Prior to the advent of the west in East Asia, East Asian countries regulated their international relations according to the norms and practices of the Chinese tributary system commonly known as the Chinese world order. It was a vague system which was challenged by western powers. Although Japan was never a part of China's tributary system, many of Japan's diplomatic behavioural patterns and norms were based on Chinese ideas because while China had a long history of foreign relations, Japan had none. And yet, it was the Japanese and not the Chinese who were able to observe the stark difference between the anachronism of the East Asian diplomatic structure and legalism of the western international relations. Japan's diplomatic triumph over the Taiwan episode of 1874 is a unique case history not only for the study of the breakdown of the traditional Chinese tributary system but also the speed and the manner in which the Japanese had conformed to western style diplomacy and imperialism.

Prior to 1874, the status of Ryukyu had been ambiguous. Although it was an independent kingdom, it had become a tributary of China in the fourteenth century. Around the same time, it had also entered into a kind of tributary relationship with the Satsuma clan, a feudal domain of south-western Japan. Consequently, Ryukyu acquired a status of dual subordination and domination, and periodically sent tributes to China as well as Japan.