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From Samurai to Superpower: Rise of Japan DOCUMENTARY

Oct 03 (Kings and Generals) - Kings and Generals animated historical documentary series on the early modern era and history of Japan.

The Victorian Era was a time of revolutionary change, marked by unprecedented technological progress, scientific breakthroughs, and the expansion of European empires. While Asia and Africa were carved up by imperial powers, Japan followed a different path—one that transformed it from an isolated feudal society into East Asia’s first modern superpower. This video explores how Japan navigated the challenges of the 19th century, beginning with the Tenpō Era crises, famine, and social unrest that exposed the weaknesses of the Tokugawa shogunate. We’ll examine the arrival of Commodore Perry’s “Black Ships” and the Bakumatsu period, when internal conflict and foreign pressure forced Japan to confront its isolation. The Boshin War and the fall of the Tokugawa paved the way for the Meiji Restoration, ushering in sweeping reforms in government, education, industry, and the military. From the abolition of the samurai class to the creation of a modern constitution, from industrial growth to the rise of the Imperial Japanese Navy, the Meiji Era reshaped Japan’s future. By the dawn of the 20th century, Japan had secured its place as a world power—modernized yet still rooted in its traditions.

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Vast hillsides have been cleared for the construction of a large-scale solar power facility in Kamogawa, Chiba Prefecture, leaving piles of felled trees scattered across the slopes. The development covers approximately 146 hectares, or the size of 32 Tokyo Domes, and involves cutting down about 365,000 trees to make way for 470,000 solar panels.

Maebashi Mayor Akira Ogawa held a closed-door meeting with all city council members on October 2nd to explain her repeated hotel meetings with a married senior city official, but afterward she avoided stating whether she would resign.

A two-story wooden house collapsed in Tokyo’s Suginami Ward on the night of September 30th, with experts suggesting that the ground beneath the property, rather than the building itself, gave way, likely due to a cracked retaining wall.

Heavy rainfall battered parts of Hokkaido, with some areas receiving more than a month’s worth of precipitation in only six hours, prompting flood warnings and evacuation advisories. Meteorologists are saying the downpour was the result of a combination of unstable atmospheric conditions and moist air flowing in from the sea.

Kamakura City in Kanagawa Prefecture has approved the introduction of a bathing tax, but the measure is drawing strong criticism from local hot spring operators since only two facilities fall under the new levy.

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