ABSTRACT
T he history of the Japanese interest in the Ottoman empire during the nineteenth century reflects the motives, ideas and strategies entailed in Japan's entrance into the world of Great Power politics. After the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the new Japanese government sought to establish relations with the Ottoman Porte and started sending various missions to the Ottoman region that had territories which spread over the Balkans and the Near East. This paper is based upon the travel accounts and reports of the Japanese visitors to the region. It focuses on the character of the Japanese interest in the Ottoman empire, a declining old world empire which was once a formidable power in the sixteenth century, but now increasingly threatened by the involvement of the Great Powers in its affairs which was known as the Eastern Question.1
