The history of relations between France and Japan goes back to the early 17th century, when a Japanese samurai and ambassador on his way to Rome landed for a few days in Saint-Tropez and created a sensation. France and Japan have enjoyed a very robust and progressive relationship spanning centuries through various contacts in each other's countries by senior representatives, strategic efforts, and cultural exchanges.
After nearly two centuries of seclusion by "Sakoku" in Japan, the two countries became very important partners in the second half of the 19th century in the military, economic, legal and artistic fields. The Tokugawa shogunate (Bakufu) modernized its army through the assistance of French military missions (Jules Brunet), and Japan later relied on France for several aspects of its modernization, particularly the development of a shipbuilding industry during the early years of the Imperial Japanese Navy (Léonce Verny, Émile Bertin), and the development of a Legal code.
France derived part of its modern artistic inspiration from Japanese art, essentially through Japonism and its influence on Impressionism, and almost completely relied on Japan for its prosperous silk industry.
Country comparison
Chronology of Franco-Japanese relations
17th–18th centuries
1615: Hasekura Tsunenaga, a Japanese samurai and ambassador who arrived at Coria del Rio, Spain, sent to Rome by Date Masamune, lands at Saint-Tropez for a few days, initiating the first contacts between France and Japan. 1619: François Caron, son of French Huguenot refugees to the Netherlands enters the Dutch East India Company, and becomes the first person of French origin to set foot in Japan in 1619. He stays in Japan for 20 years, where he becomes a Director for the company. He later became the founding Director General of the French East India Company in 1664. 1636: Guillaume Courtet, a French Dominican priest, sets foot in Japan. He penetrates into Japan in clandestinity, against the 1613 interdiction of Christianity. He is caught, tortured, and dies in Nagasaki on September 29, 1637. No French people visit Japan between 1640 and 1780. Around 1700, the impostor known as George Psalmanazar claims to come from the Japanese tributary island of Formosa. 1787: La Pérouse (1741–1788) navigates in Japanese waters in 1787. He visits the Ryukyu Islands, and the strait between Hokkaidō and Sakhalin, giving it his name.
19th century
1808: The French language is taught to five Japanese translators by the Dutch chief of Dejima, Hendrik Doeff. 1844: A French naval expedition under Captain Fornier-Duplan onboard Alcmène visits Okinawa on April 28, 1844. Trade is denied, but Father Forcade is left behind with a translator. 1846: Admiral Jean-Baptiste Cécille arrives in Nagasaki, but is denied landing. 1855: In an effort to find the Russian fleet in the Pacific Ocean during the Crimean War, a French-British naval force reaches the port of Hakodate, open to British ships as a result of the Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty of 1854, and sails further North, seizing the Russian-American Company's possessions on the island of Urup in the Kuril archipelago. The Treaty of Paris (1856) restitutes the island to Russia. 1855: Following the opening of Japan by the American Commodore Perry, France obtains a treaty with Okinawa on November 24, 1855. 1858: The Treaty of Amity and Commerce between France and Japan is signed in Edo on October 9, 1858, by Jean-Baptiste Louis Gros, opening diplomatic relations between the two countries. 1859: Arrival of Gustave Duchesne de Bellecourt.
1862: Shōgun Tokugawa Iemochi sends First Japanese Embassy to Europe, led by Takenouchi Yasunori. 1863: Second Japanese Embassy to Europe
1864: Arrival of Leon Roches in Japan. 1864: Bombardment of Shimonoseki by allied ships (9 British, 3 French, 4 Dutch, 1 American). 1864: In November Leonce Verny arrives in Japan for the construction of the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal. 1865: Shibata Takenaka visits France to prepare for the construction of the Yokosuka arsenal and organize a French military mission to Japan. 1865: On September 12, 1865, the Messageries Maritimes passenger liner ship Dupleix was the first to call at a Japanese port to start a new service with France, both for passengers as well as for cargoes such as Japanese silk.