THE
FOREIGN MISSION JOURNAL
■' . Vol. XXH-November, 1SQO— No. -4.
T'.i v . * .• . ’•
FACTS ABOUT JAPAN.
A conference of the missionaries of the American Baptist Missionary-
Union was held in Yokohama in June last. This conference asked the
churches of the North for twenty-three new missionaries, and in pre¬
senting their request, emphasized it by some facts. As these facts
appeal equally to us here in the South, we quote them :
I. Japan has a population of 40 000,000 people, 30,000 Protestant Christians,
1,000 of whom are Baptists.
II. Though missionaries of evangelical bodies number 200, yet a great, if not the
greater, part of these arc devoted to school and literary work, leaving but a small force
to do direct missionary work among the people.
III. There arc, including brethren on furlough, thirteen men from the
Л. В.
M. U.,
two from the Southern Hoard, and one from the English Baptists— sixteen Baptists all
told, one missionary to two and a half millions of souls.
IV. There arc thirty-eight prefectures, with a population aggregating 34,000,000
people, in which we have no missionary located ; besides the great cities of Kioto Fu,
S70.0G0, and Osaka Fu, 1,200,000. Seven prefectures, with a population of 0,000,000,
arc without a missionary of any denomination. It is probably within the limit to say
that 20,000,000 (one-half the population) in this country arc out of practical working
reach of the present missionary forces, and 35,000,000 out of reach of our present Bap¬
tist forces in Japan.
There is yet very much land to be possessed, and our plea to you is “ Come over and
help us” to possess it for our God and for the truth ns it is in Jesus.
That there has been a crisis in Japan is admitted by all, and this crisis has not passed
away in the late revulsion of feeling against foreigners, although we believe it has
changed in some of its phases. The situation is more urgent and pressing than ever.
There remain as many souls to be reached; the work has been increased in difficulty;
and our time for its accomplishment is diminishing. When it is remembered, in connec¬
tion with the foregoing, that a little time is necessary to fit new men for work, now is
emphatically our time.
PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM OF JAPAN.
Among tlie many 'wonderful forward movements which have been
made by the progressive party in Japan, there is none that promises
more far-reaching results than the establishment of a graded system
of public schools. This system is formed in part upon the model of the
public school system of this country, modified to suit the peculiar con¬
ditions of Japan. From an article in the Church at Home and Abroad,
by Rev. Dr. G. W. Knox, of Tokio, we gather the following facts :
