일본의 근대화와 동아시아질서의 재편 문제

Reorganization of the East Asian order and Japan’s modernization

This study aims to analyze the characteristics of the East Asian policy by Inoue Kaoru(井上馨). Inoue who was a prominent member of the Choshu faction. led Japan’s foreign policy during the 1880s and as a result, played a central role in the issue of treaty revision. Inoue positioned the issue of treaty revision as a starting point of Japan’s modernization. Thus, he tried to achieve the restoration of Japan’s legal rights by abolishing extraterritoriality as soon as possible. In order to do that, he tried to open Japan’s interior to foreigners, relax the prohibition of the Christianity, and take an active part in international negotiations. Despite such efforts, however, Inoue came to realize that Japan’s request of treaty negotiation will not be accepted unless Japan proved its superiority over China, especially in the case of Britain. As a result, Inoue tried to prove Japan’s superiority while criticizing China for its anachronic attitudes. However, Inoue realized that military action without the consent of the Western Powers was impossible. As a result, Inoue adopted a policy of differentiation between Korean-Japanese and Chinese-Japanese relations through diplomatic means. The policy of differentiation was to consolidate the inequality in Korean-Japanese relations and to create an inequality in Chinese-Japanese relations. Furthermore, after the conclusion of the differentiation, he envisioned. Japan was to participate in the colonial competition of the Western Powers. In sum, the foreign policy of the Choshu faction in the 1880s was expansionist in essence. Positive views of recent studies about the Choshu faction’s foreign policy and Japan’s overall modernization are unfounded.