Beginning in 1868, a series of reforms that conferred to Japan its modern physiognomy, disconcerting due to its contrasts and the juxtaposition between innovations and conservatism.
Social and economic reforms
The social reform It was the one that conditioned all the others. Without altering the hierarchical order, its anachronistic appearances were destroyed to remain subordinate to the needs of the State.
The abolition of the feudal system that characterized Japan it turned the sharecroppers into owners of the land they cultivated. The fiefdoms were transformed into administrative districts and, henceforth, the titles of nobility were purely honorary.
The old “nobility” went mostly to the service of the State, many of their samurai they became an efficient source of government and administrative personnel.
The peasantry did not undergo sudden changes, since the fees and damages demanded by the old nobility then passed to the State. Perhaps the most notable transformation for producers was the normal proletarianization of the peasantry, which accelerated due to the freedom to sell properties and the industrialization typical of accelerated capitalism, partly driven by British businessmen but also promoted by state economic policies.
political reforms
The political reform then held in Japan it combined modern institutions with ancient oriental structures. At first, absolute monarchy was established with a emperor who decided all state matters.
But the excess of power in the imperial figure soon escaped the intention sought by the reformers, and the emperor created a Senate which was the first draft of a legislative assembly.
In 1889 a Constitutionbased on Western examples, but always granting exceptional power to the emperor, head of the army, navy, and diplomacy, capable of appointing the Chamber of Peers and summoning, adjourning, or dissolving the House of Representatives (elected by scrutiny among half a million voters.
military reforms
One of the most emblematic changes of this period, perhaps popularized by films like The Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa, or the most recent The last Samurai (2003); was the reform of the Japanese armies.
The modernization of armies it is the result, at the same time, of social reforms and industrial progress. In 1873, military service, until then a privilege of the samuraiit becomes a general obligation.
The loss of this caste privilege, added to the impoverishment derived from the suppression of the feudal system, means that, in the following years, the samurai they appear restless.
In times of peace, only part of the annual contingent joins the army and the rest simply become part of a militia. Onwards, Japan It will have an armed army of 250,000 men, trained according to the German system and who are imbued as something essential with the veneration of the emperor and the country, in the Western way.
The construction of a Marine of war, first in England and later in the same Japan, from 1886, thanks to the installation of shipyards under the direction of the French engineer Émile Bertin; the officers are trained by the British, or do –like Admiral Togo- a stay of several years in the British navy.
In 1894, the Japanese navy had only one battleship, but 22 cruisers and 25 torpedo boats.
Although partial, westernization of Japan was enough to lead this country to a policy imperialist of conquest, inserted in the concert of international rivalries.
Sources: Bergeron, L.: The European Revolutions and the distribution of the World, The World and its History, vol. VIII, Argos / Kaiten Nukariya: The Religion of the Samurai, Plain Label Books.