(2)The Development of Science and the Administration of Scientific Affairs in the Taisho Era

The Taisho era (1912 -1926) set a new stage for scientific development, especially in the years during and after World War I. In the first place a number of well-equipped national institutes were newly established, several of which were attached to Imperial Universities. These included the Research Institute for Iron and Steel set up in 1919 at Tohoku Imperial University (this Institute was reorganized in 1922 as the Research Institute for Iron, Steel and Other Metals), the Aeronautical Research Institute (1918) and the Earthquake Research Institute (1925) attached to Tokyo Imperial University, and the Institute for Chemical Research (1926) attached to Kyoto Imperial University. Other influential research institute5went set up under government agencies; for example the Latitude Observatory was placed under the direct control of the Ministry of Education in 1920. In addition to these national institutes, private enterprises began to establish their own laboratories and research institutes. There were also such institutes established by private foundations as the Ohara Agricultural Laboratory (1914), the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (1917), the Kitazato Institute of Medicine(1918), and the Ohara Institute of Social Science (1919).

An equally important development was the increase in the funds for subsidizing research. On the governmental side, the Ministry of Education instituted a system of subsidizing scientific study in 1918. Moreover, a number of influential private foundations were set up as nonprofit juristic persons for the purpose of promoting science. These included the Tetsumei Association (Tetsumeikai) (1913), the Harada Good Deeds Association (Harada Sekizenkai) (1920), and the Saito Gratitude Association (Saito Hoonkai) (1923). However, since each of these private foundations operated on a limited scale and since the Ministry of Education subsidies were gradually reduced there was no adequate system for promoting private research until later the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science was created in 1932

It was during the Taisho era that international exchange of scholarship began in earnest, as is perhaps best symbolized by the establishment of the National Research Council (GakujutsuKenkyu Kaigi) in August, 1920. Set up as the domestic counterpart of the International Research Council, founded the previous year, the National Research Council was charged with the task of coordinating and disseminating information abou tscientific studies. It was also during this era that a large-scale international science conference the Third Pan-Pacific Science Council, was held in l926for the first time in Japan.

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