ndustrious. Technical schools of lower grades are maintained by
prefectures and urban bodies, and they receive grants in aid from
national funds. There are in all about four hundred technical schools
in the country. The few facts respecting education in Japan which I
have put as tersely as possible before my readers, should, I think,
convince them of the fact that in regard to this all-important
question Japan has made and is making vigorous efforts--and efforts
all of which are in the right direction. It must be remembered that in
the education of her youth she has to face difficulties which are
altogether unknown in this as in other European countries. One of
these difficulties is the fact that Japanese literature is more or
less mixed up with Chinese literature, and, accordingly, it is
necessary for the Japanese to learn Chinese as well as Japanese
characters, and also to study the Chinese classics. Another difficulty
is the one I touched on in my remarks on the Japanese language, viz.,
the difference between the written and spoken languages of Japan. In
old times the written and spoken languages were no doubt identical,
but Chinese literature influenced the country to so great an extent
that the written language in time became more and more Chinese, while
the spoken dialect remained Japanese. The consequence is that the
written language is more or less a hotch-potch of Chinese characters
and the Japanese alphabet. Whether it will be possible to overcome
these obvious difficulties remains to be seen. Several remedies have
been proposed but none has so far been adopted. One remedy was the use
of the Japanese alphabet alone for the written language, another the
introduction and adoption of the European alphabet. Manifestly the
difficulty of effecting such a change as the adoption of either of
these plans would involve would be enormous. Still the retention of
the present complicated system is without doubt the great obstacle in
the way of educational progress in Japan, and it speaks eloquently for
the patience and pertinacity of the youth of that country that they
have effected so much in so short a time in view of the difficulties
that have had to be encountered.

The strong points of the youth of Japan in the matter of education
are, in my opinion, their great powers of concentration and their
indomitable application to study and perseverance in whatever they
undertake. Of their powers of absorption of any subject th