Co-writing session: In Another Empire. Japan in British East Africa 1919-1939

Workshop "In Another's Empire. Japan in British East Africa 1919-39'"

Date: Saturday, June 3, 2023, 13:30-17:30
Venue: Room 606, Building 3, Waseda Campus and Zoom

This workshop featured four reports from research projects analyzing Japanese research materials on British East Africa during the interwar period. In the first report by Robert Fletcher, the policy toward East Africa was related to the colonial policy of the British Empire toward the Near East and other regions, and a comparison of the text of contemporaneous sources reveals a shared perspective on Japanese and British expansion into East Africa in terms of geographical understanding, racial theory, commercial interests, etc. It was argued that there were shared perspectives on various aspects of Japanese and British expansion into East Africa, such as geographical understanding, racial theory, and commercial interests.

In the second report, Ryuto Shimada, discussed how the start of the Osaka Mercantile Marine Company's service to Mombasa in 1926 was positioned within the development of global shipping routes by the Osaka Mercantile Marine Company itself, NYK Line, and Dutch and British merchant shipping companies, and what significance its management had in the development of trade in Japan, He stated that the elimination of intermediary traders from the perspective of the development of Japanese trade.

In his third report, Hideaki Suzuki pointed out that "general merchandise," which became an important export category in East Africa and other new markets in the 1920s, was discussed in the report in connection with civilization, and positioned the relationship between this point and Japan's supply of inexpensive goods from a broad perspective.

Finally, Miki Sugiura addressed that there was a logic among Japanese cotton traders who entered East Africa that cotton imports from East Africa drove exports of Japanese cotton products and sundries, etc. She also discussed the acceptance of Japanese-made clothing by the East African people from the perspective of differentiation from existing products and creation of new consumption. He spoke of the acceptance of Japanese clothing by East Africans from the perspective of differentiation from existing products and creation of new consumption.

A lively discussion on each report and the whole was held with the participants.