The Tokyo Mathematical Society

Japan had its own mathematical tradition of Wasan. This was Japanese mathematics until the middle of the 19th century. However, after the Meiji Restoration in 1868 a unified educational system emphasizing Western learning was established throughout Japan. In 1862 Western mathematics, and not Wasan, became an official subject in the new schools.

In 1877 the first Japanese learned society, the Tokyo Mathematical Society, was founded. At the first meeting of the Society the importance of mathematics from the West (in contrast to Wasan) was acknowledged and the Society proposed to devote its efforts to promote Western mathematics. Certainly this policy was far from universally accepted and supporters of Wasan founded their own Society in 1887 which they named the Mathematical Association of Tokyo.

The Tokyo Mathematical Society published a monthly journal, the Journal of the Tokyo Mathematical Society. The Society was reorganized and renamed the Tokyo Mathematico-Physical Society in 1884, and continued as such until 1945. After World War II, the Society was split into the Mathematical Society of Japan and the Physical Society of Japan.

JOC/EFR August 2004	School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews, Scotland
The URL of this page is: http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Societies/Tokyo.html