The Meiji Restoration is one of the most important periods in Japanese history, transforming Japan from a feudal state to an industrial power.
In this episode, we'll learn how Japan's rapid modernisation changed its society, government, and military, and set the stage for its role in the 20th century.
[00:00:05] Hello, hello hello, and welcome to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:00:12] The show where you can listen to fascinating stories, and learn weird and wonderful things about the world at the same time as improving your English.
[00:00:21] I'm Alastair Budge, and today we are going to be talking about The Meiji Restoration.
[00:00:27] It is the most amazing period of history when Japan completed an unbelievable transformation from feudal state to industrialised superpower.
[00:00:37] This is also a longstanding request from an amazing member, Taiki from Japan, so Taiki, this one is for you, I hope you’ll enjoy it.
[00:00:47] OK then, let’s get right into it, and talk about The Meiji Restoration.
[00:00:54] Historians love to look back at a particular point in history as a defining moment, a period that changed everything, a year or decade or century even that fundamentally shifted the destiny of a country or region.
[00:01:11] The American Civil War in the United States or the French Revolution for France.
[00:01:17] You could even say that for Greece and Italy, it is the “glory days” of Ancient Greece and Rome.
[00:01:26] When it comes to the fascinating history of Japan, there is one period that changed everything, a period that undeniably changed the trajectory not only of Japan, but the entire East Asian region, and that’s the period we’ll be talking about today, the Meiji Restoration.
[00:01:45] So, to understand its importance, we need to first remind ourselves of some Japanese history.
[00:01:53] From the 12th to the 19th century, really, Japan could be best described as a feudal society, not so dissimilar from the feudalism that existed in much of medieval Europe.
[00:02:09] Peasants toiled the land and paid taxes to a small collection of powerful feudal leaders, called daimyos.
[00:02:18] Japan had an emperor, but he was really a symbolic leader; real power rested in the hands of the shogun, essentially a military dictator who ruled the country with a rod of iron.
[00:02:33] And there were also the samurai, the warrior class. They were highly skilled warriors, and in fact they were the only members of Japanese society that were allowed to carry weapons.
[00:02:46] The samurai were particularly useful in periods of conflict, which were frequent from the 12th to 16th centuries.
[00:02:54] But in the year 1600, Japan entered a period of peace and relative stability, the Edo period.
[00:03:04] And the samurai suddenly found themselves at a bit of a loss for things to do.
[00:03:09] With no wars to wage and no battles to fight, being a skilled and dangerous warrior was a little pointless.
[00:03:19] Their role started to change, and they transitioned into becoming bureaucrats - managing estates, collecting taxes, and enforcing law and order.
[00:03:30] During this period, so the 17th, 18th and first half of the 19th centuries, this period of peace brought increased prosperity to Japan. The population doubled, there was significant development in art and culture, you know, life was good, for some people at least.
[00:03:49] There were still famines, Japanese society was still stratified, with very clear social classes and no way to move between them.
[00:03:58] It was medieval Europe, essentially, but with a distinctly Japanese flavour.
[00:04:05] And this all happened in almost complete isolation from the rest of the world.
[00:04:12] Foreigners were, for all extents and purposes, banned from entering the country, and Japanese people who left the country weren’t allowed back in.
[00:04:23] It’s hard to think of a more isolationist state than this.
[00:04:28] But while this was possible in a world in which feudalism reigned supreme, a world of farming, wooden ships and hand-to-hand combat, outside Japan the world was changing.
[00:04:43] And across the ocean, far away from the Japanese coast, in some pockets of the world, remarkable progress was being made.
[00:04:53] The Industrial Revolution had started in northern England, and by the mid-19th century, steamships were chugging across oceans, railroads had been laid up and down England and were being laid across the United States.
[00:05:09] Gunpowder might have been invented 1,000 years earlier, in 9th century China, but Western industrial powers had mastered the art of manufacturing modern weapons, weapons against which even the most accomplished of samurai would not stand a chance.
[00:05:27] In Japan, military technology had barely moved on for 500 years.
[00:05:34] The samurai were skilled and dangerous warriors, but their weapons were bows and arrows, and swords; they were no match for rifles, cannons and warships.
[00:05:46] The Japanese had witnessed this firsthand, or at least had a real-life example of this, with the Opium Wars, when British warships steamrollered over the Chinese and China was forced to make major concessions to Britain, including handing over Hong Kong.
[00:06:05] The winds of change were blowing, and it seemed like it would not be long before they reached the shores of Japan.
[00:06:15] And arrive they did in 1853.
[00:06:19] On the 8th of July, 1853, four black ships steamed into Tokyo Bay.
[00:06:26] They were commanded by Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, an American naval officer.
[00:06:33] He said that he came in peace, with the intention of opening up trade and diplomatic relations between Japan and the United States, but if that was not possible, he was prepared to use force.
[00:06:48] The ships were equipped with high-powered American cannons as a show of American industrial might.
[00:06:55] These cannons had specially designed shells that would explode on impact, setting fire to everything around them.
[00:07:03] And the city of Tokyo, or Edo as it was then called, was made of small wooden houses. The city would burn to ashes without the Americans even having to set foot in Japan.
