The Making of Modern Japan by Marius B. Jansen

Author:Marius B. Jansen [Jansen, Marius B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 2002-09-30T12:35:15+00:00

446

The Making of Modern Japan

6. The Meiji Empire, 1910. Japan secured possession of the Kurils in 1875, asserted full control over Ryukyu in 1879, acquired Taiwan after the Sino-Japanese War in

1895, obtained the south Manchurian leasehold in 1905, and annexed Korea in

1910.

Imperial Japan

447

pleasing to Japanese that diplomats assigned to Tokyo now had the rank of

ambassador while those accredited to China remained ministers. All foreign

representatives had left Korea.

New problems replaced the old. The growth of continental responsibility

brought with it heavy defense expenditures. The circle of “interest” that Yama-

gata had extended to Korea two decades earlier grew ever larger, and the Impe-

rial Army and Navy required larger budgets. Yesterday’s friend could be to-

morrow’s foe. Heavy industry began with iron- and steelworks funded by the

Chinese indemnity; industry and imperial growth fed upon each other. Japan

began to build its own ships. An enlarging merchant marine related to exports,

and a new navy was required by the development of the dreadnought, which

suddenly rendered previous warships obsolete. Japan entered this new compe-

tition as a near equal with its rivals. Future Diet debates would continue to

be focused on the degree and allocation of assessments for more divisions

and more battleships.

The early twentieth century brought a new balance between rural and

urban Japan, for the distribution of population was changing rapidly. Early

post-Restoration estimates indicate a population of 35 million in 1873. By 1891

the count stood at 41 million, and in 1913 it was 52 million. With better fertiliz-

ers and strains of rice agriculture grew more productive, but by 1900 some

sort of ceiling had been reached and Japan began to import food. Theretofore

much of the government revenue had come from agriculture, but as men-

tioned earlier, after 1900 the balance shifted as consumption, income, busi-

ness, and commerce taxes carried the load. The population growth was to a

large degree in cities. New commercial and industrial cities were arranged

along the Pacific coast that Tokugawa daimyo had traveled on their trips to

Edo; Kobe, Osaka, Nagoya, Yokohama, and Tokyo were the centers.

Japan’s electorate, however, remained disproportionately rural. Since the

franchise had been extended to property-owning taxpayers with a minimum

of 15 yen tax annually, landlords and established farmers provided the bulk

of the votes, and this remained the case even when the tax qualification was

lowered to 10 yen in 1900.

The growth of population and the need for foodstuffs naturally led to

talk of emigration. For many years it was thought that Korea was relatively

underpopulated and would be able to support many settlers, and hopes were

also high for Taiwan. Enthusiasts wrote of this as a natural form of national

expansion. The bulk of emigrants, however, were attracted by the dream of

land and wealth in Hawaii and the United States. Until well after the Russo-

Japanese War the United States and its possessions attracted the largest num-

ber of overseas Japanese, more even than Taiwan and Korea. “The movement

448

The Making of Modern Japan

was sustained,” Iriye writes, “by the confident psychology of expansionism

and by an image of that country as Japan’s friend.”32 After the victory over

Russia confidence in Japanese expansion in all directions, westward as well

as eastward, was striking.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.