Modernization of Japan: The Meiji Restoration Essay

It took the Treaty of Kanagawa and unfair treatment by the US to weaken the shogunate and make way for the nationalist movements of the Meiji Restoration. The sweeping reforms put into place by the new constitutional monarchy put Japan back into the game - with rapid industrialization. military expansion, and advanced education. The landscape itself was useful for Japan's industrial age, as it consisted of mountains, valleys, and open plains, with bays, peninsulas, and small islands off the coast. (Doc. 6) The harbors formed along this coast made fishing the most viable trade, bringing in food for the country's citizens and forming a successful Japanese industry. Fishing also provided a segue into the market for naval development, meaning that in a short period of time, Japan had created one of the most sophisticated and powerful navies in all of the world. Because of the layout

The concentration of power into the emperor’s hands led to many changes in the government of Japan. The samurai class was quickly abolished, a national army was formed, political parties formed, an upper House of Peers and lower House of Diet were formed, and a constitution was drafted.

Both the Japanese and Russian government passed legislation that would assure the abolition of feudalism and free serfs from their lords. In the mid-nineteenth century the Japanese went through a period commonly known as The Meiji Restoration. During this period major changes occurred, one of them being the shift from a shogunate to an emperor.

Economically, Japan is one of the most highly developed nations in the world. Japanese brand like Toyota, Sony, Fujifilm and Panasonic are famous across the globe. One common pattern which is followed by Japan from the very beginning is to import raw materials and processed them to make finished products which are sold domestically and exported. Agriculture and transportation are the highly developed industries in Japan. Japan’s main agricultural product is rice and most rice eaten in Japan is home grown. Shinkansen, or bullet trains ,are

The Tokugawa shogunate was a transition period in which Japan began to modernize and began trading due to the arrival of Commodore Perry. Society during this period was based on strict class hierarchy with tight restrictions for social mobility. With urbanization, came an increase reliance on markets and merchants for funds which increased the need and want for trade with the Western nations. The images displayed in chapter two show the progress of events and how the Western nation influenced Japan. It begins with images of how the Japanese viewed the world, moving on towards the arrival of Commodore Perry, to the modernization of the port cities where a lot of trade occurred, to the beheading of the domain lord by anti-foreign Japanese citizens,

a chain of occasions that did even indeed restore the functional supreme principle to Japan in 1868. Around then they were under the standard of Emperor Meiji. The objectives were to prompted positive changes in the political and social structure of Japan. The chain of occasions that japaned kept going until 1912 and japaned modernized themselves as a nation into the new time. Japan's sovereign at the time collaborated with different rulers and individuals of power to get Japan back on track. They rolled out improvements to how things were done social, monetarily, and politically. After the Meiji Restoration quickened the industrialization in Japan accelerated and gave military force in japan.

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

Industrialization is also another factor that can be considered a break from the past, but was not a straight line development. The industries in Japan were intoxicated with western thought as Story puts it 'the entire apparatus of Western material civilization seemed to find some reproduction, some kind of echo, in Japan' free from the Tokugawa beliefs. The Meiji government adopted a policy that stated she will develop Industries herself. It developed modern communications, constructed railways, established telegraphs, shipbuilding yards, gun-powder and munition factories, and artillery works and even created a

The Tokugawa Period (also known as the Edo period) lasted from 1603 to 1867 and was the final period of traditional Japan. It was known as a time of peace (even though the country was permanently at war), political stability, and economic growth under the Shogunate. Like Medieval Europe the Tokugawa Period had a feudal system and was once dismissed as a feudal dark ages but is now known as a shine in the popular imagination as a golden age. The population during the Tokugawa Period was about 1 million and more than 10% of this lived in the

There was once a time in Japan called the Edo period - this was a period where Japan was ruled under the Tokugawa Shogunates, a feudal military government. Japan had a stable population, and a popular enjoyment of art and culture. However, they had an uncompromising policy prohibiting any foreign contact, ultimately making it completely isolated from the western world. There was also a strict social order, where everyone knew their status. Emperors and high nobilities had invulnerable prestige, but were weak in power. The shogun and daimyō, on the other hand, were very powerful due to their relation to the Tokugawa. This period began in 1603 and ended in 1868, when Tokugawa Yoshinobu resigned – this was the beginning of the Meiji Restoration, the name meaning the restoration of power to emperors.

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

Which also led to the defeating of the samurai castle disagreement. The shogun was also forced to resign, and the Emperor Mutsuhito regained his traditional powers and assuming the name “enlightened rule” or “Meiji Restoration”. Through the growing popular rights movement was a pressure on the constitutional government, which later led to the cabinet system, finally they started the workings of the Meiji Constitution. The samurais no longer received their upheld privileges, and the four-class legal system was abolished, leading the people of Japan to be considered equal. The first railroad was built, and the first banking system was put into place.

INFORMATION: In the middle of the 19th century, Japan managed to remove the constraints of the Edo era (also called Tokugawa era), which was a feudal society. And managed to modernizes their country, modeling it on European parliamentary monarchies. During the Edo era, instead of an emperor of Japan, who had no power at all, the Shogun controlled all the powers of Japan; this politics called Bakuhu politics. At first, Japan, as well as China, opened the door of the nation by force.

After all the contributions Meiji era made to japan, the end of the Meiji era was marked in 1912 when the emperor Meiji died. The Meiji Era brought about major changes in the history of japan in the fields of economic, social, and political. This era became the foundation of modern Japan. After the decline of Meiji era, Taisho era followed the Meiji era and represented a continuation of Japan’s rise to the power of modernity. The Meiji era, together with the Taisho period, are considered the modern age of Japan.

Japan emerged from the Tokugawa-Meiji transition as the first Asian industrialized nation. Domestic commercial activities and limited foreign trade had met the demands for material culture in the Tokugawa period, but the modernized Meiji era had radically different requirements. From the beginning, the Meiji rulers embraced the concept of a market economy and adopted British and North American forms of free enterprise capitalism. The private sector — in a nation blessed with an abundance of aggressive entrepreneurs — welcomed such change.