The ambassador of the United Kingdom to Japan is the United Kingdom's foremost diplomatic representative in Japan, and is the head of the UK's diplomatic mission there.

The following is a chronological list of British heads of mission (ministers and ambassadors) in Japan from 1859. Before 1905, there were no ambassadors exchanged between the two countries, the highest rank being envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiarya rank just below ambassador. Before 1859, there was no treaty and no diplomatic relations, because Japan was isolated from the world by the Tokugawa shogunate's policy of national isolation called sakoku (literally locked country).

List of heads of mission

Envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary

{| class="wikitable"

!Head of mission

!&nbsp;Tenure&nbsp;<br> begins

!&nbsp;Tenure&nbsp;<br> ends

!&nbsp;British monarch&nbsp;

!&nbsp;Japanese emperor&nbsp;

|-

|James&nbsp;Bruce,&nbsp;8th&nbsp;Earl&nbsp;of&nbsp;Elgin&nbsp;&nbsp;||&nbsp;1858||&nbsp;1858||rowspan="7" style="text-align:center;" |Queen Victoria||rowspan="2"|

|-

|Sir Rutherford Alcock||&nbsp;1859||&nbsp;1865

|-

|Sir Harry Parkes||&nbsp;1865||&nbsp;1883||rowspan="6"|

|-

|Sir Francis Plunkett||&nbsp;1884||&nbsp;1887

|-

|Hugh Fraser||&nbsp;1889||&nbsp;1894

|-

|Power Henry Le Poer&nbsp;Trench||&nbsp;1894||&nbsp;1895

|-

|Sir Ernest Satow||&nbsp;1895||&nbsp;1900

|-

|Sir Claude MacDonald||&nbsp;1900||&nbsp;1905||

|}

Ambassadors

{| class="wikitable"

!Head of mission

!&nbsp;Tenure&nbsp;<br> begins

!&nbsp;Tenure&nbsp;<br> ends

!&nbsp;British monarch&nbsp;

!&nbsp;Japanese emperor&nbsp;

|-

|Sir&nbsp;Claude&nbsp;MacDonald&nbsp;||&nbsp;1912||&nbsp;1919||rowspan="5" style="text-align:center;" |George V||rowspan="2"|

|-

|Sir Charles Eliot||&nbsp;1919||&nbsp;1925

|-

|Sir John Tilley||&nbsp;1926||&nbsp;1931||rowspan="4"|

|-

|Sir Francis Lindley||&nbsp;1931||&nbsp;1934

|-

|Sir Robert Clive||&nbsp;1934||&nbsp;1937

|-

|Sir Robert Craigie||&nbsp;1937||&nbsp;1941||

|-

|}

No representation (1941–1946, due to World War II)

During World War II, Setsuya Beppu worked in a consulate in Dublin in the Irish Free State, and was responsible for the Japanese citizens in the UK and Ireland.

Political representatives

  • Sir Alvary Gascoigne (1946–1951)
  • Sir Esler Dening (1951–1952)

Ambassadors

{| class="wikitable"

!Head of mission

!&nbsp;Tenure&nbsp;<br> begins

!&nbsp;Tenure&nbsp;<br> ends

!&nbsp;British monarch&nbsp;

!&nbsp;Japanese emperor&nbsp;

|-

|Sir Esler Dening||&nbsp;1957||&nbsp;1959

|-

|Sir Oscar Morland||&nbsp;1959||&nbsp;1963

|-

|Sir Francis Rundall||&nbsp;1963||&nbsp;1967

|-

|Sir John Pilcher||&nbsp;1967||&nbsp;1972

|-

|Sir Fred Warner||&nbsp;1972||&nbsp;1975

|-

|Sir Michael Wilford||&nbsp;1975||&nbsp;1980

|-

|Sir Hugh Cortazzi||&nbsp;1980||&nbsp;1984

|-

|Sir Sydney Giffard||&nbsp;1984||&nbsp;1986

|-

|Sir John Whitehead||&nbsp;1986||&nbsp;1992||rowspan="8"|

|-

|Sir John Boyd||&nbsp;1992||&nbsp;1996

|-

|Sir David Wright||&nbsp;1996||&nbsp;1999

|-

|Sir Stephen Gomersall&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;||&nbsp;1999||&nbsp;2004

|-

|Sir Graham Fry||&nbsp;2004||&nbsp;2008

|-

|Sir David Warren||&nbsp;2008||&nbsp;2012

|-

|Tim Hitchens||&nbsp;2012||&nbsp;2016

|-

|Paul Madden||&nbsp;2017||&nbsp;2021

|-

<!-- The coding in the following line is for the *current ambassador*. On a change of ambassador, please make a new normal line (above this comment) for the outgoing ambassador, then put the new name (wikilinked as appropriate) between the onlyinclude and /onlyinclude tags, and any reference *after* the /onlyinclude tag. This takes the name automatically to "List of heads of missions of the United Kingdom" -->

|<onlyinclude>Julia Longbottom</onlyinclude>||&nbsp;2021||2026 ||rowspan="1" style="text-align:center;" |Elizabeth II<br>Charles III||rowspan="1"|

|-

|Corin Robertson||2026|| ||Charles III|| ||

|}

See also

  • British Embassy, Tokyo
  • Embassy of Japan, London
  • List of ambassadors of Japan to the United Kingdom
  • Japan–United Kingdom relations
  • Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty
  • Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce
  • Anglo-Japanese Alliance
  • Treaty of San Francisco
  • Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
  • Foreign relations of the United Kingdom

Notes

References

  • Hoare, James. (1999). Embassies in the East: the Story of the British Embassies in Japan, China, and Korea from 1859 to the Present. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press. ; OCLC 42645589
  • Ian Nish. (2004). British Envoys in Japan 1859-1972. Folkestone, Kent: Global Oriental. ; OCLC 249167170
  • Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ; OCLC 48943301