How Did The Meiji Restoration Affect Japan A Closing Country

The Meiji Restoration, refers to the events that led to the “restoration” of power to Emperor Meiji Tenno. The previous political and military leader of Japan had been the Tokugawa shogunate, but due to the intrusion of the western powers, particularly the Americans, under the command of Commodore Perry, the Shogun was forced to return power to the Emperor. This restoration of power led to many changes in Japanese society such as the social structure, the education system and the Japanese economy that has contributed to Japan becoming a modern world power.

The Meiji Restoration played a significant role in the modernisation of Japan. The Meiji period was a time of political and social revolution. It brought momentous social, political and economic changes to Japan, and these changes became the foundation of the Japan we know today. Prior to the 1868 Restoration, Japan was a militarily weak country with a feudal agricultural society, and was controlled by feudal lords. When the Meiji period ended with the Emperor's death in 1912, Japan was a well-developed nation with a constitutional monarchy, an elected government, a strong economy, a powerful military and a well educated population.

The Meiji Restoration marked a time in Japanese history that dealt with “domestic turmoil… national integration and unification” (Part 1 Intro). They went through the process of defending against westernization and actively taking part in international affairs. During this era, prefectures appointed by the emperor replaced the daimyo. The population doubled and quality of life improved. People moved towards a more urban lifestyle and by 1900, Edo was the largest city in world. Nevertheless, in the midst of all the growth, the attitude towards women and their roles in society remained stagnant. Japanese society treated women as subhuman instead of actual citizens due to the belief that they were

For much of its history Japan was a “closed country” and only opened up to very few people, those being the Dutch and on occasion their Chinese neighbors (Hayes 2012a). It was not until 1853 that Japan would have its first visitors, the United States (Hayes 2012b). Commodore Matthew Perry would force open Japan’s ports and have them agree to “unfair treaties” (Hayes 2012c). This led to the overthrow of the last shogunate’s rule in 1868 and the eventual emergence of Japan’s imperial empire. In 1868, the Meiji Restoration was well under way. During this time period the Japanese were looking to western powers for industrializing and reorganizing the way their government and even society operates (Hayes 2012d). Japan took it upon itself to emulate the western powers in order to discover its role in the international sphere (Hayes 2012e). As the country expanded and western influence grew Japan looked to expand their empire and saw Korea. Until the 1880s Japan began to assert policy against Korea, this led to conflict with China until 1895 in the Sino Japanese War (Hayes 2012f). The defeat of the Chinese resulted in the annexation of Korea to the Japanese as well as Taiwan and Liaodong Peninsula (Hayes 2012g). This also left a target on the Chinese’s back for many years. Japan now had control over a vast majority of East Asia by the time World War I came around. In order to compete

Japan was struggling to form their empire. They wanted to feel a sense of equality amongst the powerful Western nations. However, the West did not taking Japan seriously. Numerous misunderstandings between Japan and the West came from Japan believing that the Western nations had a different approach when dealing with the European nations than they did when it came to dealing with an Asian power.

After centuries of dictatorship The Daimyo and samurai were successful in defeating all odds at taking control of Japan. The year 1868 marked mayor turning point as The Meiji restoration begun. The beginning of a modernization and industrialization era for japan had arrived Japan’s leaders was determined to transform japan for the best and established prosperity among the people. The Japanese did not expect Commander Mathew Perry backed by the United Sates Navy to show up at their doorstep and demanded that, japan change their ways they continued to introduce western culture as well technology to japan, with no surprise the Commander was portrayed evil and ready to conquer. Even though the Japanese were not very welcoming to the U.S, I think that their challenge was to destroy the barricade between the two and develop a relationship.

