Japanese students in the United Kingdom

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 period. 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.

Chōshū Five (1863)

At University College London supervised by Professor Alexander William Williamson

• Ito Shunsuke (later Ito Hirobumi)
• Inoue Monta (later Inoue Kaoru)
• Nomura Yakichi (later Inoue Masaru)
• Endo Kinsuke
• Yamao Yozo

Satsuma students (1865)

15 Satsuma students, one from Tosa and one from Nagasaki. Two supervisors (ometsuke). This group also studied at University College London which was open to students of all religions.

• Mori Arinori
• Godai Tomoatsu
• Terashima Munenori
• Sameshima Naonobu
• Nagasawa Kanae
• Yoshida Kiyonari
• Nomura Fumio
• Ishimaru Torogoro
• Mawatari Hachiro

and others

Bakufu students (1866)

Supervisors:

• Kawaji Taro
• Nakamura Keisuke

Students: (12)

• Naruse Jogoro
• Toyama Sutehachi,
• Mitsukuri Keigo
• Fukuzawa Einosuke (no relation of Fukuzawa Yukichi)
• Hayashi Tozaburo (later Hayashi Tadasu)
• Ito Shonosuke
• Okukawa Ichiro
• Yasui Shinpachiro
• Mitsukuri Dairoku (later Kikuchi Dairoku)
• Ichikawa Morisaburo
• Sugi Tokujiro
• Iwasa Genji

Students in the Meiji era

Cambridge University

• Kikuchi Dairoku
• Suematsu Kencho
• Inagaki Manjiro
• Okura Kishichiro
• Tanaka Ginnosuke

Oxford University

• Hachisuka Mochiaki
• Nanjo Bunyu - professor of Sanskrit at Tokyo University
• Takakusu Junjiro

Naval trainees

• Togo Heihachiro

Other

• Takamine Jokichi

After World War II

• Katsuhiko Oku, Oxford
• Hisashi Owada, Cambridge
• Hirotaro Yoshikawa, Birmingham

See also

• Japan–United Kingdom relations

References

• Cobbing, Andrew. The Japanese Discovery of Victorian Britain. RoutledgeCurzon, London, 1998. ISBN 1-873410-81-6
• Cobbing, Andrew. The Satsuma Students in Britain: Japan's Early Search for the Essence of the West. Curzon Press, 2000. ISBN 1-873410-97-2
• Japanese Students at Cambridge University in the Meiji Era, 1868-1912: Pioneers for the Modernization of Japan, by Noboru Koyama, translated by Ian Ruxton [1], (Lulu Press, September 2004, ISBN 1-4116-1256-6).
• Gardiner, Michael. At the Edge of Empire: The Life of Thomas B. Glover. Birlinn, Edinburgh, 2007. ISBN 1-84158-544-0