there is no more beautiful type of character than that of the Japanese
woman. She is entirely unselfish; exquisitely modest without being
anything of a prude; abounding in intelligence which is never obscured
by egoism; patient in the hour of suffering; strong in time of
affliction; a faithful wife; a loving mother; a good daughter; and
capable, as history shows, of heroism rivalling that of the stronger
sex. As to the question of sexual virtue and morality in Japan, grounds
for a conclusive verdict are hard to find. In the interests of hygiene
prostitution is licensed, and that fact is by many critics construed as
proof of tolerance. But licensing is associated with strict segregation,
and it results that the great cities are conspicuously free from
evidences of vice, and that the streets may be traversed by women at all
hours of the day and night with perfect impunity and without fear of
encountering offensive spectacles. The ratio of marriages is
approximately 8.46 per thousand units of the population, and the ratio
of divorces is 1.36 per thousand. There are thus about 16 divorces for
every hundred marriages. Divorces take place chiefly among the lower
orders, who frequently treat marriage merely as a test of a couple's
suitability to be helpmates in the struggles of life. If experience
develops incompatibility of temper or some other mutually repellent
characteristic, separation follows as a matter of course. On the other
hand, divorces among persons of the upper classes are comparatively
rare, and divorces on account of a wife's unfaithfulness are almost
unknown.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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