（1）International Scientific Exchange in the Prewar Period

The introduction of modem science into Japan during thi5period was discussed earlier in this chapter. Scientific research has a strongly international character, and it was natural, therefore, that as science developed in Japan the connections between the Japanese scientific community and the international community were strengthened, It is also not surprising that international cooperation first began in the fields of astronomy and geophysics which by their very nature are indifferent to national boundaries.

The decision of the European Congress on Longitude and Latitude held in Berlin in 1886 to expand the membership of the International Association of Geodesy resulted in an appeal to all nonmember countries, Japan among them, to recognize the international treaty upon which membership in the Association was based. Japan's accession to the treaty in February, 1889, not only signaled Japan's first step toward membership in the international scientific community, but also paved the way for Japan's participation from 1894 in the Association's project to conduct an international joint observation of changes of latitude. As part of this study, in September, 1899, Japan established a provisional latitude observatory at Mizusawa in Iwate Prefecture as one of six observation spots around the world located at 39 degrees eight minutes and seven seconds north latitude. Work on this observation has continued uninterrupted for more than seventy years. In the course of this work, the discovery in 1902 by Kimura Hisashi (1870 -1943), chief of the observatory, of the "Z-term" (originally called "5-term" in his treatise) received international attention. In 1922 Mizusawa was upgraded to become a central station of the International Latitude Observatory.

The Geodesy Committee was formed in April, 1898. The Committee undertook the task of measuring the level of gravity throughout the country and of assessing these findings in the light of comparative observations made in foreign countries. Moreover the Committee established the Mitaka International Time Information Institute on the premises of the Tokyo Astronomical Observatory in 1924 in order to receive international wireless information on time and participate in joint international studies of time. In addition to its research function, therefore, the Committee served as a central institute in the work of the international geophysical study. A third international scientific endeavor in which Japan participated at an early stage was the work of the International Conference on Cataloguing Scientific Literature. At the suggestion of the Royal Society (formally the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge), work was begun on an international catalogue of books and treatises covering seventeen fields, for example mathematics, physics, chemistry and so on, to assist researchers in these fields. A Japanese counterpart called the Conference on Cataloguing Scientific Literature (Rigaku Bunsho Mokuroku Iinkai) was established in1901 under the Ministry of Education to participate in the work of this project. Each member of the Conference was responsible for a portion of the catalogue cards covering the Japanese literature in his field. The cards were then forwarded to a central office in London. Approximately 1,000 of these cards were compiled each year during the Meiji era and by 1921new entries totaled more than 4,000 annually. Based on these entries, international catalogues were published annually by the central office and were distributed by the Conference in J apt to each Imperial University and also to the Imperial Library. This work continued until the publication of catalogues in London was stopped in 1921.

In addition to participation in international scientific studies, international exchange was advanced through membership in various international scientific research bodies. In 1906 the Imperial Academy joined the International Association of Academies' and the National Research Council was formed in)1920 to join the International Research Council as stated earlier. The Council, it will be remembered, served as the focus for international exchange among scientific circles in Japan. The International Research Council was reorganized into the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) in 1931 to accommodate more scientific fields and greater autonomy for the member unions. In conjunction with this reorganization, most important scientific bodies in Japan joined the respective international organizations anticipating an expansion of international exchange within time. However, the outbreak of World War 2 brought international exchange in the scientific realm to an almost complete halt. Even the National Research Council ceased to function as an institute for international cooperation and was mobilized for purposes more directly related to the war effort as stated earlier.