OCR Text |
Show Family System Is Cracking in Japan, Says Observer The Japanese family system, described de-scribed by Mrs. Hugh Fraser, Pierre l.otl and other European visitors to Japan In the pre-war days, Is gradually grad-ually disintegrating, according to the Tokyo correspondent of the Observer of London, who explains: "This system, which still possesses a good deal of vitality, especially in the country districts, presupposes an attitude toward life utterly different from that of European or American individualism. "It invests the head of the family with great power over the destinies and property of its members, and at the same time Imposes on him a strong sense of responsibility. It Is a frequent observation that the strongly developed sense of family obligation and responsibility Is a great palliative of the unemployment which a modernized industrial system sys-tem and a rapidly growing population popula-tion have brought to Japan. "But the family system is being sapped by many and various forces, the Influence of Christian teachings, the Infiltration of western moving pictures, which may be seen In every Japanese small town; translations from the literature of the West, the steady drift away from patriarchal farming and handicrafts to large ac-torles ac-torles and commercial enterprises, to mention only a few of the mere obvious." |