where they can try the strange and fascinating new ice desserts. Quite a lot of their money goes for books, because Japanese girls are great readers. Most of them, the Baroness says, have read the translations of Sinclair Lewis, H. G. Wells and Erich Remarque. They consult the women's page of the “ Nicbinichi,” a Tokio newspaper, for the latest way of doing the hair. Practically all of the girls wear their beautiful hair bobbed, and many of them have permanent waves. The fashion for scarlet finger-nails has not taken hold in Japan. And not many of the girls smoke. In the cities these business girls of the Far East are likely to wear Western clothes. On the women's page of the “Nichinichi” the girls find the latest fashions from the Western world. Unless preserved by some specially organised “ movement,” the charming Japanese kimono is likely to disappear.