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JAPANESE TRAITS
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"The temperament, the training, and the necessary materials are, for the most part, lacking"; and these cannot, in spite of the impressionableness of the Japanese nature, be readily acquired and developed. Business men, moreover, who have had actual dealings with the Japanese, complain of dishonesty,[1] "pettiness, constant shilly-shallying," and unbusiness-like habits; and call them "good-natured, artistic, and all that, but muddle-pated folks when it comes to matters of business."

One illustration of their natural incapacity for business life is found in the fact that they had no idea of time. They did not understand the value, according to our standards, of the minutes, and were much given to what we call a "waste of time." They were not accustomed to reckon time minute-ly, or to take into notice any period less than an hour, and considered it nine o'clock until it was ten o'clock. Moreover, the hour of the old "time-table" was 120 minutes long.[2] Besides, the Japanese are too digni-

  1. ↑ But "the peasantry is, in the main, honest."
  2. ↑ See "Japanese Calendars," Transactions Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. xxx. part i.

    The Land of Approximate Time.

    Here's to the Land of Approximate Time!
        Where nerves are a factor unknown,
    Where acting as balm are manners calm,
        And seeds of sweet patience are sown.

    Where every clock runs as it happens to please,
        And they never agree on their strikes;
    Where even the sun often joins in the fun,
        And rises whenever he likes. —Jingles from Japan.

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