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Aside from serving as a physician for Deshima, Siebold was sent to Japan by the Dutch to help convince the Japanese that they deserved special consideration, when and if Japan was opened up to foreign trade. The Dutch hoped to preserve the fiction in the eyes of the Japanese that the Netherlands was repository of Western learning.<ref>Bowers, <i>Western Medical Pioneers in Feudal Japan</i>, 108.</ref> Therefore, Siebold was chosen because he was considered to be an outstanding emissary. Initially, Siebold was an outstanding emissary. He was popular with the city officials from Nagasaki and he attracted students from throughout Japan. He began to build a reputation as an outstanding physician. Japanese physicians even began to take their problem cases to Nagasaki in order to have a consultation with Siebold. These physicians would often stay and join Siebold’s students in the lecture room.<ref>Bowers, <i>Western Medical Pioneers in Feudal Japan</i>, 112.</ref>

Siebold ultimately attracted so many students that he established a free medical school in Nagasaki, the Narutakijuki. A student even provided Siebold with a building in Nagasaki to conduct lectures and surgeries. Siebold’s school taught exclusively Western medical practice and surgery. Not only did Siebold lecture to his students, but there is evidence which suggests that he “taught by demonstration” which was unheard of Japanese medical schools. Siebold may have conducted as many as six operations in front of his students to demonstrate Western surgical techniques.<ref> Nakamura, <i>Practical Pursuits</i>, 32-33.</ref> Siebold diagnostic techniques also differed dramatically from the pulse diagnosis, tongue examination and patient observation common in Japanese medicine.<ref>Bowers, <i>Western Medical Pioneers in Feudal Japan</i>, 112.</ref>