to enlarge his college department and diminish the
preparatory, which is now almost the whole of the school. He has the
support and encouragement of many wealthy and influential Japanese,
among them Count Okuma, the well-known progressive statesman. On the day
of the opening of the school, Count Okuma, in a speech from the
platform, said that the nation would be twice as strong if its women
were well educated. This he called "setting up a double standard." He
pointed out that Turkey, Egypt, Persia, and China were countries which
had tried to get along with a "single standard," and which had fallen
conspicuously behind. He called attention to the fact that Japan's
primitive religion had for its central figure the Goddess of Light, but
that, unfortunately for the well-being of the state, woman had been
gradually dethroned and thrust down into a low place. After speaking of
the debt that Japan owed to China for the civilization and the ethical
system that had stood her so long in good stead, the veteran statesman
went on to say that society in Japan was disfigured by abuses which were
beyond any simple remedy. The only effective medicine was to be found in
a radical reform of the ideals of family life, and this could only be
effected by an improvement in the status of woman,--an improvement which
such institutions as the one that day opened would greatly aid in
bringing about.

These words from one of the most honored leaders of Japanese thought
voice the feeling that is prevalent throughout Japan in this
thirty-fourth year of Meiji. That it is actually moving both government
and people is shown by the words of Mr. Kikuchi, Minister of Education,
to the Council of Provincial Governors held in T[=o]ky[=o] in June,
1901. In speaking of the progress of education throughout the country,
he stated his intention to push forward the work of secondary education
for girls, saying that a prefecture which refused to make provision for
such education by 1903 might be compelled to do so by the government.

The other hopeful educational effort to which I have alluded is a school
started on a small scale, but with a high standard, by a Japanese woman
whose name is almost as well known in America as in Japan, as an
educator of great ability and earnestness of purpose. After many years
of work as a teacher in the Peeresses' School, a place of great honor
from the Japanese standpoint, she has resigned her position to carry out
a long-cheri