The earliest reference to a Japanese person playing rugby appears in a magazine produced by University College School in London. "Bell, Lindfield, Webster and Kikuchi deserve mention for the School," says an account that referred to a third XV match in October 1872 against "any XV chosen from the School."
The 17-year-old schoolboy, Kikuchi, grew up to become Baron Dairoku Kikuchi.
Back in Japan, both the Imperial Naval College and the Imperial College of Engineering employed foreign professors and instructors from 1873, and there is evidence rugby was played at the institutions, especially in the latter.