The  following  summary  is  taken  from  the  Church
Missionary  Society's  Report  for  1898.  According
to  that,  in  the  beginning  of  1896;  the  total  number
of  Missionaries  at  that  time  was  656,  including  wives
— belonging  to  the  American  Board  Congregational-
ist,  the  various  Presbyterian  Boards,  the  Episcopal
Methodists,  the  Baptists  and  the  Churches  of  the
Anglican  Communion,  English,  Canadian  and  Am-
erican— but  of  the  39,000  Native  Christians,  over
11,000  belonged  to  the  Presbyterian  Churches,  about
the  same  number  to  the  Congregational  bodies,  nearly
8,000  to  the  Methodists,  about  2,500  to  the  Baptists
and  5,600  to  the  Episcopal  Church.  The  Report
goes  on  to  say :  "  Thus  American  Missionaries,  who
were  first  to  enter  Japan  in  1859  and  who  were  doing
useful  pioneer  work  nearly  ten  years  before  the
arrival  of  the  first  British  Missionary,  still  take  the


THE  STATE  OF  JAPAN  IN  1899.  273

lead."  A  still  later  return  would  bring  the  total  to
about  41,000.
For  Public  Instruction,  it  has  already  been  seen
that  Education  is  a  department  of  the  Government,
and  is  organised  after  Western  models.  The  at-
tendance at  Elementary  Schools  is  compulsory,  and
it  may  appear  strange,  though  such  is  the  fact,  that
this  constitutes  a  distinct  advance  beyond  anything
that  has  as  yet  been  deemed  feasible  in  British  India.
