thrwo3123123

The documentary you're referring to is 'The Princes of Yen'.

Contrary to all the Western BS about "samurai caste" etc. (it's always some dim-witted "academically proven" stereotype with you folk), the Samurai completely lost their power during the Tokugawa period due to inflation.

Meiji broke this completely, and gave power to an oligarchy consisting of rich merchants/farmers (and some their samurai co-conspirators who helped with the restoring Meiji to power.). In fact, this transition was helped by the British, which might explain why Meiji was so anti-Asia to begin with - there was an incomplete purge of Buddhism and conscious playdown of Chinese culture.

Ditto. Happened to me in Tokyo - I was told work times were flexible and so in order to avoid peak Yamanote traffic I started doing 7-4 only to receive an passive-aggressive e-mail from the HR person that such behaviour can't be tolerated.