7.11 The Tokugawa Political System (1603–1867)

An emperor had ruled Japan from Kyoto, but by the twelfth century the imperial court had lost real power to the shoguns^?, who in theory ruled in the emperor's name. From 1603 to 1867, members of the Tokugawa family held the position of shogun. The country was divided into more than 250 domains under the rule of lords called daimyo^?. The shogun made the daimyo stay for long periods at the capital Edo (modern Tokyo) so that they could not threaten him; he also controlled the major cities and mines. The samurai^? — the warrior class — were the ruling elite and served the shogun and the daimyo.

In the late sixteenth century, three changes laid the pattern for future Japanese development:

By the mid-seventeenth century Japan not only had the most populous city in the world — Edo — but also two other large cities, Osaka and Kyoto, and at least half a dozen castle towns with populations of over 50,000. (By contrast, most European countries of the time had only one large city.) This led to the growth of a commercial economy, financial and credit systems. A person's merit began to be more valued than his status. A vibrant culture blossomed in the towns, where the fast-growing class of merchants patronised theatre and the arts. Gifted writers earned a living solely by writing. Japan was considered rich, because it imported luxury goods like silk from China and textiles from India. Paying for these imports with gold and silver strained the economy, so the Tokugawa restricted exports of precious metals and developed the silk industry at Nishijin in Kyoto. Nishijin silk came to be known as the best in the world; by the late seventeenth century the Nishijin community numbered over 70,000 people.

7.12 Commodore Perry and the End of Seclusion (1853–54)

Internal discontent at home coincided with growing pressure from outside for trade and diplomatic relations. In 1853 the United States sent Commodore Matthew Perry (1794–1858) to Japan, with four black-hulled steam-warships. He demanded that Japan sign a treaty permitting trade and opening diplomatic relations. The Japanese signed the following year. Japan lay on the route to China — which the USA saw as a major market — and US whaling ships in the Pacific needed somewhere to refuel. (At that time the only Western country that had been allowed to trade with Japan was Holland, through the tiny island of Dejima at Nagasaki.)

The Japanese called Perry's vessels the 'black ships' (their wooden joints had been sealed with black tar). They were depicted in popular paintings and cartoons that mocked the strange foreigners and their habits — but they soon became a powerful symbol of Japan's opening. (Today, scholars argue that Japan had not really been 'closed' — it had taken part in East Asian trade and had access to news of the wider world both through the Dutch and the Chinese.)

Officials and ordinary people alike were aware that Britain and other European powers were building colonial empires in India and elsewhere. News of China being defeated by the British in the Opium Wars was flowing in, and was even depicted in popular plays. There was a real fear that Japan might be made a colony. Some scholars wanted to learn from the new ideas in Europe rather than ignore them as the Chinese were doing; others wanted to keep Europeans out while still adopting their technologies; some argued for a gradual and limited 'opening' to the outer world.

7.13 The Meiji Restoration (1868)

Perry's arrival had an enormous effect on Japanese politics. The emperor, who till then had had little political power, now re-emerged as an important figure. In 1868, a movement forcibly removed the shogun from power and brought the emperor to Edo. The city was made the capital and renamed Tokyo — meaning 'eastern capital'. This change is known as the Meiji Restoration^?.

The new government adopted the slogan 'fukoku kyohei' (rich country, strong army). Officials realised they had to develop the economy and build a strong army; otherwise Japan would face the prospect of being subjugated like India. To do this they needed to create a sense of nationhood among the people, and to turn subjects into citizens.

At the same time, the new government also worked to build what they called the 'emperor system' — the emperor functioning as part of a system that included the bureaucracy and the military. Officials were sent to study the European monarchies on which they planned to model their own. The Charter Oath of 1868, sworn by the young Emperor Meiji, promised that 'deliberative assemblies' would be widely established and that knowledge would be sought 'throughout the world' so as to strengthen the imperial foundation.

A New School System

A new school system began to be built from the 1870s. Schooling was compulsory for boys and girls, and by 1910 it was almost universal. Tuition fees were minimal. The curriculum, originally based on Western models, by the 1870s also stressed loyalty and Japanese history. The Ministry of Education controlled the curriculum and the selection of textbooks, as well as teacher training. 'Moral culture' became a compulsory subject.

A New Administration and Army

To integrate the nation, the Meiji government imposed a new administrative structure by altering old village and domain boundaries. Each new administrative unit had to have revenue adequate to maintain local schools and health facilities and to serve as a recruitment centre for the army. All young men over twenty had to do a period of military service. A modern military force was developed. A legal system regulated political groups, controlled meetings and imposed strict censorship. The army and the navy were placed under the direct command of the emperor. This meant that, even after a constitution was enacted, the military remained outside the control of the elected government — a tension that would later have far-reaching consequences.

