"[5] The writer Stefan Tanaka has argued that this process involved removing the traditional stress on Chinese civilization as the centre of East Asians' understanding of their own history, and instead treating seminal Chinese icons such as Confucius as representatives of "East Asian" history more broadly.

[8] This framework would allow Japan to be seen as a culturally superior nation and thus on par with the great European powers of the day.

Kurakichi has been identified as a pioneering Koreanist, and had been studying the historical linguistics of the Korean language and supported the Altaic hypothesis as early as 1905.

[10] He was also interested in Manchurian regional history as early as 1913,[11] and argued for the view of Korea and Manchuria as being historically interconnected and inseparable.

[12] Kurakichi had argued that the Liugui land described in ancient Chinese records was Sakhalin and that it was inhabited by Ainu people.