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During the first half of the nineteenth century, the shogunate continued to
combine a central bureaucracy with semi-feudal alliances between regional
daimyos and samurai. The government encountered financial problems because
taxation was based on agriculture, while the economy was becoming more
commercialized. Reform spurts met revenue gaps until the 1840s, when an
unsuccessful effort weakened the government and hampered responses to
Western pressure.
Japanese intellectual and cultural life continued to expand under the Tokugawa.
Neo-Confucianism kept its hold among the elite at the expense of Buddhism. The
upper classes became more secular, with variety among Confucian schools
preventing the intellectual sterility common in China. Education expanded
beyond the upper classes and led to the highest literacy rate outside of the West.
Even though Confucianism was dominant, there were many intellectual rivals. A
national studies group venerated Japanese traditions, including the position of
the emperor and Shinto religion. Another group pursued an interest in Western
scientific progress.
The Japanese economy continued to develop as internal commerce expanded and
manufacturing spread into the countryside. By the 1850s, economic growth was
slowing as technological limitations hindered agricultural growth and population
increased. Rural riots reflected peasant distress and helped to weaken the
shogunate.
Japan and China, despite both being part of the same civilization orbit,
responded very differently to Western pressures. Both nations had chosen
isolation from outside influences from about 1600 to the middle of the nineteenth
century, and thus fell behind the West. China had the capability to react to the
challenge, but did not act. Japan, with knowledge of the benefits of imitation,
acted differently.
Japan’s limited population pressure, in contrast to Chinese population growth,
also assisted its response. In political affairs China, by the middle of the
nineteenth century, was suffering a dynastic crisis; Japan maintained political
and economic vigor.
Japan had early advantage due to the achievements of Tokugawa Japan (1600-
1868) during a long period of “closed country” between the mid-seventeenth
century and the 1850s : A high level of urbanization; well developed road
networks; the channeling of river water flow with embankments and the
extensive elaboration of irrigation ditches that supported and encouraged the
refinement of rice cultivation based upon improving seed varieties, fertilizers
and planting methods especially in the Southwest with its relatively long growing
season; the development of proto-industrial (craft) production by merchant
houses in the major cities like Osaka and Edo (now called Tokyo) and its diffusion
to rural areas after 1700; and the promotion of education and population control
among both the military elite (the samurai) and the well-to-do peasantry in the
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Readiness to emulate the West: As a result of these domestic advances, Japan was
well positioned to take up the Western challenge. It harnessed its infrastructure,
its high level of literacy, and its proto-industrial distribution networks to the task
of emulating Western organizational forms and Western techniques in energy
production, first and foremost enlisting inorganic energy sources like coal and
the other fossil fuels to generate steam power. Having intensively developed the
organic economy depending upon natural energy flows like wind, water and fire,
Japanese were quite prepared to master inorganic production after the Black
Ships of the Americans forced Japan to open up.
Japan’s response to outside pressure was more direct and successful than that of
China. The Japanese adapted to the challenge of industrial change and internal
market reform. Many institutions had to be altered and much societal change
resulted.
Meiji Era
Twin Policies:
Throwing away the confederation style government of the Tokugawa era, the
new leaders of the new Meiji government fashioned a unitary state with
powerful ministries consolidating authority in the capital, Tokyo (Earlier name:
Yedo or Edo).
The freshly minted Ministry of Education promoted compulsory primary schooling
for the masses and elite university education aimed at deepening engineering
and scientific knowledge.
The Ministry of Finance created the Bank of Japan in 1882, laying the foundations
for a private banking system backed up a lender of last resort. The Bank of Japan
used taxes to fund model steel and textile factories.
The government began building a steam railroad trunk line girding the four
major islands, encouraging private companies to participate in the project. In
particular, the national government committed itself to constructing a Tokaido
line connecting the Tokyo/Yokohama region to the Osaka/Kobe conurbation along
the Pacific coastline of the main island of Honshu, and to creating deepwater
harbors at Yokohama and Kobe that could accommodate deep-hulled steamships.
