Meiji Reforms
CHARTER OATH AND NEW GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE (1868)
The Charter Oath of 1868 established the foundation for the Meiji government by outlining assemblies, promising pursuit of knowledge from around the world, and abandoning evil customs, balancing revolutionary change with reassurance brilliantly. They promised democratic consultation, imperial authority, moderation, and respect for tradition. The dajokan system created a government structure superficially resembling ancient imperial administration and actually concentrated power in the hands of a small group. Former samurai from the Satsuma and Choshu dominated. Shinto and Buddhism were separated, severing a one-thousand-year synthesis. The capital was moved from Kyoto to Tokyo in 1869, symbolically moving Japan’s center from traditional culture to modern administration and practically put the emperor under control of a new government.
ABOLITION OF THE HAN SYSTEM (1869-1871)
The abolition of the han system between 1869 and 1871 is one of the most radical and successful political transformations in world history, dissolving 250 autonomous domains into a unified nation-state within two years. The process began with the voluntary return of domain registers since the lords of Satsuma, Choshu, Tosa, and Higo petitioned the emperor to return their lands to the government. This created pressure on other daimyo to follow, or they would be viewed as disloyal. The land tax reform of 1872, requiring payment in money rather than rice, completed the transition from feudalism to modernity, which upset the old samurai because they did not have to pay taxes before, but now they do not.
INITIAL SAMURAI PRIVILEGE REMOVALS (1869-1873)
The Meiji government’s systematic dismantling of samurai privileges between 1869 and 1873 was calculated to destroy the legal and social foundations of the warrior class while also avoiding immediate violent resistance. Hairstyles could be changed; samurai could adopt Western hairstyles, which symbolize modernization. In 1870, class barriers were removed; commoners could take surnames, there was a legalization of intermarriage between classes, and there weren’t legal barriers anymore that maintained samurai exclusivity. Elite samurai could adopt business roles; however, Universal conscription was announced in 1872 and implemented in 1873, sending shockwaves through samurai communities. Finally, samurai’s stipends gradually got reduced, revealing the brilliance of this imperial strategy because each individual reform seemed survivable, which prevented unified resistance.
RISE OF THE MEIJI OLIGARCHY
A small group of formal samurai from Satsuma and Coshu known as the Meiji oligarchs transformed Japan from a feudal confederation into a centralized state and established patterns of bureaucratic rule that would persist for generations to come. These leaders gained power that was much above what their birth status would have allowed them to. The Iwakura Mission of 1871-1873, which sent half the government leadership abroad to study Western systems and how to modernize. The current government at this time was an oligarchy, and the Korean crisis of 1873 split this oligarchy between Saigo’s faction, which advocated for war to employ displaced samurai, and Okubu’s group, which prioritized domestic development and modernization. Saigo resigned, which left technocrats in power to prioritize rapid industrialization and military modernization.