For Japan, the modern era begins when the American Commodore Matthew Perry and his Black Ships arrive off the shores of Japan in the 1850's. He uses the threat of violence and superior weaponry to compel the Japanese to open ports to Western trade. Prior to this, the Tokugawa Shogunate had maintained a strict policy of seclusion for nearly 300 years.
The "opening of Japan" is followed by a rapid influx of Western trade and ideas, followed by the fall of the Shogunate, the creation of a Constitutional Monarchy, the abolition of the Samurai class, rapid industrialization and the beginning of a process of partial Westernization that continues for the next hundred years.
(Commodore Matthew Perry and his son, Oliver)
