Japan–United Kingdom relations

This page describes the history of the relationship between the United Kingdom and Japan. This began in 1600 with the arrival of William Adams (Adams the Pilot, "Miura Anjin") on the shores of Kyūshū at Usuki in Ōita Prefecture. During the Sakoku period (1641-1853) there were no relations, but the treaty of 1854 saw the resumption of ties which, despite the hiatus of the Second World War, remain very strong in the present day.

Country Comparison

Chronology of Anglo-Japanese relations

*1587. Two young Japanese men named Christopher and Cosmas travelled on a Spanish galleon to California, where their ship was seized by Thomas Cavendish. Cavendish brought the two Japanese with him to England, where they spent around three years, before going again with him on his last expedition to the South Atlantic. They are the first known Japanese to have set foot in England.
*1600. William Adams, a seaman from Kent, was the first Briton to arrive in Japan. Acting as an advisor to the Tokugawa Shogun, he was renamed Miura Anjin, granted a house and land, and spent the rest of his life in his adopted country.

*1605. John Davis, the famous English explorer, was killed by Japanese pirates off the coast of Thailand, thus becoming the first Englishman to be killed by a Japanese. [Stephen Turnbull, "Fighting ships of the Far East (2), p 12, Osprey Publishing]

*1808. HMS Phaeton enters Nagasaki harbour to attack Dutch shipping.

*1832. Otokichi, Kyukichi and Iwakichi, castaways from Aichi Prefecture, crossed the Pacific and were shipwrecked on the west coast of North America. The three Japanese became famous in the Pacific North West and probably inspired Ranald MacDonald to go to Japan. They joined a trading ship to the UK, and later Macau. One of them, Otokichi, took British citizenship and adopted the name John Matthew Ottoson. He later made two visits to Japan as an interpreter for the Royal Navy.

*1854. 14 October. The first limited Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty [http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E8%8B%B1%E5%92%8C%E8%A6%AA%E6%9D%A1%E7%B4%84] between the United Kingdom and Japan was signed by Admiral Sir James Stirling and representatives of the Tokugawa shogunate (Bakufu).

*1858. 26 August. The Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce was signed by Lord Elgin for the United Kingdom and representatives of the Tokugawa shogunate for Japan, after the Harris Treaty was concluded.

*1861. 5 July. The British legation in Edo was attacked and Laurence Oliphant was wounded.

*1862. The Shogun sends the First Japanese Embassy to Europe, led by Takenouchi Yasunori.
*1862. 14 September. The Namamugi Incident occurred within a week of the arrival of Ernest Satow in Japan.

*1863. Bombardment of Kagoshima by the Royal Navy. (Anglo-Satsuma War).
The Chōshū Five go secretly to England.

*1864. Bombardment of Shimonoseki by the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands and the USA.

*1867. The Icarus affair, an incident involving the murder of two British sailors in Nagasaki, leading to increased diplomatic tensions between Britain and the Tokugawa shogunate.

*1872. The Iwakura mission visited the United Kingdom as part of a diplomatic and investigative tour of the United States and Europe.

*1873. The Imperial College of Engineering opened with Henry Dyer as principal.
*1885-87. Japanese exhibition at Knightsbridge, London. [ [http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/conWebDoc.1613 Information about 1885-87 Japanese exhibition at Knightsbridge] ]

*1891. The Japan Society of London is founded by Arthur Diosy.

*1894. The Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation [http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E8%8B%B1%E9%80%9A%E5%95%86%E8%88%AA%E6%B5%B7%E6%9D%A1%E7%B4%84] abolishing extraterritoriality in Japan for British subjects with effect from 17 July 1899 was signed in London on 16 July.

*1902. The Anglo-Japanese alliance was signed in London on 30 January.

*1905. The alliance was renewed and expanded.

*1912. The alliance was renewed.

*1913. The IJN Kongō the last of the British-built Japanese warships enters service.

*1914. Japan joined World War I as the United Kingdom's ally under the terms of the alliance and captured German-occupied Qingdao.

