Question

Which statement is true? A. Japan was reluctant to trade in 1900. B. Japan was eager to learn new technology in 1900. C. Japan had positive relations with Russia in 1900. D. Japan was less powerful than China in 1900.

Answer 1

B. Japan was eager to learn new technology in 1900.

Contacts with the West encouraged Japan to modernize and mimic Western methods. 

Under Meiji leadership, Japan began to westernize to protect themselves against Western imperial powers. They studied the industrial methods of Great Britain and the US bringing factories to Japan especially a steel industry. The country also adopted baseball and golf as common forms of leisure and national entertainment. Japan would also mimic imperial moves eventually making moves in iron rich Manchuria to gain natural resources needed for their growing steel industry.