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Gorgeous in color, voluminous in content are the special English editions which leading Japanese magazines publish annually or on great occasions.

Year ago when the Sublime Emperor Hirohito, "Son of Heaven," was enthroned, the occasion was felt to be of such enormous importance that all "special editions" were supervised as to content, advertising and correct use of English by minions of the Government. But last week appeared the ordinary annual Japan Today & Tomorrow, published yearly by Osaka Mainichi. First glance showed that it is back to normal. Advertisements withheld last year from the gaze of visitors to the Imperial Enthronement, blazoned forth again. For example, 16 firms touted their sake, and one brand of this potent rice wine slyly boasted its "invigorating qualities."

Another advt. told in quaint and cryptic English of silk stockings "which will not entangle your dress nor will they cause it to wear out."

Passionately extolled were Yamato Furs: "artificial furs . . . absolutely safe from worm damage, as they are not made of woollen materials . . . but . . . silk . . . having an extremely good flexibility and they never shrink."

Wearing such stockings and swathed in such furs a Japanese matron might next be attracted by the following advt., tastefully displayed in the centre of a page directly opposite a magnificent reproduction of a print called River Floats in Tenjin Festival. In words first stirring, then discreet, then rational and, finally pious the advt. read:

"Women Of The Country, Stop And Listen!"

"Indisposition to which all mature women are subjected, or ought to be subjected every month, is what Providence ordains for women. It therefore stands to reason that when it fails to come at proper intervals, it does not necessarily follow they are to become mothers ere long, and it is time women exercised intelligent discretion. Least of all do we advise them to consult quacks or unconscientious druggists!

"There really is nothing to it so long as you know of a dependable remedy prepared by a conscientious house, such as Nishiyama Research Clinic, of Kyoto, which has specialized in this line for scores of years. . . .

"The beauty of ours is that all the afflicted one has to do is to take a dose before she retires at night, and in the morning she will be amazed at the tell-tale effects of the worthy remedy. . . ."

Such advertisements socialite Japanese matrons have long been accustomed to read in magazines of the highest class-- this one for example under the august directorship of a publisher honored time and again with decorations by the "Son of Heaven" himself, Mr. Hikoichi Motoyama, president of both the Osaka Mainichi and the world-famed Tokyo Nichi Nichi.

True Stories. Next in significance after the back-to-normal advertising was Mainichi's great preoccupation with the struggles and problems of young people--particularly young women--in the bustling new day of Industrial Japan. Occidentals forget that though the Japanese is a sturdy fighter he or she is at heart extremely sensitive.

Hear a Japanese taxi driver nursing the wounds of his shocked soul:

"Once near midnight a half drunken man rolled into my car ... yelled at me and told me to drive him to Itabashi. . . . When I tried to receive my fee, he suddenly stuck a big knife (deba-bocho) before my eyes.

" 'Scared of that knife, are you?' he laughed and he slowly put his weapon back into his pocket."

The passenger then gave the driver a handful of money, more than the legal fare, and clearly showed that his momentary knife-play had been a joke. But the sensitive driver concluded his story with a shudder, "But that shining knife--I can still see it dangling before my eyes!"

In an article on telephone girls Mainichi points out that those new at their jobs are usually so sensitive that, when rebuked by an irate subscriber or cursed by a drunken one, they often put their dark little heads down on their switchboards and sob as though their hearts would break. Meanwhile hundreds of subscribers work themselves into a frenzy as they get no response to their jiggle or "moshi-moshi" signal.

Said one girl with a happy smile: "There are no ill mannered-men in the [switchboard] room to annoy us. It is only the electricians or the mechanics who come into the room once in a while, but they are all nice men."

Girls are paid by the day, 80 sen (40-c-) to start, and work on eight-hour shifts with 20-minute rests about every two hours, and 20 minutes for lunch. Small pay is offset by privileges, such as the right to free courses of study at company schools, an especially popular course being "The Arrangement of Flowers in Pots, Bowls and Vases."

Clothing store models are among the highest paid Japanese women workers, getting 10 yen ($5) a day.

Floating Yen. The big department stores in all major Japanese cities are now earning an average of more than 15% on investment. Japanese love to give each other little presents, and the stores have created a stupendous vogue in "gift certificates," the buyer making a present to his friend of a piece of paper which can be exchanged for its face value in goods at the issuing store.

Today the enormous sum of at least 40,000,000 yen ($20,000,000) constantly "floats" in these gift certificates, making them a sort of extra-legal currency, backed by no security and fraught with such danger that the Imperial Government has become alarmed, launched an investigation. Small shopkeepers, their business ruined, charge that in fact more than 200,000,000 yen floats in gift certificates, the ignorant public receiving no interest, while the big stores invest and fatten on the money.

Many a U. S. citizen who thinks that the U. S. Belegation at the London Conference is the only one sincerely working for disarmament, should read Mainichi's deeply fervent article captioned thus:

JAPAN THE REAL CHAMPION OF DISARMAMENT!

Empire Maintains Her Traditional Bee-Line Policy Of Small Sea Forces!

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