- Geography
- Used selective borrowing from China.
- Confucianism
- Japanese students sent to China to study religion, philosophy, art architecture and government
- Writing system à Japanese adapted writing system to fit their own language.
- Because of lack of natural resources, traded a lot with China and Koreaà land is very mountainous (about 73%), volcanic activity and occasional earthquakes don’t make it very suitable for farming.
- Used selective borrowing from China.
- Ethnic Homogeneity- there has always been very little diversity in Japan.
- Tokugawa Era (1600-1868)
- Tokugawa was most powerful shogunate (feudal, military, dictatorship)
- Based on a strict class hierarchy (see Japanese feudalism)
- Semi Golden age- flourishing of arts and entertainment
- For most of the time- isolated from outside
- Poor harvests, harsh lords and military and decrease in personal freedoms and commercial development led to dissatisfaction among people
- In 1868, several daimyos overthrew the emperor, ending the Tokugawa period and beginning the Meiji restoration.
- Japanese feudalism-
- Emperoràshogunàdaimyoàsamuraiàartisansà peasants
- Daimyo were the most powerful feudal rulers from the 12th- 19th c.
- Feudal system present in Japan until 1868
- Bushido and Shintoism
- Bushido- “the way of the warrior”, the samurai honor and moral code
- Shintoism
- Based on animism- worship of things in nature
- Once the original religion, but now is a minority religion.
- Matthew Perry- opened the formally isolated Japan to western trade, imperialism and diplomacy in 1854
- Meiji Restoration- 1868-1912
- Wanted to modernize at least enough to compete with other western nations
- Built modern industries (coal mines, textile mills, shipyards, etc.)
- Sold industries to private companies- became private enterprises
- Modernized the military- took advice from European military experts, built naval shipyards, etc. and former samurai took charge of military
- 1889- Japans first constitutionà peoples power still extremely limited
- reorganized society- removed barriers that prevented people from getting jobs they wanted
- women still greatly discriminated against
- Imperialist Period- beginning in 1895
- Taiwan (1895), Korea (1910) and Manchuria (part of it in 1905 from Russo-Japanese war) were it’s initial targets to expand it’s empire
- WWI gave Japan an opportunity to enlarge empire- was on Britains side
- Post WWII – occupied by the US. Occupation ends August 28,1952
- Constitution- 1946- allied occupation draw up a new constitution
- Emperor loses almost all real power and becomes merely a symbol of the state
- Citizens rights increase dramatically
- Two part legislature decide laws
- Prime minister (chosen by a majority vote in the legislature) becomes the head of the government
- Economic policies- American occupation
- redistribute farmland
- legalize labor unions
- give women and children greater rights
- Constitution- 1946- allied occupation draw up a new constitution
- Balance of trade
- Ministry of International Trade and Industry form
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