Empire of Japan

====Economic development====
[[File:Baron Tarokaja Masuda c1915.png|thumb|upright|Baron Masuda Tarokaja, a member of the House of Peers (''[[Kazoku]]''). His father, Baron [[Masuda Takashi]], was responsible for transforming ''[[Mitsui]]'' into a ''[[zaibatsu]]''.]]

{{Main|Economy of the Empire of Japan|Economic history of Japan#20th century}}

Economic development was characterized by rapid [[industrialization]], the development of a [[capitalist economy]],<ref name="Odagiri & Goto">{{cite book |last=Odagiri |first=Hiroyuki |title=Technology and Industrial Development in Japan |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-19-828802-2 |pages=72–73}}</ref> and the transformation of many [[Feudal Japan hierarchy|feudal]] workers to [[wage labour]]. The use of strike action also increased, and 1897, with the establishment of a union for metalworkers, the foundations of the modern [[Labor unions in Japan|Japanese trade-union movement]] were formed.<ref>Nimura, K. (1997). [http://www.historycooperative.org/cgi-bin/justtop.cgi?act=justtop&url=http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/104.3/br_18.html The Ashio Riot of 1907: A Social History of Mining in Japan.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091204072930/http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/104.3/br_18.html|date=2009-12-04}} ''American Historical Review, 104:3.'' June 1999. Retrieved 16 June 2011</ref>

Samurai were allowed to work in any occupation they wanted. Admission to universities was determined based on examination results. The government also recruited more than 3,000 Westerners to teach modern science, mathematics, technology, and foreign languages in Japan ([[O-yatoi gaikokujin]]).<ref>Hardy's Case, The Japan Weekly Mail, January 4, 1875.</ref> Despite this, [[social mobility]] was still low due to samurai and their descendants being overrepresented in the new elite class.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Clark |first=Gregory |last2=Ishii |first2=Tatsuya |date=2012 |title=Social Mobility in Japan, 1868–2012: The Surprising Persistence of the Samurai |url=https://faculty.econ.ucdavis.edu/faculty/gclark/The%20Son%20Also%20Rises/Japan%202012.pdf |journal=University of California, Davis}}</ref>

After sending observers to the United States, the Empire of Japan initially copied the decentralized American system with no central bank.<ref>Phra Sarasas, ''Money And Banking in Japan'' (1940) p. 107.</ref> In 1871, the ''New Currency Act'' of Meiji 4 (1871) abolished the local currencies and established the [[yen]] as the new decimal currency. It had parity with the Mexican silver dollar.<ref>Itsuo Hamaoka, ''A study on the Central Bank of Japan'' (1902) [[iarchive:studyoncentralba00hamauoft|online]]</ref><ref>Masato Shizume, "A History of the Bank of Japan, 1882–2016." (Waseda University, 2016) [https://www.waseda.jp/fpse/winpec/assets/uploads/2014/05/No.E1719.pdf online]</ref>