Japan: Practice multiple choice questions
Tokugawa Japan
1) Both Japan and China decided to limit trade with Europe during much of the 16th and
17th centuries because the Japanese and the Chinese
a) had few products to sell to the Europeans
b) held religious beliefs that prohibited contact with foreigners
c) thought European technology would hinder any effort to modernize
d) believed they would receive no benefit from increased contact with the Europeans
2) Feudal societies are generally characterized by
a) an emphasis on social order
b) a representative government
c) many economic opportunities
d) the protection of political rights
3) The _____ family ruled Japan from 1603 until 1868.
a) Edo
b) Meiji
c) Qing
d) Tokugawa
4) The time period of the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1868) is also known as the
a) Age of Imperialism
b) Edo period
c) Meiji Restoration
d) Way of the Warrior
5) Which of the following statements is not true of Japan during the Edo period?
a) Growing internal trade
b) Merchants began to surpass the samurai in wealth
c) Japan sent trading missions throughout Asia
d) Religion was a mixture of native Shintoism and Chinese Confucianism
6) In Japan between 1603 and 1868, the most notable action taken by the Tokugawa
Shogunate was the
a) military conquest of China
b) development of extensive trade with the Americas
c) formation of cultural links with Europe
d) virtual isolation of the country from the outside world
7) The isolationism of the Tokugawa government included
a) forbidding Japanese from going abroad.
b) forbidding Chinese and Dutch merchants from trading at Nagasaki.
c) forbidding scholars of neo-Confucianism from teaching in Japan.
d) banning all foreign religions such as Confucianism and Buddhism.
e) All of the above.
8) What became of the Christian community in Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate?
a) Christians were restricted to a few carefully controlled missions.
b) Christians were brutally persecuted and driven into secrecy.
c) Christianity merged with Buddhism and Shintoism into a new religion.
d) Japanese Christians continued to worship but lost support after European trade was
restricted.
e) none of the above.
9) Which of the following statements concerning the Tokugawa Shogunate in the
nineteenth century is most accurate?
a) The Shogunate continued to combine a central bureaucracy with semi-feudal
alliances with regional daimyos and the samurai.
b) The Shogunate bureaucracy had been opened to talented commoners.
c) Increasingly the Shogunate depended on its long-standing alliances with Western
powers to maintain its dominance.
d) By the nineteenth century, the Tokugawa were able to dispense with the feudal
organization of earlier Japan.
10) In what important way did Japan's feudal politics differ from China's system?
a) Japan rejected Confucianism.
b) Japan's system was far more centralized in practice.
c) Japan rejected China's emphasis on the military.
d) Although both China and Japan had an Emperor, the clans really controlled things in
Japan.
11) Which statement best characterizes the Tokugawa shogunate?
a) The Tokugawa shogunate marked the end of feudalism in Japan.
b) The Tokugawa shogunate overthrew the Emperor's oppressive police state and
introduced individual liberty.
c) The Tokugawa shogunate was a combination of military rule with a police state.
d) The Tokugawa shogunate successfully resisted the Emperor's efforts to centralize
rule.
12) Which statement best expresses the motive for 19th-century European imperialism?
a) Living space was needed for the excess population in Western Europe.
b) European leaders believed imperialism was an effective method of reducing the
number of wars.
c) European nations would benefit from some aspects of the conquered nation’s
culture.
d) Imperialism would benefit the economies of the colonial powers.
13) Which country opened Japan to foreign relations in the 1850s?
a) Canada
b) Germany
c) Great Britain
d) United States
14) What American naval officer famously used gunboat diplomacy in trade negotiations
with Japan during the 1850s?
a) Daniel Boone
b) Townsend Harris
c) Matthew Perry
d) William Sherman
15) An immediate result of Commodore Matthew Perry’s visit to Japan in 1853 was
a) an alliance between Japan and Russia
b) the development of trade between Japan and the West
c) a war between Japan and the United States
d) the continued isolation of Japan
16) The arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry in Japan in 1853 signaled the end of Japanese
a) cultural contacts with the West
b) policies of isolationism
c) militarism in Southeast Asia
d) trade relations with the United States
17) What United States Consul General to Japan secured a commercial treaty between the
U.S. and Japan in 1858?
