New in paperback. Hardcover was published in 2017. This book explains the paradox of the Meiji Restoration through the forces of globalization. Japan's leaders wanted to celebrate Japanese uniqueness, but they also sought international recognition. Rather than simply mimic world powers like Britain, they sought to make Japan distinctly Japanese in the same way that Britain was distinctly British. The Meiji Restoration was part of the global "long nineteenth century" during which ambitious nation states like Japan, Britain, Germany, and the United States challenged the world's great multi-ethnic empires - Ottoman, Qing, Romanov, and Hapsburg.