Imperialism In Japan

The term imperialism refers to an action that involves a specific government or an empire trying to encompass its supremacy by the acquisition of territories. It may also include other means of exploitation to acquire more areas. The Japanese rose from self-imposed non-violent isolation to a colonizing government.

This form of separation had lasted for many years. Later on, the Japanese leaders passed a policy of aggressive border expansion. It had known the art of colonization from European countries like Britain, Germany, Italy, and France. The Western nations established the settlement in African countries (Mangan et al., Japanese Imperialism:p. 9). Hence, it motivated Japan to adopt the same criteria of colonization to extend its boundaries to the border of the surrounding nations, which was the only solution that could have helped Japan to solve the problems that it had encountered. In this essay, I am going to discuss some of the factors that facilitated Japan’s establishment of imperialism, the effects of Japan’s imperialism, and Japan’s government after post-World War II.

First, Japan had a good number of private firms that dealt with the industrial sector and banking. The private companies and industries made Japan produce more profits. Japan had gone for an industrial revolution for many years, and this implies that it had gained more from such sectors. So, it had to apply imperialism to secure space for her investments. The various markets that it had were not enough for its investments. Hence, they had to look for ways where to invest in their products from their industries.

Second, Japan had the desire to obtain capital from the colonized state. This implies that the key objective to why Japan conquered China was merely to upturn the investment in various savings in China (Morrell: p.34). In these periods, Japan had incurred a lot of wealth during the persistent wars with other countries like China and Russia. During the war, Japan borrowed a lot of money from the United States of America to cover the war. This forced her to demand cash to expand her industrialization. With the continuous borrowing of cash, Japan experienced a significant amount of debt. To meet the expenses that it had borrowed, Japan was forced to colonize other countries like China to offset its deficits.

Third, the issue of nationalism motivated Japan to be motivated to extend her territories like China. They had a great concern for the security of the country, the culture, and the political philosophy, as well as her emulation of other European countries in taking the territory of other nations. This highly motivated her to conquer other areas.

Fourth, the Japanese government had goodwill with the party of China that signalled the issue of trade between the two countries. However, the good will never be succeeded for an extended period because Japan developed a desire to be economically known and her mighty army. This motivated her to establish a passion for wanting to acquire territory within Asia. The problem with China started when the Japanese military organized an expedition to Taiwan. Also, the team was extended to Okinawa and the state (Kubota: p.6). Both China and Japan had an intention of controlling Kola. When Japanese captured Korea, made China unhappy, due to this interest both Japan and China started a war, and the Japanese army defeated the Chinese within a short period. It resulted in the Japanese army, which proceeded to occupy the cities of China and hence took its territory.

Through imperialism Japan got new markets, a labor force and a source of raw materials for their industries, also, it facilitated cheap and easy-to-understand raw materials to Japan government. More labour played a significant role in sectors for Japan to imperialize other countries. The effort put in by Japan to colonize China resulted in the improvement of education and sanitation in the state of China. The products manufactured by the Japanese in China were sold globally, making China richer and allowing it to expand economically.

However, Japan’s imperialism negatively affected the colonies. For example, countries like China lost their power and authority to Japan. Secondly, the natives of China were subjected to hard labour in Japan’s industries, and finally, the colonies were subjected to oppressive taxation policies. The resident had no role in the government, which was pat.

In the post-World War II, Japan established itself as a global economic and political power. Economically, Japan used different institutions like the Ministry of International Trade, an industry that promoted Japan’s development globally while restricting foreign business companies around the country(Morrell: p.45). Since the practices were accepted by America, they prepared Japan‘s economy to elevate exponentially during the time of the Cold War. By the year 1981, many Japanese goods and services, such as electronics, were allowed to be exported all over the world. The section of industries increased and became the second largest globally. The progress pattern continued up to the 1990s onwards.

In politics, Japan’s Allied occupation ended in 1952 when it signed the Treaty of Francisco. According to the terms of the agreement, Japan regained its power, but most of the possessions before World War II lost control over some small areas that were finally under the League of Nations. The treaty guaranteed Japan the freedom to involve itself in the international defence bloc(Mangan et al., Japanese Imperialism 6). The United States of American president and the prime minister of Japan signed an agreement that gave the United States defence forces the opportunity to continue their use of bases in Japan. The Japanese government restored its full control of sovereignty, rehabilitated 70000 people who had been eliminated, and a lot of people went back to their own countries.

In foreign relations, Japan also became known as the central position in the world economy; it had a significant effect on global policies because of its post-war periods. By the 1950s, Japan had re-established mainly different relations with any number of countries where Japan had a very critical role. For example, it joined the United Nations in 1956. It also made relations with its former enemy, Germany, which created a new basis in 1955 that was mainly focused on the exchange of the economy. Japan established a relationship with China after the Second World War II. The relations were maintained with the nationalist government during the exile to Taiwan, which was the policy that caused hostility between Japan and China.

Regarding culture, Japan continued to experience Western culture, even after the post-war error. It was due to American soldiers who became widely popular in Japan (Morrell: p.45). American music became a favourite, and the Japanese artist was influenced and built on both European and Japanese inspirations. Through this age, the Japanese started to rise as exporters of values. Early on, individuals started to watch monster movies and cartoons, and the majority of Japanese authors began to develop, such as Kawabata.

In conclusion, Japan’s imperialism was motivated by both political and economic factors. Its primary concern was for national security and the emulation of Western countries in their imperialist expansion. Colonialism brought both negative and positive effects to both the colony and the colonized states. But Japan came to its realization, stopped imperialism, and embarked on its activities.

Work Cited

Kubota, Ryuko. “Globalization and Language Education in Japan.” Second and Foreign Language Education, Springer, 2017, pp. 287–299.

Mangan, J. A., et al. Japanese Imperialism: Politics and Sport in East Asia: Rejection, Resentment, Revanchism. Springer, 2017.

Morrell, Sascha. “Pacific Revolt: The Typhoon, Japan and American Imperialism in Melville’s Moby Dick.” Tracking the Literature of Tropical Weather, Springer, 2017, pp. 45–65.