For these young, educated Ethiopians, Japanization was a means to an end-to solve the problem of underdevelopment. Japan’s dramatic metamorphosis by the end of the 19th century from a feudal society-like Ethiopia’s-into an industrial power attracted them. Its primary author, Ethiopia’s minister of finance Tekle Hawariat Tekle Mariyam, formed a clique of like-minded intellectuals around him known as the “Japanisers”. The Ethiopian intelligentsia took a keen interest in Japan in the early 1930’s and the 1931 constitution of Ethiopia, the first piece of modern legislation after centuries of unwritten medieval law, was modeled after the constitution issued under emperor Meiji of Japan. It is therefore hardly surprising that one royal house looked at another for inspiration at the advent of the 20th century.
The Solomonic and Yamato dynasties of Ethiopia and Japan are some of the oldest continuous monarchies of their respective continents.
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