Chapter 1: Japanese who traveled to Africa

The first chapter deals with Japanese travelers. Until the end of the Edo period (1603-1868), Africa was a stopover rather than a destination. From the Meiji period (1868-1912) onward, the number of Japanese doing business or research in Africa gradually increased.

Prior to the Meiji period: Samurai who went to Africa

Before the Meiji period, it was recorded that the Tensho embassy (four boys sent by Japanese Christian feudal lords to the Pope in 1582) passed through the Cape of Good Hope. At the end of the Edo period, the Shogunate sent several missions to Europe. They crossed Egypt by land and headed for Europe by way of the Mediterranean.

First Japanese Embassy to Europe, 1862

Second Japanese Embassy to Europe, 1863

The mission sent to Europe in 1863 is also known as the “Ikeda Mission,” named after the head of the delegation, IKEDA Nagaoki, magistrate of foreign affairs at that time. Responding to the strong intention of the Japanese Imperial Court to close the port of Yokohama once again in order to restore the national isolation policy, the shogunate sent the mission to negotiate with the European great powers. A group photo taken in front of the Sphinx in Egypt is known to us. It was taken by Antonio Beato (1832-1906) and is signed “A. Beato” in the lower left. Beato was a photographer from Italy, and was the younger brother of Felice (Felix) Beato, who was also a photographer and took many pictures of Japan around the Meiji Restoration. Antonio, active in Egypt then, took this photo when the Ikeda Mission passed through the country.

After the Meiji Restoration: Travelers, merchants, and researchers who went to Africa

In the Meiji period, many Japanese started moving to Hawaii, the U.S. mainland and Australia. From around 1900, however, the anti-Japanese movement began to spread in these countries. In order to avoid this movement, some Japanese went to South Africa, where English was spoken and the number of Japanese was still relatively small.
There were also people who visited South Africa as tourists. Below is the story of NAKAMURA Naokichi, who traveled around the world without money, and some Japanese he met during his visit to South Africa.

Travelers

Business in Africa: General Store, Laundry

According to AOKI Sumio’s Japanese who went to Africa (アフリカに渡った日本人), Jiji Press, 1993 [DC812-E155], there were about 20 Japanese residents in Cape Town in 1903. Among them was FURUYA Komahei, who ran a successful general store called Mikado Shoten with his Japanese employees. Nakamura also met him when he stopped over in Cape Town. It is written in Africa Isshu that Furuya became a guarantor for Nakamura’s application for a travel permit to the Transvaal and put him up in his house.
In this section, in addition to Furuya, we will introduce other Japanese who did business in South Africa, such as IWASAKI Kanzo and AKASAKI Denzaburo.

Furuya Komahei was born in Ibaraki Prefecture. Before coming to Cape Town, he worked first with Americans on the mainland of the United States and then moved to Hawaii to work with an immigrant company. At the age of 28, he and his wife moved to Cape Town, where they launched Mikado Shokai. From its opening in 1898, the company dealt with Japanese goods, South African wool and other articles. Furuya himself left the management to a Japanese and returned to Japan in 1915. In 1942, as World War II intensified, the South African government ordered Japanese residents to leave the country and eventually, Mikado Shoten's property was confiscated.
Mikado Shoten dealt in miscellaneous goods. A directory of overseas business companies by the Commerce and Industry Division of Kobe City presents items handled by the company, including wool, medicine, cotton wool, silk cloth, cotton fabrics, cosmetics, copy paper, drafting paper, fans, asbestos and light bulbs. These items can be found in the Directory of Merchants and Manufacturers in Foreign Countries, Kobe City Commerce and Industry Division, 1922 [374-81].

Furuya, his wife and their store are recorded in photos taken by the Tokyo Nautical College's training ship, Taisei Maru, which stopped at Cape Town during its round-the-world voyage.

IWASAKI Kanzo went to Australia as a cabin boy on a steamer, worked for a stockbroker in Melbourne, and then opened a laundry business there. In 1900, he decided to leave Australia where the economy was in a recession due to the Second Boer War that started in 1898. He departed with 3 other colleagues to South Africa, despite the fact that the war was still going on there, and arrived in the colony of Natal, where he started a new laundry business. After that, he sold the business and opened a general store called Kanzo Shokai in Durban. In 1903, Nakamura stopped over in Durban and stayed with the Iwasaki family for 1 month while waiting for a connecting ship. He probably handed over the store and returned to Japan around 1908.

AKASAKI Denzaburo, who did business in Madagascar from around 1904, is also well known. When the Russian Baltic fleet called at Madagascar during the Russo-Japanese War, he immediately telegraphed to the Japanese Consulate in Bombay, India, to inform them about the arrival of the fleet. Later, the Japanese Navy sent a letter of appreciation to him for that.

