Japan is a country that has never been colonised and was never colonised during the colonial period. It was governed by the Emperors, Shoguns, Daimyos and the Samurais through the feudal structure of governance with the Emperor as the head of the hierarchy. It maintained its isolationist policy and never opened-up to the outside world for centuries and was in a stagnant stage in terms of development. However, in the 19th Century it dumped its feudal past and subsequently emerged stronger and economically superior after the rubbles left behind by the Pacific War in the 20th Century. Japan showed her strength in the two World Wars.
Japan is now ranked one of the world’s largest power/economy behind The United States and China. It is regarded as a distinct civilization of its own, with very unique history. To fully understand present day Japan and its economic miracle, critical investigation needs to be done on its past history to see where its foundation of modernity and industrialization has been laid.
When investigation was done, it showed that the Meiji Era (1868-1912) is considered to be the upward trajectory that fired-up Japanese industrialization and helped establish its modernization path. This started when Japan’s pre-modern political system and its feudal society (1603-1865): the Edo Period, led by the Tokugawa Shogunate, with its band of radical samurais was ended in 1868. The Tokugawa Shogunate/central Government at Edo was weak, corrupt, and incompetent to cope with foreign pressures. In the chaotic and desperate circumstances that ensured, some rural educated Samurais led the banner of the emperor. This is called the Meiji Restoration, wherein the foundation of the contemporary Japan was laid in or about 1868.
The Meiji Restoration or Japan was restored by restructuring and restoring various vital areas of Japan. They took measures that had both good and bad sides and for the betterment of
Bibliography: Beasley, W.G (1995). The Rise of Modern Japan: Political, Economic and Social Change Since 1850. St. Martin’s Press, New York. Pg.70-96. GlobalSecurity.org (2008). Meiji military. Retrieved April 27, 2012. Gordon, B. (2000, March). Japan 's march toward militarism. Wesleyan.edu. Retrieved April 27, 2012. Kublin, H. (1949, November). The "modern" army of early meiji Japan. The Far East Quarterly, pg. 20-41. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Pikin, J.D.W (2009, May). Domestic reforms of Japan after the Meiji restoration in 1868. Retrieved April 27, 2012. Rickman, J. (2003).Sunset of the samurai. Military History. August, 42-49. TheCorner.org (2000-2007). Meiji Modernization- the Corner of the World. Retrieved April 27, 2012. Winn,T. (2012). Japanese Modernisation & the South Pacific -Lecture Notes, University of Papua New Guinea. Wikipedia (2012). Meiji Period. Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Government_of_Meiji_Japan&oldid=487356472