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Who was Emperor Meiji before he took the throne?
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Meiji Restoration
After the overthrow of the Tokugawa shogunate, the Meiji emperor became the formal head of a new imperial government under whose reign Japan was transformed from an isolated feudal society into a modern, industrialized global power.
Before ascending the throne, Emperor Meiji was known as Mutsuhito. Born in Kyoto on November 3, 1852, he was the second son of Emperor Kōmei. In 1860, he was officially declared the crown prince, a position he held until his father’s death in 1867, at which point he was raised to the throne.12