Editing Philipp Franz von Siebold (section)

===International endeavours===
[[File:Coat of arms of von Siebold.png|200px|thumb|Coat of arms of Von Siebold]]
After his return to Europe, Von Siebold tried to exploit his knowledge of Japan. Whilst living in [[Boppard]], from 1852 he corresponded with Russian diplomats such as [[Andreas Feodorowitsch Budberg|Baron von Budberg-Bönninghausen]], the Russian ambassador to [[Prussia]], which resulted in an invitation to go to St Petersburg to advise the Russian government how to open trade relations with Japan. Though still employed by the Dutch government he did not inform the Dutch of this voyage until after his return.

American Naval Commodore [[Matthew C. Perry]] consulted Von Siebold in advance of his voyage to Japan in 1854.<ref>{{cite book |author=John S. Sewall |year=1905 |title=The Logbook of the Captain's Clerk: Adventures in the China Seas |location=Bangor, Maine |publisher=Chas H. Glass & Co. [reprint by Chicago: R.R. Donnelly & Sons, 1995] |isbn=0-548-20912-X |page=xxxviii}}</ref> He notably advised [[Townsend Harris]] on how [[Christianity]] might be spread to Japan, alleging based on his time there that the Japanese "hated" Christianity.<ref>{{cite book|last=Josephson |first=Jason |title=The Invention of Religion in Japan|publisher=University of Chicago Press|pages=80–2|location = Chicago|year=2012|url=https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/I/bo13657764.html}}</ref>

In 1858, the Japanese government lifted the banishment of von Siebold. He returned to Japan in 1859 as an adviser to the Agent of the Dutch Trading Society (Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij) in Nagasaki, Albert Bauduin. After two years the connection with the Trading Society was severed as the advice of Von Siebold was considered to be of no value. In Nagasaki he fathered another child with one of his female servants.

In 1861 von Siebold organised his appointment as an adviser to the Japanese government and went in that function to Edo. There he tried to obtain a position between the foreign representatives and the Japanese government. As he had been specially admonished by the Dutch authorities before going to Japan that he was to abstain from all interference in politics, the Dutch Consul General in Japan, J.K. de Wit, was ordered to ask von Siebold's removal.<ref>{{cite book |author=Herman J. Moeshart |year=1990 |chapter=Von Siebold's second visit to Japan |editor=Peter Lowe & Herman J. Moeshart |title=Western Interactions with Japan: Expansion, the Armed Forces & Readjustment, 1859–1956 |publisher=Sandgate |isbn=978-0-904404-84-5 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/westerninteracti00lowe/page/13 13–25] |chapter-url-access=registration |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/westerninteracti00lowe/page/13 }}</ref> Von Siebold was ordered to return to Batavia and from there he returned to Europe.

After his return he asked the Dutch government to employ him as Consul General in Japan but the Dutch government severed all relations with von Siebold who had a huge debt because of loans given to him, except for the payment of his pension.

Von Siebold kept trying to organise another voyage to Japan. After he did not succeed in gaining employment with the Russian government, he went to Paris in 1865 to try to interest the French government in funding another expedition to Japan, but failed.<ref>The story is told by [[Alphonse Daudet]] in the short story "L'Empereur aveugle", part of his book "Contes du lundi".</ref> He died in [[Munich]] on 18 October 1866.<ref name="Binsbergen"/>