author
Manjiro Inagaki
1861–1908
A Meiji-era Japanese diplomat and political thinker, he is remembered for writing about Japan’s place in Asia at a time of rapid change. His life took him from Nagasaki to Cambridge and into diplomatic posts overseas, giving his work an unusually wide perspective.
1 Audiobook
Japan and the Pacific, and a Japanese View of the Eastern Question
by Manjiro Inagaki
About the author
Born in 1861 in Nagasaki, Manjiro Inagaki was the son of a samurai family from the Hirado domain. Sources describe him as a diplomat of the Meiji period, and also as a political writer known for advocating the idea later called Nanshin-ron, or a southward policy.
He studied in Japan and at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, an experience that helped shape his international outlook. During his career he served the Japanese foreign ministry and held diplomatic posts abroad, including in Spain.
Inagaki died in 1908. Though not widely known to general readers today, he remains of interest for the way his writing and public service reflected Japan’s ambitions and debates during a decisive period of modernization.