en expected, the opening up of Japan to Western
influences has induced or produced, _inter alia_, some Western forms
of political and social and, indeed, socialistic associations. The
antagonism between capital and labour and the many vexed and intricate
questions involved in the quarrel are already beginning to make
themselves felt in Japan. It was, I suppose, inevitable. Labour is an
important factor in an industrial nation like Japan, and there is
already heard the cry--call it fact or fallacy as you choose--with
which we are now so familiar in this country and on the Continent,
that labour is the source of all wealth. Japan will no doubt, like
other countries, sooner or later have to face a solution of the
problems involved in these recurring disputes and this apparently
deep-rooted antagonism between the possessors of wealth and the
possessors of muscle. Already many associations have been established
whose aim and object is to voice the sentiments of labour and assert
its rights. Indeed, there is a newspaper, the _Labour World_, the
champion of the rights of the Japanese workmen. So far the law in
Japan does not regard with as tolerant an eye as is the case in this
country labour demonstrations and the occasionally reckless oratory of
labour champions. The police regulations forbid the working classes
embarking in collective movements and demonstrating against their
employers in the matter of wages and working hours. A suggestion of a
strike of workmen is officially regarded with an unfriendly eye, and
strikes themselves, picketing, and various other Western methods of
coercing employers to come round to the views of the employed, would
not at present be tolerated in Japan. No doubt these Western devices
will assert themselves in time. The attempt to keep down the effective
outcome of labour organisation in a country with an enormous labour
population is not likely to be successful for long. Socialism is
making great progress in Japan, and the State has, whether consciously
or not, given it a certain amount of countenance by the steps it has
taken in reference to the tobacco and salt industries, &c. The extent
to which newspapers are now read in Japan--a matter I refer to more
fully in another chapter--will undoubtedly tend to mould public
opinion to such a degree that no Government could afford to resist it.

[Illustration: RICE PLANTING, PROVINCE OF HOKI
FROM A PRINT BY HIROSHIGE]

The trade, commerce,