a) Frederick Douglass
b) Matthew Perry
c) Townsend Harris
d) Ulysses S. Grant
18) In the late 19th century, Japanese leaders felt that they would be in a better position to
renegotiate trade treaties, and be less likely to be imposed upon, if they adopted
Western ways (democracy, imperialism, industrialization, militarization, and
modernization).
a) True
b) False
19) The Tokugawa shogunate was overthrown because
a) the samurai were in debt to the merchant class.
b) the emperor had failed in his obligations to protect the Japanese people.
c) the Japanese were outraged by the unequal treaty forced on them by Commodore
Perry.
d) the daimyo led a tax revolt.
e) Japanese merchants wanted more access to western goods and technology.
Answers to Tokugawa Japan
1. d
2. a
3. d
4. b
5. c
6. d
7. a
8. b
9. a
10. d
11. c
12. d
13. d
14. c
15. b
16. b
17. c
18. a
19. c
Meiji Japan
The Meiji Restoration 1868 - 1912
1) The reign of Emperor Mutsuhito was known as the _____.
a) Edo
b) Shinto
c) Meiji
d) Tokugawa
2) In Japan, the Meiji Restoration resulted in the
a) division of the nation between the European powers
b) modernization of the nation’s industry
c) abolition of the position of emperor
d) government being controlled by the samurai
3) The success of the Meiji restoration depended on destroying the power of
a) the daimyo and samurai classes.
b) the emperor and his court.
c) the Japanese military.
d) the independent merchants.
e) all of the above.
4) The capital for the early industrialization of Meiji Japan came primarily from
a) the export of textile products.
b) land taxes.
c) commercial taxes.
d) private investors.
e) foreign investors.
5) The modernization of Japan during the Meiji Restoration resulted in
a) a return to a feudal system of government
b) the rise of Japan as an imperialistic nation
c) an alliance between China, Korea, Russia, and Japan
d) a strengthening of Japan’s isolationist policies
6) Which of the following was not a policy of the new Meiji government?
a) establishing a system of nationally appointed prefects
b) expanding state power
c) reinforcing the daimyos
d) abolition of feudalism
7) Which of the following was not a provision of the Meiji constitution?
a) Japan became a constitutional monarchy.
b) The right to vote was based on property qualifications.
c) The emperor could disregard the recommendations of the Diet.
d) The lower classes were represented in the lower chamber of the Diet.
e) Individual rights were affirmed but made secondary to the needs of the state.
8) What is the name of Japan’s bicameral legislature, which first convened in 1889?
a) Congress
b) Convention
c) Diet
d) Parliament
9) Japan adopted its currency, the _____, in 1872.
a) dollar
b) peso
c) pound
d) yen
10) What were large Japanese conglomerates called?
a) zaibatsu
b) daimyo
c) shogunates
d) yens
11) During the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese used the military of what country as the
primary model for its own military?
a) France
b) Germany
c) Great Britain
d) Netherlands
12) Which of the following was not an effect of industrialization in Japan?
a) universal education
b) a shift in Japanese foreign policy
c) rejection of traditional values
d) massive population growth
13) Which statement best describes events in Japan during the period of the Meiji
Restoration?
a) Japan sought to isolate itself from world affairs.
b) Rapid industrialization and economic growth occurred.
c) Local lords increased their power over the Japanese emperor.
d) Agriculture was taken over by the government.
14) Which of the following was not gained by Japan as a result of the First Sino-Japanese
War (1894-1895)?
a) Control of Hong Kong
b) Formosa (Taiwan)
c) Liaotung peninsula in Manchuria
d) Sphere of influence in Korea
15) What war marked the first defeat of a major European country by an Asian country?
