In 1984 Liverpool played host to the International Garden Festival which ran for six months. It was the first formal international exposition to be held in the UK as a special horticultural exhibition. The opening was attended by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and on Japan Day, which heralded a week of Japanese-related events, a visit was made by His Imperial Highness The Crown Prince of Japan, who was then studying at Oxford University.

Two years earlier, the UK had sent out a request to the Japanese government to exhibit a Japanese garden and, in 1983, the Japanese garden landscaping company, Hakone Ueki Ltd, was commissioned to design and build a traditional Japanese garden for the festival. The original Japanese garden was a sizable 1400m² and was kai-yu-shiki (strolling garden) featuring a chisen (pond and spring)

The garden was well received by visitors but sadly, after the festival had finished, conservation and maintenance were neglected. During the following years, the land was leased to a variety of owners, always with the provision that the Japanese garden be restored but this was never fulfilled. By 2008 the garden was in a very poor condition, with some artefacts having been stolen and others vandalised or burnt down. The Japanese garden, which was considered the jewel in the crown of the 1984 festival, was in dire need of restoration.