*1921. Arrival in September of the Sempill Mission in Japan, a British technical mission for the development of Japanese Aeronaval forces.

*1923. The Anglo-Japanese alliance was officially discontinued on 17 August after U.S. pressure and other factors brought it to a close.

*1939. The Tientsin Incident almost causes an Anglo-Japanese war when the Japanese blockade the British concession in Tientsin, China.

*1941-1945. Japan enters World War II as an enemy of the British Empire and captures British colonies Malaya, Burma, Hong Kong and Singapore. Many British POWs die in Japanese captivity.

*1951. Treaty of San Francisco - the peace treaty in which Anglo-Japanese relations were normalised. One condition of the treaty was Japan's acceptance of the judgments of the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal (Article 11).

*1978 Beginning of the BET scheme (British Exchange Teaching Programme) first advocated by Nicholas Maclean [http://linguanews.com/php_en_news_read.php?section=s2&idx=2321]

*1987. JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) program starts when the BET scheme and the Fulbright programs are merged.

*1988. The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation established.

*1991. The first Sumo tournmament to be held oustide Japan is hosted at the Royal Albert Hall in London.cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-141-02715-0|year=2006]

*2001. The year-long "Japan 2001" cultural-exchange project saw a major series of Japanese cultural, educational and sporting events held around the UK.

*2008. UK-Japan 2008 celebrates the 150th anniversary of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce [http://www.ukjapan2008.jp/] .

See also the [http://www.uknow.or.jp/be_e/uk_japan/relations/ chronology] on the British Embassy website in Tokyo.

Britons in Japan

*William Adams (Miura Anjin)
*Rutherford Alcock, diplomat
*William George Aston, consular official and Japanologist
*William Edward Ayrton, Professor of physics & telegraphy
*Felice Beato - British/Italian/Corfiote photographer
*Isabella Bird - Victorian traveller and author
*John Reddie Black, publisher of newspapers
*Duncan Gordon Boyes - winner of the Victoria Cross at Shimonoseki, 1864
*Richard Henry Brunton, Father of Japanese lighthouses
*Basil Hall Chamberlain, Professor and Japanologist
*Edward Bramwell Clarke, Professor who helped introduce rugby to Japan
*Samuel Cocking - Yokohama merchant
*Josiah Conder, architect
*Hugh Cortazzi, scholar and former ambassador
*James Main Dixon (1856-1933). Former FRSE. After teaching at the Imperial University of Tokyo, he moved to the University of South California.
*Archibald Douglas, leader of a naval mission to Japan in the early 1870s
*Henry Dyer, first principal of the Imperial College of Engineering (Kobu Daigakko)
*Lord Elgin, signed the 1858 treaty
*James Alfred Ewing, Professor
*Hugh Fraser, British minister 1889-94
*Thomas Blake Glover, Scottish trader
*Abel Gower, consul
*William Gowland, 1842-1922, Father of Japanese archaeology
*Thomas Lomar Gray, engineering professor
*Arthur Hasketh Groom, creator of the first golf course in Japan
*John Harington Gubbins, diplomat
*Joseph Henry Longford, consul and academic
*Claude Maxwell MacDonald, diplomat
*Ranald MacDonald, the first English teacher in Japan
*John Milne, Professor and Father of Seismology
*Algernon Bertram Mitford (Lord Redesdale), diplomat
*James Murdoch - eccentric teacher, journalist, historian
*Laurence Oliphant - Secretary of Legation in 1861
*Henry Spencer Palmer - engineer and Times correspondent
*Harry Smith Parkes, diplomat
*David Peace, author of seven novels. The first six were all set in Yorkshire but the most recent novel, Tokyo Year Zero, was set in Japan.
*John Perry, colleague of Ayrton at the Imperial College of Engineering, Tokyo
*Charles Lennox Richardson - slain in the Namamugi Incident
*Ernest Mason Satow, diplomat and Japanologist
*Alexander Cameron Sim - founder of Kobe Regatta & Athletic Club, introduced lemonade ("ramune") to Japan.
*Admiral Sir James Stirling - signed the 1854 treaty
*Walter Weston, Rev. who publicised the term "Japanese Alps"
* William Willis, Dr.
*Charles Wirgman, editor of Japan Punch

The chronological list of Heads of the United Kingdom Mission in Japan.

