Earliest Possible Westernization of Japan?

It happened twice in OTL in the 1600s soon after contact, and agian in the 1800s after Japan re-opened after almost a century of being closed. Avoid Japan closing itself off, and the westernisation could continue through out the next century.
 
Depends on what you mean by Westernization.

If you mean the beginning to adopt technologies and military stuff from the West, then the 17th century, Japan did actually adopt the European gun full sale and continued production continuously.

If you mean industralization along Western lines, then the 1840's (Japan had small industries since the late 18th century), if you can get internal politics to changem which would'nt be to hard given the time period.

If you mean social and political Westernization, then OTL is really the earliest you're going to get, Japan had its own advanced civilization, and while it did see the positives of adopting a Parliamentary Constitutional Monarchy, it only ever adopted other stuff because it thought it would be useful*.


*For instance, Japan never had laws against Homosexuality, however during the Westernization phase in the early Meiji Era they passed a law making Homosexuality Illegal, and then less than a decade later when they realized it would'nt help them with the Europeans they repealed it.
 
Might be worth walking through a "Oda Nobunaga survives Honnō-Ji and wins the unification wars" to see where it goes ... he was a genius in several fields (military and economical) and was both the first in Japan to mass field firearms, and reorganized the military so it was talent instead of family that decided who's who in the pecking order, while the economy was changed (or at least attempted) from agriculture based to manifacture/service based, and moving towards a pseudo-free market model, with monopolies prohibited, much to the disagreement with the guilds.

Tokogawa 'merely' dusted off some of his (easier to understand) plans when they won the shogunate.
 
Might be worth walking through a "Oda Nobunaga survives Honnō-Ji and wins the unification wars" to see where it goes ... he was a genius in several fields (military and economical) and was both the first in Japan to mass field firearms, and reorganized the military so it was talent instead of family that decided who's who in the pecking order, while the economy was changed (or at least attempted) from agriculture based to manifacture/service based, and moving towards a pseudo-free market model, with monopolies prohibited, much to the disagreement with the guilds.

Tokogawa 'merely' dusted off some of his (easier to understand) plans when they won the shogunate.

Maybe more Hideyoshi had he stabilised and solidified things more afterward, perhaps an alt heir and by... 'exiting' Tokugawa. He was a man from Osaka, and that is not a mere detail... The city was an hub of inovation, another world - libertine for austere samurai inlands and with some precapitalist ideas by example.

Maybe him and his heir would understand the outside world more, and have diferent ideas than the Seclusion order of Tokugawa. Maybe...
 
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