Factbook

During Japan’s Meiji Era (1868-1912) – when the country rapidly modernised after more than 250 years of isolation – Japan’s exposure to the outside world through the education of some of its subjects abroad, is often cited as an important factor contributing to the nation’s development.

This was a period in which the nation transformed itself from being a country of sword-carrying samurai to an industrial nation that could compete with the major Western powers in as little as 50 years. 

The so-called Choshu Five, are sometimes held up as a good of this. The five were: Hirobumi Ito (1841-1909), who became Japan’s first Prime Minster in 1885; Kaoru Inoue (1836-1915), Japan’s first Foreign Minister, Yozo Yamao (1837-1917), Minister of Industry; Masaru Inoue (1843-1910) who was responsible for developing the nation’s railway that transformed Japan; and Kinusuke Endo (1836-1893) who played major roles at Japan’s Mint and in the creation of a unified Japanese currency. 

All five studied in London, in secret defying the Shogun’s rules of the time forbidding people to leave Japan. They traveled to London in 1863 to study at University College London. They all subsequently went on to play major roles within the Meiji Government that followed the Tokugawa Shogunate.

These five men helped a very determined Japan catch up in an intense technology race: economically and culturally. Japan rapidly adopted new technologies, including printing technologies, and Western-style dress, with breathtaking speed.

The technological and social changes also impacted on reading habits. New narratives and writing styles, that Japanese readers and creative writers had never been exposed to, were suddenly available in translation. Literacy rates doubled, reaching 80 percent. 

It took longer for Japan’s community of writers to successfully adopt and develop what they learnt from the new books they read in translation than other sectors. Sectors like beer brewing, whiskey distilling, modern banknote printing and mechanisation. 

Two Japanese authors, who also studied abroad (in London, Berlin, Dresden and Leipzig) several decades after the Choshu Five, made a major and lasting impact.

They were Mori Ogai (1862-1922) and Natsume Soseki (1867-1916), both of whom studied abroad from 1884-1888, and 1901-1903, respectively. 

Other men of letters studied abroad, but these two are the best known and have probably had the most enduring impact on literary development in Japan.

Ogai made contributions in many different fields including literature and medicine. He is credited with publishing Japan’s first modern short story, Maihime (The Dancing Girl), in 1890, which is still studied by students today. Judging by the story, a love story about a Japanese man and a German dancer, Ogai enjoyed his time in Europe, even if his return to Japan was not smooth or simple if you assume that the romantic attachments described in the story were his own. 

On the other hand, Soseki’s miserable two years in London are well documented.  Unlike Ogai’s embrace of life in Europe, Soseki reportedly retreated into his shell and struggled with feelings of isolation and inferiority, as well as depression.  

Nevertheless, studying overseas was an important experience that helped mature both men as writers, and more, and ensured their place in the canon of Japanese literary history.

So much so that Soseki, one of Japan’s most revered and important authors was revived in android form in 2016 by researchers at a Japanese university to mark the centenary of his death. And Ogai’s short story is still a regular feature on courses at Japanese universities. Nevertheless, he is probably better known today outside Japan for his novel, The Wild Geese, set in 1880s Japan, which was adapted for film, directed by Shiro Toyoda (1906-1977), in 1953.