[00:07:17] Eventually, Perry was allowed ashore, and he delivered a letter signed by the American president in which he stated that the United States did not have any religious purpose–the US had no intention of sending Christian missionaries or interfering in Japanese society–it only wanted to formally open up trade relations between the two countries.
[00:07:42] This wasn’t specifically because Japan was such an attractive market; the primary reason was that the US wanted Japan to sell its coal to American ships en route to China.
[00:07:55] To state the obvious, it is a long way across the Pacific Ocean, and if Japan could be a stopping point where American ships could refuel, this would open up the huge Chinese market to American merchants.
[00:08:12] He wasn’t expecting an answer there and then; he would be back in a year, and he expected a yes.
[00:08:20] If not, well, he had clearly demonstrated the kind of weaponry America possessed, and Japan had the example of what happened to China when it tried to stand up against British gunships.
[00:08:33] Should Japan open up its economy to the outside?
[00:08:37] If yes, what would this mean for Japanese sovereignty? Would this be a Trojan horse, would it be the end of Japan, of the emperor, of the shogun?
[00:08:48] If not, well how would they stand a chance against American shells and rifles?
[00:08:55] It would be a big decision for the shogun, who let’s remember was the military dictator of the country.
[00:09:03] But just three days after Perry and the Americans left, the ruling shogun died and was replaced by his ineffective and sickly son.
[00:09:15] Now, the shogun was meant to be strong and powerful, and this young man was in no way up to the task, he was physically weak and clearly incapable of making such a big decision.
[00:09:31] And his first big mistake was to show his weakness.
[00:09:36] He decided to put it to a vote, he asked the daimyos, a committee of regional leaders, what they thought should be done.
[00:09:46] And the result was indecisive…some said yes, others no, others gave long-winded and indecisive answers.
[00:09:56] It was the first time that the shogun had ever put a decision to his subordinates, and to many, it was seen as a sign of great weakness.
[00:10:06] What was the point of a shogun, what was the point of a leader, if he wasn’t able to lead?
[00:10:13] Eventually, the decision was taken to accept the American request, and after some tense negotiations, on the 31st of March, 1854, the Convention of Kanagawa was signed, which made trade relations between the two countries official.
[00:10:32] Treaties with Britain, France, the Netherlands and Russia followed shortly after, and almost overnight Japan had gone from complete isolation to having diplomatic and trade relations with the most industrialised nations on the planet.
[00:10:50] However these treaties were not done on an equal footing; Japan wasn’t able to set its own tariffs, foreigners didn’t have to obey Japanese laws, the treaties were deeply unequal. Indeed, they are now known by historians as “The Unequal Treaties”.
[00:11:11] And this was a key turning point for Japan.
[00:11:15] The arrival of Western powers, with their demands and advanced technology, had exposed the weaknesses of the shogunate.
[00:11:23] The treaties Japan was forced to sign weren’t just agreements—they were symbols of Japan’s compromised sovereignty and they created a ripple of dissatisfaction across the country.
[00:11:36] A group of powerful samurai got together to challenge the shogunate’s authority and push for a new political order centred around someone who had been sidelined for 500 years: the emperor.
[00:11:50] Long story short, they managed to topple the shogunate and restore the emperor to power.
[00:11:56] By 1868 the shogunate was no more, and the Japanese emperor Mutsuhito, who was only 14 years old at the time, was proclaimed supreme ruler of the country.
[00:12:10] Now, the emperor was surrounded by a group of advisors who made decisions for him, and it seems that his strength was to get out of the way and trust these people.
[00:12:21] They were in agreement that Japan needed to do one thing and do it quickly: modernise.
[00:12:28] The reason for the success of the Western industrial powers was, they believed, because of their technology and industry.
[00:12:37] So to have a chance in the modern world, or perhaps we should say modernising world, Japan needed to copy whatever it was that had enabled its adversaries to develop so quickly.
[00:12:50] The longer Japan waited, the weaker its position would be. It could not fight the future; it had to catch up and catch up fast.
[00:12:59] What happened next was perhaps the fastest, most successful industrial development in modern history.
[00:13:07] Japanese merchants studied Western industrial designs of everything from trains to factories and built Japanese versions in Japan.
[00:13:16] Japanese scientists studied Western crop-growing techniques in order to extract more value from the land.
[00:13:24] There was huge educational reform, with a modern public education system based on Western models that transformed literacy levels in the country.
[00:13:34] On a bureaucratic level, Japan even copied Western systems of government, creating a central Japanese government with its own Prime Minister.
[00:13:43] And there was serious reform to the military and the creation of a modern army and navy.
[00:13:50] The samurai had served their purpose, but swords, arrows and horses weren’t as useful in an era of gunships and cannons.
[00:14:00] In 1873 the emperor announced the abolition of the samurai class and the introduction of conscription in Japan.
[00:14:10] It might sound like a small thing, a formality, but to emphasise quite how much of a change it was, previously the samurai were the only people who were allowed to carry weapons; now everybody of military age was forced to serve in the army.
[00:14:28] And all of these changes didn’t happen in a vacuum, it wasn’t some secret plan where Japanese officials snuck into British or German or American factories or businesses or governments and tried to figure out what was going on.
[00:14:43] This was enabled, or at least majorly facilitated, by Western advisors who had been brought in specifically to train and share knowledge with the people of Japan.
