Hugh Fraser (diplomat)

Hugh Fraser (22 February 1837 – 4 June 1894) was an English diplomat who served as the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United Kingdom to the Japan Empire in the late 1800s.

[10] Just out of Eton and not quite eighteen, Fraser was appointed, as an unpaid attaché at The Hague in January 1855, and was sent to Dresden the following month.

For two years he served as Chargé d'Affaires while British Minister Sir Thomas Wade was on leave.

This replaced the "unequal treaty" signed by James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin in 1858 and led to the abolition of extraterritoriality in Japan in 1899.

Thus was Japan freed from the commercial and political burdens imposed by the unequal treaties signed with foreign countries.

In private life, he was kind, modest, and reserved, winning the respect and love of everybody, both Japanese and foreign, that came into close contact with him.