Through its representative to Europe, Shibata Takenaka, the Tokugawa shogunate made a request to emperor Napoléon III with the intention of modernizing the Japanese military forces. The French military mission of 1867-1868 was one of the first foreign military training missions to Japan. Shibata had further asked both the United Kingdom and France to deploy a military mission for training in Western warfare. Shibata was already negotiating with the French for building of the Yokosuka Shipyard. Through the Tracey Mission, the United Kingdom supported the Bakufu naval forces.

Before the Tokugawa shogunate was defeated by the Imperial troops in the Boshin War in 1868, the military mission was able to train an elite corps of shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the Denshtai, for a little over a year. Following that, the newly appointed Meiji Emperor issued an order in October 1868 for the French military mission to depart Japan.