The Washington herald., 1913-08-28
JAPAN'S LAND LAWS.
Comment on Her Predicament by n
journal of that Country.

| Jourhul III NhdI country
From the japan Chronicle Kobe.
1t is not without significance that
Japan has always set her face iniex-
ibly against the ownership of land by
! foreigners. Even a permissive bill, so
worded as to be almost an evasion OF
the rights IL professed to grant, has
been repeatedly shelved. 1t is also TO
be remembered in this connection that
Japan prohibits the employment of for
eign Iaborers, and prohibits foreign
ers from engaging in agricultural pur-
| suits. On the other hand, the land
policy OF America, as expressed the
other day by a Japanese contemporary.
is liberal beyond the widest dreams
of the Japanese" There are no restric-
| tlons against foreigners buying or
| leasing land, and America is far too
! interested in agriculture to prohibit
cultivation by any foreigners who care
| TO indulge in 1t.
The case standing as II does. II is
very ditfcult to see upon what grounds
the Japanese Ambassador at Washing
ton can make protests against the bill
now before the California Assembly.
The protests already made have been
largely in the nature OF blum. for II
the American Secretary of State were
to ask, What is the policy pursued in
Japan with regard to the ownership
and the cultivation of land by foreign
ers?" the Japanese Ambassador would
have some difficulty in saving his face"
The opinion of foreign Office official
published yesterday is more pesslmistic
than is usual in utterances of the sort.
but substantially defines the hopeless
ness of Japan's position. The mo
room theory has come back on Japan
rather badly. Had she adopted the
same liberal policy as America, there
would be something to offer in coming
to a compromise: but she has not; she
has pursued the narroweSt possible
land policy, with the result that, con-
fronted with a narrowing Of Americas
land policy, she finds that there is mo
room for reciprocal negotiations. She
is hoist with Count Komura's petard.
Whether 1t be wise. or liberal. or even
Just. of California to take these measures
which, as President Wilson says, seem
to be directed against the japanese.
is another matter. The Kokumin had
some very angry remarks to make on
the subject. complaining that every quar-
rel during the last 20 years has been of
American manufacture. But this is pro-
fessedly not a national quarrel at all,
but merely a question of the interpreta-
ton of treaty rights. And Japanese
public opinion for the peculiarly short
sighted policy which has consistently
denied to foreigners rights In a trifiing
DEGREE, and so left Japan without a
single argument against the abolition !
of privileges which are vital to hun |
dreL5 of thousands of her nationals |
abroad.
The Kokumin is possibly quite right |
as to the economic value of the Japanese |
in California and their commendable |
civic qualities. 1t is likely, too, that |
were they left alone in unrestricted pos
session of the land they acquire they |
would in a generation be good Califor-
mans and forget their Japanese origin.
But these are matters in which only
the CALIFORNIA; have any right to Judge,
ard the Kokumin cannot discredit an
act thrashed out in both houses of the
Legislature by describing It as the trick
Of labor faction. Good or bad, each
act represents the decision of the
Of very wide-awake
people. On this occasion they appear
have decided against the Japanese.
It may be a deplorable error, but there
S nothing in any treaty that can be
summoned as a deus eX machina to
bring them to their senses, and the one
'eprtsal which Japanese politicians sol
.ar have been able to devise is to boy
cott an exhihition-an eloquent COM
nent on Japan's method of interpreting
reaties.
II the omissions in the treaty which
eve Japan dumbly impotent in the face (:
u Californian exclusionism were delib-
rately made, they can only have been
" Japan, with an eye to the continuance \
Il the domestic policy to which she has
lways persistently clung.
4