Japan’s Twenty-One Demands and Anglo–Japanese relations

This chapter examines the impact that Japan’s Twenty-One Demands towards China in 1915 had on Anglo–Japanese relations, mainly focusing on the conflict that emerged in diplomatic negotiations and newspaper reports. It attempts to re-examine how the diplomatic negotiations concerning the Twenty-One Demands proceeded and what impact they had on Anglo–Japanese relations. Japanese expansion in China clearly had the potential to damage existing British interests, but Japan was a British ally and Japanese support was necessary for maintaining the war against Germany. The Japanese government declared war on Germany on 23 August 1914 and took control of German possessions in Asia and the Pacific within three months. The Imperial Japanese Army also advocated that the government should take assertive measures to expand Japanese interests in China.