First Published in 1996. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Parkes ruled the British legation to Meiji Japan with a commitment to work and the construction of a civilian Japan which aroused profound admiration and irritation among both Westerners and Japanese. First major study of Parkes since the Dickens/Lane-Poole 'Life' of 1894.

The Political-Diplomatic Dimension, 1600-1930, consists of parallel essays by Japanese and British academic specialists covering comprehensively the history of relations between Japan and Britain from the first contacts in the seventeenth century to the present. This study, and its companion, Volume 2, demonstrates that, in the political-diplomatic sphere, while there have been periods of serious disagreement, there has been on the whole a relationship of harmony and mutual understanding.

Comprehensive coverage of the diplomatic history in Japan of H.M. Representatives and the events that marked their period of office.

This book by a leading authority on Anglo-Japanese relations reconsiders the circumstances which led to the unlikely alliance of 1902 to 1922 between Britain, the leading world power of the day and Japan, an Asian, non-European nation which had only recently emerged from self-imposed isolation. Based on extensive original research the book goes beyond existing accounts which concentrate on high politics, strategy and simple assertions about the two countries’ similarities as island empires. It brings into the picture cultural factors, particularly the ways in which Japan was portrayed in Britain, and ambivalent British attitudes to race and supposed European superiority which were overcome but remained difficulties. It charts how the relationship developed as events unfolded, including Japan’s wars against China and Russia, and in addition looks at royal diplomacy, where the Japanese Court came eventually to be treated as a respected equal. Overall, the book provides a major reassessment of this important subject.

The continuing success of this series, highly regarded by scholars and the general reader alike, has prompted The Japan Society to commission this fourth volume, devoted as before to the lives of key people, both British and Japanese, who have made significant contributions to the development of Anglo-Japanese relations. The appearance of this volume brings the number of portraits published to over one hundred. The portraits cover diplomats (from Mori Arinori to Sir Francis Lindley), businessmen (from William Keswick to Lasenby Liberty), engineers and teachers (from W. E. Ayrton to Henry Spencer Palmer), scholars and writers (from Sir Edwin Arnold to Ivan Morris), as well as journalists, judo masters and the aviator Lord Semphill. In all, there are a total of 34 contributions.

A further 20 studies of key personalities, including Edmund Morel, Alexander Shand, Lafcadio Hearn, Rev. Dr. John Batchelor and, more recently, Shigeru Yoshida and Christmas Humphreys.