This paper analyzes the activities of the Japanese trading community in the Netherlands East Indies （NEI) prior to 1942. The specific focus is upon Japanese medicine traders in the NEI during the 1900s‒1920s.
Japanese trading communities were present in the NEI from the beginning of the twentieth century. From the early 1900s until the late 1930s, Japanese commercial communities increased dramatically and in the beginning of 1940s they were already spread throughout the archipelago. The first wave of Japanese residents was dominated by Japanese women who served as prostitutes in the 1890s. The ratio of women to men decreased as male medicine traders arrived. Japanese commercial communities vanished before outbreak of World War II, and the context changed dramatically with the Japanese military occupation of the NEI from 1942. During the 1900s‒1910s as a result of exaggeration in contemporary Japanese press regarding the extent of Japanese economic expansion into Southeast Asia, the Netherlands East Indies government became suspicious and ordered local governments to monitor Japanese male medicine trader activities.
The aims of this paper are: 1) to analyze the historical background and trading activities of the Japanese medicine traders in the NEI; 2) to analyze the relations of Japanese medicine traders with local people; and 3) to analyze the monitoring and controlling initiatives puts in place by the NEI government with respect to Japanese traders. To complete this analysis, this paper also provides the results of secret missions from 28 NEI local governments initiated in response to secret instructions to observe Japanese medicine traders issued by the first secretary of the NEI government, E. Moresco.

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