Japan's Reforms and Industrialization

*Tokugawa shogunate

Political Division

Shogun

Samurai ruling class

Restricted trade

*Nagasaki

Dutch and Chinese

*Commodore Matthew C. Perry, USA

“Black Ships”

Tokyo Bay, July 1853

Millard Fillmore

*Unequal Treaty of 1858

4 ports of trade

Extraterritorial rights

*"Meiji Restoration," 1868

Samurai revolt in western Japan

Young samurai as leaders

Meiji reforms, 1870s

1) Military Reform

Tokugawa: *Samurai

Meiji: Universal conscription, modern weapons

2) Social transformation

Tokugawa: Samurai on top

6% of the populace

Stipends

Meiji: Samurai privileges abolished

3) Education

Tokugawa: Private education for elite

Meiji

3 grades of public education

Universities

Learning from the West

Trips/study abroad

Foreigner teachers in Japan

Translations

4) New form of government

Tokugawa: Feudal domains

Meiji

46 Prefectures

Constitution

5) Economy

Tokugawa: Cottage industry

Meiji

Weapons

Textile factories

Study Questions Lecture

1. Why did the United States want to force Japan to open up to foreign trade? Why did Japan's rulers acquiesce? What are the similarities and differences between Japan's confrontation with the U.S. and China's with Britain during the Opium War?

2. In response to the crisis of western intervention, what reforms did Japan's Meiji government carry out?

3. Why are Japan's reforms considered to be successful while China's are considered to be failures?

Study Questions Reading

Hansen, pp. 590-95, 702-9

1. How were the government and society of Tokugawa Japan organized?

2. How were Japan's government and society reorganized after the Meiji Restoration?

Andrea, pp. 353-61

"Letter to Mitsubishi Employees"

1. How does Iwasaki Yataro use use a nationalistic message to inspire his employees at Mitsubishi?  Do you think that his nationalism was sincere?

"Prints and Drawings, 1853-1887"

1. What attitudes toward American imperialists and western culture are presented in these Japanese pictures? What can explain the differences in Japanese perceptions of westerners and their culture?

Pomeranz, pp. 243-245

1. According to Pomeranz, how did advances in agriculture help Japan to industrialize ?