ABSTRACT
A significant turn in Meiji government policy had occurred, largely as a result of what the embassy had learned abroad. The report is important, too, because it reflects the outlook of the embassy members, among whom were included so many of the very leaders of the Meiji state. The Iwakura Embassy was the first official diplomatic mission abroad since the Meiji Restoration. It was the first Japanese mission designed according to the principles of Western diplomacy. It was perhaps the first mission in world history to include such a large proportion of a country’s leadership, sent abroad for an extended period at a time of national crisis. But it was not an entirely new idea. The Meiji government had been committed from the outset to rational, deliberate reform in all spheres. The specific objectives of the mission, as set forth in a letter from Prime Minister Sanjo Sanetomi to Foreign Minister Iwakura in October 1871, were threefold.
