Intro- When American Commodore Perry arrived and forced the Japanese to open trade with the Americans in 1853, it caused a huge change in the way Japan was run. The shogun failed to address the looming threat and began an anti-foreigner campaign “'Toi!' (Expel the Barbarians!)” . Eventually the shogun capitulated and began allowing foreign ships into Japan; this unleashed the anti-foreign element, created by the shogun, to remove the shogun and restore the Emperor to power: “'Sleep' (Revere the Emperor) was added to their mantra of 'Toi' to represent the old system in where the Emperor was like a god. The Emperor took power back into his hands and renamed himself Meiji which means "Enlightened Government". However, the Emperor did not expel the "barbarians", instead saw them as a method to create a better Japan and began a campaign known as the "Meiji Restoration" to modernize the nation. Japan needed to modernize because Western countries had forced the Tokugawa Shogunate to sign unjust treaties that greatly favored Western countries, especially the United States of America, Russia, Great Britain, and France. One of the key events of the Meiji Restoration was the decline and fall of the samurai class in Japan. This essay aims to show the reasons for the decline of the samurai at the beginning of the Empire of Japan through the policies implemented during the Meiji Restoration. This will be demonstrated through the military, cultural, political and social reforms implemented by the Japanese government.-On the samurai- The samurai were the hereditary warrior class of feudal Japan which traces their creation to the “Heian period around 794, when the capital was moved to Heian-Kyo". The warriors were hired by wealthy landowners... middle of paper... after seven years the system was abolished, the samurai were rewarded in "respect or political influence, [and] were reappointed governors" but the goal was to restore the Emperor's rule over all Han, who were then reorganized into prefectures. These prefectures were governed by elected rather than appointed officials and allowed the government to begin collecting taxes from the land. Under the new prefecture system, the government adopted a European-style cabinet system headed by a prime minister and a staff consisting of mostly former samurai officials, but moved away from them in favor of a system of civil service exams for qualify officials. This further reduced the power of the samurai, who had always claimed political power through inheritance, as more official seats were filled by people who deserved them. On social reforms--