Ok I hope I can answer your question having read the book by Jansen and many others.

Sorry this is all off the top of my head but if you pm later I will be able to send you some other good books to read about this topic.

I find it easier to split it into economic, social and political factors for this.

Economic: There had been several bad harvests within Japan resulting in famine. (Japan at this point was very reliant on the rice market). The Japanese elite at this point were in debt to some of the merchant houses that had developed.

Political: The Japanese Daimyo used an alternate attendance system which meant they were some cases of them not being fully connected with their domains.

Social: There was a rise in a weathy peasant class in Japan. This was the the first time that a class not born into the elite became important. This created tensions between the wealthy peasants, the samurai (who were facing cuts to their pay) and the peasants.

Also I would like to point out that foreigners had been in Japan long before the arrival of Perry. So there were groups forming within Japan creating divisions within society.

Currently on my mobile at the moment. I do have a lot of notes on my computer with references if you want me to continue.

Hope I could help. :)

Edit1: There had been 200 or so years of peace since 1600ish. Before this Japan had faced many years of war. During the Tokugawa period it was relatively peaceful. People wanted to keep it that way. One of the reasons why the arrival of Perry was so explosive to Japan was because it forced Japan to change to maintain the stability.