How are animals incorporated into a subjugated class within imperialist projects? With the increasing attention to non-human beings, scholars in various fields, including history and critical animal studies, have examined imperial controls of animals as non-human colonial subjects across different regions and countries (Borkfelt 2010; Trefalt 2013; Miller 2020; Borchetia 2024). However, there has been a limited theorization of the common processes through which empires subjugated animals as a political project, and most of them have focused on Western empires. Filling the gaps in research, this paper examines imperial projects to govern animals in colonial spaces, from the cases of Korea and Taiwan under Japanese imperial rule. Using the concept of the “coloniality of animal governance,” we argue that imperial projects concerning animals were aligned with civilizing missions to strengthen the empire through the governance of non-humans in uncivilized space. By conducting online archival research of official documents and periodical media sources from Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, we find that the imperial Japanese government pursued its material and symbolic power through the four main patterns: (1) presenting the state power for safety protection, (2) fulfilling the needs of economic resources, (3) pursuing hygienic modernization, and (4) enhancing the scientific knowledge. This study contributes to the literature on Global international relations (IR) by theorizing the relation between imperialism and non-human beings and providing cases from a non-Western empire.