Karayuki-San

Researchers who traveled to Africa

Some Japanese researchers also visited Africa. NOGUCHI Hideyo is a notable one among them and is known for his research on yellow fever and syphilis. He died of yellow fever while studying it in Ghana. We will introduce some documents related to him as an example of Japanese researchers who went to Africa.
NOGUCHI Hideyo wrote many letters. Some of them were sent to his parents, wife, former teachers and benefactors. The National Diet Library owns his letters included in the ISHIGURO Tadanori collection (石黒忠悳関係文書: documents related to Tadanori Ishiguro) in the Modern Japanese Political History Materials Room.

In addition to Noguchi, many other researchers visited Africa. HACHISUKA Masauji was enthusiastically engaged in exploration and research even though he was often ridiculed as an aristocrat who was crazy about his hobby of research. He was originally an ornithologist who later wrote a PhD thesis on the extinct dodo. In 1930, he accompanied a Belgian expedition in Congo, where he became the first Japanese to meet a wild gorilla.

After World War II: Bank of Japan official and Minister of Foreign Affairs who went to Africa

As we have seen, from the Meiji period to the early Showa period, many Japanese visited Africa, some of whom settled there. However, the Second World War severed the relationship between Japan and Africa, and by 1942, most Japanese residing in Africa had returned to Japan.
After the war, the relationship between Japan and Africa first became active in the field of commerce. From the 1950s, Japanese trading companies expanded their business to African countries, exporting textiles and machinery and importing mineral resources such as copper, iron ore and manganese. In the 1970s, exchange and international cooperation at the government level developed rapidly because it became essential to deal with the trade issues between Japan and Africa and the resource issues caused by oil crises.

On the occasion of the successive independence of African countries from the late 1950s, the Japanese government promptly recognized the new independent countries and established diplomatic relations with them. Japan's diplomacy towards Africa was, however, generally inactive from the end of World War II. It was in 1974, after the first oil shock, that KIMURA Toshio became the first Japanese foreign minister to visit sub-Saharan Africa.
In the February 1975 issue of Gekkan Africa (月刊アフリカ: lit. Monthly Africa) [Z8-34], Kimura, Minister for Foreign Affairs at that time, gave an interview and stated his purpose and impressions after visiting 5 African countries (Ghana, Nigeria, Zaire (present the Democratic Republic of the Congo), Tanzania and Egypt). Kimura said he decided to visit Africa because “the African continent is still seen in the same way as the colonial period ... As a first step, Japan should show the right attitude from an international moral standpoint.” But he also states that another aim of the visit was to soften the criticism of Japan from other African countries for actively trading with South Africa, a racist country at the time.
MORI Yoshiro was the first Japanese Prime Minister to make a tour of sub-Saharan Africa, visiting South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria in 2001.

Below are the routes of the Bunkyu mission and NAKAMURA Naokichi’s journey.

Column: Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers

The activities of the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers (JOCVs) can be cited as an example of Japanese people going to Africa. According to the website of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the JOCVs, in response to requests or need from developing countries, recruit people who have appropriate skills, knowledge and experience and who wish to make use of their skills for the benefit of people in developing countries, then train and dispatch them.
According to the first issue (July 1965) of the official magazine of the JOCVs, Wakai chikara (若い力: lit. The Young Power) [Z24-195], destinations of the JOCVs at that time were mainly other Asian countries and they would be dispatched to Africa only if there was an appropriate project there. A few years later, however, in the same magazine and in Nihon Seinen Kaigai Kyouryokutai no Ayumi Showa 40/41 Nendo (日本青年海外協力隊のあゆみ 昭和40・41年度: lit. The Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers' Progress in 1965/66) [DE71-70], many activities in Kenya, Tanzania and Morocco were presented, suggesting that the JOCVs had deep ties not only with Asia but also with Africa from the very beginning.
According to Seinen kaigai kyoryokutai 20 seiki no kiseki (青年海外協力隊20世紀の軌跡: lit. A History of Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers in the 20th Century) [DE71-G206], “the number of JOCV members dispatched to Africa has continued to grow in both the east and west of the continent and surpassed that in the Asian region.” For many people, JOCVs may be symbolized by the activities in Africa.
Today, members from various occupations, such as science and mathematics teachers, community developers, computer engineers, nurses, auto mechanics, physical therapists, and librarians, are sent to African countries to work with local people for the purposes of “contribution to economic and social development and reconstruction in developing countries,” “deepening friendship and mutual understanding" and "cultivating an international perspective and returning volunteer experience to Japanese society.”

Next Chapter 2:
Africans who came to Japan