AP World Chapter 28: Japan

Diet

Japanese parliament established as part of the new constitution of 1889; part of Meiji reforms; could pass laws and approve budgets; able to advise government, but not to control it.

Japanese religious life

1. Buddhism lost some ground 2. Shintoism won new interest

Why were the Japanese so adamant about isolation?

1. Fear about the West's growing power and particularly Russia's Asian expansion

The reality of Japan in 1900

1. It depended on imports of Western equipment and raw materials such as coal for industrial purposes, Japan was a resource-poor nation. 2. Silk production grew rapidly. Much of this production was based on the labor of poorly paid women who worked at home or in sweatshops, not in mechanized factories.

Japanese universal education system

1. It stressed science and the importance of technical subjects along with political loyalty to the nation and emperor 2. Elite students took courses at the university level that emphasized science 3. A traditional moral education was essential, along with new skills, which would stress loyalty to the emperor

What were some financial problems the government had in the first half of the 19th century?

1. Its taxes were based on agriculture 2. Maintaining the feudal shell was costly

How did the samurai cope?

Many former samurai organized political parties.

Neo-Confucianism in Japan

Neo-Confucianism continued to gain among the ruling elite at the expense of Buddhism. Japan became more secular, especially among the upper class.

What ministries and gov't programs were established?

1. Japan established the Ministry of Industry in 1870 and it quickly became one of the key gov't agencies, setting overall economic policy as well as operating specific sectors. 2. Model shipyards, arsenals, and factories provided experience in new technology and disciplined work systems for many Japanese. 3. Technical trading and education, setting up banks and post offices, and regulating commercial laws

What western cultural things spread to Japan?

1. Many Japanese copied Western fashions as part of the effort to become modern 2. Western standards of hygiene spread 3. Japan adopted the Western calendar and the metric system

Why did the Japanese take down their policy of isolation?

1. Matthew Perry 2. There were Japanese who had grown impatient with strict isolation; their numbers swelled as the Dutch schools began to expand.

Industrialization's social consequences

1. Population growth 2. Better nutrition and new medical provisions reduced death rates and the upheaval of the rural masses cut into traditional restraints on births 3. Population growth lead to a constant supply of low-cost labor

Private enterprise and the role in Japan's economy

1. Some business people came from older merchant families 2. There were also newcomers, some rising peasant ranks

What did the government do to stimulate industrialization?

New gov't banks funded growing trade and provided capital for industry. State-built railroads spread. New methods raised agricultural output to feed the people of the growing cities.

Japanese family life

1. The birth rate dropped as rapid population growth forced increasing numbers of people off the land. 2. The rise of factory industry, separating work from home, made children's labor less useful 3. There were new signs of family instability; divorce rate exploded until legal changes made procedures more difficult 4. Japanese were eager to maintain the inferiority of women in the home

Who in the Japanese government were for or against isolation?

1. The daimyo were opposed to opening up isolation, their opposition forced the shogun to appeal to the emperor for support. 2. Whereas the daimyo defended the status quo, the samurai were more divided.

Women in Japanese society

1. They were widely used in the early factory labor force because their low wages were an indispensable advantage in competitive global markets 2. The gov't carefully provided schooling for girls as part of its new commitment to mass education 3. Many upper-class women had opportunities even for high education in secondary schools or separate universities

Education in Japan

1. Various Confucian schools actively debated into the mid-19th century, keeping Japanese intellectual life fairly creative. 2. Schools and academies expanded

what resulted from the Japanese civil war in 1866?

A new emperor named Mutsuhito, whose reign was called "Meiji"

Matthew Perry

American commodore who visited Edo Bay with American fleet in 1853; insisted on opening ports to American trade on threat of naval bombardment; won rights for American trade with Japan in 1854.

The Japanese economy in the 19th century

Commerce expanded as big merchant companies established monopoly privileges in many centers. Manufacturing gained ground in such consumer goods industries as soy sauce and silks

Terakoya

Commoner schools founded during the Tokugawa Shogunate in Japan to teach reading, writing, and the rudiments of Confucianism; resulted in high literacy rate, approaching 40%, of Japanese males.

Dutch Studies

Group of Japanese scholars interested in implications of Western science and technology beginning in the 17th century; urged freer exchange with West; based studies on few Dutch texts available in Japan.

What were destroyed economically to make way for industrialization?

Guilds and internal road tariffs were abolished to create a national market.

zaibatsu

Huge industrial combines created in Japan in the 1890s as part of the process of industrialization

What did the Japanese do to the samurai?

The Japanese government sent samurai overseas to study economic and political institutions and technology.

shogunate system vs. isolation

The complex shogunate system had depended on the isolation policy; it could not survive the stresses of foreign influence and internal reactions

Japanese civil war in 1866

The crisis was spiced by samurai attacks on foreigners. The samurai eagerly armed themselves with American Civil War surplus weapons, causing Japan's aristocracy to come to terms with the advantages of Western armaments.

What was the result of the slowing of economic growth in the 1850s?

There were rural protests, aimed at wealthy peasants, merchants, and landlord controls.

What did the Meiji do first politically?

They abolished feudalism, replacing the daimyo in 1871 with a system of nationally appointed prefects. Political power was effectively centralized.

What did the Japanese government do to the samurai?

They abolished the samurai class and the stipends this group. The tax on agriculture was converted to a wider tax, payable in money. Most samurai became poor.

What did the shogunate combine to create a central bureaucracy?

They combined semifeudal alliances between the regional lords, the daimyo, and the military samurai.

What did the Japanese do to the military?

They introduced an army based on national conscription, and by 1878 the nation was militarily secure. It was further improved by formal officer training and by upgrading armaments according to Western standards.

national studies groups in Japan

They praised Japanese traditions, including the office of emperor and the Shinto religion. The influence of the national studies school grew somewhat in the early 19th century.

What did the Japanese government do to the bureaucracy?

They reorganized the bureaucracy, insulated from political pressures. The bureaucracy began to expand rapidly. The constitution issued in 1889, ensured major prerogatives for the emperor along with limited powers for the lower house of the Diet.

What did the new combination of Japanese government entail?

This combination gave great power to a group of wealthy business people and former nobles who influenced the emperor and also pulled strings within the parliament.

Sino-Japanese War

War fought between Japan and Qing China between 1894 and 1895; resulted in Japanese victory; frustrated Japanese imperial aims because of Western insistence that Japan withdraw from Liaodong peninsula