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Summary: The Meiji Restoration

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The Meiji restoration was an authentical coup d’état during which the political power was taken from the shogunate and put in the hands of a small ruling council (dajokan) and the emperor, Meiji. In the period immediately following the restoration, 1868 onwards, Japan experienced major developments in the political, social and economic setting. Within half a century it successfully evolved from being an underdeveloped, at risk of colonialization country to a modern, industrialized country which could compete with the western “first class” nations. This essay’s purpose is to depict the evolution of Japan in the process from the Tokugawa period to the Meiji era throughout the Meiji restoration and in particular to assess the role and the merits …show more content…

First of all the economic seclusion policy adopted throughout the shogunate from 1642 onwards “significantly reduced stimulus from abroad” as is pointed out by Encyclopaedia Britannica (ch.5, p.45). Furthermore, the feudalistic political system and the caste system in which society was organized not only contributed to a static social setting but also made up for an uneven distribution of prosperity with the majority of population living at “bare-bones subsistence” (see Allen 2011, p.117) and the caste of samurai, which were around three million, that burdened on the state’s finance with rich …show more content…

In addition to that the Meiji government solved the problem of inflation that occurred already in the late Edo period and worsened in the 1870s due to the Satsuma rebellion wars thanks to the Matsukata deflation which brought order in the until then very chaotic monetary system. The government adopted contractionary monetary and fiscal policies and established 1882 the Bank of Japan as the only money issuing authority and ensured the silver convertibility and switched then to gold convertibility after a period of appreciation of silver with respect to gold. This final switch allowed Japan to be part of the nations that had adopted the gold standard and thus to access to the most important capital

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