Japanese in the United Kingdom

The Japanese community in the United Kingdom are British citizens or permanent residents of Japanese birth, ancestry or citizenship.

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 identifying 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 in North London. There are currently just over 100,000 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

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,^[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 2011, 38,000 people born in Japan were resident in the UK, the 43rd most popular segment of the overseas-born population, and 33,000 Japanese citizens were resident in the UK, the 39th most popular group of overseas nationals.^[5] According to the 2011 Census, there are 35,043 people of solely or partially Japanese ethnicity living in England and Wales,^[6] 1,245 in Scotland,^[7] and 90 in Northern Ireland.^[8]

Japanese is the primary language of Japan, and the 2011 Census found that 27,764 people in England and Wales spoke Japanese as their main language, 27,305 of them in England alone, and 17,050 in London alone.^[9] The 2011 Census also found that 83 people in Northern Ireland spoke Japanese as their main language.^[10]

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 citizens born in the UK of Japanese ancestry

• Iain Duncan Smith – politician, former Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, former leader of the Conservative Party, whose maternal great-grandmother was a Japanese living in China^[11]
• Miki Berenyi – singer, of mixed Japanese and Hungarian ancestry
• China Chow – actress, of mixed East Asian and European ancestry
• MiChi (Michiko Sellars) – dance-pop singer in Japan
• Jun Tanaka - TV chef of Channel 4's Cooking It

United Kingdom residents born in Japan

• Taka Hirose – bassist, of the band Feeder
• Togo Igawa – actor
• Kazuo Ishiguro – novelist
• Haruka Kuroda – actress
• Kaoru Mfaume – entertainment producer
• Naoko Mori – actress
• Dame Mitsuko Uchida - pianist
• Diana Yukawa – violinist
• Asami Zdrenka - member of British girlband Neon Jungle

Education

Primary and secondary schools

Japanese School in London

Many state and independent schools in the United Kingdom serve Japanese children. As of 2013 about 10-20% of Japanese school-age residents in the United Kingdom attend full-time Japanese international schools. These schools include the Japanese School in London, the boarding school Rikkyo School in England and the boarding school Teikyo School United Kingdom.^[12]

The Shi-Tennoji School (英国四天王寺学園, Eikoku Shitennōji Gakuen) in Suffolk was in operation from 1985 to its date of closing,^[13] 17 July 2000.^[14] The Gyosei International School UK in Milton Keynes closed in 2002, after 15 years of operation.^[15]

Post-secondary education

The Teikyo school maintains the Lafcadio Hearn Cultural Centre at the University of Durham.^[12]

A boarding college in Winchester, Hampshire, the Winchester Shoei College at the University of Winchester (formerly Shoei Centre at King Alfred's College), is an affiliate of the Shoei Gakuin. It opened in 1982.^[16][17]

Gyosei International College in the U.K. opened in 1989 in Reading, Berkshire on land formerly controlled by the University of Reading and its name later changed to the Witan International College. In 2004 the University of Reading announced that it took control of the Witan college.^[18]

Supplementary education

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) has eight Saturday Japanese supplementary schools in operation. As of 2013, 2,392 Japanese children in Cardiff, Derby, Edinburgh (school is in Livingston), Leeds, London, Manchester (school is in Lymm), Sunderland, and Telford attend these schools.^[12][19]

See also

• Japanese diaspora
• Japan–United Kingdom relations
• Japan Society of the UK
• Japanese students in the United Kingdom
• Japan–British Exhibition
• Japanese community of London

Notes

References

• Conte-Helm, Marie. The Japanese and Europe: Economic and Cultural Encounters (Bloomsbury Academic Collections). A&C Black, 17 December 2013. ISBN 1780939809, 9781780939803.
• 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

Japanese diaspora and Japanese expatriates
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Generations	Issei (immigrants) Nisei (second generation) Sansei (third generation) Yonsei (fourth generation) Gosei (fifth generation)
Related articles	Dekasegi Foreign-born Japanese The Japanese and Europe The Japanese in Latin America Japantown Hoshū jugyō kō (list) New Worlds, New Lives Nihonjin gakkō