Career
A native of Ohio, Janes was a veteran of the Civil War, where he served in the artillery with the rank of captain after graduation from the United States Military Academy at West Point. In 1871, he was approached by the Hosokawa clan, feudal lords of Kumamoto to teach at the Kumamoto Yōgakkō, a domainal school that promoted western studies. Janes established a curriculum entirely in English, covering mathematics, history, geography and natural sciences.
The Kumamoto Yōgakkō was forced to close in August 1876 due to opposition from conservative elements within Kumamoto domain, and Janes, together with his students, relocated to Kyoto, where they joined the Dōshisha school, which had been founded a year earlier by Niijima Jō.
Janes returned to the United States in 1878. Janes returned to Japan to teach again from 1893 to 1899 as an oyatoi gaikokujin.