[00:14:55] It’s believed that there were somewhere between two and three thousand foreigners who were shipped into Japan during this period to do everything from teaching Japanese engineers to sharing Western farming techniques to training the Japanese military.
[00:15:11] And this was underpinned by a complete overhaul of the Japanese social system that had still been medieval, essentially, until the arrival of Perry and his black ships.
[00:15:23] Japanese society had previously been highly stratified, organised into different classes, with no real possibility of movement between each other.
[00:15:34] This class system was abolished in 1869, and replaced with a more merit-based system, meaning who your parents were no longer defined the trajectory of your life.
[00:15:47] And as to the results, well, it was the foundations of 20th-century Japan, it was a masterclass in economic development.
[00:15:57] Japan went from producing 600,000 tonnes of coal a year in 1875 to 21 million by 1913.
[00:16:08] It had built 26 steamships by 1873, but by 1913 that number had shot to over 1,500.
[00:16:19] The country had gone from having its first 29 kilometres of railroad in 1872 through to 11,000 by 1914.
[00:16:30] Japan managed to do in a generation what had taken European powers centuries.
[00:16:37] Yes, it had the blueprint of how to do things like build factories or administer a large public education system, but the speed at which the transformation took place was astounding.
[00:16:51] And to say that it had simply copied everything is an overstatement. Yes, Japan took inspiration from industrial powers and copied a lot, but there was a uniquely Japanese twist to everything.
[00:17:07] From the blending of Japanese and Western architectural styles to the mixing of Western and traditional clothing, Japan clearly didn’t become a mere Western industrial power in Asia, but an Asian country with Western-style industrial power.
[00:17:25] And by the end of the 19th century, Japan had caught up, pretty much, with the USA and Britain, and had become a serious regional power.
[00:17:36] And what do regional powers do, in the late 19th century at least?
[00:17:40] Well they invade their neighbours, and the newly industrialised nation couldn’t resist following suit, first invading China in 1894 and then Russia 10 years later.
[00:17:53] As you may know, they won in both cases. The victory against China wasn’t such a surprise, as China was still a pre-industrial country and weakened by the Opium Wars and the unequal treaties it had been forced to sign with Western powers.
[00:18:09] But the victory against Russia was a big surprise; this island that had previously been essentially a medieval fiefdom 50 years prior had managed to overpower the country that had defeated Napoleon less than 100 years before.
[00:18:26] And this set the tone for the Japanese imperial ambitions that would follow, and then Japan’s behaviour in the early 20th century, but that's a story for another episode.
[00:18:39] In 1912 Emperor Mutsuhito, the so-called Meiji Emperor died. He was only 59, but in his lifetime he had overseen the most spectacular development in his country’s history.
[00:18:53] To this day it remains an example to other countries of what is possible when you set your mind to it.
[00:19:00] As the New York Times put it when reporting on his funeral, "The contrast between that which preceded the funeral car and that which followed was striking indeed. Before it went old Japan; after it came new Japan."
[00:19:18] OK then, that is it for today's episode on The Meiji Restoration, this fascinating period of Japanese history that helps you understand why Japan is in the position it is today.
[00:19:30] As always, I would love to know what you thought of this episode.
[00:19:33] We have loads of members from Japan, so, to my Japanese friends in particular, what other nuances do you think people should know about The Meiji Restoration?
[00:19:42] What are some visible influences in Japan today?
[00:19:46] And how would Japanese history have been different if the shogun had refused the advances of those black ships?
[00:19:53] I would love to know, so let’s get this discussion started.
[00:19:57] You can head right into our community forum, which is at community.leonardoenglish.com and get chatting away to other curious minds.
[00:20:05] You've been listening to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:20:10] I'm Alastair Budge, you stay safe, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
[00:00:05] Hello, hello hello, and welcome to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:00:12] The show where you can listen to fascinating stories, and learn weird and wonderful things about the world at the same time as improving your English.
[00:00:21] I'm Alastair Budge, and today we are going to be talking about The Meiji Restoration.
[00:00:27] It is the most amazing period of history when Japan completed an unbelievable transformation from feudal state to industrialised superpower.
[00:00:37] This is also a longstanding request from an amazing member, Taiki from Japan, so Taiki, this one is for you, I hope you’ll enjoy it.
[00:00:47] OK then, let’s get right into it, and talk about The Meiji Restoration.
[00:00:54] Historians love to look back at a particular point in history as a defining moment, a period that changed everything, a year or decade or century even that fundamentally shifted the destiny of a country or region.
[00:01:11] The American Civil War in the United States or the French Revolution for France.
[00:01:17] You could even say that for Greece and Italy, it is the “glory days” of Ancient Greece and Rome.
[00:01:26] When it comes to the fascinating history of Japan, there is one period that changed everything, a period that undeniably changed the trajectory not only of Japan, but the entire East Asian region, and that’s the period we’ll be talking about today, the Meiji Restoration.
[00:01:45] So, to understand its importance, we need to first remind ourselves of some Japanese history.
[00:01:53] From the 12th to the 19th century, really, Japan could be best described as a feudal society, not so dissimilar from the feudalism that existed in much of medieval Europe.
[00:02:09] Peasants toiled the land and paid taxes to a small collection of powerful feudal leaders, called daimyos.
