MODERN JAPAN.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 1 September 1914, Page 4

MODERN JAPAN.

The London "Times," of July 10th, contains an interesting article from its Tokyo correspondent, dealing with the problems of "Modern Japan." Tho correspondent .says:—"Less thai a decade ago Japan was revealed to the world as a nation of marvellous prowess in arms, brave as she was poor, as compact in spirit as she was small in area. To-day the echoes of war have died away and with them the applause. Since she no longer occupies the centre of the stage Japan is forgotten, or, if she is remembere.l, it is by those who know her, not at second-hand through the idylls of tho writer, but in practical fashion as bankers and traders, or as students in search of truth." After dealing at some length with tho old and the new era, the correspondent concludes:— "If one compares to-day the man in the street in Tokyo with his felloAv in New York or London there is t« \ast gulf' between them. The foraie/s work is cheap, and so is his value. He has not yet even formulated tho demand for a Habeas Corpus Act or the r, ; ght to organise in his own interests. In politics only is his voice beginning To be heard. But the sound of it there is significant of much that is to come, for it is like the trumpet call that marks the opening of the new fray upon which Japan is-, entering. It indicates the fermentation of modern thought in the minds of an Eastern race."