Reddit mentions of The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa

Japan's prosperity is definitely part of the equation. Edo, and the rest of Japan, had a flourishing merchant sector and a well-established cash economy (although said cash was backed by koku of rice). However, that's not the whole picture. Japan had a very powerful, very centralized government, especially after the Restoration. Since Japan had managed to evade the sort of invasive imperialism that plagued China and other East/South Asian countries, it was much more free to use its available resources to modernize. Basically from the time that Perry forced open Japan, the Tokugawa government, and then the Meiji government, made massive efforts to learn about Western technology and then utilize it to became a major world power. And, by the late 1800s, they had indeed become a major world power, evidence by their victory in the Russo-Japanese War.

Reasons Japan was able to modernize so quickly:

1. Cash economy with a flourishing merchant/banking sector.
   
   
2. Relative freedom from Western imperialism.
   
   
3. A centralized government determined to become a world power.
   
   
4. The genius of men like Fukuzawa Yukichi.
   
   
5. Ridiculous Japanese work ethic (this was also seen in the post-war era).
   
   I recommend reading Fukuzawa Yukichi's autobiography. http://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Yukichi-Fukuzawa/dp/023113987X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462424362&sr=8-1&keywords=autobiography+fukuzawa+yukichi