Japan and the Universal Postal Union: An Alternative Internationalism in the 19th Century

Japan joined the Universal Postal Union (UPU) in 1877, both to force Britain to close its post offices in Japan and to participate in the novel form of internationalism developed in the 19th century by international administrative unions such as the UPU. In addition to recounting the diplomatic negotiations surrounding the internationalization of Japan’s post, this article examines the politics of UPU membership in order to understand the commitments that UPU membership imposed upon Japan. In fact, the administrative internationalism of the UPU appealed to Japan because the union’s members were equal and all bound identically to the union treaty and its international administrative law. This internationalism was a welcome alternative to the internationalism of the treaty regime, whose great powers and forms of domination had forced Japan into the international arena.