Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 133, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 June 1915 — JAPANESE WOMEN IN POLITICS [ARTICLE]

JAPANESE WOMEN IN POLITICS

Although Not Voters, Without Doubt They Are Making Their Influence Felt The participation of the women of Japan in a public election is a most striking instance of the progress of the woman movement throughout the world. Women in oriental countries have'for centuries occupied a menial or subordinate position, and while Japan as the most progressive of eastern people cannot be compared in this respect, with many of the other oriental nations, the Japanese woman has been accorded the social freedom and influence exercised among the more progressive western nations. It must be understood, of course, that the women of Japan have not yet been given the ballot, Frances Frear writes in Leslie’s, but in the recent election of a new house of representatives the wives of several of the candidates made a house to house canvass in behalf of their husbands. The election was of the greatest importance, as the last house was dissolved on last Christmas day by the emperor because of its refusal to ratify the military program of the cabinet. Comment was made by the Japanese press upon the entrance of the “new worn, an” Into politics, but the fact that women in Japan, contrary to all national traditions, have begun to take an active part in political affairs is a significant instance of the leavening process of the movement for woman’s emancipation. The development of modern Japan shows that when that countrydoes begin tq move she moves with great rapidity. Even more tremendous will be the revolution in the great Chinese republic when the pro? gressive principles of the West begin to work themselves out.