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sufficient physical exercise. If more exercise is allowed, then the years devoted to education must be lengthened, and this would mean a serious loss to the work of the nation. This difficulty was recognised over twenty years ago, and several attempts were made to find a means of bringing about a change. Of these, the two chief are—first, the advocates of Kana, consisting of those who believe in using only the Japanese alphabet for the written language; and, second, those who advocate the introduction of Latin characters and a horizontal form of writing, as opposed to the present vertical form. These two branches were unable to come to any compromise, and the Government appointed a committee to discover the better plan. The work of this committee was complicated by the appearance of a new section, who wished to bring about the reform by gradually improving the spoken language, and then bringing the written language into line with it.
A third great difficulty in Japanese education is the lack of a moral standard. Physical and literary standards exist, but the Restoration destroyed the religious standard. For the upper classes there remained Chinese philosophy, but for the great mass of the people there was nothing. There is great difficulty in deciding what should take the place of the old standard. In the Western world Christianity supplies the moral standard. In Japan some desire a return to old forms, with patriotism added, others prefer Christianity, some lean on Kant, others on other philosophers. Everything is confused. If a great man and leader of men were to arise, the way of decision would be more easy. Otherwise the difficulty seems almost insuperable. The struggle with these three difficulties in the future may be regarded with more hope from the successes in the past. All countries have stationary periods, and in Japan this may become progress on the advent of a great man either at home or abroad. Such men and such changes as they would bring about would make for progress.
Over twenty years ago I saw that private schools were necessary as well as Government ones, and founded Senmon Gakko. From this 2,000 or 3,000 graduates have taken up positions in all branches of national life.
It is interesting to note, with regard to the question of women’s education, that in the old literature of Japan women had a prominent share. Later this changed, and until the adoption of Western educational methods forced women to enter schools, little was heard of literary women. Even now the law only allows women to study to the middle schools, and no higher. There are many who consider that women do not require higher education, but the number of these is diminishing. I felt always that it was only logical and right that women