日本至 1850年代已實行了長達 200多年的鎖國政策，直到美國海軍提督培里率艦叩關為止，通商口岸因應而生，日本展開了 60年驚人的工業化發展。這些工業化成果多仰賴來自歐洲的專家們，他們發展了日本的煤礦、鐵礦、造船與鐵路等產業，以及絲織、紡織與通訊產業。因日本與大清帝國和俄羅斯的爭端，使日本的版圖擴及臺灣、滿州與朝鮮等未開發地區。由於日本過去並無發展殖民帝國的經驗，便大多依循大英帝國的模式，所以日本當時常被稱為「東方的英格蘭」。因此，當日本在殖民地建立基礎建設後，他們也發展了教育、法律與社會規範、博物館與商業活動以及大眾運輸建設。　　透過幾次拜訪臺灣與韓國，以及許多中國地區遺址的圖片，我這篇文章希冀發展的主題是，日本以英國發展模式出發，後來被軍國主義所取代形成的日本殖民帝國。

For over 200 years Japan had been a completely closed society until the 1850s when visits from Commodore Perry from the USA forced Japan to open its borders, create Treaty Ports and engage in a fantastic sixty year period of industrialisation. Much of it was done with the importation of foreign experts, mainly from Europe, who developed Japan’s coal, iron, shipbuilding and railway industries, together with silk and textile manufacture and communications. Subsequent disputes with China and Russia gave Japan territories in Taiwan, Manchuria and Korea, which were largely undeveloped. As the Japanese had no history of developing a colonial empire, they largely followed the British model and Japan was often referred to at the time as ‘the England of the East’. Thus whilst they constructed the infrastructure of their new colonies, they also developed education, law and order, museums and commercial activity, as well as the transport infrastructure.　　 After several visits to Taiwan and Korea, and with many illustrations of sites in China, I hope to develop the theme that the Japanese colonial empire, modelled on British ideas, succeeded well until militarism overcame moderate thought in Japan.