Book excerpt: From 1868 to 1945 imperial Japan was governed by shifting coalitions of several dissimilar elite groups. In this historical analysis of the examination system that regulated access to the inner civil bureaucracy and shaped its political outlook, Professor Spaulding describes the steps by which Japan came to accept examinations as the key to office. The reasons for this acceptance are discussed by (1) piecing together fragmentary clues from government decrees, official memoirs, and the comparative history of Japanese higher education, political parties, and constitution, and (2) a quantitative analysis of many aspects of the civil service, showing why examinations were instituted, why they were ineffective at first, and how they worked after the system was reformed in 1899. Originally published in 1967. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.