ABSTRACT
In the name of the ancestors the Emperor had, with the Oath of Five Articles, opened the doors of Japan to Western influence. But as industrialisation proceeded it seemed to the wary and patriotic-minded men that Western-style capitalism made people egoistic, forgetting their ethical heritage and making light of the nation. The spread of general education made people aware of such things as civil rights and individual freedom for which people now, in the cities, began to clamour. Modern life lured people away from the good old customs; they enjoyed Western music, frequented coffee shops, and read journals which spread ideas of democracy and workers' rights.
