Chris Powers

Cp489@cam.ac.uk

Discuss how the Meiji Restoration transformed the state & society in Japan. In what
sense was it a revolution?
The Meiji Restoration, if taken to refer to the latter half of the nineteenth century and
beginning of the twentieth when Japan begins to industrialise, modernise, and westernise, was
undoubtedly transformative of almost every aspect of the state and society in Japan. There
was almost no area of Japanese life that remained unaffected by the changes taken by Japans
oligarchical government at this time and though a strong case can be made for several
continuities in this period, the consensus seems to be that Japan was transforming into
something new. Where there has been more historiographical debate is over the extent to
which these changes constituted a revolution, or in which ways these changes could be
considered revolutionary. Earlier historiography argued, rather simplistically, that Japan
copied the West wholesale and this led to it in turn becoming westernised. This obviously
resulted in attempts at revision with some emphasising Japans own, native, course of
development as independent from the West. The most recent, and most compelling argument
has come from historians such as Swale. The coining of the phrase dynamic conservatism
has allowed historians to appreciate the sheer magnitude of Japans adoption of western
practices whilst at the same time making a clear link between the Meiji oligarchys need to
develop Japan and its desire to keep Japan as unscathed as possible. This is all the more
important when it is considered that the period in question was a time when the sinocentric
sphere had been shattered and it was becoming obvious that Europeans were fatally
undermining polities all over the rest of the world. With this in mind, it becomes apparent that
whilst Japan was completely transformed in the Meiji-era, the changes did not constitute a
revolution, even if they were revolutionary in their effects.
The revolutionary changes that people tend to think of first when considering the Meiji
Restoration are those to the economy. The late nineteenth century saw a growing Japanese

Chris Powers
Cp489@cam.ac.uk

economy such that by 1920, it had increased 2.8 times over from 18851 with growth clocking
in at between 2.6 and 3.6% per year in that period.2 It also saw processes of urbanisation,
homogenisation of the language, and the beginnings of university education. Each of these
changes was revolutionary in its own way, helping to bind together the Japanese nation where
it had perhaps not been as obvious a construct previously. The Meiji period was not however,
a period of industrial take-off. The boom in heavy industry, though definitely stoked by the
Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars, did not come until the First World War when the
Western world left the Asian markets open to exploitation but also began importing more
from Japan. One need only take the steel industry as a case in point of how difficult it was to
gain permission, let alone develop, new, western industries in Japan, or even the late time at
which Japan was exporting more than it imported. This leads to two conclusions: firstly that
Japans growth in the Meiji period was caused more by traditional industries and agriculture;
and second that the Meiji Restoration can be seen more as a period of laying the foundations
for a future strong and stable Japan. The prominence and continuity of traditional industries in
Japan is very clear though it has traditionally been neglected and understated by much
historiography of this period.3 Agriculture continued to be an important part of the Japanese
economy and the sector grew thanks to improvements in rice varieties and cultivation
techniques, accompanied by increased inputs of labour and fertiliser.4 The most impressive
area of growth was in sericulture. Although the silk industry was one traditional to Japan, and
already its leading export5, it was one that was overhauled by new technology and practices
over the Meiji Restoration, chiefly the development that allowed for a second silkworm hatch

E. Sydney Crawcour in P.Duus, The Cambridge History of Japan, p386

E. Sydney Crawcour in P.Duus, The Cambridge History of Japan, p391
3
E. Sydney Crawcour in P. Duus, The Cambridge History of Japan, p386
4
T. Nakamura, Economic growth in prewar Japan, p130
5
E. Sydney Crawcour in P.Duus, The Cambridge History of Japan, p424
2

