This book re-evaluates the Meiji Restoration of 1868 from the perspective of political conservatism, a category which is largely neglected in the scholarship on Japan's political development in the nineteenth century. It also critiques the persistent tendency to frame the explanation of the events of that period in terms of the precedents of Western experience - the spread of Enlightenment ideals, popular revolution, and 'modernization'. Approaching the event from the context of the Western encroachments on East Asia in the 1840s the book highlights the first conservative responses to that threat and how they evolved into a distinctly modern political force in both the government and the world of letters. The Restoration of 1868 itself is characterized as but one stage in a more protracted struggle to redefine the polity and the nature of public space with the primary aim of national preservation rather than 'Westernization'. Within this context indigenous expressions of reaction and conservatism are analyzed in their evolution into mass-media oriented ideological movements and are highlighted as being by far the most substantial and decisive forces in the development of Japan's modern political culture.

Introduction
Japan Within the World System: Urbanization, Political Stasis and Western Economic Expansion
The Meiji Coup d'Etat
Mass Media and the Development of Civil Culture
'The More Thorough Fulfillment of the Restoration'
The Imperial Household, the Popular Press and the Contestation of Public Space
Conclusion: Conservatism, Traditionalism and Restoration
Bibliography

ALISTAIR SWALE is the author of The Political Thought of Mori Arinori: A Study in Meiji Conservatism, as well as having contributed chapters to a number of collaborative works dealing with various aspects of nineteenth century Japanese history. He is currently interested in examining further the role of popular culture in political communication.