A different Meiji Restoration?

Instead of the Meiji Restoration being achieved by war it is done by a compromise between the Shogun and Emperor. Emperor is the actual ruler of Japan again and not a figurehead. His power is great but not absolute. The shogun retains a decent bit of power but is below the emperor. The shogun is the supreme commander of the military and is appointed by the emperor. The shogun and emperor relationship is similar to the prime minister and king relationship. As part of the compromise the samurai status and rights are retained but with a few stipulations which relate to modernizing the country. Samurai class are expected to get well versed in modern combat and be the military elites of the country. Also practices that are considered unproductive or outdated must be abandoned. Samurai would not be provided stipends unless they worked for the government. They are instead provided free housing and food at military barracks if they so choose. They are allowed to be the only citizens to carry their traditional swords and guns publicly. They also can’t just kill people for disrespecting them anymore. Samurai dominate professions like military officers, special forces(later on), weapons manufacturing, and the police force. Class mobility is also less strict. Lower class people are allowed to marry up into the samurai class if merited enough and with the father approval but they must take that family name. Conscription of the lower class focuses more on navy then army. Japan focuses on having a very professional and well trained army while trying to create the largest navy possible with a large marine force. Basically Japanese marines are made up of lower class people who act as shock troops, distractions, or canon folder while the army are elite soldiers(mostly samurai class) who come in after them or flank the enemy. Lastly this causes culture to develop differently in Japan. Japan still adopts Western technology, economic systems, and political institutions but less in terms of culture.
 
Instead of the Meiji Restoration being achieved by war it is done by a compromise between the Shogun and Emperor. Emperor is the actual ruler of Japan again and not a figurehead. His power is great but not absolute. The shogun retains a decent bit of power but is below the emperor. The shogun is the supreme commander of the military and is appointed by the emperor. The shogun and emperor relationship is similar to the prime minister and king relationship.

Okay, I put some space to make the formatting better. Okay, appointable Shoguns run into the problem of that fact they are going to have to come from a clan, leaving the feudal structure intact is dangerous, as the nobles are going to want their rights. The Shogun's power only existed so long as the clans were willing to follow them, keeping the Shogunate would require dealing with clans that could raise their own military forces across all of Japan.

Class mobility is also less strict. Lower class people are allowed to marry up into the samurai class if merited enough and with the father approval but they must take that family name. Conscription of the lower class focuses more on navy then army. Japan focuses on having a very professional and well trained army while trying to create the largest navy possible with a large marine force. Basically Japanese marines are made up of lower class people who act as shock troops, distractions, or canon folder while the army are elite soldiers(mostly samurai class) who come in after them or flank the enemy. Lastly this causes culture to develop differently in Japan. Japan still adopts Western technology, economic systems, and political institutions but less in terms of culture.

I do not see a lighter adoption of Western Ideas as being possible, Japan's military was antiquated and would need to be updated both in weapons and in structure that the Samurai would have to go.
 
Okay, I put some space to make the formatting better. Okay, appointable Shoguns run into the problem of that fact they are going to have to come from a clan, leaving the feudal structure intact is dangerous, as the nobles are going to want their rights. The Shogun's power only existed so long as the clans were willing to follow them, keeping the Shogunate would require dealing with clans that could raise their own military forces across all of Japan.



I do not see a lighter adoption of Western Ideas as being possible, Japan's military was antiquated and would need to be updated both in weapons and in structure that the Samurai would have to go.
What about keeping it as a more ceremonial class title? The shogun is just selected by the emperor among the military elite and functions like a non democratic version of a prime minister. The samurai are allowed to be the only citizens to carry their traditional swords and possess guns in public but clans and other feudal systems are done away with. Anyone can technically move up in the military and to shogun if proven merited or favorable enough to the emperor but the samurai are de facto given more favorable treatment. The samurai class is technically ceremonial for the most part but due to the respect and social connections they have they stay a powerful force in Japan. Think Prussian Junkers
 
You seem to actually believe that the Meiji Restoration was a restoration of imperial power. It wasn't. It was a power grab by an aliance of clans that had a grudge against the Tokugawa. Emperor Meiji certainly had more input in politics than his predecessors, but he was still mostly just a figurehead. Real power was in the hands of the genro. Maybe the position of the Shogun could have been kept as a ceremonial one, but that isn't likely to happen due to the grudge that the Meiji revolutionaries had against the Tokugawa, and there is no need for two figureheads.

The samurai class needs to go unless it becomes a purely honorific title.
 
You seem to actually believe that the Meiji Restoration was a restoration of imperial power. It wasn't. It was a power grab by an aliance of clans that had a grudge against the Tokugawa. Emperor Meiji certainly had more input in politics than his predecessors, but he was still mostly just a figurehead. Real power was in the hands of the genro. Maybe the position of the Shogun could have been kept as a ceremonial one, but that isn't likely to happen due to the grudge that the Meiji revolutionaries had against the Tokugawa, and there is no need for two figureheads.

The samurai class needs to go unless it becomes a purely honorific title.
Why could the samurai not adept like the Prussian Junkers and become similar to them? They lasted until the end of world war 2. Much of the military and elites of Japan after the restoration were former samurai.
 
Why could the samurai not adept like the Prussian Junkers and become similar to them? They lasted until the end of world war 2. Much of the military and elites of Japan after the restoration were former samurai.

There are too many of them. There are only so many officer positions of suitable status in a viable Japanese army, and the Junkers as a whole less adapted (though they had less of a need to do so, having already been up to Western standards) than having Bismark build up Germany especially with them in mind and effectively subsidized their failing rye-farming estates in East Prussia. A Japan that tried to throw up tariff walls to protect fedual landowners would have those walls blown down by Europeans.
 
What about keeping it as a more ceremonial class title? The shogun is just selected by the emperor among the military elite and functions like a non democratic version of a prime minister. The samurai are allowed to be the only citizens to carry their traditional swords and possess guns in public but clans and other feudal systems are done away with. Anyone can technically move up in the military and to shogun if proven merited or favorable enough to the emperor but the samurai are de facto given more favorable treatment. The samurai class is technically ceremonial for the most part but due to the respect and social connections they have they stay a powerful force in Japan. Think Prussian Junkers

Again Japan does not have a military elite, so making the Shogun an elected title would be pointless. The Shogun could easily be replaced by the position of Samurai operated a weird position in the Japanese hierarchy, come the Tokugawa period. The Samurai were less warriors and more an educated class in general, but not all samurai were necessarily nobles. Yes, they had a high status in theory but could end up in not so prestigious jobs, and the fact there already was a court nobility, who were just as educated. You cannot make Japan into Prussia from the Meiji Restoration it has to come at more gradual pace, and it would be impossible at that time.

Removing the clans would be political suicide some of these families have had political power that stretches back for centuries. The clan structure would have to be included somehow, as in OTL it was adapted into a more British style of peerage.
 
Why could the samurai not adept like the Prussian Junkers and become similar to them? They lasted until the end of world war 2. Much of the military and elites of Japan after the restoration were former samurai.

The Prussian Junkers were European landed nobility. The samurai were something different. I guess the best way to describe them is as a class of warrior-beaurocrats. The class includes not only feudal lords but also their retainers. This resulted in them comprising almost 10 percent of the population. The samurai class was defined by the legal privileges they enjoyed. So that Japan could modernize those privileges had to be abolished, or otherwise there can't be a mertocracy. IOTL the Japanese did this by transforming the feudal nobility into european-styled peerage while the rest of the samurai just became commoners. They could have kept the samurai as a cerimonial class but their privileges needed to go
 
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