Chris Powers
Cp489@cam.ac.uk

in the late summer.6 Its growth was key to boosting the Japanese economy, similarly it could
be argued, to the role of cotton in Britain. Sericulture serves therefore, as an example of how
Japan managed to retain something intrinsically Japanese (its silk industry), and revolutionise
it through the adoption of western methods. Silk was not simply cast aside for a different set
of textiles which had already been worked upon in the West such as cotton, though there were
smaller scale industries for these materials. Instead, silk became the largest of Japans
traditional industries and was able to outcompete established European competitors such as
France.
Another area of Japanese society that was changed revolutionarily during the Meiji period
could be loosely referred to as its networks. Whether in transport, communication, or
utilities, the Meiji period expanded massively connecting Japanese cities, towns and people to
each other in new ways. Most revolutionary and obvious was perhaps the railway system in
Japan which had to be imported through extensive borrowing from the British while Japans
heavy industries remained in their embryonic state. Despite that, the amount of track in place
across Japan increased dramatically across the Meiji period and arguably helped more than
any other factor in tying the Japanese together into a national unit. Japan was a country that
was easier to travel around by coast-crawling boats than by overland transport. For the first
time, Japanese could traverse the country quickly and cheaply, and not as part of large daimyo
retinues as was the case in the Edo period. A similar case can be made for the growth of the
telegraph network, the postal service, and other forms of communication across the Meiji
period. They exploded within a very short space of time thanks to state sponsorship. Post
offices increased from nothing to 3500 in 1883, doubling to 7000 by 1913 such that mail
usage was comparable with any European nation.7 Similarly, the number of telegrams sent
over the new networks grew rapidly, from 2.7 million in 1882, to 14 million in 1897 and as
6
7

E. Sydney Crawcour in P.Duus, The Cambridge History of Japan, p409

E. Sydney Crawcour in P.Duus The Cambridge History of Japan, p398

Chris Powers
Cp489@cam.ac.uk

many as 40 million by 1913.8 Communication networks facilitated the growth of a common

press with a mass readership and so newspapers soon also began to form an important part of
the Japanese public sphere. Among these changes, one can again see a more complex story
than a simple slavish adoption of Western best practice. Where newspapers took root, they
took on a life of their own. Japanese papers made extensive use of images, more so than in the
West. They had their own priorities when it came to reporting the news, whether it be as the
most vocal critic of high-collar culture in Japan and taking on a more populist tone towards
spectacles such as the masked balls9, or aligning themselves with the regime as and when it
became more authoritarian and to pursue profit. Though the trains were undoubtedly taken
from the West, their huge presence across Japan helped make them part of its identity. At the
same time as the growth of railroads, inner-city transport was extended greatly by the spread
of the jinrikisha in Japans biggest cities. They were an example of a Japanese mode of
transport being given a new and much larger lease of life as a result of the processes of
urbanisation and economic development taking place during the Meiji period. Finally, it is
worth noting that there were some adoptions of Western technology at the end of the Meiji
period, such as the implementation of urban street lighting, that were so quick to take hold
that it would be unfair to call the phenomenon westernising. Japan increased its number of
lamps from 464,000 in 1905 to 5 million by 1913. As such, it can easily be argued that Japan
had, by the end of the First World War, largely caught up with the West and where it wasnt
embracing change at the same time, it was beginning to make its own.
In Foreign Policy terms, the Meiji Restoration not only transformed the Japanese state and
how it was perceived by outsiders but it was also successful in its aims. The impetus for the
entire drive for modernisation was for defensive reasons of international relations and a fear
8

E. Sydney Crawcour in P.Duus The Cambridge History of Japan, p399

J.G. Karlin, The Gender of Nationalism: Competing Masculinities in Meiji Japan, Journal of Japanese Studies
Vol:28, No:1 pp47
9

Chris Powers
Cp489@cam.ac.uk

of being undermined in a similar way to China following the end of the Opium War in 1842.
Part of this was the reversal of the unequal treaties, but also there was a strong desire among
many in the Meiji government to be seen by the West as an equal partner rather than for Japan
to return to isolationism. By using its array of economic and political levers, the Meiji
oligarchy was able to prise the West out of Japanese affairs. The best example is perhaps
intra-Japanese trade. As aforementioned, a lot of movement within Japan was carried by
coastal shipping rather than overland. This made Japan a ripe target for the naval-based,
British Empire to make inroads in Japanese commerce. Though a counter-factual statement, it
is likely that had Japanese governmental policy not intervened the British would have
succeeded in dominating intra-Japanese trade. However, the comprehensive use of subsidies,
quotas and taxes against foreign shipping and for Japanese shipping allowed for what many
historians including Sydney Crawcour and Wray have argued, that they enabled Mitsubishi
to eliminate the American Pacific Mail Steamship Company and the British Peninsular and
Oriental Steamship Company from coastal steamer traffic.10 They were able, with state
support, to turn greater profits and accrue smaller costs than foreign competitors and as such
Japanese trade remained securely Japanese. Though it is all too attractive an idea to link the
support of merchant shipping to Japans equipping itself for being able to build navies further
down the line, the importance of protecting Japanese shipping in its own right should not be
understated. In a similar vein, the Meiji policy of keeping foreigners kettled together in
Yokohama until Japan was comfortable enough to connect the town with the rest of the
country more thoroughly also allowed for the country to have more time to prepare itself for
contact with the outside world as equals. Japan succeeded, in short, in keeping the world at
arms length while it made itself a partner of equal stature. The most revolutionary change in
Japanese foreign affairs however was without doubt its switch from being an isolationist state,