[00:02:18] Japan had an emperor, but he was really a symbolic leader; real power rested in the hands of the shogun, essentially a military dictator who ruled the country with a rod of iron.
[00:02:33] And there were also the samurai, the warrior class. They were highly skilled warriors, and in fact they were the only members of Japanese society that were allowed to carry weapons.
[00:02:46] The samurai were particularly useful in periods of conflict, which were frequent from the 12th to 16th centuries.
[00:02:54] But in the year 1600, Japan entered a period of peace and relative stability, the Edo period.
[00:03:04] And the samurai suddenly found themselves at a bit of a loss for things to do.
[00:03:09] With no wars to wage and no battles to fight, being a skilled and dangerous warrior was a little pointless.
[00:03:19] Their role started to change, and they transitioned into becoming bureaucrats - managing estates, collecting taxes, and enforcing law and order.
[00:03:30] During this period, so the 17th, 18th and first half of the 19th centuries, this period of peace brought increased prosperity to Japan. The population doubled, there was significant development in art and culture, you know, life was good, for some people at least.
[00:03:49] There were still famines, Japanese society was still stratified, with very clear social classes and no way to move between them.
[00:03:58] It was medieval Europe, essentially, but with a distinctly Japanese flavour.
[00:04:05] And this all happened in almost complete isolation from the rest of the world.
[00:04:12] Foreigners were, for all extents and purposes, banned from entering the country, and Japanese people who left the country weren’t allowed back in.
[00:04:23] It’s hard to think of a more isolationist state than this.
[00:04:28] But while this was possible in a world in which feudalism reigned supreme, a world of farming, wooden ships and hand-to-hand combat, outside Japan the world was changing.
[00:04:43] And across the ocean, far away from the Japanese coast, in some pockets of the world, remarkable progress was being made.
[00:04:53] The Industrial Revolution had started in northern England, and by the mid-19th century, steamships were chugging across oceans, railroads had been laid up and down England and were being laid across the United States.
[00:05:09] Gunpowder might have been invented 1,000 years earlier, in 9th century China, but Western industrial powers had mastered the art of manufacturing modern weapons, weapons against which even the most accomplished of samurai would not stand a chance.
[00:05:27] In Japan, military technology had barely moved on for 500 years.
[00:05:34] The samurai were skilled and dangerous warriors, but their weapons were bows and arrows, and swords; they were no match for rifles, cannons and warships.
[00:05:46] The Japanese had witnessed this firsthand, or at least had a real-life example of this, with the Opium Wars, when British warships steamrollered over the Chinese and China was forced to make major concessions to Britain, including handing over Hong Kong.
[00:06:05] The winds of change were blowing, and it seemed like it would not be long before they reached the shores of Japan.
[00:06:15] And arrive they did in 1853.
[00:06:19] On the 8th of July, 1853, four black ships steamed into Tokyo Bay.
[00:06:26] They were commanded by Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, an American naval officer.
[00:06:33] He said that he came in peace, with the intention of opening up trade and diplomatic relations between Japan and the United States, but if that was not possible, he was prepared to use force.
[00:06:48] The ships were equipped with high-powered American cannons as a show of American industrial might.
[00:06:55] These cannons had specially designed shells that would explode on impact, setting fire to everything around them.
[00:07:03] And the city of Tokyo, or Edo as it was then called, was made of small wooden houses. The city would burn to ashes without the Americans even having to set foot in Japan.
[00:07:17] Eventually, Perry was allowed ashore, and he delivered a letter signed by the American president in which he stated that the United States did not have any religious purpose–the US had no intention of sending Christian missionaries or interfering in Japanese society–it only wanted to formally open up trade relations between the two countries.
[00:07:42] This wasn’t specifically because Japan was such an attractive market; the primary reason was that the US wanted Japan to sell its coal to American ships en route to China.
[00:07:55] To state the obvious, it is a long way across the Pacific Ocean, and if Japan could be a stopping point where American ships could refuel, this would open up the huge Chinese market to American merchants.
[00:08:12] He wasn’t expecting an answer there and then; he would be back in a year, and he expected a yes.
[00:08:20] If not, well, he had clearly demonstrated the kind of weaponry America possessed, and Japan had the example of what happened to China when it tried to stand up against British gunships.
[00:08:33] Should Japan open up its economy to the outside?
[00:08:37] If yes, what would this mean for Japanese sovereignty? Would this be a Trojan horse, would it be the end of Japan, of the emperor, of the shogun?
[00:08:48] If not, well how would they stand a chance against American shells and rifles?
[00:08:55] It would be a big decision for the shogun, who let’s remember was the military dictator of the country.
[00:09:03] But just three days after Perry and the Americans left, the ruling shogun died and was replaced by his ineffective and sickly son.
[00:09:15] Now, the shogun was meant to be strong and powerful, and this young man was in no way up to the task, he was physically weak and clearly incapable of making such a big decision.
[00:09:31] And his first big mistake was to show his weakness.
[00:09:36] He decided to put it to a vote, he asked the daimyos, a committee of regional leaders, what they thought should be done.
[00:09:46] And the result was indecisive…some said yes, others no, others gave long-winded and indecisive answers.
[00:09:56] It was the first time that the shogun had ever put a decision to his subordinates, and to many, it was seen as a sign of great weakness.
[00:10:06] What was the point of a shogun, what was the point of a leader, if he wasn’t able to lead?
