_Physical Characteristics._--The best authorities are agreed that the
Japanese people do not differ physically from their Korean and Chinese
neighbours as much as the inhabitants of northern Europe differ from
those of southern Europe. It is true that the Japanese are shorter in
stature than either the Chinese or the Koreans. Thus the average height
of the Japanese male is only 5 ft. 3½ in., and that of the female 4 ft.
10½ in., whereas in the case of the Koreans and the northern Chinese the
corresponding figures for males are 5 ft. 5¾ in. and 5 ft. 7 in.
respectively. Yet in other physical characteristics the Japanese, the
Koreans and the Chinese resemble each other so closely that, under
similar conditions as to costume and coiffure, no appreciable difference
is apparent. Thus since it has become the fashion for Chinese students
to flock to the schools and colleges of Japan, there adopting, as do
their Japanese fellow-students, Occidental garments and methods of
hairdressing, the distinction of nationality ceases to be perceptible.
The most exhaustive anthropological study of the Japanese has been made
by Dr E. Baelz (emeritus professor of medicine in the Imperial
University of Tokyo), who enumerates the following sub-divisions of the
race inhabiting the Japanese islands. The first and most important is
the Manchu-Korean type; that is to say, the type which prevails in north
China and in Korea. This is seen specially among the upper classes in
Japan. Its characteristics are exceptional tallness combined with
slenderness and elegance of figure; a face somewhat long, without any
special prominence of the cheekbones but having more or less oblique
eyes; an aquiline nose; a slightly receding chin; largish upper teeth; a
long neck; a narrow chest; a long trunk, and delicately shaped, small
hands with long, slender fingers. The most plausible hypothesis is that
men of this type are descendants of Korean colonists who, in prehistoric
times, settled in the province of Izumo, on the west coast of Japan,
having made their way thither from the Korean peninsula by the island of
Oki, being carried by the cold current which flows along the eastern
coast of Korea. The second type is the Mongol. It is not very frequently
found in Japan, perhaps because, under favourable social conditions, it
tends to pass into the Manchu-Korean type. Its representative has a
broad face, with prominent cheekbones, oblique eyes, a nose more or less
flat and a wide mouth. The figure is strongly and squarely built, but
this last characteristic can scarcely be called typical. There is no
satisfactory theory as to the route by which the Mongols reached Japan,
but it is scarcely possible to doubt that they found their way thither
at one time. More important than either of these types as an element of
the Japanese nation is the Malay. Small in stature, with a well-knit
frame, the cheekbones prominent, the face generally round, the nose and
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