10

E. Sydney Crawcour in P.Duus The Cambridge History of Japan, p396

Chris Powers
Cp489@cam.ac.uk

to being an aggressive imperial power. With successful wars against China and Russia in
1894 and 1904, plus the colonisation projects in Taiwan and then in Korea, Japan had joined
European powers in being able to project power in its neighbourhood. This expansion and
success in war earned Japan respect, most obviously symbolised by the Anglo-Japanese
Treaty of 1902.
To then look at the Japanese government itself, it is obvious that what Japan is by the First
World War is a complete transformation from what had been the situation at the end of the
Edo period. Where Japan had been regionally focused and daimyo were in charge, not only
had Japan moved to a prefectural system11 and got rid of its daimyo, it had managed to
become in some ways a populist and nationalist democratic state with the Meiji oligarchy
being but a transitional phase between the two. The role of Emperor had been brought to the
forefront of Japanese sovereignty and its constitution12, as well as being a strong cultural
symbol of the nation. This is in stark contrast to before when he had been largely ignored over
in Kyoto while the Shogunate ran the country. Many other aspects of the state had changed
too. The Samurai no longer received their stipend13 and had been absorbed into leadership
positions in the police force and the bureaucracy14; the type of dress worn by government
officials had become distinctly western; the Japan of 1914 was not the same country it had
been 50 years previously.
While it is very easy to get caught up in all of the changes that had taken place in Japan, and
they were remarkable changes, the continuity in Japanese society should also not be
understated. Japan was already a remarkably literate society before the Meiji Restoration and

11

D. Howland, Society reified: Herbert Spencer & Political Theory in Early Meiji Japan, Comparative Studies
in Society & History, Vol:42, No:1, pp68
12
A.D. Swale, The Meiji Restoration: Monarchism, mass communication and conservative revolution, p1
13
D. Howland, Society reified: Herbert Spencer & Political Theory in Early Meiji Japan, Comparative Studies
in Society & History, Vol:42, No:1, pp68
14
A.D. Swale, The Meiji Restoration: Monarchism, mass communication and conservative revolution, p16

Chris Powers
Cp489@cam.ac.uk

this continued to be the case. Where officials had adopted Western dress, the public sphere
most notably in newspapers was very critical of this development and there were many calls
across Japanese society to maintain traditional values and continue to wear traditional dress.
Historians tend to agree with Sydney Crawcours conclusion that traditional eating habits
changed very little, and caloric intake per capita rose only slowly.15 The rise of shops and
restaurants in Japans largest cities brought with it the increased consumption of Japanese
food more than any other. Where attitudes towards homosexuality seemed to become less
tolerant over the course of the Meiji period, its views towards women seemed to remain
largely the same. Disdain for femininity continued to be the case throughout this period.
The most important thing to note about Japanese change then is not that there was so much of
it, that conclusion is obvious. No, it is important to note that at every corner the Japanese tried
to own the changes they brought about and retain their identity. Obviously the country was
revolutionised, but the states intention was to revolutionise it such that there would be no
revolution, that Japan would remain an independent state with its sovereignty and culture
intact. It is because of this emphasis on continuity in a time of great change that the term
dynamic conservatism is particularly apt to describe the Japanese experience over the
course of the Meiji era.

15

E. Sydney Crawcour in P.Duus, The Cambridge History of Japan, p412

Chris Powers
Cp489@cam.ac.uk

Bibliography:

P. Duus, The Cambridge History of Japan, Cambridge University Press

P. Francks, The Japanese Consumer: An alternative economic history of Japan,

(Cambridge University Press, 2009)

S. Garon, State and Labor in Modern Japan Volume Six: The Twentieth Century

C. Gluck, Japans Modern Myths: Ideology in the Late Meiji Period, (Princeton
University Press, 1985)

D. Howland, Comparative Studies in Society & History, Volume 42, Number 1,

2000.

J.G. Karlin, Journal of Japanese Studies, Volume 28, Number 1, 2002.

T. Nakamura, Economic growth in prewar Japan, (Yale University Press, 1983)

W.D. Wray, Mitsubishi and the N.Y.K 1870-1914: Business strategy in the
Japanese shipping industry, (Harvard University Press, 1984)