7.14 Modernising the Economy and the Zaibatsu

The most striking achievement of the Meiji era was the modernisation of the economy. Funds were raised by levying an agricultural tax. Japan's first railway line, between Tokyo and the port of Yokohama, was built in 1870–72. Textile machinery was imported from Europe, and foreign technicians were employed to train workers and to teach in universities and schools, while Japanese students were sent abroad. In 1872, modern banking institutions were launched.

Companies like Mitsubishi and Sumitomo were helped through subsidies and tax benefits to become major shipbuilders, so that Japanese trade was carried in Japanese ships. Large business organisations controlled by individual families — known as zaibatsu^? — dominated the economy until after the Second World War. The 'Big Four' zaibatsu were Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo and Yasuda; they held banks, factories, mines, ships and trading houses inside a single conglomerate.

Population and Industrial Workers

The population, 35 million in 1872, grew to 55 million in 1920. To reduce population pressure the government encouraged migration — first to the northern island of Hokkaido, where the indigenous Ainu lived, and then to Hawaii and Brazil, as well as to Japan's growing colonial empire. Within Japan, people moved to towns: by 1925, 21 per cent of the population lived in cities; by 1935, 32 per cent (22.5 million).

The number of people in manufacturing rose from 700,000 in 1870 to 4 million in 1913. Most worked in tiny units of fewer than five people, using neither machinery nor electric power. Over half of those employed in modern factories were women. Women organised the first modern strike in 1886. After 1900 the number of male workers began to grow, but only in the 1930s did men outnumber women. Factories employing more than a hundred workers — about 1,000 in 1909 — jumped to over 2,000 by 1920 and 4,000 by the 1930s; yet even in 1940 there were still over 550,000 workshops employing fewer than five workers each. This sustained the family-centred ideology, just as nationalism was sustained by a strong patriarchal system under an emperor who was treated as a kind of family patriarch.

7.15 The Meiji Constitution and Aggressive Nationalism

The Meiji Constitution of 1889 was modelled on the German constitution. It was based on a restricted franchise and created a Diet (the Japanese used the German word for parliament because of the influence of German legal ideas) with limited powers. The leaders who had brought about the imperial restoration continued to exercise power and even established political parties. Between 1918 and 1931, popularly elected prime ministers formed cabinets; thereafter, they lost power to 'national unity cabinets' formed across party lines.

The emperor was the commander of the armed forces, and from 1890 this was interpreted to mean that the army and the navy had independent control. In 1899, the prime minister ordered that only serving generals and admirals could become ministers — locking civilian control out of the military. The strengthening of the army, together with the expansion of Japan's colonial empire, was tied to the fear that Japan was at the mercy of Western powers. This fear was used to silence opposition to military expansion and to higher taxes.

'Westernisation' and 'Tradition' — Meiji Intellectuals

Successive generations of Japanese intellectuals quarrelled over Japan's place in the world. To some, the USA and Western Europe stood at the highest point of civilisation, to which Japan must aspire. Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835–1901), born into an impoverished samurai family, captured this view when he said that Japan must 'expel Asia'. He had studied in Nagasaki and Osaka, learnt Dutch and English, and gone as a translator on the first Japanese embassy to the USA in 1860. His book The Encouragement to Learning (1872–76) was very critical of Japanese knowledge: 'All that Japan has to be proud of is its scenery.' He set up Keio University and a society called the Meirokusha to promote Western learning. His principle was: 'Heaven did not create men above men, nor set men below men.'

The next generation reacted against this total acceptance of Western ideas. The philosopher Miyake Setsurei (1860–1945) argued that each nation must develop its special talents in the interest of world civilisation: 'To devote oneself to one's country is to devote oneself to the world.' Many intellectuals were attracted to Western liberalism. Ueki Emori (1857–1892), a leader of the Popular Rights Movement, demanded constitutional government, admired the French Revolution's doctrine of natural rights and popular sovereignty, and spoke for liberal education: 'Freedom is more precious than order.' Some even advocated voting rights for women. This pressure led the government to announce the constitution of 1889.

Daily Life — The Nuclear Family and the 'Modern Girl'

Japan's transformation can be seen in everyday life. The patriarchal household had several generations living together under the head of the house. As more people became affluent, new ideas of the family spread. The new homu (using the English word) was the nuclear family, where husband and wife lived as breadwinner and homemaker. This new domesticity created demand for new domestic goods, family entertainments and types of housing. In the 1920s, construction companies offered cheap housing for a down payment of 200 yen and monthly instalments of 12 yen for ten years — at a time when a bank employee earned about 40 yen a month.

