How did they manage an Empire?

At first, shoguns, who were hereditary commanders of the Japanese army, governed Japan since 1500 until 1867 with absolute power under the leadership of the emperor. The Japanese nation was very conservative and they encouraged trading barriers with the outside world, they refused to established any connection with Western nations, while Western nations were interested in establishing trading routes with Japan.

In 1853, the U.S. sent a fleet of ships under the command of Commodore Mathew Perry to Japan in order to end the nation’s self-imposed isolation and open it to trade. Matthew Perry convinced the shogun of Japan to signed an agreement for trading between them, one of the reasons why Japan accepted to sign this agreement was because they were afraid of having a war that could bring unequal treaties with them, like the one of the recent Opium Wars that occurred in China. Soon, the Britain, Russia, and Holland negotiated similar treaties.

The intrusion of the West would become a turning point for feudal Japan. The Tokugawa shogunate was criticized and ultimately overthrown for allowing western nations into Japan, making European nations wealthy. Nationalism in Japan was very strong. Consequently, in 1868, Emperor Mutsushito was restored to the throne, he was a member of a group of samurais, and came to be known as the first Meiji Leader.

Emperor Mutsuhito decided that in order to withstand the imperialistic might of the West, Japan would need to adopt western ways. This movement would be known as the Meiji Restoration. Japanese scholars were sent abroad to learn as much as possible about the West. Feudalism was abandoned in Japan in favor of a written constitution and the establishment of modern mechanized armed forces. Western technology was adopted which allowed the Japanese to fully industrialize in less than 50 years. By the end of the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese no longer feared that they would be imperialized. Rather, they set out to practice imperialism themselves.

Japan declared a war to China in its search for natural resources and trading rights on mainland Asia, this war was called the Sino-Japanese War and it lasted from 1894 to 1895; this also created a conflict with Russia leading Japan to the Russo-Japanese War that lasted from 1904 to 1905. Japan won both wars and surprised the world with its unexpected victory, the destruction of the Russian Navy by the Japanese marked the first time an Asian nation had defeated one from Europe.

With the “Treaty of Portsmouth”, Japan earned the following:
Chinese port city trading rights
Control of Manchuria in China
Korea became its protectorate
Annexation of the island of Sakhalin

During the 1900s, Japan did imperialism throughout Asia. Japan occupied nations once held by the French, British, and the Dutch. Native leaders were installed as part of governments that were manipulated by the Japanese.

In 1940, Japan announced that it would form a Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere, that encouraged Asian nations to resist western imperialists in order to contribute to the industrial needs of the Japanese war machine. Japan was practicing its own form of imperialism by dominating almost all Asia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjPUbKcYPwU