The first half of this lecture looks at the political, social, and economic changes in Meiji Japan, focusing on the period from 1877 to 1895. Among other things, the second decade of Meiji witnessed the beginnings of backlash against the rapid pace of modernization and a nascent sense that something important and uniquely Japanese was being lost. To conclude, we bring Japan into the twentieth century, examining the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars (1894-1895 and 1904-1905) and their consequences.