[00:10:13] Eventually, the decision was taken to accept the American request, and after some tense negotiations, on the 31st of March, 1854, the Convention of Kanagawa was signed, which made trade relations between the two countries official.
[00:10:32] Treaties with Britain, France, the Netherlands and Russia followed shortly after, and almost overnight Japan had gone from complete isolation to having diplomatic and trade relations with the most industrialised nations on the planet.
[00:10:50] However these treaties were not done on an equal footing; Japan wasn’t able to set its own tariffs, foreigners didn’t have to obey Japanese laws, the treaties were deeply unequal. Indeed, they are now known by historians as “The Unequal Treaties”.
[00:11:11] And this was a key turning point for Japan.
[00:11:15] The arrival of Western powers, with their demands and advanced technology, had exposed the weaknesses of the shogunate.
[00:11:23] The treaties Japan was forced to sign weren’t just agreements—they were symbols of Japan’s compromised sovereignty and they created a ripple of dissatisfaction across the country.
[00:11:36] A group of powerful samurai got together to challenge the shogunate’s authority and push for a new political order centred around someone who had been sidelined for 500 years: the emperor.
[00:11:50] Long story short, they managed to topple the shogunate and restore the emperor to power.
[00:11:56] By 1868 the shogunate was no more, and the Japanese emperor Mutsuhito, who was only 14 years old at the time, was proclaimed supreme ruler of the country.
[00:12:10] Now, the emperor was surrounded by a group of advisors who made decisions for him, and it seems that his strength was to get out of the way and trust these people.
[00:12:21] They were in agreement that Japan needed to do one thing and do it quickly: modernise.
[00:12:28] The reason for the success of the Western industrial powers was, they believed, because of their technology and industry.
[00:12:37] So to have a chance in the modern world, or perhaps we should say modernising world, Japan needed to copy whatever it was that had enabled its adversaries to develop so quickly.
[00:12:50] The longer Japan waited, the weaker its position would be. It could not fight the future; it had to catch up and catch up fast.
[00:12:59] What happened next was perhaps the fastest, most successful industrial development in modern history.
[00:13:07] Japanese merchants studied Western industrial designs of everything from trains to factories and built Japanese versions in Japan.
[00:13:16] Japanese scientists studied Western crop-growing techniques in order to extract more value from the land.
[00:13:24] There was huge educational reform, with a modern public education system based on Western models that transformed literacy levels in the country.
[00:13:34] On a bureaucratic level, Japan even copied Western systems of government, creating a central Japanese government with its own Prime Minister.
[00:13:43] And there was serious reform to the military and the creation of a modern army and navy.
[00:13:50] The samurai had served their purpose, but swords, arrows and horses weren’t as useful in an era of gunships and cannons.
[00:14:00] In 1873 the emperor announced the abolition of the samurai class and the introduction of conscription in Japan.
[00:14:10] It might sound like a small thing, a formality, but to emphasise quite how much of a change it was, previously the samurai were the only people who were allowed to carry weapons; now everybody of military age was forced to serve in the army.
[00:14:28] And all of these changes didn’t happen in a vacuum, it wasn’t some secret plan where Japanese officials snuck into British or German or American factories or businesses or governments and tried to figure out what was going on.
[00:14:43] This was enabled, or at least majorly facilitated, by Western advisors who had been brought in specifically to train and share knowledge with the people of Japan.
[00:14:55] It’s believed that there were somewhere between two and three thousand foreigners who were shipped into Japan during this period to do everything from teaching Japanese engineers to sharing Western farming techniques to training the Japanese military.
[00:15:11] And this was underpinned by a complete overhaul of the Japanese social system that had still been medieval, essentially, until the arrival of Perry and his black ships.
[00:15:23] Japanese society had previously been highly stratified, organised into different classes, with no real possibility of movement between each other.
[00:15:34] This class system was abolished in 1869, and replaced with a more merit-based system, meaning who your parents were no longer defined the trajectory of your life.
[00:15:47] And as to the results, well, it was the foundations of 20th-century Japan, it was a masterclass in economic development.
[00:15:57] Japan went from producing 600,000 tonnes of coal a year in 1875 to 21 million by 1913.
[00:16:08] It had built 26 steamships by 1873, but by 1913 that number had shot to over 1,500.
[00:16:19] The country had gone from having its first 29 kilometres of railroad in 1872 through to 11,000 by 1914.
[00:16:30] Japan managed to do in a generation what had taken European powers centuries.
[00:16:37] Yes, it had the blueprint of how to do things like build factories or administer a large public education system, but the speed at which the transformation took place was astounding.
[00:16:51] And to say that it had simply copied everything is an overstatement. Yes, Japan took inspiration from industrial powers and copied a lot, but there was a uniquely Japanese twist to everything.
[00:17:07] From the blending of Japanese and Western architectural styles to the mixing of Western and traditional clothing, Japan clearly didn’t become a mere Western industrial power in Asia, but an Asian country with Western-style industrial power.
[00:17:25] And by the end of the 19th century, Japan had caught up, pretty much, with the USA and Britain, and had become a serious regional power.
[00:17:36] And what do regional powers do, in the late 19th century at least?
