Great difficulties faced the early Meiji reformers. Their essential
task was to catch up with the West. For two centuries Japan had kept
to herself. During this period the Western world had made gigantic
technical advances, greater than man had achieved in all preceding
history. Japan had been left far behind. She was forced to do in
decades what the West had done in centuries.
How could Japan accomplish such a task? In both economy and government
she was still largely feudal and decentralized. There was no real
national state, as we understand that term today. Instead, there were a
hundred competing clans, each with its own territorial lord. And over
all lay the shadow of Western aggression, dictating speed and more
speed.