Kansei Reforms

Kansei reforms, series of conservative measures promoted (largely during the Kansei era [1789–1801]) by the Japanese statesman Matsudaira Sadanobu between 1787 and 1793 to restore the sinking financial and moral condition of the Tokugawa government.

Commerce, especially with the West, was curtailed, while agriculture was encouraged. Curbs were even placed on the migration of farmers to the cities, and debts to merchants incurred by retainers of the Tokugawa shogun, or hereditary military dictator of Japan, were either reduced or cancelled. Sadanobu also initiated a general policy of frugality and placed strict limitations on the expenditures of all classes. Chu Hsi Confucianism was promoted as the orthodox school of philosophy, and publications came under rigorous censorship. Although the measures resulted in less oppressive famine conditions and temporarily bolstered governmental finances, the reforms were gradually undone after Sadanobu’s dismissal.