LONDON -- The Japan Society, founded in 1891, is the oldest organization in Britain concerned with Anglo-Japanese relationships. It grew out of a meeting a decade earlier of the International Congress of Orientalists. In over 90 events each year, and largely through a cluster of groups that focus on different interests, the society develops understanding in Britain of the culture of Japan. Its pamphlet states, "We interpret the word culture as being 'how the other person thinks.' "

The society provides a forum for social and cultural exchange between Japanese living in Britain and their local communities. Its centenary was celebrated impressively throughout this country by the Japan Festival, and its 110th anniversary last year by Japan 2001. A venerable organization, it displays enduring youthfulness and vigor.

This year The Japan Society arranged a dinner in the Lansdowne Club in London to commemorate the hundred years since the signing of the first Anglo-Japanese Alliance. On Jan. 30, 1902, in the Round Room of what was then Lansdowne House, Britain and Japan agreed on an alliance that was to bolster foreign policies through the Russo-Japanese War and World War I. The alliance continued until it was superseded by the Washington Agreement of 1921.