TOKYO AND ITS MAYOR
Oneof the most interesting experiences of my stay in Japan was my visit to the parliament, where I was privileged to have as a guide the mayor of Tokyo,Mr.Ozaki, a man who has had a seat in that body every year since it has had its existence.
The buildings are not in the least imposing. They show the same paradoxical simplicity which we find in so much of this most stately people’s ways.
Over the president’s desk hang eight portraits in oil and on a raised platform under them a group of distinguished workingmen, whom I took to be in part officials and visitors.
Our seat in the diplomatic gallery was directly opposite that of the president,Mr.Sugita, a most distinguished appearing man who looked not a little like our late John Hay. The vice president,Mr.Minsura, sat by the president’s side, a serious man of sedate face.
The chief secretary isMr.Hayashida.
It was a most curious thing to look about the room and to contrast the individualities with those scenes we had watched in Congress, the German reichstag, and in Paris in the senate chamber.
Mayor Ozaki has the distinction of being one of the three best speakers in the parliament, and his rare penetration, wide travel, and far-seeing intellect, as well as his wide knowledge of affairs in a practical sense, furnishhim splendid equipment in sustaining the oratorical eminence he has gained. The speakers on this afternoon were many and, judging from the rapid firing from the seats and the frequent laughter, they were both witty and well directed. The members showed every age from grey hair to the trim dapper young thirty with its brocade waist coat. Every style of Japanese dress of old feudal days, which is a most dignified and becoming garment, to the latest work of the European tailor, was in evidence.
The voices were for the most part the well-bred modulated ones of the upper class Japanese, but some were impassioned and some were silvery and persuasive.
In front of the president’s desk stand the different members expressing their views in as many fashions as there are men. Groups of men stood about laughing and talking as is usual at such places and in the lobbies there was the usual passing and doubtless buttonholing. On every hand might be seen deep eyes of astute glance and the still deeper eyes of a far-seeing statesmanship.
The sitting lasted till four, and in times of eager debate when much is at stake, they sometimes do not rise till nine p.m. This making of laws is a noble profession, but it has its humdrum side as do all professions, and men seek to escape from this tedious side in different ways characteristic of themselves.
There is a restaurant on the ground, indeed, two of them, and we dined at one with his excellency and listened to the brilliant conversation which he added as a sauce to the food. Very appetizing food, by the way!
InMr.Ozaki, Tokyo has a very unique mayor, a man with as many sided an existence as his city! “Self made,”as he proudly said, he has been a public man all his life and yet likes the quiet of his country life and the family quite as much as the most humble man of the city. A great reader of men and of events, he is a democrat to the backbone and has a manner simple as a child and a mind as keen as one of the damioes swords. He was once exiled from his city as a dangerous character, “for I am always in the opposition,” he laughingly said, “always a fighter,” and then he told us of the first three positions he held, from which he resigned in one, two and three months respectively. He has a dash of dare devil still, this excessively quiet, self-contained man, but years, years how they take the fight out of the bravest! We learned from him of the great undertakings which he as mayor has in view: the building of a harbor for Tokyo, the new sewerage, the 10,000,000 yens to invest for the coming exposition and the other things with figures of something like one hundred million yens. It reminded us of hearing President Harper talk of laying outMr.Rockefeller’s millions. Such a juggler in figures he seemed.
The Ginza has been widened and one of the finest systems of water works in the world just terminated. This alone would make the administration famous. Tokyo elects her mayor every six years, and this mayor has served five only to begin to learn he claims, the duties of his office.
Mayor Ozaki in his younger days was a journalist and he has an able pen. The municipality has in its care a very interesting “Alms House,” of which we may write later. It is, with other of her institutions, a most creditable one.
Japan has the quick eye that sees and puts the right manin the right place, and certainly the choice of this man was admirable for the city.
Tokyo is now expecting to buy the electric roads and make out of them something with which to carry on these gigantic schemes of improvement.
The city of Tokyo is in the hands of fifteen aldermen, a council over which the mayor is president, in addition to which is a legislative body of sixty members, elected by the citizens. The right to vote is the qualification of the tax payer and is in fact universal suffrage. This makes the city more an independent or free institution than the country, as the right to sit in parliament is only received from votes held by property owners.
The mayor is elected by the municipal assembly; there is no ceremony in the inauguration of mayor, not even a practical oath. All the members of the assembly must be citizens of Tokyo, but the mayor need not be. When he is elected mayor, the right of citizenship is conferred upon him.
All the electric car system which is now in the hands of one company, is soon to be owned by the city. It is at this present time being considered by the Diet. The city in this way hopes to meet the enormous expenses which are confronting it in the way of harbor improvement, street widening and new sewerage, all of which will cost something like 100,000,000 yen. The new water works are almost completed. The water comes from the river Fama, about fifty or sixty miles out of the city, and is a masterly piece of engineering. It will provide Tokyo with a water system second to none. Of it the present mayor is justly proud.
Tokyo is increasing in population at about the same rate as Chicago, that is, about 100,000 per year. Labor troubles have not as yet become a serious thing in Tokyo, but the prescient gaze of the administration foresees that the day is not far distant when they may become so. The municipality was only established about ten years ago and was before that under the rule of a governor. The office of governor is still a relic of the feudal times and the Governor still has some prerogatives which remain from the ancient and somewhat archaic institution.
The preparation for the coming Exposition is the most serious thing before the city now. There has been appropriated about 10,000,000 yen.
“After the Exposition we hope to have the Aoyama Parade ground as a permanent park, and the construction for this gigantic affair involves the closest attention from now on,” said His Excellency. A huge building is projected, which will become permanent and will adorn Shiba park. The model which we saw is very imposing indeed, and is the work of the city engineer. It is rather of Roman style of architecture and is massive and admirably proportioned.