The Meiji Restoration

Before the Meiji Restoration Japan was run by a very traditional, isolationist government in a system that was called the Bakuhan. This system balanced power between the Bakufu (a central military government) and its leader was the Shogun. The regional areas that were called Han were run by local feaudal lords called Daimyo. The emperor was the spiritual heart of the nation, his authority was mainly ceeremonial, it was the Shugun that had the real power in Japan.

The last of these regimes was the Tokugawa regime, , it was named after the family that started it. The Tokugawa’s were very traditional, implementing polices thst reflected conc´servative, traditional Confucian values and practices. 

The last of these regimes was the Tokugawa Shogunate (named after the family that established it), which implemented conservative policies reflecting traditional Confucian values. The Tokugawas also enforced an isolationist policy (the Sakoku) , it was illegal for all Europeans (aside from the Dutch who were allowed to trade with the outpost in Nagasaki)

The Tokugawa shogunate survived for over 200 years and when it collapsed in 1868 it led to the beginning of the Meiji era that applied big transformative policies that set Japan up for its dramatic reforms in politics and society, maybe the biggest change in Japanese history.