Meiji Leaders

They were a remarkably able group that carried out an economic and social revolution. This revolution is sometimes called the Meiji Restoration but it is also called the Meiji Revolution. The period that followed is called the Meiji Era.

The Meiji Era leaders wanted economic development as a growth of Japan, but circumstances allowed them very little policy choice. The first problem to be solved was financing the national government financial plan. The national government also paid to the samurai, the samurai class lost its source of living in the land reforms and the creation of the conscription army of commoners. The total of the samurai salary was enormous and required one third of the income of the national government. Later the inflation benefited the farmers whose land tax was at fixed financial levels, they gained at the expense of the samurai and the city dwellers.

The national government created some programs, such as public education, by declaring that it must be done and leaving it to the villages to finance and arrange for its provision. The Meiji elite were great students.

The Meiji government was faced with unique circumstances and did not know how to make the country’s economy prosper. It had only some reformist ideas influenced by the West and the sense of crisis. The actions of the government were quick to respond to unique circumstances and led to series of mistakes and miscalculations. However, it learned from mistakes and had power and new legitimacy which could be used for mobilization of society in reform efforts.

The Meiji Restoration is the successful building of the nation-state with a new institutional framework, which changed the course of development. The Meiji Era policy of using private businesses to promote government policy objectives proved successful.

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Why Imperialism In Japan?

In order to understand why imperialism started in Japan in the first place, it is necessary to talk abaout Japan`s geographycal features. Note in the picture that Japan is a very small coutry compared to it's population, it has a very montanious territory consequently it has very few natural resources, but it is strategically located because of its connection to America and several Islands of Southeast Asia through the Pacific Ocean, and its access to mainland Asia through the Sea of Japan.

Japan's expansion was the result of emulation of, which is the effort or ambition to equal or surpass another, and conflict with the Western nations.

Japanese goverment turned expansion into a systematic goal which were often intertwined, for security, national pride, resources for industrialization, settlement of overpopulation and markets for manufactured goods.

Japanese expansion was also fueled with Social Darwinism and racism. Social Darwinism states that only the strongest ones are the ones who adapt and survive, this created in Japan a need to ruthlessly protect itself and even side with the Western powers; but despite Japan's civilization, Western countries, because of racism, treated it the same way as other Asian countries. So the last chance for Japan to win Western respect and ensure security and survival as a nation, and even bringing civilization to other countries in Asia was imperial expansion.

As a conclusion, Japanese imperialism differed from European civilization because it was the first non-Western imperial power that rose to imperial status after facing colonization by the West.