[00:17:40] Well they invade their neighbours, and the newly industrialised nation couldn’t resist following suit, first invading China in 1894 and then Russia 10 years later.
[00:17:53] As you may know, they won in both cases. The victory against China wasn’t such a surprise, as China was still a pre-industrial country and weakened by the Opium Wars and the unequal treaties it had been forced to sign with Western powers.
[00:18:09] But the victory against Russia was a big surprise; this island that had previously been essentially a medieval fiefdom 50 years prior had managed to overpower the country that had defeated Napoleon less than 100 years before.
[00:18:26] And this set the tone for the Japanese imperial ambitions that would follow, and then Japan’s behaviour in the early 20th century, but that's a story for another episode.
[00:18:39] In 1912 Emperor Mutsuhito, the so-called Meiji Emperor died. He was only 59, but in his lifetime he had overseen the most spectacular development in his country’s history.
[00:18:53] To this day it remains an example to other countries of what is possible when you set your mind to it.
[00:19:00] As the New York Times put it when reporting on his funeral, "The contrast between that which preceded the funeral car and that which followed was striking indeed. Before it went old Japan; after it came new Japan."
[00:19:18] OK then, that is it for today's episode on The Meiji Restoration, this fascinating period of Japanese history that helps you understand why Japan is in the position it is today.
[00:19:30] As always, I would love to know what you thought of this episode.
[00:19:33] We have loads of members from Japan, so, to my Japanese friends in particular, what other nuances do you think people should know about The Meiji Restoration?
[00:19:42] What are some visible influences in Japan today?
[00:19:46] And how would Japanese history have been different if the shogun had refused the advances of those black ships?
[00:19:53] I would love to know, so let’s get this discussion started.
[00:19:57] You can head right into our community forum, which is at community.leonardoenglish.com and get chatting away to other curious minds.
[00:20:05] You've been listening to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:20:10] I'm Alastair Budge, you stay safe, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
[00:00:05] Hello, hello hello, and welcome to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:00:12] The show where you can listen to fascinating stories, and learn weird and wonderful things about the world at the same time as improving your English.
[00:00:21] I'm Alastair Budge, and today we are going to be talking about The Meiji Restoration.
[00:00:27] It is the most amazing period of history when Japan completed an unbelievable transformation from feudal state to industrialised superpower.
[00:00:37] This is also a longstanding request from an amazing member, Taiki from Japan, so Taiki, this one is for you, I hope you’ll enjoy it.
[00:00:47] OK then, let’s get right into it, and talk about The Meiji Restoration.
[00:00:54] Historians love to look back at a particular point in history as a defining moment, a period that changed everything, a year or decade or century even that fundamentally shifted the destiny of a country or region.
[00:01:11] The American Civil War in the United States or the French Revolution for France.
[00:01:17] You could even say that for Greece and Italy, it is the “glory days” of Ancient Greece and Rome.
[00:01:26] When it comes to the fascinating history of Japan, there is one period that changed everything, a period that undeniably changed the trajectory not only of Japan, but the entire East Asian region, and that’s the period we’ll be talking about today, the Meiji Restoration.
[00:01:45] So, to understand its importance, we need to first remind ourselves of some Japanese history.
[00:01:53] From the 12th to the 19th century, really, Japan could be best described as a feudal society, not so dissimilar from the feudalism that existed in much of medieval Europe.
[00:02:09] Peasants toiled the land and paid taxes to a small collection of powerful feudal leaders, called daimyos.
[00:02:18] Japan had an emperor, but he was really a symbolic leader; real power rested in the hands of the shogun, essentially a military dictator who ruled the country with a rod of iron.
[00:02:33] And there were also the samurai, the warrior class. They were highly skilled warriors, and in fact they were the only members of Japanese society that were allowed to carry weapons.
[00:02:46] The samurai were particularly useful in periods of conflict, which were frequent from the 12th to 16th centuries.
[00:02:54] But in the year 1600, Japan entered a period of peace and relative stability, the Edo period.
[00:03:04] And the samurai suddenly found themselves at a bit of a loss for things to do.
[00:03:09] With no wars to wage and no battles to fight, being a skilled and dangerous warrior was a little pointless.
[00:03:19] Their role started to change, and they transitioned into becoming bureaucrats - managing estates, collecting taxes, and enforcing law and order.
[00:03:30] During this period, so the 17th, 18th and first half of the 19th centuries, this period of peace brought increased prosperity to Japan. The population doubled, there was significant development in art and culture, you know, life was good, for some people at least.
[00:03:49] There were still famines, Japanese society was still stratified, with very clear social classes and no way to move between them.
[00:03:58] It was medieval Europe, essentially, but with a distinctly Japanese flavour.
[00:04:05] And this all happened in almost complete isolation from the rest of the world.
[00:04:12] Foreigners were, for all extents and purposes, banned from entering the country, and Japanese people who left the country weren’t allowed back in.
[00:04:23] It’s hard to think of a more isolationist state than this.
[00:04:28] But while this was possible in a world in which feudalism reigned supreme, a world of farming, wooden ships and hand-to-hand combat, outside Japan the world was changing.
[00:04:43] And across the ocean, far away from the Japanese coast, in some pockets of the world, remarkable progress was being made.
[00:04:53] The Industrial Revolution had started in northern England, and by the mid-19th century, steamships were chugging across oceans, railroads had been laid up and down England and were being laid across the United States.
