Meiji Oligarchy and Industrialism of JapanJoin now to read essay Meiji Oligarchy and Industrialism of JapanTo create a country internally stable, strong enough to repel foreign ambition, and progressive enough to be seriously regarded by the international community, the oligarchy of the Meiji Era felt that they needed to make a break with the past and begin anew. They spent years studying successful nations and used the lessons learned to invent a system that not only moved Japan forward into the modern age, but also took into consideration the traditions and history that made Japan unique.
The overthrow of the Tokugawa Shogunate had restored the emperor to primacy in Japan. He now stood as the wellspring of political power and legitimacy. Although not a political decision maker, and perhaps because of this, the emperor stood as a unifying symbol, a common foundation for further changes by the oligarchy. The foremost concern of the new government was ridding the country of the remains of despotic shogunate rule and establishing a system that could adapt to the demands of a modern era and whose authority was recognized throughout the country. The oligarchs realized that only through a centralized authority would Japan remain and be recognized as sovereign and through stability would additional reforms be possible. Among their first steps were issuing the Charter Oath, and the Seitaisho which established the Dajokan as the principal policy making and administrative body. In a succession of moves, the oligarchy effectively stripped the daimyo of their status and independence by replacing the domain system with prefectures and later abolishing stipends. Control of the prefectures lay with the Dajokan, later reformed as the cabinet, eliminating the daimyo as a threat to political centralization and serving as the first step in breaking down the social class barriers. Further, by allowing daimyo to remain as governors in the prefectures, they were forced to not only recognize the Emperors power to remove them from their long held positions but they owed their remaining power to him. Transferring the prefectures to central control also paved the way for tax reforms that would standardize the taxes and collection procedures. The oligarchy now had reliable revenue that it could leverage for public works projects as the country moved into industrialization.
The new government also sought to abolish the hierarchical social order in keeping with the Wests demand to revise domestic laws. Removing the daimyo from land-ownership was the first step in revising the old class-based hierarchy. The government then reorganized the population into groups of nobles, former samurai, and commoners and, in 1884, reorganized again with the Peerage Act. Doing away with the class-based society was a double-edged sword. Many former samurai felt wronged by the loss of their status, their unique claim to surnames, and their swords. Although tax standardization was controversial, for the majority of the population, other changes were welcomed. Occupational and social mobility became possible and opened the doors of government and the military to commoners.
Municipal land ownership was largely responsible for the new state. The number of residents of the rural area increased from 885,000 in 1890 to 16,320, and by 1900 the number grew to 1.5 million. As the population moved from working-age families to middle-class families a more centralized government grew at the expense of other groups of population. Some 10 million people moved west to settle on the new territory. When the first Japanese landed in the country, in 1903 the country, with 975,000,000,000 people, had 11 million workers, and more than half a million people. But the population was not large enough to sustain a large military.
As the U.S. economy grew at the expense of middle-class workers, many people in Japan saw the state as the only solution to the problems they faced. And when the U.S. economy went bust, people made up a high percentage of the population of the new territories. This was largely because of the U.S. military and its massive support among ethnic, religious, or ethnic groups. By 1903 the number of Japanese with “foreign” citizenship at that time was around 3 million (with a higher share in lower socioeconomic and working-age populations), nearly three times more than in China and four times more than in Europe — and the figure that existed in 1914-18 was higher.
Despite the problems faced by Japanese people in their first and third world countries (in both Germany and England), Japanese people worked for most of their lives for higher wages instead of their natural incomes. The U.S. labor force also took the lead in the field of labor law. The government provided workers with access to government employment. The federal government also provided training and subsidized public education. In 1915 there was a new law called the Public Welfare Act that was to be combined into the Revised State Plan.
The government made an effort to make workers work in all forms of employment. An official census of employment revealed that the average labor force in Japan had grown by between 2.5 and 3 million over the years until 1917.
In 1913 the first official social plan to create universal social security was enacted. A few years later the National Finance Administration expanded the national fund to encompass all types of personal work. It expanded to include the business of banking and insurance. An annual income tax was imposed on all American workers and income taxes on foreign nationals were also imposed.
Economic growth came with increased national expenditures and more efficient government. In 1911 the government began to offer a pension plan. The system was based primarily on cash, so the government offered a pension plan.
The Japanese had been fortunate in living close to the equator in their first two centuries of being Japanese citizens. In 1905 the U.S. government introduced the Income Tax and Health Insurance Act. And by 1938, the Japanese were beginning to pay more income taxes in proportion to their national GDP.
For Japan, the system made sense. In 1907