that
future must largely depend on the extent to and the manner in which
its youth have been taught not only all those subjects which are
commonly classified as knowledge but their duties and responsibilities
as citizens. Judged by this test, Japan has every right to rank high
among the nations of the world. And it can also be said of her in this
matter that the education of her people is no new thing. It is not one
among the many things she has learned from the West. Education was in
vogue in Japan when that country was isolated from the rest of the
world. Certainly Japan's contact with Europe and America has vastly
improved her educational system, enabling her, as it has done, to
utilise to the full the great advance there has been in scientific
knowledge of every description during the last half-century or so.
But, as far back as the seventh century, if history or tradition be
correct, an educational code was promulgated in Japan. Certainly this
code was limited in its application to certain classes, but education
was gradually extended throughout the country, and even in days
somewhat remote from the present time every member of the Samurai
class was expected to include the three R's, or the Japanese
equivalent of them, in his curriculum. The ordinary Samurai was, in
fact, as regards reading and writing an educated man at a time when
British Generals and even British Sovereigns were somewhat hazy in
regard to their orthography and caligraphy.

Soon after the Revolution of 1868 a Board of Education was instituted
in Japan, and the whole educational system of the country--because one
had existed under the rule of a Tycoon--was taken in hand and
reorganised. Three years later a separate Department of Education was
formed at a time almost synonymous with the setting up of School
Boards in England. As soon as it got itself into working order the
Education Department despatched a number of specially selected
Japanese to various European countries as well as to the United States
of America to inquire into and report upon the system of education in
existence and its suitability for adaptation or adoption in Japan.
When these representatives returned from their mission and sent in
their reports a code was compiled and the Mikado, in promulgating it,
declared the aims of his Government to be that education should be so
diffused throughout the country that eventually there might not be a
village with an ignorant family nor a