In the last half of the C19th, Japan underwent a massive programme of modernisation which permeated almost every institution and community in its society. Capitalism became an increasingly prevalent feature of the economy as feudalism became increasingly anachronistic and decadent. A new national and conscripted military was put in place of the old samurai dominated one. Politically, the Baku-han system was washed away and in its place a two-tier approach to government at local and national levels, with the Emperor at its pinnacle came into being. Even culturally new ideas and different ideals came to influence art and literature. Behind...
a radical shake-up of its political, military and economic institutions, revision of the Unequal Treaties, achieved in 1894, would have remained elusive. Yet behind the overriding ambition to compete with the West were more subtle factors which directed the finer detail to Japanese modernisation. The interests of sectional groups in society and those of the ruling oligarchs were often powerful determining factors as to the precise direction Japan followed. Plus there was always a concern that it whatever way Japan might reform, it should always retain its own unique identity which would always set it apart from the West.