Japan–United Kingdom relations

Early

William Adams (1564–1620)

• 1600. William Adams, a seaman from Gillingham, Kent, was the first English adventurer to arrive in Japan. Acting as an advisor to the Tokugawa shōgun, 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 known Englishman to be killed by a Japanese.^[1]

The 1613 letter of King James I remitted to Tokugawa Ieyasu (Preserved in the Tokyo University archives)

• 1613. Following an invitation from William Adams in Japan, the English captain John Saris arrived at Hirado Island in the ship Clove with the intent of establishing a trading factory. Adams and Saris travelled to Suruga Province where they met with Tokugawa Ieyasu at his principal residence in September before moving on to Edo where they met Ieyasu's son Hidetada. During that meeting, Hidetada gave Saris two varnished suits of armour for King James I, today housed in the Tower of London.^[2] On their way back, they visited Tokugawa once more, who conferred trading privileges on the English through a Red Seal permit giving them "free licence to abide, buy, sell and barter" in Japan.^[3] The English party headed back to Hirado Island on 9 October 1613. However, during the ten year activity of the company between 1613 and 1623, apart from the first ship (Clove in 1613), only three other English ships brought cargoes directly from London to Japan.
• 1623. The Amboyna massacre occurred. After the incident England closed its commercial base at Hirado Island, now in Nagasaki Prefecture, without notifying Japan. After this, the relationship ended for more than two centuries.
• 1639. Tokugawa Iemitsu announced his Sakoku policy. Only the Netherlands was permitted to retain limited trade rights.
• 1673. An English ship named "Returner" visited Nagasaki harbour, and asked for a renewal of trading relations. But the Edo shogunate refused. The government blamed it on the withdrawal 50 years earlier, and found it unacceptable that Charles II of England married Catherine of Braganza, who was from Portugal, and favoured the Roman Catholic Church.
• 1808. The Nagasaki Harbour Incident: HMS Phaeton enters Nagasaki 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 men became famous in the Pacific Northwest 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.

1854-1900

• 1854. 14 October. The first limited Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty was signed by Admiral Sir James Stirling and representatives of the Tokugawa shogunate (Bakufu).
• 1855. In an effort to find the Russian fleet in the Pacific Ocean during the Crimean war, a French-British naval force reached the port of Hakodate, which was open to British ships as a result of the Friendship Treaty of 1854, and sailed further north, seizing the Russian-American Company's possessions on the island of Urup in the Kuril archipelago. The Treaty of Paris (1856) restitutes the island to Russia.^[4]
• 1858. 26 August. The Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce was signed by the Scot Lord Elgin and representatives of the Tokugawa shogunate for Japan, after the Harris Treaty was concluded. Britain obtained extraterritorial rights on Japanese with the British Supreme Court for China and Japan, in Shanghai. A British iron paddle schooner named Enpiroru was presented to the Tokugawa administration by Bruce as a present for the Emperor from Queen Victoria.
• 1861. 5 July. The British legation in Edo was attacked.

The First Japanese Embassy to Europe, in 1862

• 1862. The shōgun 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.
• 1862–75. British Military Garrison established at Yamate, Yokohama.
• 1863. The Chōshū Five began their education at University College London under the guidance of Professor Alexander William Williamson.
• 1863. Bombardment of Kagoshima by the Royal Navy. (Anglo-Satsuma War).
• 1864. Bombardment of Shimonoseki by Britain, France, the Netherlands and the USA.
• 1865 The Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank (HSBC) from Britain was established in Hong Kong.
• 1865. Chōshū Domain bought the warship Union from Glover and Co., an agency of Jardine Matheson established in Nagasaki, in the name of Satsuma Domain which was not against the Tokugawa shogunate then.
• 1866 HSBC established a Japanese branch in Yokohama.
• 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.
• 1868. Coup d'état by Chōshū Domain and Satsuma Domain achieved the Meiji Restoration.
• 1869. Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh becomes the first European prince to visit Japan arriving on HMS Galatea on 4 September 1869. Audience with the Emperor Meiji in Tokyo.
• 1872. The Iwakura mission visited Britain 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.

• 1879 British Court for Japan was established in Yokohama.
• 1880 Japan government established Yokohama Specie Bank for only foreign transaction bank in Japan, with the support of HSBC.
• 1886 Normanton incident British merchant vessel sinks off the coast of Wakayama Prefecture. Crew escape while 25 Japanese passengers perish. Widespread Japanese public outrage as subsequent Board of Enquiry under extraterritorial court fails to hold British crew to account.
• 1885–87. Japanese exhibition at Knightsbridge, London.^[5]
• 1887–89. Jurist Francis Taylor Piggott, the son of ex-MP Jasper Wilson Johns, was inaugurated as a legislational consultant for Itō Hirobumi, then and the first Prime Minister of Japan.
• 1890. Government of Japan established the Constitution of Imperial Japan which House of Peers was not come with Universal suffrage.
• 1891. The Japan Society of London is founded by Arthur Diosy.
• 1894. The Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation was signed in London on 16 July. The treaty was abolished extraterritoriality in Japan for British subjects with effect from 17 July 1899
• 1899 Extraterritorial rights for British subjects in Japan came to an end.
• 1900 (January) Last sitting of the British Court for Japan.

