What is perhaps Schiff's most famous financial action took place during the
Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). Schiff met with
Takahashi Korekiyo, deputy governor of the
Bank of Japan, in Paris in April 1904. Schiff agreed to extend loans to the
Empire of Japan in the amount of $200 million (equivalent to $4.5 billion in 2019
[10]), through Kuhn, Loeb & Co.
[5] These loans were the first major flotation of Japanese bonds on
Wall Street, and provided approximately half the funds needed for Japan's war effort.
[11] Schiff made this loan in part because he believed gold was not as important as national effort and desire to win a war and due to the apparent underdog status of Japan at the time-a European empire had not yet been defeated by a non-Western nation, in a modern, full-scale war. It is quite likely Schiff also saw this loan as a means of answering, on behalf of the Jewish people for the anti-Semitic actions of the
Russian Empire, specifically the recent
Kishinev pogrom in 1903.