A Handbook of Modern JapanClement, Ernest W. (Ernest Wilson)
History
A Handbook of Modern Japan
Clement, Ernest W. (Ernest Wilson)
Japan
At present there are only two public universities in Japan,—at
Tōkyō and Kyōto. The former contains six colleges (Law, Medicine,
Engineering, Literature, Science, and Agriculture); and the latter
consists of only four colleges (Law, Medicine, Science, and
Engineering), but others will be added gradually. There are also just
two great private universities, both in Tōkyō: the Keiō-gijiku, founded
by the late Mr. Fukuzawa, the “great commoner,” and the “grand old man”
of Japan; and the Waseda, founded by that veteran statesman, Count
Ōkuma. There is no Christian institution of university grade, although
it is confidently expected that the Dōshisha, at Kyōto, will soon be
elevated again to that rank. The Japanese universities have very good
accommodations and equipment, with strong faculties, and are doing work
worthy to be compared with that of Occidental universities. One of the
most unique phases of university work in Japan is the fact that the
Imperial University in Tōkyō maintains a chair of seismology, or, in
other words, supports a most important “professor of earthquakes”!
Common normal schools number over fifty; there must be at least one in
each prefecture, and in four cases there are two or three each. Besides
these and above these is a “higher normal school,” or normal college,
in Tōkyō, with an elementary school and a middle school for practice
work. There is also in Tōkyō a “higher female normal school,” with a
kindergarten, an elementary school, and a high school for practice
work. But these provisions are inadequate to supply the increasing
demand for teachers in public schools.
Inasmuch as Japan is an agricultural country and is rich in forests,
agricultural and dendrological schools are a necessity, in order that
the people may be able to make the most out of their resources. The
Sapporo Agricultural College, founded by Americans in 1872, is the best
of its kind, and furnishes a broader course of study than its name
implies.
And, in order that the industrial life of New Japan may be elevated,
and both capital and labor may profit by the latest inventions and
improvements, manual training and other technical schools have been
started and are very popular.
[Illustration: EDUCATORS AND SCIENTISTS OF JAPAN
BARON ISHIGURO, VISCOUNT MORI, MR. FUKUZAWA, DR. KITASATO]
In view of the fact that the Japanese are not fitted by natural
temperament for a mercantile life, and yet the geographical position of
Japan is so well adapted to a commercial career, the need of thorough
instruction in modern methods of business has been keenly felt, and is
being supplied by business colleges, of which the Higher Commercial
School in Tōkyō is most useful and prosperous.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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