Political System in

Japan

Made by: Moinak XI E

Ayush XI E
Srushti XI E
 Introduction
• Prior to the Meiji Restoration, Japan was ruled by
successive military shōguns
• The Meiji Restoration in 1868 led to the
resignation of Shōgun Tokugawa Yoshinobu,
agreeing to "be the instrument for carrying out"
the Emperor's orders.
• Political parties appeared in Japan after Meiji
Restoration.
• In the 1930s the political parties were eclipsed by
the military , and were dissolved in the 1940s
during the WW II.
Geographical Location
• Japan has a total of
6,852 islands
extending along the
Pacific coast.
• The main islands, from
north to south, are
Hokkaido, Honshu,
Shikoku and Kyushu.
• It is over 3,000 km
(1,900 mi) long from
the Sea of Okhotsk to
the Philippine Sea in
the Pacific Ocean.
 Geographical Location
• The country, including all of the islands
it controls, lies between latitudes 24°
and 46°N, and longitudes 122° and
146°E.
• As of 2018, Japan's territory is
377,973.89 km2 (145,936.53 sq mi).
• It is the largest island country in East
Asia. Japan has the sixth longest
coastline in the world (29,751 km
(18,486 mi)).
• Japan has the eighth largest Exclusive
Economic Zone in the world covering
4,470,000 km2 (1,730,000 sq mi)
Political System
• Japan began the 19th century as it had
existed for centuries; A Tokugawa Shogun
ruled through a central bureaucracy tied
by feudal alliances to local daimyos and
samurai. Taxes were based on agriculture
and the samurai were sustained by
stipends paid to them by the shogunate.
• In 1853 American Matthew Perry
threatened to bombard the Japanese
capital if they did not open up to American
trade. Japan opened itself to foreign
influence and, as in China, westerners
residing in Japan were not subject to
Japanese laws.
• There was a backlash against foreigners in
the 1860s. The samurai, using surplus
weapons from America’s Civil War—which
had just ended, defeated the shogun’s
army. This delivered a clear message about
the supremacy of western military
technology.
 Meiji Restoration
The Meiji seized control in 1871 and
began a period of reforms that would go
much further than that of Russia. The
so-called Meiji Restoration included the
following reforms:
1) feudalism was abolished
2) political power was centralized
3) the samurai were sent abroad to
learn about western science and
tech
4) the samurai were then abolished as a
class
5) New nobility
Centralized Imperial Government
The government was also
modernized into a centralized
imperial government with limited
parliamentary rule.
1) constitution created
2) New Parliament was created
based on German models . The
parliament could advise
government, but ultimate
authority was given to the
emperor.
3) Only 5% of Japanese men had
the wealth requirement to vote
 Industrial Revolution In Japan
• armaments updated (modern
Navy created)
• land reform—peasants given
ownership of land, Private
Enterprise (Again, compare
with Russia)
• agricultural taxes replaced
by industrial taxes, revenues
went up
• Japan borrowed from the
West but maintained close
supervision on the type of
reforms being admitted. They
wanted to retain their own
culture.
 Emperor
Hierarchy
Shogun
System
In Japan Daimyos

Samurai

Ronin

Peasants

Artisans
Merchants