What is Japan’s Foreign Policy during Imperialist era?

Japanese society reacted in a pendulum-like fashion to the West, periods of intensive borrowing and adaptation were followed by noticeable retreats; some aspects of Western culture appealed to the Japanese but there was no widespread desire to abandon the mainstream of Japanese culture or custom. The climate during the Meiji era enabled Japan to wield its newly found strength abroad – Northeast Asia was a largely a vacuum of power tended by China, the sick man of Asia, and by the unstable forces of tsarist Russia. The theme ‘Asia for the Asians’ was first applied by Japanese who had a vision of liberating other Asians from backwardness and Western domination. Imperialist aspects of Japanese foreign policy emerged: Japanese victory over China in the conflict of 1894-95 was significant because it marked the beginning of the Japanese empire and served as a further stimulus to industrial growth and general economic development; The victory caused Japan’s global prestige to rise, promoted nationalist tides; the prestige of the military class at home. Japan concluded an alliance in 1902 with the world’s greatest power at that time – Great Britain.

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