IGNOU HISTORY NOTES : History Of China and Japan (1840-1949) - Modernization in Japan -1

IGNOU HISTORY Study Notes for IAS, UPSC Exams

History Of China and Japan (1840-1949)

Modernization in Japan -1

Structure

10.0 Objectives
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Establishment of An Imperial Governmenr
10.2.1 No to Privileges
10.2.2 A National Army
10.2.3 The Tax on Land and Pensions
10.3 Towards Constitutionalism
10.3.1 The Meiji Constitution
10.3.2 The Debate
10.4 Protest and 'Revolts Against The Meiji State
10.4.1 Against Dismantling of Privileges
10.4.2 Freedom and Peoples' Rights Movement
10.5 The Nature of the Meiji Political System
10.5.1 The Emperor
10.5.2 Bureaucracy
10.6 Let US Sum up
10.7 Key Words
10.8 Answers To Check Your Progress Exercises

10.0 OBJECTIVES

After reading this Unit you will be able to :

a familiarise yourself with the steps that the Meiji leadership took to establish a constitutional government,
know about the demands of the opposition groups for a constitutional representative government, and
understand the nature of the Meiji state and the meaning of the Emperor System.

10.1 INTRODUCTION

As we have already mentioned in Unit 9, on January 1868 the last Shogun
Tokugawa Keikei abdicated in favour of the Emperor. In theory the Shogun had
ruled in the name of the Emperor but in practice the Shogun had been the actual
ruler while the Emperor was a forgotten figure living in Kyoto and financially
dependent on the Shogun . This peaceful step was the culmination of a long and
complex process by which the hegemony of the Tokugawa shogunate which
ruled Japan for nearly two hundred and fifty years was brought to an end.
The Meiji Kestoration was led by the han of Satsuma and Choshu whose leaders
came to dominate the new government. The Meiji oligarchy, as they are often
called, initiated a wide ranging series of reforms and built the institutional
structure of a modern nation state which they believed would be acceptable to
the Western powers. These changes were rapidly carried out and within forty
years Japan had emerged as a power in the world with a developed econo'rny and
a powerful military capability. In this Unit the nature, characteristic and process
of the political structure that was created will be examined. Some of the political . reforms dealt with here are also dealt with in Block 4 Unit 16 but here we are
concerned with the principles by which the Meiji oligarchy as well as those in