THE CORE OF this book shows how the study of Japan has developed in a number of British universities, but almost all of that development took place after the Second World War. Before the War, the study of Japan, such as it was, was spread very thinly and achieved most of its successes in terms of research and publication outside the universities. Although it is, of course, true that the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) began teaching Japanese in 1917, in the entire pre-War period only two students graduated with degrees in Japanese, one in 1938 and the other in 1939; on the other hand, many others took short courses, including Army and Navy officers, and the foundations of the university teaching of Japanese in Britain were laid down at SOAS.

The fact is, however, that few undergraduates were drawn to the study of the Japanese language before the War, even though the history of the flourishing Japan Society founded in London in 1891 shows that there was already a lot of interest in Japan. A small number of British men and women acquired a good knowledge of Japanese in Japan over the subsequent decades, but, after 1941, wartime requirements dramatically transformed the need for and the value of people with a reliable knowledge of the language, and this led to the introduction of accelerated courses to increase the supply. Many of those whose introduction to Japanese and the study of Japan came about in this way went on to play a fundamental role in the development of Japanese studies in the universities after the War. This chapter will present an overview from the beginnings in the nineteenth century up to the present day, taking into account changes in government policy and examining the prospects for the future.

BEFORE 1941

William Adams (1564–1620), thought to have been the first English person to visit Japan, seems to have learnt to speak Japanese during his long residence in Japan from 1600 to his death 1620, but it is highly unlikely that he learnt to read Japanese and no clear sign of his Japanese literacy survives.