Description:Two decades after the collapse of the Tokugawa shogunate, the optimism of the early Meiji years was dissipating. In 1886 Tokutomi Soho's passionately eloquent Shorai no Nihon (The Future Japan) presented his panoramic view of the ''world trend'' of history and proclaimed that Japan must transform into an industrial and a democratic nation. Translated for the first time into English, The Future Japan offers valuable insights into the motives that led Japan to become one of the world's great powers.