Anglo-American Connections in Japanese Chemistry ― The Lab As Contact Zone

"Historians, philosophers, and sociologists of science have begun to look critically at scientific pedagogy - how young scientists are made, examining such questions as the extent to which scientific pedagogy shapes research and how pedagogical regimes interact with wider societies. In light of today's global and transnational society, it is necessary, even pressing, to add a fourth dimension to this research agenda: cross-national exchange of ideas, people, and materials for the construction of a pedagogical regime. Japan in the Meiji period makes an ideal case for this inquiry. A nascent nation-state which tried to build a Western-style higher education system as part of its industrialization policy, Japan desperately needed models for institution-building for survival in an increasingly Euro- and American-centric world order. It first looked to Great Britain as a model for a strong industrial power, and the United States as a model for a young, fast growing country that was vigorously building administrative, educational, and industrial institutions. British and American teachers were dominant in Japanese higher education between the 1860s and 1880s, and many Japanese overseas students went to British and American universities and colleges to finish their training during this period. Increase of German presence in Japanese higher education (and in politics and administration) came later, from the 1880s onward. As a result, Meiji Japan became, so to speak, a kaleidoscope of Western (as well as Japanese) styles in many aspects of institutional as well as material culture"--