Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835-1901), is another influential Meiji period figure, although he never assumes a government post.

He is a prolific writer on many subjects, the founder of schools and a newspaper, and, above all, an educator bent on impressing his fellow Japanese with the merits of Westernization. 

Japan is shortly to test its new world outlook.

Disputes with China over sovereignty of the Ryukyu Islands, with Russia over sovereignty of the Kurile Islands and Sakhalin, and with Korea over the Korean court's refusal to recognize the new Meiji government and its envoys will all be settled diplomatically between 1874 and 1876.

Military threats are made in the Chinese and Korean affairs, and it seems to many that Japan will soon use military means to achieve its goals.