The Meiji statesmen were now ready to turn their attention to foreign
policy. Even before the Restoration many of the Japanese leaders had
favored territorial expansion. During the years of internal reform,
however, they had cautiously refrained from rash adventures abroad.
A strong movement in favor of a punitive expedition to Korea had
developed in 1871-73, but the dominant clan bureaucrats had skilfully
prevented the outbreak of war. They had permitted a Formosan expedition
in 1874, but had settled the resulting issues peacefully with China.
Some small gains had been made. The Bonin Islands were annexed in 1876,
and the Liuchiu Islands in 1879. A naval demonstration in 1876 secured
to Japan special treaty rights in Korea, which led to more and more
intervention in Korean affairs.
But these were not the foreign problems which chiefly occupied the
early Meiji leaders. First and foremost, they were trying to change the
unequal treaties concluded with the Western powers at the end of the
Tokugawa period. These treaties, you will remember, permitted Western
nationals to be tried in their own consular courts (the system of
extraterritoriality), and fixed Japan’s tariff at the low rate of 5
per cent. The struggle to throw off these irksome restrictions was the
central issue in Japan’s foreign relations down to 1894.