If Prince Shotoku hadn't taken power in 593, then Japan wouldn't be the greatly advanced city we know today. Unfourtunally, he lost power in 622. He was the first Japanese ruler to introduce Chinese culture to the Japanese and to even more influence Japan, he sent scholars to study the culuture of China. Using the Chinese culture, he made guidlines based on Confucian principles. An example of these were always work hard and obey authorites.
Another aspect of Chinese culture that Shotoku embraced was Buddhism. Prince Shotoku helped the Japanese become aware of Chinese culture.
Prince Shotoku was born in 574 A.D. and died in 622 A.D. His father was Emperor Youmie and one of his wives', emerpress Anahobe-hashinohito was his mother. He was born in Yamoto, Japan. He had four brothers and one sister, however the youngest brothers and sisters were born to Shotoku's brother.
Shotoku made many political choices in his reign. As a mentioned before in the first paragraph, when Prince Shotoku started his political career by sending an envoy to China during the Sui Dynasty. This helped him establish Buddhism as one of the religions in Japan. From this envoy he developed a constitution, called the seventeen article constitution. This constitution was made in 604 A.D.
These Articles had a great impact on Japan when they were established. Even though this set of articles was called a "constitution", it was truly a set of guidelines that presented the true way to act in public and in your personal life (including religion). It might make no sense at certain times, but all constitution was for was to set the "rules" of social behavior.