By the middle of the 19th century Japan faced a relative backwardness of its economic system and thus almost failed to protect its national security. Under these conditions Japanese elite made a decision to conduct radical transformation of the Japanese social and economic systems. The land tax reform was the leading positive factor in this process, which allowed to centralize the government of the country and to finance the very initial stage of Japan's industrialization. This article contributes to the discussion of the land tax reform in Japan, carried out in Meiji period, as well as its influence on the further socio-economic development of the country.