This year is the 150 years' anniversary for the Meiji Restoration and this was a big turning point for Japan in terms of industrialization and modernizing to be one of the great powers. I aim to explore how it led to the Meiji Restoration from closing country for over 200 years and how it effected in terms of process of economic development and militarization during 1868 to 1904 due to political change investing western cultures. The Meiji Restoration occurred soon after when commodore Matthew Perry opened up Japan to its ports to trade with United States. Japan knew the expansion of imperialism by Europeans and United States while still trading with Dutch. In 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry first visited Japan to open up the port and showed …show more content…
Japan did not know much of what is going on outside of the world so Iwakura Mission were send out to abroad mainly in the United States and Europe. Initially, Iwakura Misson's was to fix unequal treaty while they were abroad however they did not succeed. Instead, those statesman and scholars who went to overseas learned learn about militarization, economy, local government, society, laws, science and technology, political system, education, civilization and enlightenment, while they were on the mission and helped develop Japan in Meiji Period. This movement was big step for Japan because during Edo period, they were almost no interactions between other countries. Which means that they did have opportunity to develop new system or technologies to catch up with other countries which ended up left out from the rest of the world. During Meiji period, political system changed due to restoring emperor's power. When political system changes cultures and society changes. Government and people started to accepting new cultures from the west and that changed old Japanese society to modern Japanese society. Japan was also believing that installing new cultures and technologies will stop imperial invasion from the Europe and the United
The United States began to reach outward for trade, showing interest in Japan. Almost forcing the country to begin to trade with the U.S.
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 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
Between 1968 and 1912, Japan was going through a reformation called Meiji Restoration in order make the country strong as western countries. It had caused changes in many parts of Japan such as society, government, military, etc. Some of these changes still can be seen in the Japanese society today such as emperors are honored by Japanese citizens and seen as a special figure. Since this reformation had a great impact on development of Japan, it can be consider as a very important part of Japanese history.This study will seek to answer the question: To what extent did the Meiji Restoration succeeded to reform and strengthen Japan? In order to answer the question, the investigation will analyze military reform and economic reform caused by
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
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 Meiji Restoration allowed Japan to modernise and adopt the ideas, technologies, and social, political
The Meiji Restoration was an era of rapid modernization. S.C.M Paine’s The Japanese Empire, film; Letters from Iwo Jima, and The Meiji Revolution PBS documentary, I will explain how Japan build its empire as it went through industrialization, political modernization, an education reform and military development to restore itself as it modernized and westernized into becoming an imperial nation, and the events that lead to its downfall.
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
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
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 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.
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 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.
Meiji Restoration was a significant historical event not only in Japanese history but also in world history. A study (Hunt, Lynn, Thomas, & Barbara, 2009) concluded that the word “Meiji” means “enlightened rule” and the goal was to combine “modern advances” with “eastern” values. This event restored practical imperial rule to Japan under Emperor Meiji in 1868 (“Meiji Restoration”, 2017). As a result, it led to the tremendous changes in political and social structure of Japan, and spanned both the Late Tokugawa period and the beginning of the Meiji period (“Meiji Restoration”, 2017). The main causes of Meiji Restoration can be analyzed from the following different aspects.