Home > Abolition of the Han system

In an attempt to wipe out feudalism in Japan, the new Meiji government, which replaced the Tokugawa shogunate, abolished hundreds of feudal domains or han. In their place it established a new local government scheme based on geographically defined prefectures. This system is still in effect today, although the number of prefectures, and their boundaries, have changed. It brought the shogunate and domain system or bakuhan taisei to a formal end, though did not remove it completely.

See also: Meiji Era