A distinctly refreshing touch +o political life in Japan has just been given by the sentencing to three months' imprisonment of a member of the Kenseikai for publishing death notices of his political rivals. He chose exalted person ages such as peers, and, although we have seen no sample of his journalistic ability, it is not difficult to guess that his remarks upon their.careers were spicy and pointed. Of course, it is likely that, as well as making afew choice remarks, he wished to bring off some great political coup, to spread dismay in the ranks of his opponents by sending out these obituaries broadcast, for otherwise he might have adopted the time-honoured Western custom of "open letters" to his particular aversions. On the other hand his conviction may be entirely unjust, and he may merely be suffering from a complaint that appears to be somewhat prevalent at the moment in Japan. For this business of publishing obituaries about the living does not seem to have been confined to one solitary as-Piring statesman; on the contrary. even foreign journals have carried it out, as witness the columns written about Mr. Bertrand Russell, who is still in the land of the living. For the comfort of brother journalists in Japan we trust that Mr. Russell's obituary will not be! valued at three months' imprisonment.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.