Young bureaucrats such as Hirobumi ITO and Kaoru INOUE gathered around Okuma, and in cooperation with Takayoshi KIDO, they appealed for the construction of a modern state in an earlier period in order to check the activities of Toshimichi OKUBO and others.
大隈の下には伊藤博文や井上馨といった若手官僚が集まり、木戸孝允とも結んで近代国家の早期建設を謳って大久保利通らを牽制した。