The Japan Society of the UK

The Japan Society of London
Formation	1891
Type	Bilateral relations organisation
Purpose	Promote good relations between Japan and the UK
Location	London, Japan;
Region served	Japan, UK
Official language	English, Japanese
Website	http://www.japansociety.org.uk/

The Japan Society of the United Kingdom, founded in 1891, is an organisation that deals with British and Japanese relations. It is the oldest organisation dealing with relations between a European Country and Japan.

The society is also known as the Japan Society of London, or simply as The Japan Society.

History[]

A caricature (by Spy) of Arthur Diosy, founder of the Japan Society of London.

It grew out of a meeting of the International Congress of Orientalists held in London on 9 September 1891, when a resolution was passed calling for the formation of a society "for the encouragement of Japanese studies and for the purpose of bringing together all those in the United Kingdom and throughout the world who are interested in Japanese matters".

The society's founder, Arthur Diosy (1856-1923), was a rather debonair figure who spoke fluent Japanese and wrote several books including The New Far East'.^[1]

The Society's centenary was marked by The Japan Festival, the largest and most successful event of its kind ever to be staged, and its 110th anniversary has seen "Japan 2001".

Membership[]

The society reports that it has a membership in excess of 1000 individual and corporate members, 45% of which are Japanese.

Merger[]

In October 2007, the UK charity , merged into the society,^[2] which adopted its educational and grassroots activities relating to Japan, alongside the society's business-related, academic and cultural activities.