Mutsu Munemitsu
Japan's annexation of Taiwan did not come about as the result of long-range planning. Instead, this action resulted from strategy during the war with China and from diplomacy carried out in the spring of 1895. Prime Minister Hirobumi's southern strategy, supportive of Japanese navy designs, paved the way for the occupation of Penghu Islands in late March as a prelude to the takeover of Taiwan. Soon after, while peace negotiations continued, Hirobumi and Mutsu Munemitsu, his minister of foreign affairs, stipulated that both Taiwan and Penghu were to be ceded by imperial China.