When we compare the itineraries and the programmes of both the Bakufu and the Iwakura missions in
Belgium, they show a striking resemblance: the hosts were largely the same or at least had the
same perception of the relative importance and position of Japan in the world. Moreover many secretaries
of the Iwakura mission were former Bakufu officials, selected precisely for their experience of travelling
abroad. This and other elements bear testimony to the continuity that spanned the overall aims governing
both missions, whether in the format of the missions themselves or in their respective programmes. The
programmes, incidentally, are not very different from present-day missions. They share similar obligatory
official functions (e.g. official audience by King Leopold II) and courtesy calls, the cultural and society
evening events (the Iwakura mission went to the Brussels première of Wagner’s Tannhäuser, and attended a
sumptuous soirée at the Royal Palace), the sightseeing excursions on Sunday (they visited the battlefield of
Waterloo and the memorial hill there, and an Art Museum in Antwerp on Monday), as well as a tight
schedule of company visits.