[00:05:09] Gunpowder might have been invented 1,000 years earlier, in 9th century China, but Western industrial powers had mastered the art of manufacturing modern weapons, weapons against which even the most accomplished of samurai would not stand a chance.
[00:05:27] In Japan, military technology had barely moved on for 500 years.
[00:05:34] The samurai were skilled and dangerous warriors, but their weapons were bows and arrows, and swords; they were no match for rifles, cannons and warships.
[00:05:46] The Japanese had witnessed this firsthand, or at least had a real-life example of this, with the Opium Wars, when British warships steamrollered over the Chinese and China was forced to make major concessions to Britain, including handing over Hong Kong.
[00:06:05] The winds of change were blowing, and it seemed like it would not be long before they reached the shores of Japan.
[00:06:15] And arrive they did in 1853.
[00:06:19] On the 8th of July, 1853, four black ships steamed into Tokyo Bay.
[00:06:26] They were commanded by Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, an American naval officer.
[00:06:33] He said that he came in peace, with the intention of opening up trade and diplomatic relations between Japan and the United States, but if that was not possible, he was prepared to use force.
[00:06:48] The ships were equipped with high-powered American cannons as a show of American industrial might.
[00:06:55] These cannons had specially designed shells that would explode on impact, setting fire to everything around them.
[00:07:03] And the city of Tokyo, or Edo as it was then called, was made of small wooden houses. The city would burn to ashes without the Americans even having to set foot in Japan.
[00:07:17] Eventually, Perry was allowed ashore, and he delivered a letter signed by the American president in which he stated that the United States did not have any religious purpose–the US had no intention of sending Christian missionaries or interfering in Japanese society–it only wanted to formally open up trade relations between the two countries.
[00:07:42] This wasn’t specifically because Japan was such an attractive market; the primary reason was that the US wanted Japan to sell its coal to American ships en route to China.
[00:07:55] To state the obvious, it is a long way across the Pacific Ocean, and if Japan could be a stopping point where American ships could refuel, this would open up the huge Chinese market to American merchants.
[00:08:12] He wasn’t expecting an answer there and then; he would be back in a year, and he expected a yes.
[00:08:20] If not, well, he had clearly demonstrated the kind of weaponry America possessed, and Japan had the example of what happened to China when it tried to stand up against British gunships.
[00:08:33] Should Japan open up its economy to the outside?
[00:08:37] If yes, what would this mean for Japanese sovereignty? Would this be a Trojan horse, would it be the end of Japan, of the emperor, of the shogun?
[00:08:48] If not, well how would they stand a chance against American shells and rifles?
[00:08:55] It would be a big decision for the shogun, who let’s remember was the military dictator of the country.
[00:09:03] But just three days after Perry and the Americans left, the ruling shogun died and was replaced by his ineffective and sickly son.
[00:09:15] Now, the shogun was meant to be strong and powerful, and this young man was in no way up to the task, he was physically weak and clearly incapable of making such a big decision.
[00:09:31] And his first big mistake was to show his weakness.
[00:09:36] He decided to put it to a vote, he asked the daimyos, a committee of regional leaders, what they thought should be done.
[00:09:46] And the result was indecisive…some said yes, others no, others gave long-winded and indecisive answers.
[00:09:56] It was the first time that the shogun had ever put a decision to his subordinates, and to many, it was seen as a sign of great weakness.
[00:10:06] What was the point of a shogun, what was the point of a leader, if he wasn’t able to lead?
[00:10:13] Eventually, the decision was taken to accept the American request, and after some tense negotiations, on the 31st of March, 1854, the Convention of Kanagawa was signed, which made trade relations between the two countries official.
[00:10:32] Treaties with Britain, France, the Netherlands and Russia followed shortly after, and almost overnight Japan had gone from complete isolation to having diplomatic and trade relations with the most industrialised nations on the planet.
[00:10:50] However these treaties were not done on an equal footing; Japan wasn’t able to set its own tariffs, foreigners didn’t have to obey Japanese laws, the treaties were deeply unequal. Indeed, they are now known by historians as “The Unequal Treaties”.
[00:11:11] And this was a key turning point for Japan.
[00:11:15] The arrival of Western powers, with their demands and advanced technology, had exposed the weaknesses of the shogunate.
[00:11:23] The treaties Japan was forced to sign weren’t just agreements—they were symbols of Japan’s compromised sovereignty and they created a ripple of dissatisfaction across the country.
[00:11:36] A group of powerful samurai got together to challenge the shogunate’s authority and push for a new political order centred around someone who had been sidelined for 500 years: the emperor.
[00:11:50] Long story short, they managed to topple the shogunate and restore the emperor to power.
[00:11:56] By 1868 the shogunate was no more, and the Japanese emperor Mutsuhito, who was only 14 years old at the time, was proclaimed supreme ruler of the country.
[00:12:10] Now, the emperor was surrounded by a group of advisors who made decisions for him, and it seems that his strength was to get out of the way and trust these people.
[00:12:21] They were in agreement that Japan needed to do one thing and do it quickly: modernise.
[00:12:28] The reason for the success of the Western industrial powers was, they believed, because of their technology and industry.
