The Japanese in Britain

For about four decades after 1866, when foreign travel was finally allowed by the Tokugawa bakufu, the Japanese in Britain consisted mainly of students and government officials. The students were mostly of samurai stock who would return to Japan after their studies abroad to become leaders in government, industry or education. A large portion of government officials were naval engineers and officers, in Britain to supervise the building of Japanese naval vessels in British shipyards. The Japanese population of about 250 was concentrated not only in London, but significantly in Scotland and the Northeast of England. It was only in the first decade of the 1900s that increased Japanese business and banking activities made London the centre of the Japanese community, which became more and more diverse in composition as opportunities for foreign travel, however limited, expanded. By the inter-war period, which this study focuses on, the Japanese in Britain were a diverse group, ranging from acrobats to aristocrats. In numbers, they grew significantly from the earlier years, but never reached more than a total population of 1,800 in a given year. Anywhere between a quarter to half of the population were long-term settlers as opposed to a transient population whose stay in Britain was less than a few years. ¹ There was never any mass Japanese immigration to Britain or other European countries as there was to the United States and Latin America, where many Japanese from the agricultural prefectures in the south-west of Japan landed. In general, those who came to Britain, as those who went to other American and European cities, were more urban and better educated, who left Japan to pursue business opportunities, or to farther their education and training, and in some cases to seek new experiences and fortune. Most arrived intending to stay for a limited period and then to return to their home country, as was the case with many immigrants, regardless of social status, the world over.