From the middle of the nineteenth century until today one of the myriad issues that has regularly crossed the desk of the secretary of state for foreign affairs is how to handle British relations with Japan. This relationship has taken on many facets; it has sometimes been close, most notably in the years of the Anglo-Japanese alliance between 1902 and 1922, but it has also had periods of hostility, reaching its peak during the Pacific War and its bitter aftermath. Sometimes, in its moments of high drama, it has warranted constant ministerial attention, but there have also been periods when its management has been left to the permanent officials in the Far Eastern Department of the Foreign Office and the legation/embassy in Tokyo and has rarely reached the foreign secretary's red box. It is also a relationship in which the key issues have changed over the years. Often it has been primarily a commercial relationship but there have also been periods in which it has taken on great strategic significance. This then is a relationship that has ebbed and flowed over the past century and a half perhaps to a greater degree than most.

In providing an overview to a volume which looks at how British foreign secretaries have interacted with the Japanese government over a period of one hundred and seventy years, it is important before surveying the chronology of events to make some general remarks about the constant and the variable factors in the Anglo-Japanese relationship, as observations about the broad context can help to make sense of the story. Some of the comments that follow may seem obvious, but that very fact is why they tend to be overlooked.

The first thing to point out is that the varied nature of Anglo-Japanese relations is a simple reflection of geography; after all, the home islands of these two countries are very far apart. In the age of high imperialism this aspect was mitigated by the fact that Britain possessed Asian colonies and had extensive trading interests in China. At this point, Britain's territorial stake in Asia clearly meant that the question of whether Japan was a friend or an enemy had considerable significance; although even then, it should be noted, that it was never easy to extend British power as far as the West Pacific.