Settlement first began in the late 19th century with the arrival of Japanese professionals, students and their servants.

[3] Employment diversified in the early 1900s with the growth of the Japanese community, which exceeded five hundred people by the close of the first decade of the 20th century.

[5] The first Japanese students in the United Kingdom arrived in the nineteenth century, sent to study at University College London by the Chōshū and Satsuma domains, then the Bakufu (Shogunate).

[9] In the 2011 Census, 35,313 people in England specified their country of birth as Japan, 601 in Wales,[10] 1,273 in Scotland[11] and 144 in Northern Ireland.

[12] 35,043 people living in England and Wales chose to write in Japanese in response to the ethnicity question,[13] 1,245 in Scotland,[14] and 90 in Northern Ireland.

[17] The 2011 Census also found that 83 people in Northern Ireland spoke Japanese as their main language.

[28] The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) has eight Saturday Japanese supplementary schools in operation.