What led to the Meiji Restoration, and how did this enable Japan to survive western imperialism?

Emperor Meiji and a number of Japanese leaders wanted to change Japan from being a feudal society to an industrialized one. They basically saw the west as being modernized and knew that to compete with them, Japan would have to modernize too. The word "Meiji" means "enlightened rule" and the goal of the restoration was to not completely erase Japan's traditional eastern values, but to combine it with western advancements.

The Meiji Restoration changed Japan to become westernized across all levels - politically, socially, economically and militarily. By doing so, Japan essentially became an industrialized western country, like Britain, France and Germany. By being "one of them", Japan survived western imperialism since it was an advanced country and so was treated with respect as one of the world's "great powers".

During the Tokugawa period in japan, Japan was closed off to the rest of the world, it allowed no trade or even contact with other countries. When the Americans (represented by Mathew Perry) came to Japan and forced them to end this policy, the Japanese were forced into lots of unequal treaties. The tokugawa government was clearly ineffective, so the shogun (the leader) gave power back to the emperor in the Meiji restoration in the hope that he could sort it out. And I don't know if it did enable Japan to survive western imperialism, but I guess that's possible.