<p>This paper studies the evolution of the Meiji government's policy towards Ryukyu after the abolition of clans and the establishment of prefectures. The aim of this policy was the definition of Ryukyu's affiliation with Japan. The first concrete plan was that proposed by Inoue Kaoru 井上馨, undersecretary of the Treasury, in July 1872. This was followed by counterproposals from the Left Chamber of the Legislative Council and the Foreign Office. The three sets of recommendations were examined in the Central Chamber of the Supreme Council and in the upshot Shotai 尚泰, the king of Ryukyu, was invested with the title of Han-O 藩王 in October that year. At the same time, Ryukyu's diplomatic policy was placed under the control of the Foreign Office in Tokyo. What pushed the government into so early an establishment of its' policy was an incident in which most of the Miyako islanders who had drifted ashore on Formosa were murdered by aborigines, known as seiban 生蕃, in the winter of 1871. The incident, which was reported to Japan by Yanagihara Sakimitsu 柳原前光, then in China, soon attracted the attention of the samurai class of Kagoshima. There thereupon began the samurai agitation for sending troops to Formosa that was to be closely intertwined with the policy of defining Ryukyu's affiliation to Japan. Soejima 副島, the Foreign Minister, visited China in March 1873. It could be argued that his most impotant mission on this occasion was negotiation about the incident with the Chinese government, Knowing that the voice for a Formosan expedition was becoming prevelent, Soejima made an attentive Study of possible policies towards China - including that of sending troops to Formosa - in co-operation with Le Gendre, the former American Consul at Among, The latter's main argument was that the Seiban-chi 生蕃地 - "land of uncivilized abovigines" - was not under the rule of the Chinese government, but unpossessed. Soejima also obtained the pledge of the Chinese foreign minister that the seiban-chi was kegai 化外, outside the pale of Chinese civilization. He therefore concluded that preconditions for a Japanese expedition to Formosa had been established. Subsequently, however, Soejima went into opposition as a result of the split in the government over the question of an expedition to Korea, and so the plan for a Formosan expedition was shelved. But early in February 1874, when people were preoccupied with the asault upon Iwakura Tomomi 岩倉具視 and the outbreak of the Saga Revolt, Okubo Toshimichi 大久保利通 had a cabinet meeting decide abruptly to carry the plan out. The Japanese government maintained that the seiban-chi was unpossessed and uncivilized, and that China was not concerned and should be excluded. The ministers of the Western powers, however, having got wind of the Japanese policy, asked the Japanese government whether or not the Chinese government had assented to the proposed expedition. Great Britain and the United States in particular made a declaration of nonco-operation, and as a result the Japanese government was forced to cancel the expedition. Saigo Tsugumichi's 西郷従道 subsequent high-handed dispatch of troops to Formosaled to Sino-Japanese relations becoming extremely strained. The dispute between the two counties centered around the question of the clain to the seiban-chi. The Chinese government, claiming that the whole of Formosa was in the possession of China, insisted that the Japanese troops should be withdrawn, while the Japanese gogernment maintained that the seiban-chi was unpossessed. Sino-Japanese relations remained strained until the outbreak of war seemed imminent in July and August 1874. In the end, however, neither country declared war : on the Japanes side, the army was opposed to war and funds were insufficient, while on the Chinese side coastal defence was weak. The matter was refered to the negotiations between Okubo and Kung</p><p>(View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)</p>