RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN JAPAN.
A false report was given world-wide circulation not long ago to the effect that a state church might be established by the Japanese Government. A denial came from the prime minister himself, Count Katsura, who desired that the contradiction be made to travel as far as the untruthful story. The premier called special attention to the religious clause of the Japanese Constitution, in order to show that a state church under government patronage is out of the question. This gives us an interesting insight into the modern constitutional law of the “Yankees of the East.” Article 28 of the Constitution covers the question in this style: “Japanese subjects shall, within limits not prejudicial to peace and order, and not antagonistic to their duties as subjects, enjoy freedom of religious belief.” That is not so definite and precise as the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, which declares that “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” But the Japanese clause is interpreted so that practically the result is the same. Marquis Ito, who is reputed to be the chief compiler of the Constitution, has written and edited commentaries upon that instrument, and the following extract represents his views: To force upon a nation a particular form of belief by the establishment of a state religion is very injurious to the natural intellectual development of the people, and is prejudicial to the progress of science (knowledge) by free competition. No country, therefore, possesses by reason of its political authority the right or capacity to enact an oppressive measure touching abstract questions of religious faith. That the Japanese deliberately chose to follow the American, rather than the English or European, model in this particular tends to confirm the American conviction that the principle of complete separation between church and state is sound and lasting. The liberality and breadth of the Japanese view, moreover, helps one to understand the better the brilliancy of the national genius, which is now being displayed so astonishingly in the Russian War.—Springfield Republican.