Japan was threatened by the "Black Ship Incident" on July 8th, 853, and launched the "Sino-Japanese War" on July 8th, 894. In this short period of 40 years, great changes have taken place, and the main body of changes is a series of reforms implemented by the emperor's government headed by Emperor Meiji, that is, the Meiji Restoration. The main content of Meiji Restoration is to strengthen absolute monarchy, develop industry through colonization, enrich Qiang Bing and move towards civilization. Meiji Restoration not only made Japan get rid of the crisis of becoming a semi-colony and become a capitalist power in the world at that time, but also made Japan embark on the road of militarism, which brought great disasters to the invaded people and the Japanese people. At that time, China and Japan faced the same difficulties. The invasion of western powers made China a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. In order to get rid of this crisis, the Qing government also carried out modernization, that is, the Westernization Movement, which advocated learning from the West and establishing military and civilian industries. Western enlightenment ideas also spread in China. However, compared with the Meiji Restoration, the result was the opposite. The Meiji Restoration was a great success and launched the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. However, because beiyang fleet was completely annihilated in the Sino-Japanese War, the Westernization Movement was a complete failure. This paper will analyze in detail why the modernization of China and Japan is so different.

From1July 8, 853, Japan was threatened by the "Black Ship Incident" to1July 8, 894, when the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 was launched. In this short period of 40 years, great changes have taken place, but the most important change is the series of reforms carried out by the government led by Emperor Meiji, that is, the Meiji Restoration.

The main content of Meiji Restoration is to strengthen absolute monarchy, yield to industrial production, enrich Qiang Bing, and be civilized. Meiji Restoration not only made Japan get rid of the semi-colonial crisis and become a world capitalist power, but also made Japan embark on the path of militarism, which brought great disasters to the invading people and the Japanese people.