In 1884, Tashiro Antei was appointed by the government to attend the International Horticulture Exhibition at Saint Petersburg, Russia, as a secretary of the government representative. After the exhibition, he was able to remain in Russia and studied Oriental and Tropical Botany for half a year.

During a visit to Marseilles on the way home, he was shocked to read in a French newspaper article that France might occupy the Miyako Archipelago. The article reported that the French, who were engaged in a military conflict with China at that time , were considering building a hospital and a vessel repair facility in Maiko Archipelago near Taiwan, which was not ruled by any particular country. Tashiro immediately understood that this meant the Miyako Archipelago of Okinawa prefecture and that the French regarded these as unruled islands. As soon as he returned to Japan, he submitted a recommendation to the government that stressed the urgent need for defence of these archipelagos (Hasebe [1945]1977; Nagayama 1930, 40-43; Tashiro 1893).

His proposal was again neglected by the central government, but he was appointed by Okinawa prefecture to conduct research in Yaeyama in 1885. This was his second visit, but the research of 1885 was far more comprehensive and included sixteen different research themes covering geography, demography, the old institutions, traditions, the condition of malaria and the future potential for colonial industries.