The American and Japanese Trading: The Meiji Restoration

Intro

- When the American Commodore Perry arrived and forced the Japanese to open up trading with the Americans in 1853 it caused a massive shift in the way Japan was run. The shogun could not deal with the looming threat and began a campaign of anti-foreignism “’Toi!’ (Expel the Barbarians!)” . The shogun eventually capitulated and began to allow foreign ships into Japan; this sparked the anti-foreign element, created by the shogun, to remove the shogun and reinstate the Emperor into power: “’Sonno’ (Revere the Emperor) was added to their mantra of ‘Toi’ to represent the old system where the Emperor was like a god. The Emperor took power back into his hands and renamed himself Meiji meaning “Enlightened Rule.” However, the Emperor did not expel the ‘barbarians’, instead he saw them as a method of creating a better Japan and began a campaign known as the ‘Meiji Restoration’ to modernize the nation. Japan needed to modernize because the western countries had forced the Tokugawa shogunate to sign unfair treaties that greatly favoured the western countries, notably the United States of America, Russia, Great Britain and France . One of the key events of the Meiji Restoration was the decline and fall of the samurai class in Japan. This essay intends to show the reasons for the decline of the samurai at the beginning of the Empire of Japan through the policies enacted during the Meiji Restoration. This will be shown through the military, cultural, political and social reforms enacted by the Japanese government.

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On samurai

- The samurai were the hereditary warrior class of feudal Japan who trace their creation to the “Heian period in around 794 when the capital was moved to Heian-Kyo” . The warriors were hired by wealthy landow...

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...after seven years the system was abolished , the samurai were compensate in “respect or political influence, [and] were reappointed as governors” but the point was to reinstitute the Emperors rule over all the ‘hans’ which were then reorganized into prefectures. These prefectures were governed by elected officials instead of appointed ones and allowed the government to begin collecting taxes from the land .

- With the new prefecture system, the government adopted a:

European style cabinet system headed by a prime minister and a staff consistent of former samurai mostly, but shied from them in favor of a system of civil service examinations to qualify officials

- This further reduced the power of the samurai, who had always claimed political power through inheritance, as more official seats were taken by people who merited them.

On Social Reforms

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