The name Hattori Tōru (1863–1908) has often appeared in Modern Japanese “Southern Expansion” Studies, particularly from the 1970s. The Genealogy of “Southern Expansion” (1975) by Yano Tōru dealt with Hattori as one of the seven eminent Meiji “Southern Expansionists,” along with Taguchi Ukichi and Shiga Shigetaka. Nonetheless, many details about his life remain unknown.

This paper examines more than ten of Hattori’s writings, then analyzes Hattori’s “southern expansion doctrine” as well as detailed steps of his “south sea” advance. Hattori, a low-ranking samurai of the Tosa clan in Kōchi Prefecture, came to Tokyo in his teens, and received tutelage at Gakunōsha Nōgakkō. This agricultural school was established by Tsuda Sen, the father of the founder of Tsuda Women’s College (Tusda Umeko). He the individual introduced and promoted Western style agriculture in Japan. Heavily influenced by Tsuda, Hattori became interested in industrial development in the Ogasawara archipelago. In 1887, Hattori went to the Ogasawara archipelago as a member of the South Seas inspection delegation under the leadership of the governor of Tokyo, Takasaki Goroku. Subsequently, Hattori became an active advocate of a government initiated “Southern Expansion doctrine.”

Hattori was a well-known “southern expansionist” at that time, but around the time of Sino-Japan War, he also began to be deeply involved the “northern expansion”. He published Tōa bōeki shinbun [East Asia Trading newspaper] in Pusan, inspected in an expedition of Vladivostok and other area of eastern Siberia. After this, he powerfully proclaimed that this would be the place for expanding Japanese business rights along with “south sea”. In a sense, a “southern and northern co-expansion” advocacy of Hattori’s unique approach was not militaristic expansion but peaceful expansion throughout the process of economic development.

In 1908, Japan and the Netherlands East Indies Governments concluded a consular convention. Consequently, Hattori was appointed by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the same year to conduct research on the Netherlands East Indies’ economy as well as to determine the actual situation of the Japanese diaspora community. However, after traveling through Taiwan and Amoi, on May 24, 1908, while awaiting a ship to Java, Hattori died of an accident at river in Hong Kong Bay. The Ogasawara Archipelago initiated “southern expansion” trajectory of Hattori was initiated with the Ogasawara archipelago and was supposedly to end in Java, however. it ended before his end-point. Five days later, on May 29, 1908, his accidental death made headlines in the Asahi Shinbun.