Japanese in the United Kingdom

• Japanese in the UK

The Brighton Japan Festival in 2011
Total population
UK residents born in Japan 43,000 (2015 ONS estimate) Japanese nationals residing in the UK 67,258 (2014 MOFA estimate)[1]
Regions with significant populations
Greater London and South East England
Languages
Japanese and British English
Religion
Mahayana Buddhism, Shinto, Protestantism, Confucianism, Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Anglicanism

Japanese in the United Kingdom include British citizens of Japanese ancestry (Japanese: 日系イギリス人, Hepburn: Nikkei Igirisujin) or permanent residents of Japanese birth or citizenship, as well as expatriate business professionals and their dependents on limited-term employment visas, students, trainees and young people participating in the UK government-sponsored Youth Mobility Scheme.

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 identifying as officials and students.^[2] 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.^[2]

As tensions escalated between Japan and the United Kingdom in the buildup to World War II, some Japanese left their home country to settle in Britain while many more returned to Japan. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and assault on Hong Kong in December 1941, 114 Japanese men including expatriate businessmen and merchant seamen were detained as enemy aliens on the Isle of Man.^[3]

In the post-war era, new waves of immigration emerged in the 1960s, mainly for business and economic purposes. In recent decades this number has grown; including immigrants, students, and businessmen. In 2014 the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs estimated that there were 67,258 Japanese nationals resident in the United Kingdom^[1] For British nationals of Japanese heritage, unlike other Nikkei communities elsewhere in the world, these Britons do not conventionally parse their communities in generational terms as Issei, Nisei, or Sansei.^[4]

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]

Parts of the United Kingdom, in particular London, have significant Japanese populations, such as Golders Green and East Finchley in North London. Derbyshire has a significant Japanese population due to its Toyota plant, and is twinned with Toyota, Aichi.^[5] Similarly Telford is home to numerous Japanese firms.^[6]

According to the 2001 UK Census, 37,535 Japanese born people were residing in the UK,^[7] whilst the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs estimates that 50,864 Japanese nationals were calling the UK home in 2002.^[8] In the 2011 Census, 35,313 people in England specified their country of birth as Japan, 601 in Wales,^[9] 1,273 in Scotland^[10] and 144 in Northern Ireland.^[11] 35,043 people living in England and Wales chose to write in Japanese in response to the ethnicity question,^[12] 1,245 in Scotland,^[13] and 90 in Northern Ireland.^[14] The Office for National Statistics estimates that, in 2015, 43,000 people born in Japan were resident in the UK.^[15]

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.^[16] The 2011 Census also found that 83 people in Northern Ireland spoke Japanese as their main language.^[17]

Organisations[edit]

The Japan Society and Japan Foundation support cultural programmes about Japanese culture.^[18]

Notable individuals[edit]

Below is a list of notable British people of Japanese heritage. 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

• Miki Berenyi – singer, of mixed Hungarian and Japanese ancestry
• China Chow – actress, of mixed European and East Asian ancestry
• Esprit D'Air – rock band with various musicians of Japanese ancestry
• Hanako Footman – actress and writer, of mixed English and Japanese ancestry
• Simon Fujiwara - artist
• Adam Nathaniel Furman – artist and designer
• Andrew Koji – actor and martial artist of mixed English and Japanese ancestry, known for The Innocents and Warrior^[19]
• MiChi (Michiko Sellars) – dance-pop singer in Japan
• Naomi J. Ogawa – actress, of mixed British and Japanese ancestry
• Jasmine Rodgers - lead singer of English alternative rock band Bôa
• Steve Rodgers - guitarist of English alternative rock band Bôa
• Will Sharpe – actor of mixed English and Japanese ancestry
• Georgie Yukiko Donovan - documentary director of mixed English and Japanese ancestry

British citizens born overseas of Japanese ancestry (as well as Japanese citizens) in the UK

