Meiji economy and society: industry, workers, the Westernisation debate, daily life

Detail

Who paid for modernisation

• Agricultural tax funded the whole programme. Farmers paid a fixed money land tax. The state used that money to build industry.
• This was a transfer: the village paid, the factory and the navy gained.

• A fixed cash tax also pushed farmers to sell crops in the market, and pushed poor families to send daughters to mills.

• Industrialisation was the government's main goal. The state itself built strategic industries, transport and communication, then handed them to private firms with financial support [3].

Infrastructure: rail and banks

• First railway: Tokyo–Yokohama, built 1870–72. It linked the capital with the treaty port.
• Growth was fast after that: by 1890 Japan had over 1,400 miles (2,250 km) of rail [3].
• Modern banks started in 1872. They pooled savings and lent to industry.
• Private firms were further helped by a European-style banking system, which Britannica dates to 1882 [3].

  Note: NCERT dates modern banks to 1872; Britannica speaks of a European-style banking system instituted in 1882 [3]. Two different milestones — the 1872 National Bank Act and the 1882 Bank of Japan (central bank). Keep 1872 for the exam.

Shipbuilding and the zaibatsu

• Shipbuilding was subsidised. Mitsubishi and Sumitomo got state support.

• Reason: ships meant trade, troop movement and less dependence on Western shipping lines.

• Zaibatsu = "wealthy clique". Family-controlled business combines that spread across banking, mining, shipping, trade and manufacturing.

• They dominated the economy till after the Second World War.
• Four main zaibatsu: Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, Yasuda — plus many smaller ones [2].
• Mitsubishi was founded by Iwasaki Yataro, a Tosa samurai and a colleague of the Restoration leaders — showing that old samurai families turned into new capitalists [3].

• Mitsubishi turned empty land inside the outer castle moat in Tokyo into the Marunouchi business district, largely built of brick [3].

• Exam point: few competitors + state contracts + cheap sale of state plants = a small group captured Japanese industry.

Population and migration

• Population: 35 million (1872) → 55 million (1920).
• People moved out of crowded villages:
• Hokkaido in the north — this was Ainu land. The Ainu were the original people there; settlement pushed them aside.

• Hawaii and Brazil overseas.

• So "modernisation" also meant a frontier being taken over inside Japan itself.

The workers

• Manufacturing workers: 700,000 (1870) → 4 million (1913).
• But factories were tiny — most units had under five workers.
• They used hand power, not machines, and often no electricity at first.
• These small workshops were family-run. Husband, wife and children worked together.

• Result: a family-centred, patriarchal nationalism — loyalty to the father at home was stretched into loyalty to the Emperor.

• Women were over half of all factory workers — mainly in silk and cotton textiles.

• Women organised the first modern strike in 1886. Japan's first modern labour action was led by women workers, not men.

Pollution and the first protest — Ashio

• Tanaka Shozo, member of the first Diet, led the first agitation against industrial pollution in 1897.
• The Ashio Mine was poisoning the Watarase river.

• It was modern Japan's richest copper mine — so the state protected it.

• 800 villagers marched and forced the government to bring in pollution control.

• Exam point: this is the earliest known environmental movement of industrial Japan — development versus livelihood, very early.

Constitution and the political frame

• Meiji Constitution, 1889.
• Restricted franchise — only a small number of men with property could vote.
• Created a weak Diet — the parliament had limited power. "Diet" is a German loan-word, showing German influence on the drafting.
• It was largely the work of Ito Hirobumi, a genro (elder statesman), and set up a two-house parliament elected on a limited franchise; the first Diet met in 1890 [4].

• The government had already promised a constitution: a statement of 1881 pledged one by 1890 [4].

• Army and navy had independent command from 1890 — they could report straight to the Emperor, bypassing the cabinet. This later let the military take over politics.

• Party cabinets 1918–31, then national-unity cabinets — the brief democratic phase closed.

The Westernisation debate — three positions

• Fukuzawa Yukichi — founded Keio.
• Slogan: "expel Asia". He wanted Japan to leave behind old Asia and absorb the West's "spirit of civilisation".

• He pushed a wide list: sericulture (silk rearing), a national railway, popular rights laws, opening parliament, a bigger navy, better status for women, tax reform, trade and industry — but his biggest project was Keio Gijuku [4].

• Miyake Setsurei — national pride built on indigenous (home-grown) values, not copying the West.

• Ueki Emori — of the Popular Rights Movement; argued for natural rights and said "freedom is more precious than order".
• The Popular Rights Movement, fed by liberal Western ideas, demanded constitutional government and elected assemblies [4]. This pressure from below is what produced the 1889 constitution.

Daily life — the new urban world

• Homu — the small nuclear family (husband, wife, children) replacing the big patriarchal joint household.

• New goods followed: separate kitchens, family dining, houses bought on loan.

• Moga — "modern girl". Young working woman, short hair, Western dress, own earnings, own choices.

• Ginbura — strolling in Ginza, Tokyo's shopping street. Leisure itself became a city habit.
• Films from 1899; radio from 1925. Mass entertainment reached ordinary homes.
• Matsui Sumako played Nora in Ibsen's A Doll's House — a stage heroine who walks out of her marriage. A symbol of the "new woman" debate.

Prelims Hooks

• Meiji modernisation was funded mainly by the agricultural tax.
• First railway line: Tokyo–Yokohama, 1870–72; over 2,250 km of rail by 1890 [3].
• Modern banks: 1872.
• Subsidised shipbuilders: Mitsubishi and Sumitomo; the four big zaibatsu were Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, Yasuda [2].
• Mitsubishi was founded by Iwasaki Yataro, a Tosa samurai [3].
• Population rose 35 m (1872) → 55 m (1920); migration to Hokkaido (Ainu land), Hawaii, Brazil.
• Manufacturing workers: 700,000 (1870) → 4 million (1913); most units had under five workers.
• Women were over half of factory workers and led the first modern strike in 1886.
• Tanaka Shozo, first Diet member, led the 1897 anti-pollution agitation over the Ashio Mine and the Watarase river; 800 villagers forced pollution control.
• Fukuzawa Yukichi founded Keio and said "expel Asia"; Ueki Emori said "freedom is more precious than order".
• Meiji Constitution 1889; drafted largely by Ito Hirobumi; first Diet met 1890 [4].
• Films from 1899, radio from 1925; the moga and Ginbura; Matsui Sumako played Ibsen's Nora.

Mains Points

• State-led industrialisation was cheap for the state and costly for the village. The land tax on peasants paid for railways, banks and shipyards. The gain went to a small group of family combines. Useful for answers comparing Japan's route with Britain's private-capital route and China's failed self-strengthening.
• Modernisation did not mean democratisation. The 1889 constitution gave a restricted franchise and a weak Diet, and from 1890 the army and navy answered only to the Emperor. This built-in gap explains why party cabinets lasted only 1918–31 before militarism took over.
• The debate over the West had three clear voices. Fukuzawa's "expel Asia", Miyake Setsurei's defence of home-grown values, Ueki Emori's natural rights. This is the model answer structure for "how did Japan absorb Western ideas without becoming a colony?"
• Women carried the industrial revolution and the social change. Over half the factory workforce, the first strike (1886), and then the moga and Matsui Sumako's Nora on stage. Good linkage bullet for GS-I women's questions and for the Ashio case as an early environment-versus-development conflict.