a) Russo-Japanese War
b) Seven Years’ War
c) Sino-Japanese War
d) World War I
16) An analysis of the Russo-Japanese War shows that one reason nations go to war is to
a) assist oppressed people
b) spread religious beliefs
c) satisfy imperialist goals
d) honor provisions of a treaty
17) Nationalism is best defined as
a) the achievement of world peace and global understanding
b) the desire to take over other societies by force
c) a method of solving basic economic problems of the society
d) the loyalty of a people to their values, traditions, and a geographic region
Answers to the Meiji Restoration
1. c
7. d
2. b
8. c
3. a
9. d
4. b
10. a
5. b
11. b
6. c
12. c
13. b
14. a
15. a
16. c
17. d
Japan as a world power 1914 - 45
1) WWI was an opportunity for Japan to
a) Develop a strong alliance with Germany by providing Japanese assistance in
Shangdong
b) Gain a stronger foothold in China by joining the Allies and attacking German
territory in China
c) Demonstrate to Britain that Japan would not tolerate any British presence in
Chinese waters
d) Establish the rule of the Showa Emperor in the Shandong Peninsula
2) In the 1930’s, the Japanese government followed a policy of imperialism primarily to
a) acquire new sources of raw materials
b) spread Zen Buddhism throughout Asia
c) sell more consumer goods to European nations
d) spread the ideas of bushido
3) The imperialist policies followed by Japan after World War I were based on a desire to
a) convert people to Shinto
b) acquire markets for its oil industry
c) obtain natural resources for manufacturing
d) compete with Chinese trade policies
4) Japan signed secret treaties with the Allied powers in 1916-17 because
a) they wanted to protect the concessions they had gained in Manchuria
b) the Imperial Way believed this was the only way to save Japan from internal decay
c) the Allies had agreed to help with financial aid for the damage caused by the Great
Tokyo earthquake
d) Mutsuhito believed that without Allied assistance, Japan could not maintain its
power in the East.
5) Which of the following factors exacerbated (made worse) the economic problems in
Japan that had developed over the 1920s?
a) Hirohito’s ascension to the throne
b) The Treaty of Versailles’ racial equality clause
c) The Control Faction’s attempt to overthrow the Showa Restoration
d) The Great Tokyo Earthquake and the Great Depression
6) Which of the following was not a reason for Japanese imperialism?
a) Desire to send out Shinto missionaries
b) Lack of fertile land for agriculture
c) Need for the raw materials of industry
d) Response to Western imperialism
7) Following World War I, Japan received _____’s mandates over Asian islands and its
leases in the Shandong peninsula.
a) Austria
b) Germany
c) Italy
d) Russia
8) What was the Japanese name for Manchuria during the 1930s and early 1940s?
a) Manchu peninsula
b) Manchukuo
c) New Japan
d) All of the above
9) The Manchurian Incident was significant because it
a) Established Japan as a major power in the Shandong Peninsula
b) Demonstrated to the West that if they did not agree to including the racial
inequality clause in the Versailles treaty, that Japan would take over South East Asia
c) Destroyed the Japanese-owned South Manchurian Railway at Mukden established
that Chinese resistance to Japanese occupation in Manchuria was becoming a major
threat to Japanese interests.
d) Was an excuse that the Guandong Army could use to strengthen military control,
increase Japanese patriotism and thus completely take over Manchuria
10) Hirota Koki’s term of office
a) Allowed the military to gain a stronger foothold in Japanese politics because Hirota
favored cooperation with the military
b) Allowed the military to stockpile weapons and add new army divisions increasing
their power
c) Set in motion a train of events that meant that any new government would find it
very difficult to resist the demands of the military
d) a and c
e) All of the above
11) Matsuoka’s announcement of the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere (August 1940)
was
a) A justification for, and expansion of, Japan’s plans for empire building in Asia
b) Reflective of Japan’s aim to take over the Dutch East Indies and Indo-China because
Holland and France had been defeated by Germany and Japan wanted to help
Germany by policing those areas for them.
c) Part of the Tripartite Pact aimed to end dependence on American oil to seize fields
in the Dutch East Indies
12) Japan joined the _____ by signing the Tripartite Pact in 1940.
a) Allied Powers
b) British Empire
c) Axis Powers
d) League of Nations
13) The Tripartite Pact established
a) That the emperor had little power in the Diet
b) That Hitler would not be required to help Japan in a war against the Soviet Union
c) Another obstacle to the attempts to ease tensions with the United States and end
the US trade boycott on aviation fuel, scrap iron and steel
d) b and c
e) All of the above
Answers to Japan as World Power
1. b
2. a
2. c
4. a
5. d
6. a
7. b
8. b
9. d
10. e
11. a
12. c
13. e