evidence: TY: Sure. So, this is going to be a two-part answer. I think it’s best if I first explain the diplomatic situation in general in the northern part of Japan, and then I’ll talk about the article. The central question of Japan’s north for Bakumatsu and early Meiji is its boundary negotiations with Russia. Scholars have written about it essentially as a bilateral affair, where the Russians pushed and the Japanese reacted, resulting in the Treaty of St. Petersburg in 1875. In Japanese, it’s known as Karafuto Chishima kōkan jōyaku, under which Russia took the entire island of Karafuto/Sakhalin, and the Japanese took the Kuril Islands that run between the Kamchatka Peninsula and Hokkaidō. [...] TY: So, there are a lot of remarks on both sides about Russia’s intention of expanding towards the Japanese northern edge, and [most of the] people in Japan, around the time of the Meiji Restoration, were convinced that once Sakhalin or Karafuto is taken, then the next thing would be Hokkaidō. The British – whose navy was very active in the region – [were] also concerned about what Russia’s intentions were, and they kept sending reports to London from East Asia that Russia was coming to Hokkaidō, and it’s going to be Japan’s diplomatic priority. Japan should really concentrate on Hokkaidō’s development in order to stop that from happening.