This course investigates the transformation of Japan into the world power that it is today. It begins in the 1600s with the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate and a brief survey of Japanese culture and society at the time. Subsequent topics include the fall of the shogunate; the Meiji Restoration; industrialization and economic development; the rise of political parties; militarism and World War II and the American occupation, postwar recovery, and contemporary challenges.