Korea continued to be a major focus for Japan.  The Treaty of Kanghwa between Japan and Korea in 1876, ruffled China’s feathers.  In 1885, Japan and China agreed to their own treaty (Treaty of Tientsin) each promising to remove their armies from the Korean Peninsula and to stay out of the region.  At best it would buy only a few years of peace between these two nations. 

By the 1880s, Japan had successfully put their feudal past behind them and were far along in their modernization efforts.  Already clearly ahead of the Chinese Qing Dynasty in these efforts. 

A second generation of Meiji leaders took the stage in Japan and they differed in their political views, goals, and backgrounds from the first generation.  The second generation began the process of drafting a written constitution for the nation as well as continuing with Japan’s modernization efforts.