The 2018 Meiji Restoration Sesquicentennial

About

The 1868 Meiji Restoration was a crucial moment in Japanese and modern world history. The samurai-dominated feudal regime was overthrown, and the new regime, advocating adoption of Western models, quickly revamped political, economic, military, religious, and social structures, transforming 250 semi-autonomous feudal fiefs into a unified nation-state. Within a few decades, Japan rivaled Western nations in military and economic prowess.

During this year’s sesquicentennial and beyond, this project seeks to spark and nurture academic and popular interest, as well as disseminate new interpretations of the Meiji Restoration to an international audience.

Upcoming Conferences

Roundtable: The Meiji Restoration at 150: Researching, Commemorating, and Teaching

Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference

Washington, DC

Saturday March 24, 8:30AM to 10:30AM

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Meiji Restoration & the Modern World

Nankai University

Tianjin, China

July 28-29, 2018

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Revisiting Japan’s Restoration: Interregional, Alternative, and Interdisciplinary Perspectives

National University of Singapore

Singapore

September 28, 2018

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Meiji Japan in the World—Meiji Japan to the World

International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken)

Kyoto, Japan

December 14-16, 2018

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Past Conferences

Project Core Conferences

The Meiji Restoration and Its Afterlives

Social Change and the Politics of Commemoration

Yale University

September 15-17, 2017

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Global History and the Meiji Restoration

Heidelberg University

July 3-5, 2015

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The Civil Wars of Japan's Meiji Restoration & National Reconciliation

Global Historical Perspectives

Wake Forest University

January 30-31, 2015

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Other Restoration Conferences

Meiji Japan in Global History Workshop

Duke University

November 10-11, 2017

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Submit to the Archive

Please help us chronicle the 150-year anniversary of the Meiji Restoration! If you have a personal story, an interesting website, a photograph, or relevant online media content, please share it with us. At the end of 2018, we look forward to presenting a compilation of contributions to allow us to further explore the Meiji Restoration sesquicentennial.

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You are voluntarily contributing your recollections, images, video, and/or other media to the Meiji Restoration at 150 Archive:
- You must be 13 years of age or older to submit material to us.
- Your submission of material constitutes your permission for, and consent to, its dissemination and use in connection with the Meiji Restoration at 150 Archive in all media in perpetuity.
- If you indicate on the form that your submission is “public,” your material will be published on the Meiji Restoration at 150 Archive website (with or without your name, depending on what you have indicated). Otherwise, your response will only be available to approved researchers using the Meiji Restoration at 150 Archive.
You are welcome to submit material in the public domain, which will be posted on the archive in the form of the media's title, relevant publication information, and URL. Other material you submit must have been created by you, wholly original, and shall not be copied from or based, in whole or in part, upon any other photographic, literary, or other material, except to the extent that such material is in the public domain. Further, submitted material must not violate any confidentiality, privacy, security or other laws. We reserve the right to mark any submission private that Meiji Restoration at 150 Archive staff identify as offensive.
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