although these ventures were not commercially
successful, they, at any rate, showed the way for Japanese journalism.
Mr. Kumoto in his very interesting remarks published in Stead's "Japan
and the Japanese," gives an amusing illustration of the somewhat
amateur business lines on which the native Japanese newspapers were at
first produced. He quotes the following notice which appeared in one
of them: "The editors note with satisfaction the growing prosperity of
their venture, and notify their subscribers that in view of the
increased labour and trouble entailed on them by their increasing
circulation, the gracious subscribers will kindly spare them the
trouble by sending for their copies instead of having them delivered
to them as before." There has certainly been a remarkable development
in the Japanese newspaper press since this somewhat jejune
announcement was published. Tokio at the present time possesses about
forty daily newspapers, and there is hardly a town in the country of
any importance that has not one or two papers of its own. There are
now more than a thousand magazines and newspapers of various kinds
published in the country--a number which yearly increases, and is
certain to increase in the near future to a very much greater extent.

But besides newspapers, Japan possesses news agencies on somewhat
similar lines to those that exist in this country, whose function it
is to supply the press with the latest news on every matter of public
and, I am afraid, sometimes of merely private importance. Whether
these news agencies perform useful functions either in this country or
in Japan, is a matter upon which I shall express no opinion. News
acquired in a hurry in competition with other agencies which exist for
a similar purpose, and purveyed to journals printed in a hurry and
read in a hurry, does not often allow of discrimination being
exercised in regard to its circulation. The sensational element in the
native press in Japan is quite as much in evidence as in that of this
country. In regard to this kind of literary fare, the appetite
increases with feeding, if I may vary an old French proverb, and the
sensational journals of the Japanese capital are increasing in demand
from every part of the country.

As to the part which the press of Japan exercises in moulding public
opinion, I confess I have not formed any clear idea; indeed, it is one
upon which it is difficult to come to any conclusion. How far the
pr