Japanese in the United Kingdom

Japanese in the United Kingdom

Notable Britons of Japanese origin: Taka Hirose, Kazuo Ishiguro, Naoko Mori, Miki Berenyi, Diana Yukawa
Total population
Japanese-born residents 37,535 (2001 UK Census) 34,000 (2009 ONS estimate) Japanese nationals 50,864 (2002 Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs estimate)
Regions with significant populations
Greater London and South East England
Languages
British English, Japanese
Religion
Mahayana Buddhism, Shinto, Christianity

Japanese in the United Kingdom are citizens or full time residents of the United Kingdom whose origins lie in Japan.

Background

An advertisement for the 1910 Japan-British Exhibition which aimed to create greater awareness of the Japanese community in the UK as well as Japanese culture in general

History and settlement

Settlement first began in the late 19th Century with the arrival of Japanese professionals, students and their servants. 264 citizens of Japan resided in Britain in 1884, the majority of whom identified themselves as officials and students. Employment diversified in the early 1900s with the growth of the Japanese community, which exceeded five hundred people by the close of the first decade of the 20th Century.

As tensions escalated between Japan and the UK throughout the course of World War II, some Japanese left their home country to come to the United Kingdom. Another wave of immigration began in the 1960s, mainly for business and economic purposes. In recent decades this number has been growing; including immigrants, students, and businessmen. Parts of the United Kingdom, in particular London, have significant Japanese populations; such as Golders Green and East Finchley North London. There are currently just over one hundred thousand British Japanese, mostly in London; but unlike other Nikkei communities elsewhere in the world, these Britons do not conventionally parse their communities in generational terms as Issei, Nisei, or Sansei.

Students

The first Japanese students in the United Kingdom arrived in the nineteenth century, sent to study at University College London by the Chōshū and Satsuma domains, then the Bakufu (Shogunate). Later many studied at Cambridge University and a smaller number at Oxford University until the end of the Meiji era. The reason for sending them was to catch up with the West by modernizing Japan. Since the 1980s, Japanese students in the United Kingdom have become common thanks to cheaper air travel.

Demographics

The Nipponzan-Myōhōji temple in Milton Keynes

According to the 2001 UK Census, 37,535 Japanese born people were residing in the UK, whilst the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs estimates that 50,864 Japanese nationals were calling the UK home in 2002. The Office for National Statistics estimates that, in 2009, 34,000 people born in Japan were resident in the UK.

Japanese is the primary language of Japan, and one website Ethnologue.com estimates that 12,000 people in the UK have Japanese as their primary language.

Notable individuals

Below is a list of notable British people of Japanese origin, temporary individuals and expatriates are not included and can be found at Category:Japanese expatriates in the United Kingdom.

British born people of Japanese descent

• Iain Duncan Smith - politician, current Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, former leader of the Conservative Party; maternal great-grandmother was Japanese
• Miki Berenyi - Singer of Japanese and Hungarian heritage
• China Chow - Actress of mixed Asian-European ethnicity
• Jun Tanaka - TV chef of Channel 4's Cooking It
• Kaela Kimura - Japanese singer. British father and Japanese mother.
• MiChi (Real name Michiko Sellars) - Popular Japanese Dance-Pop singer
• Becky (television personality) - Popular television personality, model, and aspiring singer. Father is Welsh, mother is Japanese.

Japanese immigrants to the United Kingdom

• Taka Hirose - Bassist of the band Feeder who has lived in the UK since the early 1990s
• Kazuo Ishiguro - Novelist born in Japan in 1954 and moved to the UK in 1960
• Hokuto "Hok" Konishi - Member of the American Breakdancing group Quest Crew (Born in Japan, raised in England).
• Haruka Kuroda - The London actress is most noted for being the voice of Noodle (Gorillaz)
• Kaoru Mfaume - Entertainment producer who was raised and educated in the UK
• Naoko Mori - Actress who has spent the majority of her adult life living and working in the UK
• Diana Yukawa - Violinist born in Japan although has lived in the UK since the age of two
• Tadanari Lee - is a Japanese football player of Korean descent who plays for Southampton FC in the Football League Championship

See also

• Japanese diaspora
• Japan – United Kingdom relations
• Japan Society of London
• Japanese students in the United Kingdom
• Japan-British Exhibition (1910)

References

• Itoh, Keiko (2001), The Japanese Community in Pre-War Britain, RoutledgeCurzon ISBN 0-7007-1487-1

External links

• The Japan Foundation
• UK Japanese forum
• Reassessing what we collect website - Japanese London History of Japanese London with objects and images