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 Kyushu at Usuki in Oita 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.
( 1564 - 1620 ).]]
- 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.
- 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 . Believed to be the first Japanese to set foot on British soil, 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. October 14th. The first limited and representatives of the Tokugawa Shogunate (Bakufu).
- 1872. The Iwakura Mission visited the United Kingdom as part of a diplomatic and investigative tour of the United States and Europe.
- 1894. The in Japan for British subjects with effect from July 17, 1899 was signed in London on July 16th.
- 1905. The alliance was renewed and expanded.
- 1912. The alliance was renewed.
- 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 August 17 after U.S. pressure and other factors brought it to a close.
- 1978 Beginning of the BET scheme (British Exchange Teaching Programme) first advocated by Nicholas Maclean {Link without Title}
- 2001 The year-long "Japan 2001" cultural-exchange project saw a major series of Japanese cultural, educational and sporting events held around the UK.
See also the chronology on the British Embassy website in Tokyo.
- 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 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
- Josiah Conder , architect
- Hugh Cortazzi , scholar and former ambassador
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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 And 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 .
The family name is given in italics. Usually the family name comes first, but in modern times not
so 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'' Soseki
- Katsuhiko ''Oku'' - Oxford University rugby player, diplomat in Japanese embassy in London who died in Iraq, 2003. Posthumously promoted to ambassador. See also the 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
- '' Britain & Japan: Biographical Portraits, Volume V '', edited by Hugh Cortazzi , Global Oriental 2004, ISBN 1901903486
- ''British Envoys in Japan 1859-1972'' , edited and compiled by Hugh Cortazzi, Global Oriental 2004, ISBN 1901903516
- '' Japanese Students at Cambridge University in the Meiji Era, 1868-1912: Pioneers for the Modernization of Japan '', by Noboru Koyama, translated by Ian Ruxton, ( Lulu Press , September 2004, ISBN 1411612566).
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