Abstract
IT is now a little more than ten years since Japanese students began to flock in large numbers to the various schools of Europe and America, after the great revolution which completely altered the political, and in many respects the social, organisation of the country. Many of these young men travelled and studied at their own expense; but the majority was selected by the principal Government departments, and the expenses paid from the Imperial funds. For six or seven years the numbers continued without diminution; but soon after I the commencement of the Satsuma rebellion in 1877, when the heavy strain on the Imperial Exchequer caused by the suppression of that outbreak began to be felt, it was decided to economise the public expenditure in various ways, and amongst others by reducing the number of those studying abroad at Government expense. The result of this measure, which was forced on the Ministers by unfortunate circumstances, was that many Japanese young men who spent some years in the principal educational establishments of western countries, returned to their own land with a sound training in their respective branches of study. It would not be desirable, even if it were possible, to enter here into the question how far they have fulfilled the hopes with which they were first sent abroad. Many of them have had brilliant careers amongst their foreign fellow-students, and, on the whole, we believe they have done as much as any body of English students, similarly placed, could have in the same time; but it is another question whether they are fitted to assume the places held by the foreign professors and instructors in the various educational institutions of the country. It was to this that the Government looked when they were first despatched to Europe; but, from a combination of causes, it is doubtful whether the laudable and patriotic desire to be, as far as possible, independent of extraneous assistance, has been so completely fulfilled as was originally anticipated.
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Learned Societies in Japan . Nature 24, 538–539 (1881). https://doi.org/10.1038/024538a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/024538a0