Japan After the Revolution

By the mid-1970s, the real power in the country was concentrated in the hands of bureaucrats of samurai origin. The most active part of the samurai after the revolution merged into the apparatus of the new government. The Meiji government inherited many medieval traditions, caste, militaristic spirit, etc. It set as its main goal in the shortest possible time the elimination of Japan's economic and military backwardness. To achieve this goal, the government has embarked on the path of protectionism, the planting of the capitalist mode of production from above with the slogan "A rich country and a strong army?".

In its policy of encouraging industrial production, the government relied on trading houses - Mitsui, Sumi-tomo, Konoike, etc., as well as enterprising businessmen from the samurai, thus creating an impressive layer of the privileged bourgeoisie associated with the government , Subsequently created the famous Japanese concerns - zaiba-tsu.

Such economic policy as a whole contributed to the rapid development of the country, but at the same time, it placed a heavy burden on the shoulders of the unprivileged urban and rural bourgeoisie, led to the impoverishment and ruin of the bulk of the peasantry, and limited the purchasing power of the domestic market necessary for the development of industry. Japan after the revolution ...

The Meiji government saw the only way to resolve this contradiction in the implementation of external expansion in order to secure the market and sources of raw materials. For this kind of development, the armed forces were needed. To create them, the government spent one-third of all budget revenues. To ensure national unity under such conditions, the ruling elite set itself the task of planting the cult of the emperor, increasing its prestige, promoting the exclusivity of the state system of Japan, chauvinism and militarism.

At the same time, bourgeois reforms, the abolition of feudal restrictions as a result of the revolution, created favorable conditions for the development of capitalism from below.

In the village, the transformation, as a result of land reform, of new landowners and well-to-do peasants into full-fledged landowners and taxpayers, prompted them not only to engage in agriculture, but also to invest their incomes in the local handicraft industry, conduct trade and usury operations, etc. However, the government did not support such The development of capitalism from below, for fear that it would undermine the semi-feudal relations in the country, which were its material basis.

Japan after the revolution