[00:12:37] So to have a chance in the modern world, or perhaps we should say modernising world, Japan needed to copy whatever it was that had enabled its adversaries to develop so quickly.
[00:12:50] The longer Japan waited, the weaker its position would be. It could not fight the future; it had to catch up and catch up fast.
[00:12:59] What happened next was perhaps the fastest, most successful industrial development in modern history.
[00:13:07] Japanese merchants studied Western industrial designs of everything from trains to factories and built Japanese versions in Japan.
[00:13:16] Japanese scientists studied Western crop-growing techniques in order to extract more value from the land.
[00:13:24] There was huge educational reform, with a modern public education system based on Western models that transformed literacy levels in the country.
[00:13:34] On a bureaucratic level, Japan even copied Western systems of government, creating a central Japanese government with its own Prime Minister.
[00:13:43] And there was serious reform to the military and the creation of a modern army and navy.
[00:13:50] The samurai had served their purpose, but swords, arrows and horses weren’t as useful in an era of gunships and cannons.
[00:14:00] In 1873 the emperor announced the abolition of the samurai class and the introduction of conscription in Japan.
[00:14:10] It might sound like a small thing, a formality, but to emphasise quite how much of a change it was, previously the samurai were the only people who were allowed to carry weapons; now everybody of military age was forced to serve in the army.
[00:14:28] And all of these changes didn’t happen in a vacuum, it wasn’t some secret plan where Japanese officials snuck into British or German or American factories or businesses or governments and tried to figure out what was going on.
[00:14:43] This was enabled, or at least majorly facilitated, by Western advisors who had been brought in specifically to train and share knowledge with the people of Japan.
[00:14:55] It’s believed that there were somewhere between two and three thousand foreigners who were shipped into Japan during this period to do everything from teaching Japanese engineers to sharing Western farming techniques to training the Japanese military.
[00:15:11] And this was underpinned by a complete overhaul of the Japanese social system that had still been medieval, essentially, until the arrival of Perry and his black ships.
[00:15:23] Japanese society had previously been highly stratified, organised into different classes, with no real possibility of movement between each other.
[00:15:34] This class system was abolished in 1869, and replaced with a more merit-based system, meaning who your parents were no longer defined the trajectory of your life.
[00:15:47] And as to the results, well, it was the foundations of 20th-century Japan, it was a masterclass in economic development.
[00:15:57] Japan went from producing 600,000 tonnes of coal a year in 1875 to 21 million by 1913.
[00:16:08] It had built 26 steamships by 1873, but by 1913 that number had shot to over 1,500.
[00:16:19] The country had gone from having its first 29 kilometres of railroad in 1872 through to 11,000 by 1914.
[00:16:30] Japan managed to do in a generation what had taken European powers centuries.
[00:16:37] Yes, it had the blueprint of how to do things like build factories or administer a large public education system, but the speed at which the transformation took place was astounding.
[00:16:51] And to say that it had simply copied everything is an overstatement. Yes, Japan took inspiration from industrial powers and copied a lot, but there was a uniquely Japanese twist to everything.
[00:17:07] From the blending of Japanese and Western architectural styles to the mixing of Western and traditional clothing, Japan clearly didn’t become a mere Western industrial power in Asia, but an Asian country with Western-style industrial power.
[00:17:25] And by the end of the 19th century, Japan had caught up, pretty much, with the USA and Britain, and had become a serious regional power.
[00:17:36] And what do regional powers do, in the late 19th century at least?
[00:17:40] Well they invade their neighbours, and the newly industrialised nation couldn’t resist following suit, first invading China in 1894 and then Russia 10 years later.
[00:17:53] As you may know, they won in both cases. The victory against China wasn’t such a surprise, as China was still a pre-industrial country and weakened by the Opium Wars and the unequal treaties it had been forced to sign with Western powers.
[00:18:09] But the victory against Russia was a big surprise; this island that had previously been essentially a medieval fiefdom 50 years prior had managed to overpower the country that had defeated Napoleon less than 100 years before.
[00:18:26] And this set the tone for the Japanese imperial ambitions that would follow, and then Japan’s behaviour in the early 20th century, but that's a story for another episode.
[00:18:39] In 1912 Emperor Mutsuhito, the so-called Meiji Emperor died. He was only 59, but in his lifetime he had overseen the most spectacular development in his country’s history.
[00:18:53] To this day it remains an example to other countries of what is possible when you set your mind to it.
[00:19:00] As the New York Times put it when reporting on his funeral, "The contrast between that which preceded the funeral car and that which followed was striking indeed. Before it went old Japan; after it came new Japan."
[00:19:18] OK then, that is it for today's episode on The Meiji Restoration, this fascinating period of Japanese history that helps you understand why Japan is in the position it is today.
[00:19:30] As always, I would love to know what you thought of this episode.
[00:19:33] We have loads of members from Japan, so, to my Japanese friends in particular, what other nuances do you think people should know about The Meiji Restoration?
[00:19:42] What are some visible influences in Japan today?
[00:19:46] And how would Japanese history have been different if the shogun had refused the advances of those black ships?
[00:19:53] I would love to know, so let’s get this discussion started.
[00:19:57] You can head right into our community forum, which is at community.leonardoenglish.com and get chatting away to other curious minds.
[00:20:05] You've been listening to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:20:10] I'm Alastair Budge, you stay safe, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
