Meiji Japan

Meiji Japan begins with the restoration of imperial government in 1868 and ends with the death of Emperor Meiji in 1912. During these decades the new state abolished the domains of the Tokugawa order, centralised administration, created a conscript army, expanded national education and promoted industrial and infrastructural development.

Railways, factories, newspapers, universities and modern legal institutions altered everyday life, while older hierarchies and religious practices did not simply disappear. Victory in wars against Qing China and Russia established Japan as an imperial power with growing influence in Korea, Taiwan and southern Manchuria.

This period is placed beneath the Japanese Empire because domestic modernisation and overseas expansion developed together. It provides a broad setting for fiction about changing households, medicine, travel, folklore and the social tensions created by rapid reform.