HAH
Japan
Guided Reading
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 Instructions- Read the passage on pages 220-223 of your text book, McGraw-Hill: World History &
Geography. Answer the following questions about the Koreas.
1) Identify 3 way Japan’s physical geography affected it’s culture.
2) Early Japan was made up of clans. They were divided into social classes. Complete the
organizer, describing which people were in which category.
Upper Class
Aristocrats/RULERS
Lower Class
?
3) Early clans ultimately unified in order to resist invasion from whom?
4) How did Japan centralize (how was the government organized)?
5) How did a loss of money from powerful families during the Nara period cause government
destabilization? (You must THINK… answer is not in the book?)
6) What were samurai’s? What was their leader called? And what did BUSHIDO mean to them?
7) Starting in 794 AD, Japan still had an emperor… but one with little political power. Who did
have political power at this time? They later become called what?
8) Complete the following graphic organizer.
Life in Early Japan
Role of women
Religion and culture
 Instructions- Read the passage on pages 384-387 of your text book, McGraw-Hill: World History &
Geography. Answer the following questions about the Koreas.
4) Use the following graphic organizer to categorize key elements of Japanese society and
culture during the Tokugawa era.
Society and
Culture
Japan approx 16001850)
 Instructions- Read the passage on pages 529-533 of your text book, McGraw-Hill: World History &
Geography. Answer the following questions about the Koreas.
7) Who was U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry? Describe Perry’s involvement with Japan.
8) What led to the collapse of the shogunate system in Japan?
9) What was the Meiji Restoration? As you read, complete the table below listing reforms in
each of the given areas.
Political
Economic
Social
 Instructions- Read the passage on pages 711-712 of your text book, McGraw-Hill: World History &
Geography. Answer the following questions about the Koreas.
10) What factors have affected Japan’s economy since the 1990s? Start by describing the state of
Japan’s economy in the 90s.