• Kae Alexander - actress
• Haruka Abe - actress
• Sarah Bonito – lead singer of South London band Kero Kero Bonito
• Taka Hirose – bassist, of the band Feeder
• Togo Igawa – actor
• Sir Kazuo Ishiguro – novelist, 2017 Nobel Prize in Literature winner
• Haruka Kuroda – actress
• Akiko Matsuura - drummer, lead singer of the band Pre
• Eleanor Matsuura – actress
• Matt McCooey – actor
• Kaoru Mfaume – entertainment producer
• Naoko Mori – actress
• Sonoya Mizuno – actress, known for Ex Machina and La La Land
• Hinako Omori - musician
• Rina Sawayama – singer
• Takehiro Tomiyasu - footballer
• Dame Mitsuko Uchida – pianist
• Hikaru Utada - singer
• Diana Yukawa – violinist
• Asami Zdrenka – former member of British girlband Neon Jungle

Other

• Jun Tanaka – American born TV chef of Channel 4's Cooking It
• Scott MacKenzie, darts player, born in Brazil to mixed Japanese and Scottish parentage
• Yoko Ono – Japanese artist

Education[edit]

Primary and secondary schools[edit]

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 curriculum-based international schools.^[20] These schools include the Japanese School in London, and the boarding schools Rikkyo School in England and Teikyo School United Kingdom.^[21]

The Shi-Tennoji School in Suffolk was in operation from 1985 to its date of closing,^[22] 17 July 2000.^[23] The Gyosei International School UK in Milton Keynes closed in 2002, after 15 years of operation.^[24]

Post-secondary education[edit]

London

Rikkyo

Teikyo

Gyosei

Shi-Tennoji

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Locations of day schools (nihonjin gakko and shiritsu zaigai kyoiku shisetsu) in England (grey dots represent closed schools)

The Teikyo school maintains Teikyo University of Japan in Durham at the Lafcadio Hearn Cultural Centre at the University of Durham.^[21]

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.^[25][26]

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.^[27]

Supplementary education[edit]

London

Derby

Canterbury

Cardiff

Edinburgh

Leeds

Manchester

Newcastle

Telford

class=notpageimage|

Locations of supplementary schools (hoshū jugyō kō) in the United Kingdom (red dots represent schools with MEXT funding with Wikipedia articles, blue dots represent those schools without Wikipedia articles, and green dots represent schools without MEXT funding (all without Wikipedia articles)

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 Canterbury, Cardiff, Derby, Edinburgh (school is in Livingston), Leeds, London, Manchester (school is in Lymm), Sunderland (school is in Oxclose), and Telford attend these schools.^[21][28]

• Derby Japanese School (ダービー日本人補習校, Dābī Nihonjin Hoshūkō) - Morley, Erewash, Derbyshire^[29]
• Japanese Saturday School in London
• Japanese School in Wales (ウェールズ補習授業校, Wēruzu Hoshū Jugyō Kō) - Cardiff^[30]
• Kent Japanese School (ケント日本語補習校, Kento Nihongo Hoshū Jugyō Kō) - Located in Canterbury^[31] - Its time of establishment is August 2005^[32]
• Manchester Japanese School (マンチェスター日本人補習授業校, Manchesutā Nihonjin Hoshū Jugyō Kō) - Lymm, Warrington, Cheshire^[33]
• North East of England Japanese Saturday School (北東イングランド補習授業校, Hokutō Ingurando Hoshū Jugyō Kō) - Oxclose, Tyne and Wear^[34] (near Newcastle-upon-Tyne)
• The Scotland Japanese School (スコットランド日本語補習授業校, Sukottorando Nihongo Hoshū Jugyō Kō)) - Livingston (near Edinburgh), established in 1982^[35]
• Telford Japanese School (テルフォード補習授業校, Terufōdo Hoshū Jugyō Kō) - Stirchley, Telford^[36]
• Yorkshire and Humberside Japanese School (ヨークシャーハンバーサイド日本語補習校, Yōkushā Hanbāsaido Nihongo Hoshūkō) — Leeds^[37]

See also[edit]

• British East and Southeast Asian
• Britons in Japan
• 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[edit]

References[edit]

• Conte-Helm, Marie (1996). The Japanese and Europe: Economic and Cultural Encounters (17 December 2013 ed.). Bloomsbury Academic Collections); A&C Black. ISBN 9781780939803. (ISBN 1780939809)
• 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
• Japanese Media based in the UK: Eikoku News Digest