The section of the Japanese Department of Agriculture and Com. merce, deputed to care for Labour matters in Japan, has made investigations with a view to legislating for the compulsory—insurance of labourers against accident during discharge of their duties. To that end regulations will be drafted before the end of the year after which it is expected they will soon come into force. In some respects, judging frou a very brief outline' of the proposed scheme, the Japanese authorities are improving on the British Employers' Liability Act, which made the employer liable for accidents sustained by an employee in the ordinary course of his business. This forced the employer to take up insurance and the same end was attained in a roundabout manner.
With this Japanese law coming into force labourers will soon be protected against non-employment as the result of disablement, and Japan, also, will have come into the ranks "Of those nations which care for the welfare of the labouring classes. It is not clear exactly how comprehensive is the term labour in this connexion, except that the law will apply to factory hands working in establishments subject to the control of the new Factory Law, in which event the application of the measure seems hardly wide enough.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.