The next meeting of the Japan History Group (JHG) at the Institute of Social Science (ISS), University of Tokyo, will be held on Tuesday,
22 April, at 6:00 PM in Conference Room No.1(Dai-Ichi
Kaigishitsu)
of the Institute of Social Science main Building.

Presenter: Jacques E. C. Hymans (associate professor, the University of Southern California)

Title:Why recognize?: Explaining Victorian Britain's decision to recognize the sovereignty of Imperial Japan

Discussant: Tomoki Kuniyoshi (associate
professor,Waseda University)

Abstract:
The question of why states recognize others'
sovereignty has attracted increasing attention in the international relations literature. In this paper, I study the 1890s recognition of Imperial Japan by the West-and in particular by Great Britain, the most important Western power at that time. My argument is that the success of Japan's internal reforms created a strong presumption in the West that it was on the threshold of sovereign recognition, but the British ultimately required sufficient material incentives of the right kind to allow Japan across the threshold.
Japan could not win the recognition it craved until the British realized that they would do well by doing good.
In other words, Britain's acceptance of Japan's full sovereign status was greatly assisted by high politics-low politics issue-linkage.
Bio: Jacques E. C. Hymans is associate professor of international relations at the University of Southern California. His most recent book is Achieving Nuclear
Ambitions: Scientists, Politicians, and Proliferation (Cambridge University Press, 2012).

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Dr. Naofumi NAKAMURA
Professor of Business History
Institute of Social Science,
The University of Tokyo
naofumin[at]iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp