The 1894-95 Sino-Japanese War Medal was awarded in commemoration of the First Sino–Japanese War, which lasted from 1 August 1894 to 17 April 1895.
The war was fought between Qing Dynasty China and Meiji Japan, primarily over control of Korea. After more than six months of continuous successes by the Japanese army and naval forces, as well as the loss of the Chinese port of Weihai, the Qing leadership sued for peace in February 1895.
The Military Medal of Honor (or 従軍記章 jugun kisho in Japanese) was a military decoration for meritorious service to the Empire of Japan, formerly awarded to all military personnel who participated in battles in a war and effectively abolished during the Allied Occupation of Japan in the post-war years (1945–1951).
The plausible re-institution of a modern equivalent was made unlikely by the adoption of Japan’s post-war Constitution which disavows the right of the state to engage in aggressive war.