20th century

• 1902. The Japanese–British alliance was signed in London on 30 January. It was a diplomatic milestone that saw an end to Britain's splendid isolation, and removed the need for Britain to build up its navy in the Pacific.^[6]
• 1905. The Japanese–British alliance was renewed and expanded. Official diplomatic relations were upgraded, with ambassadors being exchanged for the first time.
• 1907 In July, British thread company J. & P. Coats launched its subside Teikoku Seishi and began to thrive.
• 1908. The Japan-British Society was founded in order to foster cultural and social understanding.
• 1909 Fushimi Sadanaru returns to Britain to convey the thanks of the Japanese government for British advice and assistance during the Russo-Japanese War.

Guide to the Japan–British Exhibition of 1910.

• 1910 Sadanaru represents Japan at the state funeral of Edward VII, and meets the new king George V at Buckingham Palace. The Japan–British Exhibition is held at Shepherd's Bush in London.
• 1911. The Japanese - British alliance was renewed.
• 1913. The IJN Kongō, the last of the British-built warships for Japan's navy, enters service.
• 1914-1915. Japan joined World War I as Britain's ally under the terms of the alliance and captured German-occupied Tsingtao (Qingdao) in China Mainland. They also help Australia and New Zealand capture archipelagos like the Marshall Islands and the Mariana Islands.
• 1915. The Twenty-One Demands would have given Japan varying degrees of control over all of China, and would have prohibited European powers from extending their Chinese operations any further.^[7]
• 1917. The Imperial Japanese Navy helps the Royal Navy and allied navies patrol the Mediterranean against Central Powers ships.
• 1919. Japan proposes a racial equality clause in negotiations to form the League of Nations, calling for "...making no distinction, either in law or in fact, on account of their race or nationality." ^[8] Britain, which supports the White Australia policy, cannot assent, and the proposal is rejected.
• 1921. Crown Prince Hirohito visited Britain and other European countries. It was the first time that a Japanese crown prince had traveled overseas.
• 1921. Arrival in September of the Sempill Mission in Japan, a British technical mission for the development of Japanese Aero-naval forces.
• 1922 - Washington Naval Conference concluding in the Four-Power Treaty, Five-Power Treaty, and Nine-Power Treaty; major naval disarmament for 10 years with sharp reduction of Royal Navy & Imperial Navy. The Treaties specify that the relative naval strengths of the major powers are to be UK = 5, US = 5, Japan = 3, France = 1.75, Italy = 1.75. The powers will abide by the treaty for ten years, then begin a naval arms race.^[9]
• 1922. Edward, Prince of Wales travelling on HMS Renown, arrives in Yokohama on the 12th of April for a four-week official visit to Japan.
• 1923. The Japanese -British alliance was officially discontinued on 17 August in response to U.S. and Canadian pressure.
• 1930, The London disarmament conference angers Japanese Army and Navy. Japan's navy demanded parity with the United States and Britain, but was rejected; it maintained the existing ratios and Japan was required to scrap a capital ship. Extremists assassinate Japan's prime minister and the military takes more power.^[10]
• 1931, September. Japanese Army seizes control of Manchuria, which China has not controlled in decades. It sets up a puppet government. Britain and France effectively control the League of Nations, which issues the Lytton Report in 1932, saying that Japan had genuine grievances, but it acted illegally in seizing the entire province. Japan quits the League, Britain takes no action.^[11][12]
• 1934. The Royal Navy sends ships to Tokyo to take part in a naval parade in honour of the late Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō, one of Japan's greatest naval heroes, the "Nelson of the East".
• 1937. The Kamikaze, a prototype of the Mitsubishi Ki-15, travels from Tokyo to London, the first Japanese-built aircraft to land in Europe, for the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.
• 1938 Yokohama Specie Bank acquired HSBC.^[13]
• 1939. The Tientsin Incident almost causes an Anglo-Japanese war when the Japanese blockade the British concession in Tientsin, China.
• 1941, December 7/8. Pacific War begins as the Japan attacks British possessions in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
• 1942, The surrender of Singapore is a humiliating defeat for the British; over hundred thousand Imperial soldiers become prisoners. Asian nationalists celebrate the victory over the Europeans.^[14]
• 1941–1945. In the first few months of war Japanese forces race from victory to victory. They capture British Borneo, Malaya, Burma, and Singapore. Many British POWs die in very harsh conditions of captivity.
• 1945, September 2. Aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Admiral Bruce Fraser is among the allied commanders formally accepting the surrender of Japan.
• 1945-1951, Japan is under American occupation, with only a small nominal role for the British representative.
• 1948. The 1948 Summer Olympics was held in London. Japan did not participate.
• 1951. Treaty of San Francisco – the peace treaty in which Anglo-Japanese relations were normalized. One condition of the treaty was Japan's acceptance of the judgements of the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal (Article 11).
• 1953. Nineteen-year-old Crown Prince Akihito, current Emperor, represents Japan at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II
• 1953. The British Council in Japan was established.
• 1957. Japanese Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi decided to compensate the government of France and Banque de l'Indochine in pound sterling.^[15]
• 1963. The University of Oxford set Japanese as a subject in its Oriental Institute (the Sub-Faculty of East Asian Studies).
• 1966. The Beatles played at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo to overwhelming adulation. This performance emphasized growing good will between Britain and Japan in their foreign relations policies.
• 1971. HIM Emperor Hirohito pays a state visit to the United Kingdom after an interval of 50 years.^[16]
• 1975. Queen Elizabeth II pays a state visit to Japan.^[17]
• 1978. Beginning of the BET scheme (British Exchange Teaching Programme) first advocated by Nicholas MacLean.^[18]
• 1980's The British-Japanese Parliamentary Group was established in Britain in early 1980's.^[19]
• 1983. Naruhito (now Japan's Crown Prince) studied at Merton College, Oxford until 1985, and researched transport on the River Thames.
• 1986. Nissan Motors began to operate its car plant in Sunderland, as Nissan Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd.
• 1986. The Prince and Princess of Wales conducted a successful royal visit.
• 1987. JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) program starts when the BET scheme and the Fulbright scholarship are merged.
• 1988. The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation established.
• 1990. The Alumni Association for British JET Participants JETAA UK is established
• 1991. The first Sumo tournament to be held outside Japan is hosted at the Royal Albert Hall in London.^[20]
• 1998. Emperor Akihito pays a state visit to the United Kingdom.^[16][21]

