And in the matter over the Korean Peninsula rocked by the Tonghak Uprising and others, he advocated hard line toward Qing with a vice chief of staff Soroku KAWAKAMI, and started the Sino-Japanese War, gaining favorable neutrality from the United Kingdom and the Russian Empire, which caused that Japan carried on the war advantageously from the beginning to the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki.
更に東学党の乱などでゆれる朝鮮半島問題では、川上操六参謀次長とともに清国に対して強硬論を唱えて、日清戦争を開戦させるとともにイギリス・ロシア帝国からは好意的な中立を獲得して、下関条約締結まで終始日本側の有利に戦況を進める結果となった。