... Japan, technological progress must be based upon imitation. Thus, after the Restoration, foreign technicians and experts were employed by the Meiji government as railway and marine engineers, as agricultural experts as military and naval instruction. At the same time, Japanese were sent abroad to London, Berlin, Paris, New York and Manchester to learn from the West. Because the Meiji leaders whole-heartedly accepted the fact about western technological superiority and believe gap between their country and the West, modernization in this field and only this field, was a true and thorough westernization. The Japanese also copied from the West in other field. For example, universal military started by Yamagata in 1873. This was to increase the military strength of Japan. This was a change from past in which soldiers were samurai only. Furthermore, a national system of education and universal primary education was carried out in the Education Act of 1872. This ...

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