Japan has gone to various countries
and selected what she deemed good in each for her present legal
system. The jurisprudence of both France and England have been largely
drawn on. In reference to the civil law custom is, as might have been
expected in view of the circumstances of the country, still strongly
relied on. There has often been a difficulty in ascertaining custom
owing to the changed and changing conditions of the nation, and in
reference thereto very much the same procedure has followed as in this
country where the question of custom is so frequently pleaded in the
courts of law. Some of the German system of jurisprudence has also
been included in the Japanese legal system. As I have elsewhere
observed, the suggestion to abolish extra-territoriality, and with it
the foreign courts in Japan, met with a considerable amount of
opposition from the foreign community there who believed that they
would not be able to obtain justice in the Japanese courts. These
fears have been shown to be groundless, and it is now generally
recognised that the foreigner in Japan need have no fear of going into
a Japanese court where he is, whether it be a civil or criminal
matter, certain to obtain a perfectly fair trial.

Closely connected with law is the matter of police. In Japan the
police of the country are entirely under the control of the State,
just as are the constabulary in Ireland. The police are under the
orders of the Minister of the Interior, who has a special office for
dealing with the matter. The cost of the force is, however, paid by
each prefecture, the State granting a small subsidy. According to the
latest statistics, the police force of Japan amounted to something
under 35,000 officers and men. When we consider that this body of men
is responsible for the enforcement of the law and the preservation of
order among some 47,000,000 people, it will, I think, be admitted that
the number is not excessive. The social condition of the Japanese
police, if I may use such a term, is higher than that of the police in
this and other countries. In Japan the police force had its genesis
after the abolition of feudalism, and, as a matter of fact, a large
proportion of the first members thereof belonged to the Samurai class.
The social position and intellectual attainment of these young men
gave what I may term a standing to the police force in Japan which it
has not yet lost. Of course, nothing like the same class of men is