Japanese in the United Kingdom

The family name is given in italics. Usually the family name comes first, but in modern times notso for the likes of Kazuo Ishiguro and Katsuhiko Oku, both well-known in the United Kingdom.
*"Aoki" Shuzo - diplomat, signed the 1894 treaty in London
*"Hayashi" Tadasu
*"Inagaki" Manjiro, Cambridge University graduate and diplomat
*Kazuo "Ishiguro"
*"Iwakura" Tomomi - see Iwakura mission especially
*"Kikuchi" Dairoku, Cambridge University graduate and politician
*"Mori" Arinori
*"Natsume" Sōseki
*Katsuhiko "Oku" - Oxford University rugby player, diplomat in Japanese embassy in London who died in Iraq, 2003. Posthumously promoted to ambassador. See also the [http://www.oku-inoue-fund.com/eng/ Oku-Inoue fund] for the children of Iraq.
*"Okura" Kishichiro, entrepreneur
*Hisashi "Owada", Cambridge University graduate, father of Princess Masako
*"Suematsu" Kencho, Cambridge University graduate and statesman
*"Tanaka" Ginnosuke, Cambridge University graduate, introduced rugby to Japan
*"Togo" Heihachiro - the Nelson of the East
*"Yamao" Yozo
*Taka Hirose, Bassist of the band Feeder

See also

*British Japan Consular Service
*o-yatoi gaikokujin - foreign employees in Meiji era Japan
*Foreign cemeteries in Japan
*Japan Society of London
*German-Japanese relations
*British Japanese, British people of Japanese descent
*Anglo-Chinese relations
*Iwakura mission
*gaikoku bugyō
*Chōshū Five
*Japanese students in Britain

Reference books

* " [http://www.globaloriental.co.uk/book.asp?Title_ID=37 Britain & Japan: Biographical Portraits, Volume V] ", edited by Hugh Cortazzi, Global Oriental 2004, ISBN 1-901903-48-6
* [http://www.globaloriental.co.uk/book.asp?Title_ID=7 "British Envoys in Japan 1859-1972"] , edited and compiled by Hugh Cortazzi, Global Oriental 2004, ISBN 1-901903-51-6

Notes

External links

* [http://www.oriental.cam.ac.uk/jbib/For2-3.html A Bibliography of Anglo-Japanese relations] - at Cambridge University
* [http://www.asjapan.org/main.htm The Asiatic Society of Japan] - in Tokyo
* [http://www.bajs.org.uk/ The British Association for Japanese Studies]
* [http://www.uknow.or.jp/be_e/about_us/consulate/ The British Consulate] - in Nagoya
* [http://www.uknow.or.jp/be_e/about_us/general/ The British Consulate-General] - in Osaka
* [http://www.britishcouncil.org/japan.htm The British Council in Japan] - the cultural arm of the British government overseas
* [http://www.bccjapan.com/ The British Chamber of Commerce in Japan]
* [http://www.uknow.or.jp/be_e/about_us/index.htm The British Embassy] - in Tokyo
* [http://www.uknow.or.jp/be_e/about_us/trade/ The British Trade Promotion Office] in Fukuoka (closed June 2005)
* [http://www.camford.org/ The Cambridge & Oxford Society] - founded in Tokyo in 1905
* [http://www.dajf.org.uk/ The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation] - in London and Tokyo
* [http://www.uk.emb-japan.go.jp/ The Embassy of Japan] - in London
* [http://www.gbsf.org.uk/ The Great Britain Sasakawa foundation] - in London and Tokyo
* [http://www.japansociety.org.uk/ The Japan Society] - founded in London in 1891
* [http://www.japanbritishsociety.or.jp/ The Japan-British Society] - founded in Japan in 1908
* [http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/europe/uk/index.html Japan-U.K. Relations] at Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Official Website.