Obscure Japan
Japan, it seems, is to have a non-party government after all. The new Prime Minister—not Mr. Suzuki, head of the Seiyukai, or Baron Hiranuma, head of the Nationalist society Kokonsha, but Admiral Saito, who came to London as head of his country's delegation at the Naval Conference of 11930-L:as a member of a fighting service satisfies the requirements of the Army and Navy, and at the same time enjoys some reputation for political wisdom. The special position of privilege still retained by the Ministers for War and Marine in a Japanese Cabinet, and the strange interest the military party is taking in social conditions, particularly the financial straits of the farmers, makes the present situation very difficult to grasp except in its superficial aspects. It is a profound misfortune that in spite of recent books like Dr. Nitobe's and Mr. Sansom's the internal life of Japan should he more unfamiliar to the man of average culture in Great Britain than that of any other considerable country. For an answer to the vital question of whether the military are really aiming at the overthrow, temporary or perma- nent, of Parliamentary Government no adequate data arc available.
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