ABSTRACT
N.M. ROTHSCHILD traces its links with Japan to the early Meiji era. In 1937 all direct dealings by the bank with Japan were broken off. Contacts were resumed in 1949 and Rothschilds became correspondents for a number of Japanese banks. Soon after his arrival in London Takashi Ihara who became Financial Counsellor in the Japanese Embassy after the Peace Treaty came into force in 1952 was invited by N.M. Rothschild to lunch at New Court and friendly relations were established. As a result to quote EDMUND DE ROTHSCHILD in his memoir A Gilt-Edged Life (John Murray, 1988) ‘… we were more or less besieged by Japanese banks and securities houses desperate to re-establish connections in London. So we advised them on opening up London branches’ and Edmund ‘… used regularly to accompany Japanese bankers to interviews at the Bank of England’.
