Dan Snow

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Hi folks, welcome to the show.

We're going back to 1868 and how Japan embarked on one of the most dramatic transformations in world history.

After centuries of isolation under the Tokugawa shogunate, a group of young samurai, basically some reformist nobles, restored imperial rule, kind of, and launched the country into a bold new era, the Meiji Restoration.

They were determined to avoid the fate of all the other colonized nations around the world.

And these new Japanese leaders pursued rapid modernization.

They reformed education, the tax system, they built railways, they built battleships and a national army.

In just 50 years, Japan became an industrialized empire and a rising global power.

They even defeated a major European empire.

Joining us to unpack this really extraordinary story is the cultural historian Chris Harding.

He is an expert in all things Japan, India and East-West connections.

Chris, thank you very much for coming on the show.

Thank you for having me.

Tell me about the Tokugawa Shogunate, because it's such a remarkable period in Japanese history.

Perhaps the cliché is that Japan is isolated, it's seen as a bit of a golden age day of Japanese identity.

It's peace, whereas much of the rest of the world was enduring utter chaos and subversion.