ounger sons were often
adopted into other _samurai_ families as _y[=o]shi_, where it was
desired to secure a succession to a name that must otherwise die out.
Since the Restoration, and the breaking down of the old class
distinctions, young men care more for independence than for their rank
as _samurai_; and it is now quite difficult to find _y[=o]shi_ to enter
_samurai_ families, unless it be because of the attractiveness and
beauty of the young lady herself. Many a young girl who could easily
make a good marriage with some suitable husband, could she enter his
family, is now obliged to take some inferior man as _y[=o]shi_, because
few men in these days are willing to change their names, give up their
independence, and take upon themselves the support of aged
parents-in-law; for this also is expected of the _y[=o]shi_, unless the
family that he enters is a wealthy one.

From this custom of _y[=o]shi_, and its effect upon the wife's position,
we see that, in certain cases, Japanese women are treated as equal with
men. It is not because of their sex that they are looked down upon and
held in subjection, but it is because of their almost universal
dependence of position. The men have the right of inheritance, the
education, habits of self-reliance, and are the bread-winners. Wherever
the tables are turned, and the men are dependents of the women, and
even where the women are independent of the men,--there we find the
relations of men to women vastly changed. The women of Japan must know
how to do some definite work in the world beyond the work of the home,
so that their position will not be one of entire dependence upon father,
husband, or son. If fathers divided their estates between sons and
daughters alike, and women were given, before the law, right to hold
property in their own names, much would be accomplished towards securing
them in their positions as wives and mothers; and divorce, the great
evil of Japanese home life to-day, would become simply a last resort to
preserve the purity of the home, as it is in most civilized countries
now.

The difference between the women of the lower and those of the higher
classes, in the matter of equality with their husbands, is quite
noticeable. The wife of the peasant or merchant is much nearer to her
husband's level than is the wife of the Emperor. Apparently, each step
in the social scale is a little higher for the man than it is for the
woman, and lifts him a little farth