ABSTRACT
PERHAPS the most interesting question which may be asked concerning modern Japan, and certainly the one most difficult to answer, is whether her civilization is really being assimilated to that of Europe, or whether it still remains at bottom unchanged, in spite of the introduction of Western institutions. In the preceding chapters of this book an attempt has already been made to deal with this problem, but, at the risk of repetition, something more must be said here both of the extent to which the country has been Westernized and of the sources of foreign influence. It has already been shown that, in the realm of politics, the spirit of feudalism persists in spite of the existence of modern institutional forms; that the social organization still remains fundamentally Eastern, and is only just being modified by the changed material conditions of life; and that even the new economic system, which in itself presents many peculiar features, has not yet by any means supplanted the earlier structure. The fundamental things in Japan’s civilization are still, it seems, Oriental; only the material accretions are Western. She has accepted our factories, offices, railways and schools; she is still doubtful about our manners, our philosophies, our religions, our social and political ideals. Yet even that generalization is not wholly true. Though the material changes have been great, many of the outward aspects of her early civilization remain; and though there has been no general transformation of social and ethical ideals, yet the influence of the West is bringing about a slow but perceptible change in the national point of view. In Japan two civilizations meet and struggle for mastery and are working towards a compromise, a formula of peace, which will permit them to live harmoniously. Until that is achieved the country will continue an incongruous mixture of East and West, and the people, or at least the educated classes and city dwellers, will falter between two standards of life and conduct.
