On the grounds of an incident in which some Ryukyu fishermen were murdered by the local residents of Taiwan, Okubo subsequently carried out the Taiwan expedition (which resulted in the resignation of Takayoshi KIDO) and, further, set off the Ganghwa Island incident to make the Korean government sign the Japanese-Korea Treaty of Amity.
そこで、琉球漁民が台湾の地元民に殺害されたことを理由に、、台湾出兵を行い（その結果、木戸孝允は下野した）、更に翌江華島事件を引き起こし朝鮮に日朝修好条規を締結させた。