He formed a friendship with Wang Tao, a Qing's intellectual involved in the Western Affairs Movement, who came to Japan in the same year (1879), and influenced by the association with Wang, he took part in Koakai group, the first organization of full-blown Asianism in Japan founded the following year.
また同年来日した清国の洋務運動知識人の王韜との交遊を契機に、翌年結成された日本最初の本格的アジア主義団体・興亜会に参加した。