Japan in the 19th century

Japan started the 19th century ruled by the Tokugawa Shogunate through a central bureaucracy tied by alliances with feudal daimyos and samurai. Their economy was still based in agriculture and the samurai were paid by the shogunate.
The Neo-Confucianism was very popular among the elites, this made Japan to split from a religious resistance to western based reform. Japan was homogeneous, in contrast with Russia, and the Ottoman Empire that had small groups of different ethnics.
Japan isolation was absolute from everywhere except by the port of Nagasaki open to the Dutch, but in 1853, because of a threat to bombard Japan made by the american general Matthew Perry. This opened Japan to foreign influence, but as in China, foreigners residing in Japan had not the same rights.
People in Japan started a revolt against foreigners in 1860s. The samurai defeated the shogun´s army and showed the supremacy of western military technology.
After this revolt, the Meiji seized control in 1871 and made reforms that overcome the reforms of Russia. This reforms were called the Meiji Restoration and included:

1. Feudalism abolishment 
2. Established a central power
3. The samurai were sent abroad to learn about science and technology
4. The samurai were no longer a class, some adopted modern politics and business practices. They started to take part of a new business class created during industrialization. One important example of a samurai that became a business man was Iwasaki Yataro who founded Mitsubishi.
5. New nobility

The government was modernized in many ways such as:

1. Central imperial government
2. Parliamentary rule
3. A new constitution was made
4. Diet, a new parliament that could advise government, but the emperor still had the last word. This gave great power to wealthy businessmen who would later be important for Japan´s industrialization.
5. Only very rich people could vote. About 5% of Japan´s population.

Japan borrowed many things from the foreigners, but still maintained its own identity. Japan incorporated business leaders into its new government structure, while Russia could not break the hold of traditional aristocratic elite.

Japanese Samurai

During the Industrial Revolution in Japan peasants were given ownership of land, agricultural taxes were replaced by industrial taxes, and the weaponry was updated (modern Navy). Japan´s mayor problem with industrialization was that they had only a few supplies of natural resources and were very depended on imported coal and steel. This help them to become the final great imperial nation of the 19th century. Although they had a late economic and industrial start they proved themselves quickly in two different military conflicts: The Sino-Japanese war (1894-1895), in which Japan gained control of Korea, and the Russo-Japanese war (1904) in which the superior navy of japan defeated the Russian navy.

Commodore Matthew Perry

The rise of modern Japan, McGraw-Hill networks, Chapter 13, lesson 3, pages 1-5.
Recovered from http://connected.mcgraw-hill.com/ssh/book.lesson.do?bookId=GBOPBD8V7SE4BQOSJPRBQQ4HJQ&nodeId=2SP6ZS22HC6JBE3YFRD7FHV2ME&edition=STUDENT

Japan in the 19th century, history haven, http://www.historyhaven.com/APWH/unit%204/Japan%20in%20the%2019th%20century.htm

Japanese samurai picture, The Samurai Syndrome recovered from: http://www.arscives.com/bladesign/samsyndrome.htm

Commodore Matthew Perry image, Wikipedia recovered from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_C._Perry