Japanese community 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 |
| Religion |
|
Mahayana Buddhism, Shintoism, Protestantism, Roman Catholicism |
The Japanese community in the United Kingdom are British citizens and permanent residents of Japanese birth, descent or citizenship.
Contents |
Background [edit]
History and settlement [edit]
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.[1] 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.[1]
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.[2]
Students [edit]
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 [edit]
According to the 2001 UK Census, 37,535 Japanese born people were residing in the UK,[3] whilst the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs estimates that 50,864 Japanese nationals were calling the UK home in 2002.[4] The Office for National Statistics estimates that, in 2009, 34,000 people born in Japan were resident in the UK.[5]
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.[6]
Notable individuals [edit]
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.
United-Kingdom-born British citizens of Japanese descent
- Iain Duncan Smith - Politician, currently the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, former leader of the Conservative Party, whose maternal great-grandmother was a Japanese living in China. [7]
- Miki Berenyi - Singer, of mixed Japanese and Hungarian descent.
- China Chow - Actress, of mixed East Asian and European descent.
- MiChi (Michiko Sellars) - Dance-Pop singer in Japan.
- Jun Tanaka - TV chef of Channel 4's Cooking It.
Japanese immigrants to the United Kingdom
- Taka Hirose - Bassist, of the band Feeder.
- Togo Igawa - Actor.
- Kazuo Ishiguro - Novelist.
- Haruka Kuroda - Actress.
- Kaoru Mfaume - Entertainment producer.
- Naoko Mori - Actress.
- Diana Yukawa - Violinist.
See also [edit]
- Japanese diaspora
- Japan–United Kingdom relations
- Japan Society of the UK
- Japanese students in the United Kingdom
- Japan–British Exhibition
Notes [edit]
- ^ a b Itoh (2001), p1
- ^ Itoh, p. 7.
- ^ "Country-of-birth database". Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Retrieved 2008-12-08.
- ^ "Japan-UK relations". Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. October 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-08.
- ^ "Estimated population resident in the United Kingdom, by foreign country of birth (Table 1.3)". Office for National Statistics. September 2009. Retrieved 8 July 2010.
- ^ [1]
- ^ Tempest, Matthew. "Duncan Smith's secret samurai past," The Guardian (UK). 3 September 2001.
References [edit]
- Itoh, Keiko (2001), The Japanese Community in Pre-War Britain, RoutledgeCurzon ISBN 0-7007-1487-1
External links [edit]
- The Japan Foundation
- UK Japanese forum
- Reassessing what we collect website - Japanese London History of Japanese London with objects and images
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