三国干渉
As legal adviser, he worked closely with Ōkuma Shigenobu and Mutsu Munemitsu towards the revision of the unequal treaties and elimination of extraterritoriality. He also wrote legal opinions in defense of the Japanese position in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) and assisting in the drafting of the Treaty of Shimonoseki. However, for his failure to predict the Triple Intervention, which cost Japan much of its territorial gains in that war, he came under strong criticism from hardliners in the military. He was supported by Mutsu Munemitsu and Itō Hirobumi