The Pros And Cons Of The Taika Reform

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Introduction

Japan, in the nineteenth century, has gone through much reform. Prior to the Meiji Period, much of what the citizens knew was based around farming and agriculture . Japan had not yet explored trade with other countries, aside from China, which happened during the Taika Reform. The Taika Reform, happening in mid-sixth century, “opened Japan to the incorporation of new ideas and institutions from China .” Many scholars associate the Meiji Reform to the Taika Reform, although the Taika Reform was thought out, and carefully executed . The ideal for the Taika Reform was an “orderly and fair system of government modeled on that of T’ang China .” T’ang China was a dynasty from 618-907 often associated with the high point of Chinese
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Shoguns are “chief military commanders,” governing Japan they are said to have “given the country two and a half centuries of peace by emphasizing loyalty and learning, while providing enough money and freedom to spawn vibrant cities .” This emphasizes the positives of the Shogun government, in peace, learning, and freedom. However, this same government is often called a dictatorship . A dictatorship, understood as one ruler over a country, usually contains negative connotations due to dictatorships occurring by force, and then that one person contains so much power, they can make laws without restraint . This fear of a dictatorship is part of what pushed the reconquering from Edo to Meiji. The other part is that the Shoguns, from ruling for so long, became weak. The Shoguns were overthrown “in the name of emperor .” After the fall of the Shoguns, there were some “magnate lords,” wealthy people, who ruled over Japan for three years until a new governor [emperor] could take over to create an imperial state …show more content…
Japan did this through factories. Originally, Japan’s work force was based in agricultural labour . Even in the rise of factories, agricultural labour was still the base of two-thirds of labour by the end of the nineteenth century . That being said, factory workers grew from “a few thousand in the 1870’s to nearly 300,000 in 1892 .” Although factories were not as large as agricultural work yet, factories pushed to the modernization and industrialization of Japan to be the large country it was by 1912. Men and Women could work in the factories, however women were integrated much easier due to the work they were already

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