Not surprisingly, the merchants in Osaka, the merchant capital of Tokugawa
Japan, already well versed in proto-industrial production, turned to harnessing
steam and coal, investing heavily in integrated spinning and weaving steam-
driven textile mills during the 1880s.
At the same time, the abolition of the three hundred or so feudal fiefs that were
the backbone of confederation style-Tokugawa rule and their consolidation into
politically weak prefectures, under a strong national government that virtually
monopolized taxation authority, gave a strong push to the diffusion of best
practice agricultural technique.
The nationwide diffusion of seed varieties developed in the Southwest fiefs of
Tokugawa Japan spearheaded a substantial improvement in agricultural
productivity. Simultaneously, expansion of agriculture (using traditional
Japanese technology) and manufacturing (using imported Western technology)
resulted.
Balanced growth:
Growth at the close of the nineteenth century was balanced in the sense that
traditional and modern technology using sectors grew at roughly equal rates, and
labor — especially young girls recruited out of farm households to labor in the
steam using textile mills — flowed back and forth between rural and urban
Japan at wages that were roughly equal in industrial and agricultural pursuits.
Japanese reform went beyond social and political reforms. The industrial
revolution began about 1870 as Meiji period leaders decided to catch up with the
West. As we have seen earlier, the government built railroads, improved roads,
and inaugurated a land reform program to prepare the country for further
development. It inaugurated a new Western-based education system for all
young people, sent thousands of students to the United States and Europe, and
hired more than 3,000 Westerners to teach modern science, mathematics,
technology, and foreign languages in Japan.
Modern industry first appeared in textiles, including cotton and especially silk,
which was based in home workshops in rural areas
A Western-style army and navy were created. New banks were established to
fund trade and provide investment capital. Railways and steam vessels improved
national communications. Many old restrictions on commerce, such as guilds and
internal tariffs, were removed. Land reform cleared the way for individual
ownership and stimulated production.
Government initiative dominated manufacturing because of lack of capital and
unfamiliar technology. A ministry of industry was created in 1870 to establish
overall economic policy and operate certain industries. Model factories were
created to provide industrial experience, and an expanded education system
offered technical training. Private enterprise was involved in the growing
economy, especially in textiles. Entrepreneurs came from all social ranks.
By the 1890s, huge industrial combines had been formed. Thus, by 1900, Japan
was fully engaged in an industrial revolution. Its success in managing foreign
influences was a major accomplishment, but Japan before World War I was still
behind the West. It depended on Western imports—of equipment and coal –and
on world economic conditions. Successful exports required inexpensive labor.
Labor organization efforts were repressed.
The changes in Japan’s economic power influenced foreign policy. By the 1890s,
they joined the imperialist nations. The change gave displaced samurai a role
and provided nationalist stimulation for the populace.
Japan’s need for raw materials helped pressure expansion. China and Japan
fought over Korea in 1894-1895; Japan’s quick victory demonstrated the presence
of a new Asian power.
A 1902 alliance with Britain made it an equal partner in the great power
diplomatic system. Rivalry with Russia brought war in 1904 and another
Japanese victory. Korea was annexed in 1910.
The rise of Japan changed the world diplomatic picture by the early twentieth
century. Japan was not yet a major world power, but Westerners thought about a
“Yellow Peril” as they watched its new strength.
Japanese success had its costs, among them poor living standards in crowded
cities and arguments between generations over Westernization.
The emergence of political parties caused disputes with the emperor and his
ministers, leading to frequent elections and political assassinations.
Many intellectuals worried about the loss of identity in a changing world; others
were concerned at lack of economic opportunities for the enlarged educated
class. To counter the malaise, officials urged loyalty to the emperor as a center of
national identity.
Japanese nationalism built on traditions of superiority and cohesion, deference
to rulers, and the tensions from change. Its strength was a main factor in
preventing the revolutions occurring in other industrializing nations. No other
nation outside the West matched Japan’s achievements.
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Adithya Kiran
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Awesome
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A nice essay
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