The new middle-class families enjoyed new forms of travel and entertainment. Electric trams, public parks (from 1878), department stores and cinema arrived together. In Tokyo, the Ginza became a fashionable area for 'Ginbura' — combining 'Ginza' and 'burbura' (walking aimlessly). The first radio stations opened in 1925. Matsui Sumako became a national star with her portrayal of Nora in Ibsen's A Doll's House. Movies began to be made in 1899; soon a dozen companies were turning out hundreds of films a year. The slang word 'moga' — short for 'modern girl' — captured the meeting of gender equality, cosmopolitan culture and a developed economy in twentieth-century Japan.

7.16 Imperialism — Wars with China, Russia, and the Annexation of Korea

The Meiji constitution and modern army drove Japan abroad. In 1894–95 Japan went to war with Qing China over the question of Korea, and won. The Treaty of Shimonoseki forced China to cede Taiwan, recognise Korean independence, and pay an indemnity. In 1904–05 Japan defeated Russia — the first time an Asian power had defeated a European great power in modern times. In 1910 Japan annexed Korea, ending the 500-year-old Joseon dynasty. Korea would remain a Japanese colony until 1945. Tanaka Shozo's warning that ordinary people should not be sacrificed for progress applied to Korean and Taiwanese people now too.

Taisho Democracy and the Slide into Militarism (1912–45)

The reign of Emperor Taisho (1912–26) saw widening democracy — a wider electorate, popular newspapers, party cabinets, and universal male suffrage in 1925. But the militarists were already pulling the other way. In 1931, the Japanese army invaded Manchuria in north-east China and set up the puppet state of Manchukuo. State-centred nationalism reached its full expression in the 1930s and 1940s as Japan launched wars to extend its empire in China and other parts of Asia, a war that merged into the Second World War after Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor in December 1941. This period saw greater controls on society, the repression and imprisonment of dissidents, and the formation of patriotic societies — many of them women's organisations — to support the war.

7.17 Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the US Occupation (1945–52)

Japan's drive to carve out a colonial empire ended with its defeat by the Allied forces. It has been argued that nuclear bombs were dropped on Hiroshima (6 August 1945) and Nagasaki (9 August 1945) to shorten the war. Others think the immense destruction and suffering they caused were unnecessary.

Under the US-led Occupation (1945–52) Japan was demilitarised and a new constitution was introduced. This had Article 9 — the so-called 'no war clause' — that renounces the use of war as an instrument of state policy. Agrarian reforms, the re-establishment of trade unions and an attempt to dismantle the zaibatsu were also carried out. Political parties were revived, and the first post-war elections were held in 1946 — when women voted for the first time.

7.18 The Post-War 'Miracle' and the Bullet Train

The rapid rebuilding of the Japanese economy after such a shattering defeat was called a post-war 'miracle'. NCERT insists it was more than a miracle — it was firmly rooted in long Japanese history. The constitution had been democratised only now, but the Japanese already had a tradition of popular struggles and intellectual engagement with how to broaden political participation. The pre-war social cohesion was preserved, allowing close working between government, bureaucracy and industry. US support, and the demand created by the Korean War (1950–53) and the Vietnam War, also helped the Japanese economy.

The 1964 Olympics in Tokyo marked a symbolic coming of age. So did the network of Shinkansen ('bullet') trains, which began in 1964 running at 200 miles per hour (now around 300 mph) and came to represent Japan's ability to use advanced technologies to produce better and cheaper goods. The 1960s also saw civil society movements: industrialisation had been pushed with utter disregard for health and the environment. Cadmium poisoning caused a painful disease early on, followed by mercury poisoning at Minamata in the 1960s and air-pollution problems in the early 1970s. Grass-roots pressure groups began to demand recognition and compensation for victims. By the 1980s, Japan had enacted some of the strictest environmental controls in the world.

7.19 Two Roads — Why Japan and China Diverged

NCERT closes with a striking comparison. Japan retained its independence and used traditional skills and practices in new ways. But its elite-driven modernisation generated an aggressive nationalism, helped to sustain a repressive regime that stifled dissent and demands for democracy, and built a colonial empire that left a legacy of hatred in the region. While many Japanese hoped to liberate Asia from Western domination, for others these ideas justified building an empire.

The Chinese path was very different. Foreign imperialism — both Western and Japanese — combined with a hesitant Qing dynasty to break government control and set the stage for political and social breakdown. Warlordism, banditry, civil war and the Japanese invasion exacted a heavy human toll. The CCP's rise promised hope, but its repressive political system later turned the ideals of liberation and equality into slogans to manipulate the people. Yet it did remove centuries-old inequalities, spread education and raise consciousness among the people. The Party has now carried out market reforms and made China economically powerful, while keeping politics tightly controlled — and society now faces growing inequalities and a revival of long-suppressed traditions.