Anglo-Japanese relations

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Anglo-Japanese relations
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     United Kingdom      Japan

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.

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  • 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.
William Adams (1564-1620).
William Adams (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.
  • 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.[1]
  • 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.
  • 1872. The Iwakura mission visited the United Kingdom as part of a diplomatic and investigative tour of the United States and Europe.
Photo at Knightsbridge by W. S. Gilbert, c. 1885
Photo at Knightsbridge by W. S. Gilbert, c. 1885
  • 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 [3]
  • 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.


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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.

  1. ^ Stephen Turnbull, "Fighting ships of the Far East (2), p 12, Osprey Publishing
  2. ^ Information about 1885-87 Japanese exhibition at Knightsbridge

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