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to the mother," evidently because she remains in the family. In other words, children are chattels of the family.
The grounds on which judicial divorce is granted include bigamy, adultery on the part of the wife, the husband's receiv- ing a criminal sentence for an offense against morality, cruel treatment or grave insult such as to render living together unbearable, desertion with evil intent, cruel treatment or gross insult of or by lineal ascendants.
The new Civil Code indirectly sanctions concubinage by stipu- lating (in Art. 827) that "an illegitimate child may be recog- nized by the father or mother" by giving notice to a registrar. Such a child is called shoshi, but is not legitimized. It is, however, stipulated (in Art 728) that between a wife and a shoshi " the same relationship as that between parent and child is established." That seems clearly enough to mean that a wife must accept a concubine's child as if it were her own, in case the father "recognizes" it. This would appear to be little, if any, advance over the old regime, where "the wife of the father," as she was technically called, frequently had to accept as her own child that of a concubine.
Mr. Gubbins makes the following explanation of shoshi:
This term illustrates the transitionary phase through which Japanese law is passing. Japanese dictionaries define shoshi as the child of a concubine, and this, so long as concubinage was sanctioned by law, and the question of legitimacy never arose, was the accepted meaning of the term. The law of Japan, which, in the course of its development on western lines, has come to accept the principle of legitimacy, and to admit of the legitimization of chil- dren by the subsequent marriage of their parents, now recognizes an interme- diate stage between legitimacy and illegitimacy.
Such is the general outline of the legal status of woman according to the new Civil Code. It will undoubtedly be most interesting to watch the gradual evolution of a new woman in Japan as the outcome of this legislation. It remains to be seen how far the social status of woman will be improved. It is not at all likely that her actual position will be immediately advanced in any great degree. It is probable that custom will continue, for a while at least, to wield a mightier influence than the Code ; and that, as Mr. Gubbins remarks, "the present transitional con-
