this new contact with europeans and americans changed the japanese culture. the meiji restoration of 1868 stopped some old ways and added many new ones. the empire of japan was created, and it became a very powerful nation and tried to invade the countries next to it. it invaded and annexed ryukyu kingdom, taiwan, and korea. it had wars with china and russia: the first sino-japanese war, the boxer rebellion, the russo-japanese war, world war i.