The foreign employees in Meiji Japan, known in Japanese as O-yatoi Gaikokujin (Kyūjitai: , Shinjitai: , 'hired foreigners'), were hired by the Japanese government and municipalities for their specialized knowledge and skill to assist in the modernization of the Meiji period. The term came from Yatoi (a person hired temporarily, a day laborer),James Curtis Hepburn, Japanese-English and English-Japanese Dictionary, 1873. was politely applied for hired foreigner as O-yatoi gaikokujin.

The total number is over 2,000, probably reaches 3,000 (with thousands more in the private sector). Until 1899, more than 800 hired foreign experts continued to be employed by the government, and many others were employed privately. Their occupation varied, ranging from high salaried government advisors, college professors and instructor, to ordinary salaried technicians.

Along the process of the opening of the country, the Tokugawa Shogunate government first hired German diplomat Philipp Franz von Siebold as diplomatic advisor, Dutch naval engineer Hendrik Hardes for Nagasaki Arsenal and Willem Johan Cornelis, Ridder Huijssen van Kattendijke for Nagasaki Naval Training Center, French naval engineer François Léonce Verny for Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, and British civil engineer Richard Henry Brunton. Most of the O-yatoi were appointed through government approval with two or three years contract, and took their responsibility properly in Japan, except in some cases.Hardy's Case, The Japan Weekly Mail, January 4 1875.

As the Public Works hired almost 40% of the total number of the O-yatois, the main goal in hiring the O-yatois was to obtain transfers of technology and advice on systems and cultural ways. Therefore, young Japanese officers gradually took over the post of the O-yatoi after they completed training and education at the Imperial College, Tokyo, the Imperial College of Engineering or studying abroad.

The O-yatois were highly paid; in 1874, they numbered 520 men, at which time their salaries came to ¥2.272 million, or 33.7 percent of the national annual budget.

Despite the value they provided in the modernization of Japan, the Japanese government did not consider it prudent for them to settle in Japan permanently. After the contract terminated, most of them returned to their country except some, like Josiah Conder and William Kinninmond Burton.

The system was officially terminated in 1899 when extraterritoriality came to an end in Japan. Nevertheless, similar employment of foreigners persists in Japan, particularly within the national education system and professional sports.

Notable O-yatoi gaikokujin

Agriculture Louis Boehmer William P. Brooks, agronomist William Smith Clark Edwin Dun Max Fesca Oskar Kellner Oskar Löw, agronomist

Medical science Erwin Bälz Johannes Ludwig Janson Heinrich Botho Scheube Julius Scriba

Law, administration, and economics Georges Appert,Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Appert, Georges (1850-1934); retrieved 2013-4-2. legal scholar Gustave Emile Boissonade, legal scholar Georges Hilaire Bousquet, legal scholar Henry Willard Denison, diplomat Horatio Nelson Lay, railway developer Georg Michaelis,"Georg Michaelis" at Archontology.org; retrieved 2013-4-4. jurist Albert Mosse, jurist Otfried Nippold, jurist Karl Rathgen, economist Hermann Roesler, jurist and economist Alexander Allan Shand, monetary Heinrich Waentig, economist and jurist

Military Louis-Émile Bertin, naval engineer, constructor of the Kure and Sasebo Naval Arsenals Jules Brunet, artillery officer Douglas R. Cassel, naval instructor Archibald Lucius Douglas, naval instructor Henry Walton Grinnell, Navy instructor Carl Köppen, Army instructor Klemens Wilhelm Jakob Meckel, Army instructor Henry Spencer Palmer, military engineer Léonce Verny, constructor of the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal James R. Wasson, civil engineer and teacher, army engineer Charles Dickinson West, naval architect

Natural science and mathematics William Edward Ayrton, physicist Edward Divers, chemist Sir James Alfred Ewing, physicist and engineer who founded Japanese seismology Cargill Gilston Knott, succeeding J.A. Ewing Benjamin Smith Lyman, mining engineer Thomas Corwin Mendenhall, physicist Edward S. Morse, zoologist Heinrich Edmund Naumann, geologist Curt Netto, metallurgist Charles Otis Whitman, zoologist, successor of Edward S. Morse

Engineering Wilhelm Böckmann, architect Charles Alfred Chastel de Boinville, architect William P. Brooks, agriculture Richard Henry Brunton, builder of lighthouses William Kinnimond Burton, engineering, architecture, photography Jean Francisque Coignet, mining engineer Horace Capron, agriculture, road construction Josiah Conder, architect Henry Dyer, engineering education Cornelis Johannes van Doorn, civil engineer, port development and river improvements Hermann Ende, architect George Arnold Escher, civil engineer William Gowland, mining engineer, archaeologist Colin Alexander McVean, civil engineer John Milne, geologist, seismologist Edmund Morel, civil engineer Anthonie Rouwenhorst Mulder, civil engineer, rivers and ports François Perregaux, mechanical watchmaker Johannis de Rijke, civil engineer, flood control, river projects Henry Scharbau, cartographer John Alexander Low Waddell, bridge engineer Thomas James Waters, civil engineer Albert Favre Zanuti, mechanical watchmaker

Art and music Edoardo Chiossone, engraver Rudolf Dittrich, musician Franz Eckert, musician Ernest Fenollosa, art critic John William Fenton, musician Antonio Fontanesi, oil painter Luther Whiting Mason, musician Vincenzo Ragusa, sculptor

Liberal arts, humanities and education Alice Mabel Bacon, pedagogue Basil Hall Chamberlain, Japanologist and professor of Japanese Edward Bramwell Clarke, educator Lafcadio Hearn, Japanologist Viktor Holtz, educator Leroy Lansing Janes, educator, missionary Raphael von Koeber, philosopher and musician Marion McCarrell Scott, educator David Murray, educator Ludwig Riess, historian James Summers, English literature

Missionary activities William Elliot Griffis, clergyman, author Guido Verbeck, missionary, pedagogue Horace Wilson, missionary and teacher credited with introducing baseball to Japan

Others Francis Brinkley, journalist Ottmar von Mohl, court protocol

See also

Foreign cemeteries in Japan Foreign relations of Japan France–Japan relations France–Japan relations (19th century) Germany–Japan relations Italy–Japan relations Japan–Portugal relations Japan–Netherlands relations Japan–United Kingdom relations Japan–United States relations Spain–Japan relations Meiji era

References

External links

Dentsu Advertising Museum/Meiji Era The first foreign trading firms in Japan The impact of the O-Yatoi Gaikokujin during the Meiji Era Tokyo University of Education 120th Anniversary Memorial Tokyo University Show (in Japanese)