What was pre-WWII Japan Like?

In terms of politics and the political system, pre-WWII Japan was officially a democracy.  It had an emperor but he did not really have that much power.  However, because of flaws in the way that their system was set up, their military was pretty much able to control their government.  This happened in part because the people accepted the idea of militarism -- the idea that the military was morally superior to the civilian government.  The fact that the military could control the government really helped lead to WWII.

The Japanese economy was dominated by the huge (mostly family-owned) conglomerate businesses.  These were called zaibatsu and were generally supportive of the military as well.

Culturally, Japan had been getting to be more and more like the West.  However, it was still very traditional compared to the way it is now.