Japan and the Pacific, and a Japanese View of the Eastern Question

Inagaki Manjiro was a Japanese diplomat and political theorist who was active during the Meiji period of Japan.

The first part deals with Japan and the Pacific Question: but so closely is the latter bound up with the so-called Eastern Question that in the second part I have traced the history of the latter from its genesis to its present development. Commencing with a historical retrospect of Russian and English policy in Eastern Europe, I have marked the appearance of a rivalry between these two Powers which has extended from Eastern Europe to Central Asia, and is extending thence to Eastern Asia and the Pacific. This I have done because any movement in Eastern Europe or Central Asia will henceforth infallibly spread northwards to the Baltic and eastwards to the Pacific. An acquaintance with the Eastern Question in all its phases will thus be necessary for the statesmen of Japan in the immediate future. I have confined my view to England and Russia because their interests in Asia and the North Pacific are so direct and so important that they must enter into close relations with my own country in the next century.