Likely influenced by their newfound ally, Britain, the Empire of Japan sought to create its own special team of individuals with extraordinary abilities. Hoping to appease the still-resentful samurai who had been deprived of status and power, the Meiji government enlisted the aid of many expert swordsmen.

The swordsman Zatoichi soon emerged as the leader of the Japanese outfit. His impressive sword skills are made even more baffling by the fact that he is blind. His disability causes many opponents to underestimate his abilities, giving him a powerful advantage. His favorite weapon is a sword-cane.

Providing the team's transport was Colonel Sakuragi of the modernized Japanese Navy. Under the brilliant naval officer's guidance, Japan gained its first submersible battleship, the Gotengo. This has prompted some to compare him to Captain Nemo. However, an expertise in underwater transport and combat is their only shared trait. Unlike the quasi-anarchist Nemo, Sakuragi was a well-respected member of Japan's armed forces. He may have been the only "modernized" member of Japan's league.

Somewhat harder to control was the league's third member, Higen Algren. Both his father and stepfather fought in the Satsuma Rebellion, an insurrection of samurai against the Meiji government. His adherence to bushido, the samurai code of conduct, has been viewed as both an anachronism and an inconvenience to his teammates. Higen disdains covert activity, preferring open combat, and has attempted ritual suicide on more than one occasion. However, his skills in combat are indispensible to his team.

As is typical with teams such as these, more aberrant personalities are bound to appear. The first of these is the young woman known as Lady Snowblood. Before her birth, her entire family save her mother was massacred by thieves. From birth, she was trained as a swordswoman since childhood for the sake of revenge. After accomplishing this, she drifted aimlessly through life, without purpose, until the Meiji government offered her a reason to fight again. Her favorite weapon is said to be a sword concealed in an umbrella.

But if any member of this league can be said to be truly evil, it is Kenji Himura. Kenji is the son of a legendary assassin, Kenshin Himura, who fought in Kyoto, helping bring the Meiji government to power. Though his father would later become highly critical of the new government and refuse to kill under any circumstances, Kenji would have no such reservations. Ironically, his personality seems more in tune with his father's two greatest enemies, Hajime Saito and Makoto Shishio. Kenji inherited his father's sword, a nonlethal weapon in which the outer edge was blunt and the inner edge sharpened, but for obvious reasons would never use it.