Alexander Allan Shand (1844-1930) taught Japanese bankers the elements of Western banking, auditing and accounting, and later smoothed the way for the Japanese government to borrow on the London money market.

This essay offers an account and analysis of the career of one of the most charismatic and forwardthinking leaders in the Japanese Securities Industry, Chino Yoshitoki's (1923-2004), along with his work with the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation.

Edward Heath (1916-2005) was the first British Prime Minister to make an official visit to Japan. This essay details Heath's 1972 visit and its aftermath.

Key figures from the British merchant banking community in Japan reflect on the experience of doing business there, and on the changing market from the 1950s to '80s.

Expo '70 was the first world's fair held in Japan, and was given the theme 'Progress and Harmony for Mankind'. Here three helpers from the British Pavilion and Peter Martin of the British Council recreate the atmosphere of the event.

A writer, journalist and businessman, Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835-1901) made a significant contribution to Meiji Japan, and a personal fortune in the process.

Hisaakira Kanō's (1886-1963) family rode the tide of a rapidly changing Japan, being open to Western ways and modern thinking, but responding in ways that were rooted in his traditional samurai background.

Ian Nish had been in Japan during the Occupation, and in the late 1950s was a lecturer at Sydney University. He visited Japan every year from 1957 to '63 for research.

This essay charts the controversial life and political career of Inoue Kaoru (1836-1915) of the ChōshÅ« Five and one of the most powerful figures of the Meiji period. A man who epitomized the world of the oligarchs; the immense power wielded by a select few.

Taking Count Matsukata Masayoshi as a key figure, this portrait details Japanese efforts to attain both the Gold Standard and the respect of the London financial circles.

A consideration of George Allen's (1900-1982) career as an economist and lecturer in Japan. 

This essay gives an overview to some of the prominent businessmen who spent significant parts of their careers in Britain.

This essay provides an account of sociologist Keith Thurley's (1931-92) lifelong commitment to industrial cooperation between Europe and Asia, and to the study of contemporary Japan.

Across Lord Eric Roll's (1907-2005) work as economist, investment banker and civil servant lie dealings with Japan. This essay provides an account and analysis of those dealings.

Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013) played a significant role in promoting Japanese manufacturing investment in Britain and opening up the Japanese markets, and ensured that Britain was no longer seen as suffering from what the Japanese called eikokubyō (the English disease).

A Japanese account of the Anglo-Japanese Commercial Treaty.

Michio Morishima (1923-2004) was one of Japan's few internationally renowned economists in the second half of the twentieth century. This portrait details his life and career both in and oustide of Japan, which he left due to dissatisfaction with the academic establishment.

Mike Perry headed Unilever's joint venture in Japan from 1981 to '83 and went on to lead various British campaigns to export to Japan. Here he describes his experiences in Japan in the early 1980s.

This portrait presents the long political career of staunch internationalist Miyazawa Kiichi (1919-2007), who served in the National Diet from 1953 to 2003, and was appointed Prime Minister in 1991. This essay considers his brand of politics in relation to that prevailing in British politics at the time.

Nitobe Inazō (1862-1933) was Japan's first international civil servant at the League of Nations. This essay deals with Nitobe’s experiences in the secretariat of the League during its early days in London.

The essay details the respect and attention Norman Macrae (1921-2010) was given by Japanese economists and politicians for his remarkable insights into the Japanese economy as deputy editor of the Economist, even though he spoke no Japanese and had never lived in Japan.

ÅŒtsuka Hisao (1907-1996) was a pioneering scholar of Western economic and political history and a celebrated intellectual in post-war Japan.

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.

The importance of attracting capital investment to Britain was increasingly recognised by British governments from the 1970s onwards. Businessman Peter Parker became closely involved with Japanese investment in Britain. Here he recounts his later experiences with Japan and considers the future.

Shortly before his resignation as Prime Minister in 1954 Yoshida Shigeru visited Britain. This essay examines the political controversy surrounding Yoshida's visit, as well as the visit itself and an assessment of its success.

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

Banker Peter Hand reflects on the changed circumstances for British banks in Japan from the post war period to the 1980s.

Richard Storry was in Japan teaching before the war, and afterwards was a research fellow in Oxford. This chapter details his 1958 visit to Japan to collect material on Prince Fumimaro Konoye, Japanese Prime Minister from 1937 to '39 and 1940 to '41. It also describes a visit made in 1973, at the height of the oil crisis.

Malcolm MacDonald (1901-81) presided over an era of Anglo-Japanese relations during which he was forced to consider Japan's position post Second World War and its impact upon the British Empire. This essay acknowledges his relative ambivelance towards Japan, but also his key role in diplomacy with the country.

Concerning Sir Francis Rundall's (1908-1987) time as ambassador to Japan overseeing the confrontation between Indonesia and Malaysia in 1963, the Olympic games in 1964 and the British Exhibition at Harumi in 1965.

This profile considers equally Sir George Sansom's (1883-1965) career as a diplomat, in which he pioneered the serious study of the Japanese economy, and historian. 

This profile considers equally Sir George Sansom's (1883-1965) career as a diplomat, scholar and historian. 

This essay describes how Sir John Pilcher (1912-90), as British ambassador in Japan between 1967 and 1972, helped to revive Anglo-Japanese friendship after the Second World War and was long remembered with affection both in Japan and by his friends and colleagues.

This essay describes how Sir John Pilcher (1912-1990), as British ambassador in Japan between 1967 and 1972, helped to revive Anglo-Japanese friendship after the Second World War and was long remembered with affection both in Japan and by his friends and colleagues.

This essay recalls the circumstances in which the the Anglo-Japanese Commercial Treaty of 1962 was made and its implications for trade between the two countries.

The history of the Yokohama Specie Bank in London provides a useful window into Japan's pre-war efforts to establish herself as a first-rate modernized empire. This essay considers how the bank reflects Japan's bold strides into the financial centre of the world, London.

Eric Elstob looks back on over thirty years in Japan in a career that started with the Foreign and Colonial Investment Trust. Meanwhile, Dugald Barr was recruited in 1969 by Vickers, da Costa, a company that was among the first to invest in the Tokyo market, to conduct research and open their Japan office, the first of a London broker in Japan. With Haruko Fukuda, he built up the largest business of any foreign broker in Japan. Here he racalls his experiences.

Before the 1970s there seemed to be little scope for British financial services in the closed Japanese market. Japanese membership of the OECD, however, forced gradual changes, along with internal pressure from Japanese companies wanting access to foreign loans. Here Chris Elston, who joined the British Embassy as Financial Counsellor in 1979 recalls his time as Bank of England representative in Japan, and reflects on both the state of Japan's banking system and general accounting practices in the years leading up to the crisis. Meanwhile, Geoffrey Little of HM Treasury gives an account of negotiations to ensure that Britain kept pace with American financial institutions in Japan.