Chronology of Anglo-Japanese relations (Nichi-Ei kankei 日英関係)

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, sailors from Aichi Prefecture, set sail from Japan to cross the Pacific. After arriving in the USA 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 Treaty between Britain and Japan was signed by Admiral Sir James Stirling and representatives of the Tokugawa shogunate (Bakufu).

1859. The Treaty of Amity and Commerce was signed by Lord Elgin for Britain and representatives of the Shogunate for Japan.

1862. September 14th. The Namamugi Incident occurred.

1863. Bombardment of Kagoshima by the Royal Navy. (Anglo-Satsuma War)

1864. Bombardment of Shimonoseki by Britain, France, the Netherlands and the USA.

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

1894. The Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation abolishing extraterritoriality in Japan for British subjects with effect from July 17, 1899 was signed in London on July 16th.

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

1905. The alliance was renewed and expanded.

1912. The alliance was renewed.

1921. The alliance was discontinued after U.S. pressure and other factors brought it to a close.

See also the chronology on the British Embassy website in Tokyo.

Britons in Japan (alphabetical by family name)

• William Adams (Miura Anjin)
• Rutherford Alcock, diplomat
• William George Aston
• William Edward Ayrton, Professor of physics & telegraphy
• Duncan_Gordon_Boyes - winner of the Victoria Cross
• Richard Henry Brunton , Father of Japanese lighthouses
• Basil Hall Chamberlain, Professor
• Edward Bramwell Clarke, Professor
• Josiah Conder, architect
• Hugh Cortazzi, scholar and former ambassador
• Henry Dyer, first principal of the Imperial College of Engineering (Kobu Daigakko)
• Lord Elgin
• James Alfred Ewing, Professor
• Hugh Fraser, British minister 1889-94
• Thomas Blake Glover, Scottish trader
• John Harington Gubbins, diplomat
• Claude Maxwell MacDonald, diplomat
• John Milne, Professor and Father of Seismology
• Algernon Bertram Mitford (Lord Redesdale), diplomat
• James Murdoch
• Laurence Oliphant
• Henry Spencer Palmer
• Harry Smith Parkes, diplomat
• John Perry, colleague of Ayrton at the Imperial College of Engineering , Tokyo
• Charles Lennox Richardson
• Ernest Mason Satow, diplomat
• Admiral Sir James Stirling
• William Willis, Dr.
• Charles Wirgman, editor of Japan Punch

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

Japanese in Britain (alphabetical by family name, which comes first)

• Aoki Shuzo
• Hayashi Tadasu
• Inagaki Manjiro
• Ishiguro Kazuo - British novelist of Japanese origin, usually known as Kazuo Ishiguro
• Iwakura Tomomi - see Iwakura mission especially
• Kikuchi Dairoku
• Mori Arinori
• Natsume Soseki
• Oku Katsuhiko - 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.
• Suematsu Kencho
• Tanaka Ginnosuke
• Togo Heihachiro

See also

• o-yatoi gaikokujin - foreign employees in Meiji era Japan
• Foreign cemeteries in Japan

External links

• A Bibliography of Anglo-Japanese relations - at Cambridge University
• The Asiatic Society of Japan - in Tokyo
• The British Association for Japanese Studies
• The British Consulate - in Nagoya
• The British Consulate-General - in Osaka
• The British Council in Japan - the cultural arm of the British government overseas
• The British Chamber of Commerce in Japan
• The British Embassy - in Tokyo
• The British Trade Promotion Office in Fukuoka
• The Cambridge & Oxford Society - founded in Tokyo in 1905
• The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese foundation - in London and Tokyo
• The Embassy of Japan - in London
• The Great Britain Sasakawa foundation - in London and Tokyo
• The Japan Society - founded in London in 1891
• The Japan-British Society - founded in Japan in 1908

Reference books

• 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).