The Emergence And Development Of Japan's Modern Shipping Industry During The Meiji Restoration

The shipping industry is the lifeblood of the economic development of th e island country Japan,and the Meiji Restoration is an important opportunity f or Japan to move from backwardness to strength.The " Perry Expedition" in1853 ended the Tokugawa shogunate's policy of locking the country.The signi ng of a series of unequal treaties made Japan not only face the crisis of bein g swallowed by the powers,but also ushered in the opportunity to become ric h and strong.Japan has a long tradition of foreign trade,but for more than 200 years,the traditional Japanese wooden sailboats are vulnerable to the steam ships in the industrial era.At the beginning of Meiji government in 1868,Ja pan's shipping industry was still in the stage of invasion by foreign powers.H owever,as early as the early 19 th century,Japanese scholars noticed the impo rtance of foreign trade to Japan.There were also pioneers engaged in foreign shipping industry such as Zeniya Gohei.Their thoughts and actions laid a goo d foundation for the development of Japanese shipping industry.After the failure of shipping business in the early Meiji era,Okubo Toshimichi,Okuma Shigenobu,etc.carried out the policy of production and industrial development by giving funds,ships and making routes to support Mitsubishi.Mitsubishi was also helped by the government to force American and British companies to give up control of the Shanghai route and played an important role in battles such as the southwest war.However,with the deterioration of the government's finances,the single largest mitsubishi also exposed the disadvantages of supporting a single shipping enterprise.After the coup in the 14 th year of Meiji,shinjuku okuma,who installed mitsubishi,stepped down,opened a parliament,and the constitution was put on the agenda.The focus of Japan's shipping industry also shifted from international to domestic.The government began to adjust its shipping development policy,intensifying its intervention in mitsubishi's operations.As friction between China and Japan heated up over north Korea,the government set up a new joint shipping consortium to protect Japan's military transport to compete with mitsubishi.Mitsubishi and Japan fought a "commercial war" for nearly two years to compete for the shipping market,and the two parties and the government also promoted the shipping war through public opinion.The Nippon liner society was eventually merged into Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha in 1885.The Nippon YusenKabushiki Kaisha became an important driving force for Japan's economic development after the transformation of the government.Meanwhile,the support policies of Osaka Shosen Kaisha and other enterprises during the same period also showed the government's reflection and improvement on the single support policy.