ANNIVERSARY
www.robertwalters.co.jp Anjin: The Shogun and the English Samurai marked the opening of the Japan400 Festival.
www.sihm.co.jp
1989
Within the year, some 50 Japanese firms invest in the UK—a high point for economic relations.
1990
UK90, a three-month festival, promotes cultural relations between the UK and Japan.
1991
The Japanese government holds a Japanese festival in the UK, for the first time bringing many Britons into contact with aspects of Japanese culture.
1995
The foreign ministers of both countries endorse a UK–Japan action agenda. It proposes concrete ways of developing bilateral co-operation. The regularly reviewed and updated document continues to underpin the development of the relationship.
1998
The British government, together with the British Council, holds UK98, a UK festival in Japan. The prime minister, Tony Blair, visits Japan to launch the festival and, during the year, Emperor Akihito pays a state visit to the UK.
1999
The UK opens the British Trade Promotion Office in Fukuoka, Kyushu, following the 1995 opening of the British Consulate in Nagoya.
2001
Ten years after the first festival of Japan in the UK, the Japanese government holds Japan 2001—its second such year-long event. Crown Prince Naruhito visits the UK to attend the opening ceremony with the Prince of Wales.
2002
To celebrate the centenary of the Anglo–Japanese alliance, the British Embassy Tokyo launches a campaign to plant English oak trees in every Japanese prefecture.
2008
Celebrations mark the 150th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the UK and Japan—dating back to the 1858 Anglo–Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce. To mark the event, the UK government holds UK–Japan 2008, to honour what is best in terms of the creative and contemporary UK, as well as to promote UK–Japan collaboration.
2013
Japan400 recognises the 400th anniversary since the presentation of credentials from King James I to Tokugawa Ieyasu.
www.toptechinfo.com
www.wedgwood.jp
The 150th anniversary of the Choshu Five’s visit to the UK. http://japan400.com Facebook: Japan400 Twitter: Japan400dotcom
18 | BCCJ ACUMEN | MAY 2013