本論文探討十九世紀後期以降，日本人在帝國形成過程中，對南方地域異己的想像與描繪過程。自江戶末期以來，日本被迫面對西方列強的進逼，開啟了原先封閉的國門，更擴大了國人對海外異己的想像空間。明治開國後，日本開始逐步南進，陸續佔領太平洋海域各島嶼，並展開對南方地域族群、人文與自然地貌的認識、討論及分類，而在向外拓展的過程中，更是不斷地累積知識、形塑與重整南方異己論述。日本對臺灣的殖民統治，則透過與原住民的接觸，成為深化這份異己論述的重要經驗，並於二十世紀初期逐漸定型為負面、劣等的族群刻板形象，強化文明與野蠻的二元對立。 本文即整理1870至1920年間日本人對南方異己的想像與知識建構過程，並以新聞報紙為主要分析史料，探討帝國在向南擴展勢力時，如何藉由大眾媒體，將臺灣及南洋地區的接觸經驗轉化成異己想像，定位文明與野蠻，進而從中確立自身族群的文明位階。 由於近代日本的新聞業發展，與帝國興起相輔相成，大眾媒體更對異己想像的形塑扮演了關鍵的傳播角色，因此成為本文的研究重點。結論則指出，在帝國權力的逐步箝制下，新聞媒體依舊展現一定程度的公共性，為形塑多元異己論述提供重要的開放平台。 / This thesis explores the forging of Japanese impression toward the southern otherness since the late 19th century during the rise of the Japanese empire. At the end of Edo period, Japan was forced to confront the Western power, opened their country, and widened its imagination of people abroad. Since Meiji period, Japan started to occupy islands and islets in the Pacific Ocean. It was also the period for the Japanese people to start to acknowledge, discuss, sort, and pile up their understanding of the southern natural and cultural scenery. By advancing to the further south, they continued to shape, reform the discourse of the southern otherness. In the early 20th century, colonizing Taiwan offered the Japanese people a chance to contact with the indigenous, which deepened the discourse of otherness, built discriminative ethnic stereotypes, and reassured the binary opposition of civilization and savagery. By parsing the historical materials, mainly Japanese Shimbun media, this thesis focuses on 1870s to 1920s, illustrates how the Japanese empire forged their impression of southern otherness, how it divided civilization and savagery by using the media-twisted southern imagination, and how it ranked its own civilization at the same time. The development of journalism in modern Japan was deeply in tandem with the rise of the Japanese empire. Also, mass media played an important role with the process of forming impression of otherness, which becomes the key point of research. In conclusion, despite the gradual control of the journalism by the government, mass media still showed its publicness and provided an open platform to develop multiple discourses of otherness.