What European nation did Japan most resemble in 1890?

Question

What European nation did Japan most resemble in 1890?

Answer 1

hm ...Japan invited many European and American people to modernize the nation in the middle of 1870s. At its peak there were about 500 people hired by Japan and about half of them were British, followed by French, American, and German. In 1892 it was decreased to 1/4 (about 130 people), and the percentage of German increased because Japanese laws and military (army) systems imported a lot from Germany.

So maybe Germany was the resemble nation if I choose one nation.

Answer 2

I would say the German Empire. The German Empire was constructed in 1871, while the Meiji goverment took leadership from 1868 onwards. Although Japan took in some tenets of western systems from countries such as Great Britain and France, it is obvious that it was German methods which Japan tried to follow the most.

Picture 1 is a drawing from the proclamation of the German Empire, and Picture 2 from the promulgation of the Meiji constitution in 1889.

I think these two countries are similar in:

1) their lack of (or owning very few) colonies

2) the absence of a politically empowered middle class and a very large peasant majority

3) strong bureaucratic systems supported by the samurai and Junker, respectively.