English presence in Japan

Was browsing through a sizeable cube-book* I found on World History, and I noticed that the name of Will Adams came up a few times as an English visitor to Japan, and later as the foreign adviser to the Shogun. It also mentioned a few deals between him, the Shogun, and King James I to establish an English trading post in Japan. Obviously that didn't work out too well in OTL...

...but what if it had?

(I freely admit that the book may not be altogether accurate, given that it featured Cabot sailing around North America in 1510 - thirteen years after he disappeared, never to return. Unless I'm much mistaken, we didn't employ zombies back then.)

*a book with the rough proportions of a cube.
 
I have heard this before elsewhere, about an Englishman who ends up in Japan and was supposed to be the inspiration for the book Shogun.

I think the issue will be do the English try and spread Christianity; if they do then they won't be tolerated. If they can just concentrate on trading then perhaps they have a long term future
 
Here's a book on the subject. William Adams wasn't just a visitor to Japan, he lived there for many years, and became a samurai there as well as advisor to the Shogun. According to the book the British did have a trading post in Japan, it just didn't do very well...
 
I doubt it will work too well: the Japanese have steel, gunpowder, immunity to European diseases, and fairly strong national unity at this stage.
 

Thande

Donor
I think this would require the English essentially replacing the Dutch, as the Japanese would probably (as OTL) want to limit European contact to purely one power. This, of course, means that instead of learning about the West through "Dutch learning" (as they called it), the Japanese get "English learning". The two nations have similar approaches to capitalism and trade, but things would start to diverge during the late 17th and early 18th century - where in OTL the Netherlands lost most of its settler colonies and focused on its trade colonies. Whereas England, and then Britain, was rising to prominence.
 
I think this would require the English essentially replacing the Dutch, as the Japanese would probably (as OTL) want to limit European contact to purely one power. This, of course, means that instead of learning about the West through "Dutch learning" (as they called it), the Japanese get "English learning". The two nations have similar approaches to capitalism and trade, but things would start to diverge during the late 17th and early 18th century - where in OTL the Netherlands lost most of its settler colonies and focused on its trade colonies. Whereas England, and then Britain, was rising to prominence.

I think that if the English replace the Dutch in Japan (and the rise of England is not butterflied away), that there is a good chance that England/Great Britain/UK will turn Japan in a protectorate or even a colony in the 18th or 19th century. In that case i doubt that there will be a rise of Japan as happened in OTL.
 
I think that if the English replace the Dutch in Japan (and the rise of England is not butterflied away), that there is a good chance that England/Great Britain/UK will turn Japan in a protectorate or even a colony in the 18th or 19th century. In that case i doubt that there will be a rise of Japan as happened in OTL.

colony, no. There's very little way the British can play divide-and-rule in Japan as they did in India and Africa. There's definately a chance they could get some Hong Kong-style enclaves, but actually making Japan a colony is probably not possible.
 
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