21st century

• 2001. The year-long "Japan 2001" cultural-exchange project saw a major series of Japanese cultural, educational and sporting events held around the UK.
• 2001 JR West gifts a 0 Series Shinkansen (No. 22-141) to the National Railway Museum at York, she is the only one of her type to be preserved outside Japan.
• 2007. HIM Emperor Akihito pays his second state visit to the United Kingdom.

Second Japan-UK Foreign and Defence Ministerial Meeting on 8 January 2016 in Tokyo.

• 2011. UK sends over rescue men with rescue dogs and supplies to help the Japanese, after the 11 March 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.
• 2012. A UK trade delegation to Japan, led by Prime Minister David Cameron, announces an agreement to jointly develop weapons systems.
• February 2015. Prince William, Duke of Cambridge on an official visit tours areas devastated by the 2011 Tsunami including Fukushima, Ishinomaki, and Onagawa.^[22]
• September 2016. Citing concerns for Japanese owned business operating in the United Kingdom in the wake of the European Union membership referendum, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs directly issues a 15-page memorandum on its own website requesting that the British Government strike a Brexit agreement safeguarding UK’s current trading rights in the European Single Market.^[23]

See also the chronology on the website of British Embassy, Tokyo.^[24]

Ministers Plenipotentiaries

• Terashima Munenori 1872-1873
• Kagenori Ueno 1874-1879
• Mori Arinori 1880-1884
• Masataka Kawase 1884-1893
• Aoki Shūzō 1894
• Katō Takaaki 1895-1900
• Hayashi Tadasu 1900-1905

Ambassadors

• Hayashi Tadasu 1905-1906
• Komura Jutarō 1906-1908
• Katō Takaaki 2nd time, 1908–1912
• Katsunosuke Inoue 1913-1916
• Chinda Sutemi 1916-1920
• Gonsuke Hayashi 1920-1925
• Keishiro Matsui 1925-1928
• Matsudaira Tsuneo 1929-1935
• Shigeru Yoshida 1936-1938
• Mamoru Shigemitsu 1938-1941
• Shunichi Matsumoto 1952-1955
• Haruhiko Nishi 1955-1957
• Katsumi Ōno 1958-1964
• Morio Yukawa 1968-1972
• Haruki Mori 1972-?
• Masaki Orita 2001-2004
• Yoshiji Nogami 2004-2008
• Shin Ebihara 2008–2011
• Keiichi Hayashi 2011–2016
• Koji Tsuruoka 2016-present