Page:A handbook of modern Japan (IA handbookofmodern01clem).pdf/224

166 the Japanese prison, especially the largest ones at Tōkyō, Yokohama, and other important cities, must be acknowledged to hold high rank among the reformatory institutions of the world.

This is, perhaps, as appropriate a place as any to introduce one of the peculiar legal institutions of Japan, that is, the public brothel. As is well known, the social evil is licensed, and therefore legalized, in Japan; it is not merely not condemned, but actually condoned. In Old Japan the young girl willing to sell herself to a life of shame to relieve the poverty and distress of her parents would be considered virtuous, because filial piety was regarded as a higher virtue than personal chastity. Nor would the parents who accepted such relief be severely condemned, because the welfare of the family was more important than the condition of the individual. And even in Modern Japan, in the eyes of the law, it is no crime to visit a licensed house of ill-fame; and visitors to such places hand in their cards and have their names and addresses registered, just as if they were attending an ordinary public function. Nay more, an ex-President of the Imperial University, and one of the leading philosophers and educators of the day, has come out in public print and affirmed that, from the standpoint of science and philosophy, he can see no evil in prostitution per se. And when such licensed brothels are allowed near Buddhist temples and Shintō shrines, it would appear as if those cults were really culpable not to protest. Indeed, when