On the other hand a prominent Christian said: "There is a weakness in our Christians, generally speaking. There is an absence of a sound faith. The native churches have no strong influence on rural life. There is often a certain priggishness and pride in things foreign in saying, 'I am a Christian.'"

Another man spoke in this wise: "I have been impressed by some of the following of Uchimura. They seem ardent and real. But I have also been attracted by strength of character in members of various sects of Christians. The theology and phraseology of these men may be curious, may be in many respects behind the times, but their religion had a beautiful aspect.[ [275]] Many of our people have got something of Christian ethics, but are no church-goers. Some Japanese try to combine Christian principles with old Japanese virtues; others with some soul supporting Buddhistic ideas. We must have Christianity if only to supply a great lack in our conception of personality. People who have accepted Christianity show so much more personality and so much more interest in social reform."

When we returned to agricultural conditions, one who spoke with authority said: "In Old Japan the agricultural system has become dwarfed. The individual cannot raise the standard of living nor can crops be substantially increased. The whole economy is too small. [[276]] The people are too close on the ground. They must spread out to north-eastern Japan, to Hokkaido, Korea and Manchuria. The population of Korea could be greatly increased. There is an immense opening in Manchuria, which is four or five times the area of the Japanese Empire and sparsely populated. There is also Mongolia."[[277]]

"But in Korea," one who had been there said, "there are the Koreans, an able if backward people, to be considered—they will increase with the spread of our sanitary methods among a population which was reduced by a primitive hygiene and by maladministration. And as to our people going to the mainland of Asia, we do not really like to go where rice is not the agricultural staple, and we prefer a warm country. In Formosa, where it is warm, we are faced by the competition of the Chinese at a lower standard of life. [[278]] The perfect places for Japanese are California, New Zealand and Australia, but the Americans and Australasians won't have us. I do not complain; we do not allow Chinese labour in Japan. But we think that we might have had Australasia or New Zealand if we had not been secluded from the world by the Tokugawa régime, and so allowed you British to get there first. It is not strange that some of our dreamers should grudge you your place there, should cherish ideas of expansion by walking in your footsteps. But it is wisdom to realise that we cannot do to-day what might have been done centuries ago or make history repeat itself for our benefit. It is wiser to seek to reduce the amount of misapprehension, prejudice and—shall I say?—national feeling in Japan and America and Australasia, and try to procure ultimate accommodation for us all in that way. But not too much reduce, perhaps, for, in the present posture of the world, nationalist feeling and—we do not want premature inter-marriage—racial feeling are still valuable to mankind."

A speaker who followed said: "Remember to our credit how our area under cultivation in Old Japan continually increases. [[279]] Bear in mind, too, what good use we have made of the land we have been able to get under cultivation—so many thousand more chō of crops than there are chō of land, due, of course, to the two or three crops a year system in many areas."[ [280]]

"As for the situation the emigrants [[281]] leave behind them in Old Japan," resumed the first speaker, "the experiment should be tried of putting ten or so of tiny holdings [[282]] under one control, and an attempt should be made to see what improved implements and further co-operation[ [283]] can effect. I suppose the thing most needed on the mainland is working capital at a moderate rate. Think of 900 million yen of farmers' debt, much of it at 12 per cent. and some of it at 20 per cent.! I do not reckon the millions of prefectural, county and village debt. Of what value is it to raise the rice crop to 3 or 4 koku per tan (60 or 80 bushels per acre)[[284]] if the moneylender profits most? The farmers of Old Japan are undoubtedly losing land to the moneyed people.[ [285]] Every year the number of farmers owning their own land decreases[ [286]] and the number of tenants increases and more country people go to the towns.[ [287]] And, as an official statement says, 'the physical condition of the army conscripts from the rural districts is always superior to that of the conscripts of the urban districts.'"

Some Western criticism of Japanese agriculture cannot be overlooked.[ [288]] Criticism is naturally invited by (1) Japanese devotion to what is in Western eyes an exotic crop—but owing to exceptional water supplies, favourable climatic conditions and acquired skill in cultivation, the best crop for all but the extreme north-east of Japan;[ [289]] (2) the small portions in which much of that crop is grown—of necessity; (3) the primitive implements—not ill-adapted, however, to a primitive cultural system; (4) the non-utilisation of animal or mechanical power in a large part of the country—due as much to physical conditions as to lack of cheap capital; (5) what is spoken of as "the never-ending toil"—against which must be set the figures I have quoted showing the number of farmers who do not work on an average more than 4 or 5 days a week; and (6) the moderate total production compared with the number of producers—which must be considered in reference to the object of Japanese agriculture and in relation to a lower standard of living. Japanese agriculture, as we have seen, has shortcomings, many of which are being steadily met; but with all its shortcomings it does succeed in providing, for a vast population per square ri, subsistence in conditions which are in the main endurable and might be easily made better.

Paddy adjustment has clearly shown that paddies above the average size are more economically worked than small ones, but these adjusted paddies are on the plains and a large proportion of Japanese paddies have had to be made on uneven or hilly ground where physical conditions make it impossible for these rice fields to be anything else than small and irregular. Japanese agriculture is what it is and must largely remain what it is because Japan is geologically and climatically what it is, and because the social development of a large part of Japan is what it is. Comparisons with rice culture in Texas, California and Italy are usually made in forgetfulness of the fact that the rice fields there are generally on level fertile areas, in America sometimes on virgin soil. In Japan rice culture extends to poor unfavourable land because the people want to have rice everywhere.[ [290]] The Japanese have cultivated the same paddies for centuries, Some American rice land is thrown out of cultivation after a few years. In fertile localities the Japanese get twice the average crop. It must also be remembered that Japanese paddies often produce two crops, a crop of rice and an after-crop. Japanese technicians are well acquainted with Texan, Californian and Italian rice culture, and Japanese have tried rice production both in California and Texas.

"They talk of Texan and Italian rice culture," said one man who had been abroad on a mission of agricultural investigation, "but I found the comparative cost of rice production greater in Texas than in Japan. Some Japanese farmers who went to Texas were overcome by weeds because of dear labour. In Italian paddies, also, I saw many more weeds than in ours. It is rational, of course, for Americans and Italians to use improved machinery, for they have expensive labour conditions, but we have cheap labour. The Texans have large paddies because their land is cheap, but ours is dear. In these big paddies the water cannot be kept at two or three inches, as with us. It is necessarily five inches or so, too deep, and the soil temperature falls and they lose on the crops what they gain by the use of machinery. Further, it must be remembered that we are not producing our rice for export. It is a special kind for ourselves, which we like;[ [291]] but foreigners would just as soon have any other sort. We have no call, therefore, to develop our rice culture in the same degree as our sericulture, which rests mainly on a valuable oversea trade."

"On this general question of improvement of implements and methods," said another member of our company, "we must use machinery and combine farming management when industrial progress drives us to it; but why try to do it before we are compelled? Concerning horses, the difficulty which some farmers have in using them is the difficulty of feeding them economically. Concerning cereals, our consumption is not less than that of Germany, but Germany imports more than twice the cereals we do, so there would seem to be something to be said for our system."