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lessons in the three R’s are given, together with moral and physical instruction. It is obligatory on the parents and guardians of all children who have attained the age of six to send them to the primary school, and to allow them to finish the ordinary course there. In the primary schools, besides the ordinary course, a higher course of two, three, or four years may be taken by those who have completed the ordinary course. Boys who have passed through the two-year higher course are eligible for admission into the first-year class of a middle school (secondary school for boys). There are at present 258 middle schools in Japan; most of these find their scholars among boys from primary schools, and as a result it has been found necessary in many middle schools to institute competitive entrance examinations. Thus, it happens that although boys who have finished the second year of the higher course in the primary schools are eligible for advancement to the first-year class in a middle school, it is not until they have finished the third, or even the fourth, year in a higher course that they are admitted. Out of 46,570 applicants for admission into the first-year class last April, only 26,622 were successful, of whom 12,737 had finished the four-year higher course in primary schools, 9,404 the three-year course, and only 4,017 the two-year course. This gives percentages of 48, 35, and 15.

Ten years ago there were only 63 middle schools, so that in ten years these schools show a fourfold increase. This sudden growth is due to many causes. In the Japanese educational system, those who aspire to higher education, not only in the Universities, but also in commercial, technical, and military ranks, must be graduates of middle schools, or else they must possess equivalent attainments, to obtain admission to the higher institutions of learning. Since the Chino-Japanese War, also, the people have been suddenly awakened to a sense of the need of higher education. Both these are undoubtedly causes which have prompted the establishment of more middle schools. Another cause, although a less weighty one, is the increased feeling of the necessity of a higher general education for those not desirous of entering official or professional careers, but who, nevertheless, feel the need, both as business men and as citizens, of possessing a more thorough education than that of the primary schools. Again, the scholars of the middle schools, as well as those of higher institutions, are exempt from military service until they have reached the age of twenty-eight. Graduates of the middle schools have the privilege of performing their military service as volunteers for one year, instead of as conscripts for three years. This privilege is also extended to any passing an examination before the military authorities which shows that they possess an equivalent literary and