This sixth volume in the Britain and Japan series contains a total of thirty-three entries, thoughtfully and painstakingly compiled and edited by Hugh Cortazzi. The volume is divided up thematically and includes an Index of Biographical Portraits published to date by the Japan Society.

Annotation. There is no doubt that this sixth volume in the Japan Society & rsquo;s highly regarded Britain and Japan series contains many & lsquo;long overdue & rsquo; essays of leading personalities with links to Britain and Japan that will be welcomed by the researcher and general reader alike & ndash; from the opening essay on Churchill and Japan by Eiji Seki, to the concluding account by Rikki Kersten of the distinguished intellectual liberal Maruyama Masao & rsquo;s close relationship with Richard Storry and Oxford in particular and his interests in Britain in general. Containing a total of thirty-three entries, thoughtfully and painstakingly compiled and edited by Hugh Cortazzi, there may well be a case for arguing that the best has been kept until last. Indeed, by way of an & lsquo;Envoi & rsquo; the book concludes with an account of the Beatles visit to Tokyo in 1965, including a facsimile report for H M Government by the British Embassy & rsquo;s then first secretary, Dudley Cheke. Also of special interest are Hugh Cortazzi & rsquo;s portraits of Morita Akio and Honda Shoichiro, as well as John Hatcher & rsquo;s fascinating record of Ian Fleming & rsquo;s 1959 five-week visit to Japan on behalf of the Sunday Times. The volume is divided up thematically and includes an Index of Biographical Portraits published to date by the Japan Society, and by way of appendix, a highly significant report by Robin Mountfield on the Nissan Negotiations of 1980-84, which resulted in the biggest foreign investment in car manufacturing in Britain.

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.

This volume includes six themes: the Japan Society and imperial personalities; politicians and diplomats; naval officers; businessmen; poets, scholars and journalists; and long-term residents in Japan.

Annotation This volume of leading figures in the history of Anglo-Japanese relations offers a classic menu of personalities, themes and events.

This is the eighth and largest volume in the series Britain & Japan: Biographical Portraits published on behalf of The Japan Society, London. It contains essays from forty contributors relating to fifty-two portraits of personalities who have been influential in political, official and cultural relations between the two countries from the time of the Meiji Restoration to the present day. The volume is thematically structured in eight sections: Politicians and Officials; Lawyers; Artists, Art Collectors and Art Dealers; Potters and Garden Designers; Writers; Music, Sport, Film and Media; Scholars; Other Notable Individuals. In addition, the volume contains two appendices relating to The Times and Japan in the nineteenth century and a bibliography relating to publications from the Satow papers, together with two select bibliographies in English and Japanese which shed light on Britons who lived in Japan and Japanese who lived in Britain.