WI: British Empire invades Japan in the 19th Century?

Pretty self explanatory title, could the British Empire have further solidified it's grip over Asia by conquering Japan, or was it simply too busy and spread out too thin to spare enough troops for a large enough expeditionary force?
some other alternate conditions too
WI: 18th Century
WI: 17th Century (maybe not so, more competition from the spanish afaik)
WI: 16th Century (okay this is getting silly)
 
Pretty self explanatory title, could the British Empire have further solidified it's grip over Asia by conquering Japan, or was it simply too busy and spread out too thin to spare enough troops for a large enough expeditionary force?
some other alternate conditions too
WI: 18th Century
WI: 17th Century (maybe not so, more competition from the spanish afaik)
WI: 16th Century (okay this is getting silly)

It all comes down to why and how, which makes this unlikely. England/Britain always had bigger concerns, and depending on the time period it's always a matter of controlling a very mountainous and divided country.
 
When in the 19th Century? After the Meji Restoration, no way Britain can pull it off, before Commodore Perry, no real interactions so no real reason to. So that's a 14 Year Period to try something against a highly militarized.

Maybe we could see a British version of Commodore Perry before the Americans or an Opium War style conflict against the Japanese, but any gains are forfeit when Japan militarizes.
 
The UK has much more investment in India and China. There nothing much for the British to go ahead and invade it.

If we roll back earlier, the Macartney exhibition almost went there in the 1700s. Use that as a POD to get a toehold for investment to expand.
 
Japan has lots of silver in that period, the British or some other colonial country would be interested in that. The problem is that Japan military although being slowly outclassed would number as a punt over 300,000 men.
 
The question is why. Britain generally looked for trade and access to resources. They didn't just invade and conquer undeveloped countries for the sake of it.

Britain already has heavy investments in India and China, not to mention Burma and Malaya. Would the risk vs reward factor be worth it? Not really.

It's worth looking at how Britain treated south America at this time. Argentina was considered to be all but part of the British Empire in the 19th century, such was the level of British investment. I suppose the only way was to do a Commodore Perry before the Americans and then quickly dominate trade. Still, I don't think they're keeping the Americans out for long in this period.
 
When in the 19th Century? After the Meji Restoration, no way Britain can pull it off, before Commodore Perry, no real interactions so no real reason to. So that's a 14 Year Period to try something against a highly militarized.

Maybe we could see a British version of Commodore Perry before the Americans or an Opium War style conflict against the Japanese, but any gains are forfeit when Japan militarizes.
unless its the British that help the Emperor restore his power seems more the British way than direct conquest?
 
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