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The Meiji Restoration 1868The Charter Oath
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The Meiji Reformers
- The revolution was carried out from above by a party from the traditional elite
- Over 3000 foreign workers were employed by the government during the Meiji Period,
including engineers, technicians, military consultants, teachers and financial and legal
advisers
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Domains had a
significant amount of autonomy under Tokugawa rule so it was important to change this in
order to centralise the country
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- Most were actually better off financially, since they were relieved of the samurai payroll
responsibilities, administration costs, and especially the domain debts
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- They had been paid less than the full book value of their salaries by the former daimyo,
but the new salaries still represented a considerable drop from what they had actually
been receiving before the change in 1871
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Paying salaries, raking over the obligations of the domains, and at the same time building up
modern defence forces placed upon the central government a heavy financial burden for
which tax income was inadequate
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These loans and enabled the government to carry on during the first few crucial years
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Within ten years the government had begun to reach a sound financial position
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- A new land-tax system, based on money not crop yield, came into operation in 1873
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- Four years were taken up in assessing the arable land of Japan and four years more in
applying the system to mountain and forest land
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- The army was based on the model of the French
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o In 1873 he was made army minister and was prominent in the government for
many years
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Iwakura Mission
The Japanese leaders intended not to Westernize, but to modernize;
Mission left in 1871 and spent two years in the United States and Europe
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The first aim of the mission was to gain information about the US, to provide ideas for
reforms, they were extremely successful in achieving this
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Flexibility and Pragmatism of Meiji Government
The Meiji government had the primary goal of implementing the best policies for the country,
thus they were prepared to adopt the policies of other western countries and adjust them if a
better model was discovered
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They were prepared to be flexible with the desire to maintain their culture in order to
modernize Japan
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It started at a compulsory 3 years then changed to 6 years
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The private sector was nevertheless responsible for the major development of industry in
Japan
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- In the cotton industry, one of the greatest growth industries of the period, both
government and private finance were involved
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- The second zaibatsu firm of Mitsubishi
- Originated with the Tosa samurai, Iwasaki Yataro (1834-1885), who set up his own
shipping line
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- Citizens were now free to travel and choose their own place of residence
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The class system was reformed and everyone was made equal before the law
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Communications were also very important – by 1880 all the major cities in Japan were
connected by telegraph
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Reforms were also carried out in the field of currency and banking to stimulate
industrialisation
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- In 1872 a modern banking system was begun when the National Bank Act was issued
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Initial Problems
Samurai:
In 1873 the conscription law was issued which called for the replacement of separate samurai
armies of the many domains with a single national army based on universal conscription
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After centuries of being a part of the
hereditary elite by 1876 the Samurai had lost all their exclusive privileges such as superior
education, possession of government offices, stipends, sword bearing, and surnames
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The Meiji Constitution
- Promulgated on February 11 1889
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The constitution's statement that the emperor ruled and was advised, meant that just as under
the shoguns, the emperor was a figurehead and rule was in the hands of other people
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The last of the genro, a Fujiwara, Prince Saionji, did not die until 1940
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- When the house would not approve the prime minister's budget, it was apparent that he
could not carry through reforms, so he dissolved the Diet
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- The original constitutional aim of allowing the cabinet complete freedom from the veto
of the Diet was thus defeated, and in Ito Hirobumi's fourth term as prime minister, he
appointed party members to the cabinet
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- The militarist faction, led by the genro Yamagata, who was the most important figure in
the formation of a national army, often succeeded in pushing through its policies
against the parties' opposition
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Social, Economic, and Cultural Transformations
In just three decades, from the 1860s to the 1890s, the Japanese economy emerged as an
Asian powerhouse
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By the 1890s, textile manufacturers dominated home markets
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Japanese shippers were competing
with European traders to carry these goods even to Europe
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Especially hard hit were members of two large, overlapping groups: small-scale family
farmers and young women workers
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Especially hard hit were members of two large, overlapping groups: small-scale family
farmers and young women workers
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A profound anxiety that something was being lost in the headlong rush to a Western-focused
modernity surfaced with increasing intensity in the 1880s and 1890s
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" It also linked up with the fear
of social disorder and political challenge among state officials
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From 1880 through 1900 Japan's population rose from about thirty-five million to forty five
million people
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They
moved as well from agriculture to commerce and manufacturing industries
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- Until about 1920, Japanese farmers supported the growing population with increased
output
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Between 1868 and 1893 Japanese raw silk production rose almost fivefold, from 2
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2 million pounds
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Silk
accounted for 42 percent of all Japanese export revenues during this quarter-century
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- It responded first by printing money
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- This only worsened the deficit, since tax revenues were based on land assessments that
did not automatically rise with inflation
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- Manufacturing output rose 5 percent annually over these years
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5
percent
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- Mineral production in Japan increased 700 percent from 1876 to 1896
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By 1900 the total
stood in excess of thirty-four hundred miles
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- About 475,000 of these worked in textile mills, either cotton or silk spinning or
weaving
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- They typically were required to live in company-owned dormitories that were locked at
night
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Essay Questions
"The national goal of the Meiji era was to become powerful enough to resist being dominated
by the Western powers
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BP1: AGREE – focus on military reform

BP1: AGREE – focus on military reform
- Conscription
- Military reform: Yamagata
- Modelling their armies/navies of French and British
BP2: AGREE - Iwakura Mission
- Secondary aim to reverse unequal treaties
- Primary aim was to find methods of modernization: to advance the country os it was on
par with the West
BP3: DISAGREE – Aim to improve standards of living in Japan
- Certain elements of reforms were about improving standards of living for Japanese
people
- Universal education implemented
- Freedom of travel
- Land tax reform
Compare and contrast the attempts at modernization in China and Japan in the period up to
1895
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Economic Reforms
- Railway lines
- Currency reforms
- Zaibatsu + other private sector drivers
- Used industry to build military resoures: ships, arms, iron smelting
- 5% annual growth vs 3

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