From the last part of Meiji period, Japanese such as merchant, businessman, worker began to live in Hongkou district, which locates on the North of Shanghai, and by 1930s, it is said that about more than 10 millions Japanese lived there, so Hongkou was called as Japanese Town. And Japanese government built many public facilities, for example, Japanese club, primary school, residence and so on, and almost those architectures are still being used by Chinese now. Due to its historical value, Hongkou is specified as a scenic area of Shanghai.
But Hongkou Japanese Town did not officially exist, as the English-America Settlement (International settlement) and the French Settlement. Why Japanese government did not set up “Shanghai Japanese Settlement”in Modern period? And when Japanese went into Shanghai, which districts and what did they focus on? At the same time, what about the city development practiced by the Municipal Council of international settlement?
So this paper is to make those problems clear by analyzing the discussion on how to set up “Shanghai Japanese Settlement” between the Japanese Foreign Ministry and the representative of the Japanese financial world and the historical records of the Municipal Council. Through those analyses, it is thought that the background of development of Shanghai Japanese Town during 1890-1910s will be clear.
