Countries at the beginning of the 20th century had their international prestige based on their economic strengths, the amount of colonies it had acquired, the state of its industrial and technological developments, the size and power of its military and the stability of its political system. By 1900, Japan had become equal if not more power then a lot of other western nations, and had become Asia's strongest country. This had come from Japan's rapid industrial growth, a strong military and naval fleet, the stability of its political structure, its ever-growing economy and the people ability to adapt to social changes and reforms. This intense period of modernization gained the respect that Japan demanded, and also made Japan a feared nation.
The Japanese political structure in 1900 was based on the Prussian style, Constitutional monarchy. This gave the people democratic rights (to the males), it's stability was one of the most successful and the people held it in high regard. The U.S.A and Prussia were much the same in term of political stability and were looked up to by many nations in search of idea's for political structures that entailed, freedom, democracy and respect. Britain at this time was trying to fix the growing unemployment rate and conditions of industrial workers, however maintain a moderately stable government. Russia's political stability was non-existent. The problems caused by the Tsar's bad ruling had instill strong revolutionary feelings and ideas in it's people. China suffered similar problems to Russia, but their problem was caused by the mass foreign invasion and colonization by western countries. Austria-Hungary's government was failing at the time, partly due to the fact that no changes or reform had been made to country for a long period of time, and the government was displaying a lack of interest in the people. In comparison to the major industrialized powers, Japan had, the third most stable political structure, under U.