In 1274 and 1281, the Mongols attempted to invade Japan. Ultimately, the invasions were not successful. China at this point in history was governed by the Yuan dynasty- Mongols who had successfully invaded China and taken over as the ruling family. Genghis Khan had successfully invaded China and Korea, so the next logical step in his attempt of territorial expansion was to invade Japan. The only difference is that Japan was not politically and socially arranged like China and Korea.
Japan in this time period was feudal. The ruling family, the Yamamoto Clan, had slowly lost the lion's share of power and the real power was in the hands of powerful, aristocratic families. This decentralized power in the hands of powerful warlords, who carved up Japan and ruled in a feudal system much like that of Europe (one of the key differences is that while Europeans had lords and knights with separate jobs, the daimyo in Japan served the role as both lord and warrior - the samurai). So while the emperor seemed weak to the highly successful and on-a-role Kublai Khan, he decided to invade Japan.
Khan sent an armada of ships across to Japan, but ultimately was unable to conquer the strong ruling families, samurai, and a few disastrous typhoons which knocked out a large amount of Mongol ships. Due to samurai strength, strong feudal systems, environmental factors, and just sheer bad luck, the Mongols were unable to conquer Japan.
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