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Although Japan opened its ports to modern trade only reluctantly, once it did, it took advantage of the new access to modern technological developments. Japan’s opening to the West enabled it to modernize its military, and to rise quickly to the position of the most formidable Asian power in the Pacific. At the same time, the process by which the United States and the Western powers forced Japan into modern commercial intercourse, along with other internal factors, weakened the position of the Tokugawa Shogunate to the point that the shogun fell from power. The Emperor gained formal control of the country in the Meiji Restoration of 1868, with long-term effects for the rule and modernization of Japan.
[[Category:US State Department]] [[Category:Wikis]][[Category:United States History]] [[Category: Antibellum Antebellum History]] [[Category:19th Century History]] [[Category:Political History]] [[Category:Diplomatic History]]
* Republished from [https://history.state.gov/| Office of the Historian, United States Department of State]
* Article: [https://history.state.gov/milestones/1830-1860/opening-to-japan| The United States and the Opening to Japan, 1853]
