Isolation In Louis Perez's The History Of Japan

The Meiji Restoration of Japan led by Emperor Meiji caused rapid industrialization of Japan, the growth of Japan’s military, and the “Westernization” of a seemingly backward nation. Many countries, such as Britain and Russia, had experienced Industrial Revolutions. The revolution in Russia was forced by the state and created another revolution entirely henceforth- a Communist movement. Great Britain,

The growing western influence in both culture and military technology in Japan was the main reason for the introduction of the Isolation policy. The shoguns feared that this outside influence would destabilise the country. This policy had a substantial impact on Japanese society.

Japan’s decision to isolate themselves from the world created the conflict. Their decision however, was greatly influenced by the Europeans, who constantly tried to take advantage of the

Women and those of lower classes in Japan would not get the opportunity to learn thus not helping out its country to the fullest potential. Americans also were taught more science and technology which created new findings in agriculture, transportation, and markets.

Between the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, Japan’s economy developed remarkably. China had also developed economically; however, not near as much as Japan. The Japanese government industrialized greatly and encouraged western influence, but the Chinese government did the opposite.

Japan at the turn of the century was clearly trying to westernize and change is isolated society into one more intellectually and scientifically involved with the rest of the world. When the Japanese open their ports to the western civilization food and merchandise were not the only things being traded. When ports were open the western way of living was integrated with the Japanese culture which gradually changed the way the

Japan, as known today, is a world powerhouse in technology and innovation. It currently ranks third in GDP, bringing in over $4.9 trillion dollars per year. However, this has not always been the case. Japan is well known for its period of “Sakoku,” a Japanese word literally meaning “closed country.” From 1600-1850s, that is indeed what Japan was; Japanese citizens were not allowed to leave the country and no foreigners were allowed to enter. The country was completely isolated from the rest of the world, even in regards to trade. This was changed in 1854 by Commander Matthew Perry and his Navy squadron. With the Kanagawa Treaty, Perry ended Japan’s period of isolationism and pushed them into their future as a world power.

Perhaps these improvements got to my head, but it didn’t matter. I felt like I was on top of the world, and even ready to conquer it… or parts of it. No more dependency. No more foreigners with their awful pants. No more pressure. No more belittling. I, Japan, was going to control of East Asia! BWAHAHAHA!!!

Pocky, Anime, manga, kanji. Have you heard of any of these? If not… where have you been? All around us teenagers, children, and even adults are being drawn into Japanese culture through TV, books, and even food. Japanese comics, called manga, take up more and more space on American bookshelves, and they've infused new life into the publishing industry. Japanese animation, anime, is on more and more movies and TV screens and influencing popular toys and games.

Imagine there is a momme of cloth, and when you render some other colour on it, it will blend into another colour. This is what happened to Japan, but why did Japan start socialising with foreign countries? Fighting for benefits is a very common thing in history, and that was what happened to Japan. Matthew Calbraith Perry took the Black Ship into the Edo Bay, and this action scared the government, because the Black Ship is a very advanced ship at that time, compare to their own ship, black ship was ten times bigger, more powerful, and also with advanced weapon, so Japan started allowing trade, and the changing of Japan can be seen in many ways. First, Christianity and Buddhism was introduced to Japan; second, the alphabet that they write is

Before the Isolationism period, the Japanese had already welcomed the Westerners. The first people were from Portuguese in the 1543. Yet, the Shogunate and Daimayo would keep a very close contact and business very controlled in Japan. Oda Nobunaga was the first to approached unification with violence and aggression, but welcomed the Westerners into Japan. One of Oda

During the Meiji Restoration, Japan went through many changes as it was exposed to foreign powers such as Europe. One of the political changes that occurred was that Japan was forced to begin interaction with their foreign peers as they came with their several innovations that were incredibly advanced compared to what Japan could offer at the time. This not only exposed their in ability to compare to their peers, it also revealed that they were technologically backwards in the eyes of their peers. As Japan continued to interact with their neighbors, Japan adopted several sayings that embodied the goals they had in the effort to catch up to and match their foreign peers as well as other changes in the effort of forming a new society that can match their peers. When Japan became open to the world powers like Europe, Japan went through a transformation that modernized Japan and inherently changed their society to reflect something similar to those in European countries.

After WWII Japan was left in very bad condition, they had a lot of reconstruction to do within their society as well as outside. It took them decades to recover but they managed to get back on their feet. They were able to rebuild their reputation and take over with soft power. In the 1960s Japan’s economy grew, once the economy grew they were able to share their growth globally. Japan produced video games, VCRs, CDs and Cameras all of which induced the globalization of Asian popular culture.

As Japanese economy soared, its media products such as manga, TV shows, movies and music spread out across Asia. Especially, the young people in Asia began to embrace Japanese culture rather than the culture from the most dominant culture exporter- the United State, and this phenomenon was analyzed by Koichi Iwabuchi in his Feel Asian Modernities. His account of this intra-regionalization in Asia is cultural proximity that Japanese culture shares intimate similarities with other Asian countries and appeal to the audience to perceive this cultural flow.[ Iwabuchi, K(2004), Introduction: Cultural globalization and Asian media connections. Feeling Asian Modernities, pp 12.] In this way, American

The development of technology encouraged the world to develop co-operative projects to facilitate the technology that benefit countries in economic growth. This requires work ethics and technological skills that are dominated by the Eastern especially Japanese citizens. It has been proven that the Eastern economy was developing remarkably during the 70s and early 80s.