In the late nineteenth century, the Japanese were ill at ease about the nation’s place in the world. The Mejii Restoration ended the hereditary rule of the shoguns, but Japan, and indeed most of East Asia, was increasingly dominated by the Western powers, leaving Asians, including the Japanese, feeling vulnerable and out of touch with world developments. In this context, Fukuzawa Yukichi published this editorial in the newspaper he had founded that year. Its title, “Datsu- A-Ron,” is variously translated as “Good-Bye Asia,” “De-Asianization, “Shedding Asia,” and “On Leaving Asia.” The purpose of the editorial was to convince the Japanese that if Japan was to survive as a world power, it had to shed its Asian connections and identity and turn to the West for its economic, scientific, governmental, educational, and cultural institutions. The document can be regarded as an early step in the development of Japan as a modern rather than a feudal nation.