Page:A handbook of modern Japan (IA handbookofmodern01clem).pdf/243

Rh provement in their social condition; and thus the general position of the Japanese woman will gradually be advanced.

And, as a matter of fact, the status of woman in Japan is improving in practice no less than in theory, especially in the new openings for work that render her more or less independent of male support. For instance, although the work of weaving, formerly carried on by women in the homes, is now largely transferred to factories, with modern machinery, there is an increasing demand for female hands. This is also true in cotton mills, match factories, tobacco shops, and many other such places of work. Telephone exchanges, post-offices, railway ticket offices, printing offices, also find girls and women deft and skilful. In hospitals and schools, too, the Japanese young woman is finding her sphere. She is likewise showing her skill and taste in both artistic and literary employments. But in Japan, as elsewhere, this drift into industrial and other occupations is producing a scarcity of servants for housework.

Just as Kaibara's "Onna Daigaku" (Great Learning for Women) was the standard for female education under the old régime, so New Japan most