This chapter details the life of Charles Wirgman (1835-1891) and his journalistic career in Japan, including as correspondant for the Illustrated London News and the founding of his satirical review the Japan Punch in Yokohoma. Wirgman was a key observer of the opening of the country, having arrived in 1861.

Carolyn Whitehead, wife of the British Ambassador, and David Powers, BBC correspondent in Japan at the time, recall the death of the Shōwa Emperor in 1989.

Ian Nish, later Professor at SOAS, gives an account of his work in the Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre, where he translated contemporary newspapers, along with documents from during the war, and was later involved in the first post-war elections.

This portrait discusses James Summers' (1828-91) contributions to the teaching of English Literature in Japan, along with a discussion of his work in relation to the Taisei Shimbun - one of the first Japanese language newspapers published outside of Japan.

This essay details the journalistic career and media entrepreneurialism within Japan of John Russell Kennedy.

William Gerard Beasley, subsequently a professor at SOAS, arrived in Japan in 1945 with the Americans. This chapter comprises extracts from a talk given on his experiences of the flurry of activity in the early occupation, particularly with regard to demilitarization and early post-war economics.

Prominent British journalists from the Guardian, The Times, the BBC and The Economist pick out the key themes from their time in Japan.

This essay considers three editors of the Japan Chronicle, among them two of the most perceptive writers on Japan anywhere, covering the period from 1891 to 1940.

Carolyn Whitehead, wife of the British Ambassador, and David Powers, BBC correspondent in Japan at the time, continue their account of the death of the Shōwa Emperor in 1989, with the enthronement of Emperor Akihito.

This volume was published on the occasion of the centenary of the Japan Society, and in this chapter Sir Hugh Cortazzi chronicles its hundred year history, from its founding at the 1891 Congress of Orientalists, via the two world wars and a number of royal visits, through to the 1991 Japan Festival and an assessment of the Society's then challenging state of affairs.