shocking crimes which appear to be
the outcome of either the aberration or the inversion of the sexual
instincts are almost unknown there. Nor do I consider that the public
estimate of prostitution on the whole makes for immorality. If an evil
exist, and prostitution is undoubtedly an evil, it is surely better to
regulate it than to affect to be oblivious of it. The Japanese
attitude towards prostitution at any rate leaves a door open for the
woman who has, from whatever the reason, lapsed from the paths of
virtue to return thereto. This appears to my mind to be a more
satisfactory state of things than the continual harrying and worrying
of prostitutes in the name of indignant virtue and the driving of them
on the streets. The aspect of the great thoroughfares of London,
especially by night, does not give the Oriental visitor thereto a high
idea of English morality. It is, nevertheless, an extraordinary fact
that the Englishman or the Englishwoman who has mayhap lived in London
most of his or her life, when he or she visits Japan in the course of,
perhaps, "a round the world trip" in ninety days, and learns that
there is in each Japanese town a Yoshiwara, the inmates of which are
subject to supervision and regulation, lifts up his or her hands in
holy horror, returns home with a virtuous indignation, and has no
hesitation in henceforth declaring, whether in speech or writing, that
the Japanese are a grossly immoral people.

The average Japanese is, very rightly in my opinion, indignant at the
constant assertions of writers, well or ill-informed, that his country
is essentially immoral. He is not only indignant but astounded. He
has, if he has been to this country, seen here much that has not
tended to impress him with the belief that the English people are
themselves in a position to dogmatise on this vexed question of
morality. He is, if he has visited the great cities and towns of Great
Britain, by no means convinced that the action of Japan in
establishing a Yoshiwara whose inmates are under proper supervision,
medical and otherwise, is not better from every point of view, that of
morality included, than turning loose women into the streets to accost
every passer-by and place temptations in the way of youth. On the
other hand, the Japanese who has not left his own country, but is of
an observant nature and of a logical disposition, fails to comprehend
why the European in Europe should dogmatise upon and affect to be