First official contacts, 1923

In 1923, when regent Teferi Mekonnen sent a delegation to Geneva to seek his country's admission to the League of Nations, Ethiopia's representatives met their Japanese counterparts for the first time. Heruy, then a judge in the Special Court, was one of those delegates. Sugimura Yotaro, later Japan's ambassador in Italy, approached Heruy, who recalled, ‘The Japanese representative showed great friendliness to the Ethiopian Empire. And our present Emperor eagerly wished contact with Japan, a great empire in the East.’

While the Western powers had admitted Japan to the League of Nations as a member straight away, they initially refused Ethiopia's wish to join. No information in the Japanese archives reveals Japan's position on Ethiopia's eventual admission to the League in 1923.

In 1924, Teferi traveled to Europe with Heruy. He told the Japanese plenipotentiary in Athens that many Japanese goods were entering Ethiopia through Djibouti, and he added that Ethiopia offered great possibilities for agricultural operations. Interestingly, Japanese officials were unaware of the extent of their trade penetration of Ethiopia since their first inroads in 1912. The Japanese thus began to make commercial and political inquiries.

Japanese approaches, 1927–28

Because Sugimura had reported that Ethiopia could become a good commercial client, the foreign ministry sent its vice consul in Port Said, kuroki Tokitaro, to visit Teferi, who had stopped there at the end of his European trip of 1924. He asked to visit Ethiopia and Teferi agreed.