In 1853, four modern American warships sailed into Tokyo Bay, Japan’s great harbor. It was a show of power. Commodore Matthew Perry, a high-ranking Navy officer, led the ships. Perry hoped to force Japan to change its trading approach and allow American goods to be sold there. For two centuries, Japan kept its national economy mostly closed off to foreign trade. But Americans were rapidly producing pots, cloth, and other goods. American businesses saw Japan as a great new market. The island’s large population could be consumers of American products. While it was not an act of war, the sudden appearance of U.S. warships was certainly a bit risky.

Did Perry’s aggressive marketing work? This Japanese poster from 1887 gives an idea of how Japan responded to this forceful display. It teaches the Japanese versions of “fashionable English words.” Japan in the late nineteenth century was already one of the most literate societies in the world. The fact that they were now learning English reveals how quickly—and intentionally—they cared about international business.

The Tokugawa Shogunate

So why now? Before 1868, for about seven centuries, Japan had ruled by the Tokugawa shoguns. Japan did have an emperor, but he had little real power. Shoguns were military leaders, but some would say they acted more like dictators. They ruled over certain areas of Japan and had to keep society stable in their region. During this era, Japan had a rigid class system that put peasants at the bottom. The next highest class was for farmers and makers, also known as artisans. Above them was a class of soldiers called samurai. The samurai served regional lords, called the daimyo. Stability was important, so the lines between classes were drawn very clearly. However, people were still able to move between classes. In fact, some peasants managed to become important lords!

Japanese society also highly valued intellectual pursuits. During this time, new art, literature, early forms of comics, and philosophy emerged. Japan had more people who could read than most of the world’s other regions at this time. Literature and poems were highly prized. However, contact with the outside world was restricted. Under the Tokugawa shoguns, Europeans were only legally allowed to trade at one port, Nagasaki. (That’s another reason Perry’s warships in Tokyo Bay were such a shocking sight.)

But Tokugawa Japan had an economic problem. The shoguns relied on taxing agriculture to keep the country going and to stay in power. The regional daimyo lords and samurai had to be paid. Over time, this tax did not produce enough money for the government. The government then decided to raise taxes on the peasants. As a result, the lower classes grew increasingly angry. This weakened the government of Japan at a critical time.

Commodore Perry tried to force Japan to “do business,” literally at gunpoint. Japan’s leaders naturally feared a future takeover. Nearby, China was being defeated and torn apart by European states trying to force the Chinese to buy their products. This included the addictive drug, opium, which had negative and long-lasting effects on Chinese society. Leaders worried that something similar could happen in Japan if they did not modernize.

They demanded military and industrial reforms. But these changes fed into the unrest already bubbling up within Japan from the peasants and samurai classes. The result was a period of political chaos. Many Japanese did not want to copy the Europeans and Americans, wishing to preserve Japanese culture and way of life. In the mid-1860s, a brief civil war broke out. The reformers wanted modernization in the style of those Western nations. Eventually, the reformers won and took power. They were called the Meiji.

Meiji

The new government tried to inspire popular support for their movement. They took control of the imperial palace. Japan’s new leaders claimed to be restoring the emperor to power, but they were really creating a brand new government. That’s why this event is often called the Meiji “Restoration” though it was more of a revolution. The Meiji government sponsored new forms of national art and literature. Messages praising the new government, the emperor, and modernization were distributed around Japan. Such printed material and art made to advance a political idea is known as propaganda.

With the goal of modernizing, the Meiji studied European and U.S. political structures. But their ideas weren’t a total imitation. Japan’s leaders developed a new form of government. It mixed Western industrial styles with their own traditions and needs. They built more schools, and trained people to work in and run factories. The army was re-organized and trained with new weapons.

Meiji Japan rapidly industrialized and modernized. Soon its rulers looked at the United States and Europe as dangerous competitors. The West’s increasing meddling in places such as China had Japan on high alert. Some Meiji leaders argued that only by industrializing could Japan protect itself. This idea is often called “defensive modernization.”

Unfortunately, Japanese industry was at a disadvantage. The island country lacked many raw materials. One important material for industrializing is coal, a burnable rock. The goods Japan was able to produce faced significant tariffs—import taxes—from already industrialized countries. Determined for industry to grow as rapidly as possible, Japan took actions more drastic than anything that had been seen in Europe or the United States. Business leaders were brought into government. Tax money was poured into industrialization. Japan’s leaders aimed for new markets for their goods and resources to make the goods. Like industrialized societies elsewhere, they created some markets by forcibly taking colonies. Korea was an early target: it had many natural resources and a relatively large population who could maybe become customers.

Japan continues to be an industrial power today. However, because of its unique history, its industrial economy remains focused on very large companies. Many of them are closely tied to the country’s government. So, Japan does fit into the wider model of changes to production and distribution brought in by the Industrial Revolution. However, its particular place within this system is unique.