5 - The Nippon Club, 1881–2014

Summary

ORIGINS

THE NIPPON CLUB is almost certainly the oldest Japanese institution in London other than the Japanese legation which was established in 1872 by Terashima Munenori. The Nippon Club can trace its origins to 1881 when about twenty to thirty Japanese living in London gathered together monthly at a restaurant in the Strand. They discussed political and economic issues and helped each other to overcome the difficulties which they faced in a strange land. On some occasions they invited guests to speak. They called these meetings ‘London Nipponjinkai’ (London Japanese Club).

There were three major players involved in establishing the Nipponjinkai and looking after Japanese interests in London. These were Mitsui & Co., the Yokohama Specie Bank and Nippon Yūsen Kaisha (NYK). These three trading, banking and shipping companies were Japan's first major companies to establish roots in London.

The three companies still chair the present Nippon Club in rotation. In 1888 the Japanese Consul in London Sonoda Kokichi and his wife invited Nipponjinkai members to their house (46 Holland Road W14) to meet there rather than in a restaurant. From then on the Nipponjinkai regularly met there until Ozaki Saburo’s wife offered her place in Bayswater. In 1893 there were aroud forty members of Nipponjinkai while there were 116 Japanese living in London at that time.

Following the revision in 1894 of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Amity and Commerce 1858 (Nichiei-Tsūshō Jōyaku 1858) and the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895 Anglo-Japanese trade began to expand and following the conclusion of the first Anglo-Japanese Alliance (Nichiei Dōmei) in 1902 relations between the two countries became closer while increased numbers of Japanese businesses became established in London.

In 1904 the Nipponjinkai decided to establish a club house where members could meet fellow members at any time. With support from Japanese bankers, they leased a building in Covent Garden (39 King Street WC2) and opened their first club house with a lounge, meeting rooms, library and a restaurant. Genuine Japanese cuisine, such as special grilled eels, Dover sole sashimi, prawn tempura, pickled daikon were served in the restaurant. Although private, this must have been the first Japanese restaurant in London except one at the International Health Exhibition7 in 1884 where a temporary Japanese restaurant was staged during the exhibition.