ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the transitional phases of Japanese history and argues that time and again the Japanese elite has succeeded in doing what was necessary to pull their country out of the impasse it found itself in. The remarkable success of the Tokugawa shoguns in demilitarizing Japanese society, creating a stable basis for agrarian and urban economic expansion upon which Japan's industrial revolution would build. The Tokugawa regime opted to open up Japan in the 1850s but was soon overtaken by events such as the samurai rebellion. These implications can be categorized as political, ideological, military, administrative and economic in nature. Democratic Party of Japan formed a government after years of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) failure to tackle Japan's burgeoning domestic debt and stagnant economy. For all practical purposes Japan was ruled by a small elite of court officials, military officers, civil servants and big businessmen, a steel tetrarchy, who shared a commitment to modernization from above.