The inception of the Tokugawa Shogunate around 1600 would reduce the impact of foreign relations throughout Japanese society. This bulwark helped resist change and development in Japan, although it continued throughout the western world. Following two hundred years of self imposed seclusion from the rest of the world, the forceful re-entry of the foreigner brought about considerable change in Japan. While managing the foreign threat, there was also an imbalance of power in the current feudal system of the Tokugawa Shogunate. This imbalance created uncertainty for Japan and the imperialistic foreigners. This imbalance and uncertainty would lead to the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the emergence of the Meiji Restoration. However, to

The top to bottom Japanese revolution known as the Meiji Restoration occurred in 1868 and it completely changed the system of government of Japan, which had been under the strict control of the absolute rule of the Tokugawa Shoguns that kept Japan in a feudal state. The Tokugawa government also kept Japan, for the most part, isolated from the rest of the world believing that they had no need for Western ideas. All that changed under the fiction of the “restoration” of the imperial government under the control of the emperor, as the revolutionary leaders of the Meiji Restoration realized that if they did not modernize on a massive scale they would face an ever increasing foreign threat much like China was experiencing. Japan’s new

Socially, trends reflect that discrimination of the marginalized social classes remains prevalent today (McLauchlan 2003, 3). By comparing Japanese society of today and the past, our essay hopes to examine how the Meiji revolution has affected modern day Japanese society. The scope of our essay will be narrowed down to the political, education, social and economic aspects of the society. We chose these four aspects because the changes that took place were the most apparent and they are the key structures of the society. For each aspect, we will first acknowledge that a direct causal relationship between changes during the Meiji Revolution and modern day Japanese society structure is not apparent.

The Meiji relied on using the modern ways the western countries had taught the men the Meiji sent to learn and bring back to show the rest of their country. After getting a grip on the new ways of the western countries the Meiji had started to become good allies with Germany. The Meiji looked up to the leader of Germany Otto von Bismarck. Bismarck had begun embracing Nationalism and Japan/The Meiji had taken this and spread it throughout their country. As these changes were all being made to the country of Japan the citizens realized that with a strong leader more opportunities arose for the country and that having a strong emperor would help take away many problems farmers and peasants were having with a weak emperor in rule over the country.

Japan is an unique oriental country in many aspects, especially in politics and economy, both western practices and traditional nationalism are coexisted in this country. The period 1890-1940 was just followed the Meiji restoration, and was typical in the history of Japan, at that time, Japan was on the way from a feudal country to a capitalistic country, called modernization. Many western practices were being more and more adopted, however, at the same time, traditional rules still had strong influences in Japan. Under this background, this report will discuss the Japanese cultural factors during 1890-1940 that influenced the disclosure

The Meiji Restoration was a period in Japan’s history where massive changes and reforms occurred. The objective of the Meiji Restoration could be summarized by their motto, “Enrich the country, strengthen the military.” By the early nineteenth century, Japanese society was in turmoil. From declining agricultural productivity, crop failures and famines, and harsh taxation contributed to economic hardship and starvation. As the Tokugawa bakufu responded with conservative reforms that were ineffective the opposition nearly drove him from office. As in 1844 when British, French and U.S. ships visited Japan seeking to establish relations Tokugawa officials refused all requests and stuck to the policy of excluding Europeans and Americans. But when

The meiji restoration took place in Japan during a time of change and renewal.It was time of turmoil among the country of japan with all of the conflicts going on.This also brought major changes politically,socially, and economically during this time period.This also brought modernization to the country as well.A woman had a totally different role during the time of the Meiji restoration.The woman during this time had little say on what went on in their life, but learned how to prosper and create a role for themselves.

Overall, Japan developed into an overall better country. “When the Meiji period ended, with the death of the emperor in 1912, Japan had established an elected parliament, a well- developed transport and communication system, a highly educated population free of feudal class restrictions, established and rapidly growing industrial sector based on the latest technology, and a powerful army and navy (afe.easia.columbia.edu).” Becoming a stronger army, navy and government was immensely essential. for Japan. “[They] pinpointed the need to create more flexible governing institutions that would enlist the abilities of men of talent, promote national unity under the aegis of the Heavenly Sovereign, and improve living conditions for everyone (willamette.edu).”

A lot of Western culture was banned during this period as well such as Catholicism and Western ideologies on social and economic matters. However, there was a revolution among the shoguns who were fed up the military government and returned to the old ways, known as the Meiji Restoration. They later surrendered this idea and allowed interstate-commerce but not any other preexisting beliefs. But now open to the rest of the world, foreign countries took interest in Japan and started exchanges. Of these countries, the British took the most interest in them and established embassies in the country to aid the Japanese.