The whole complication really rose from the fact that, in Japan's. anxiety to prove herself fit for the abolition of extraterritoriality, the civil code of Old Japan was hastily modelled after certain Occidental codes, The "informal" marriages that followed were really an illustration of the truism that you cannot change the customs of a people overnight by a fiat of the law. Partly because people did not know the law, partly because they thought a temple ceremony was more fitting, partly because of the expense and trouble of registration, people neglected and still neglect to register.
There are signs, however, that the Japanese law courts are now inclined to grant to an informal wife at least partial legal recognition. How much farther the Ministry of Tustice will go cannot yet be said, bhut the recent decisions of the Courts and the prodding of public opinion will, it is to be hoped, soon have the effect whereby further and fuller legal protection will afforded all married women.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.