Development of Empirical Sociology and China Studies in Japan
Shigeto Sonoda
Introduction
The following book, The History of Sociology 『社会学の歴史』written by Prof.
Okui Tomoyuki 奥井智之, is an authentic textbook for beginners to understand historyof sociology in Japan, but if you read from the very beginning to the end, no names ofAsian sociologist are referred to.

It is often said that the concept sociology was created by Auguste Comte. And
then, Herbert Spencer, other German sociologists like Max Weber, and the Frenchsociologists like Èmile Durkheim developed and formed the first generations. After
World War II, the US became the center of sociological investigations. Therefore, it's
really rare for Chinese students, as well as Japanese students, to know about the historyof their own sociology.
Both China and Japan share a strong sense of identity that sociology came fromsomewhere else of the West, and they think that most of Chinese scholars and Japanesescholars are still using, looking at, sociological theories as something to be borrowed
from the West. But, if you look at the history of Japanese sociology and Chinesesociology very closely, you can see some connections. But there were some conditions
for such connections to take place.
Today, I'd like to focus on how Japanese sociology has had to do with the
China studies, and how the sociological imagination of the Japanese sociologists about
China has been shaped in different time in different forms.
Dawn of Japanese Sociology: 1890s
When it comes to the history of Chinese sociology, the name Yan Fu 严复 hasbeen referred as a person who introduced the concept of sociology to the intellectual
climate in China. When it comes to Japan, Ernest Francisco Fenollosa has beenfrequently mentioned as a so-called Oyatoi-gaikokujin お雇い外国人, invited scholar
1

from foreign countries who introduced sociology to Japan. In other words, Fenollosa isthe first scholar who had the official talk about sociology at the University of Tokyo.
Professor Toyama Masakazu 外山正一, the first President of Tokyo Imperial University,
was a close friend of Ernest Francisco Fenollosa, and they're truly the first generation of
the introduction of Western sociology in Japan. Thus, sociology has been categorized as
so-called Western scholarship, or yogaku 洋学 in Japanese.
But the second generation like Takebe Tongo 建 部 遯 吾 , a professor ofsociology at the University of Tokyo, was a bit different from the first generation.

Takebe Tongo (1871-1945)
Takebe tried to create his new so-called systematic sociology (Taikeiteki
shakaigaku 体系的社会学 ) by combining Western theories and, interestingly, Neo
Confucianism he learnt from his childhood. Toyama was trained as a Western
scholarship, but Takebe received huge influence from the Confucianism because he wastrained in a hanko 藩校, a school managed by han 藩[domain], and many of the hanko
taught Confucianism, especially Neo Confucianism. Thus, it was natural for Takebe toborrowed ideas from Neo Confucianism, and he tried to merge it with the Western
theories. If you had an opportunity to read his book, you will find that his book is soabstract because he tried to create “universal sociology” 普通社会学 by himself, while
he didn’t show any interest in applying some theories to understand Japanese society.
He tried to brush up his abstract sociology by digesting different schools ofsociology in the West. He himself had an opportunity to go to France, and he knew a lotof things about Auguste Comte and Durkheimian school.
Interestingly, the introduction of sociology took place almost at the same time
between Japan and China. Japan proceeded a little bit to China, trying to introduce somebasic translated concepts. For example, if you look at left, you can see the picture ofKang Baozhong 康宝忠, who is said to have served as a first scholar on sociology,
teaching the class of sociology at Peking University. Kang had a chance to come to
Japan and stayed at Waseda University and learned and digested some basic concepts
about sociology. At your right, you can see the picture of Tao Menghe 陶孟和, who
also contributed a lot to the development of Chinese sociology. Tao had an opportunity
to come to Tokyo Normal High School (Tokyo Koto Shihan Gakko 東京高等師範学校),
2which later became University of Tsukuba. But later, after hus going back to China, Taowent to London School of Economics and Political Science to get a PhD.

Kang Baozhong (1884-1919)

Tao Menghe (1887-1960）

Thus, in the very beginning of sociology in two countries, there wereconnections. But the connection was a bit one-sided. Chinese learned from Japan, but
Japanese learned almost nothing from China.
On your left hand below, you can see the picture of Dr. Endo Ryukichi 遠藤隆
吉, who is also a unique guy. He tried to combine Confucian teachings with yogaku, but
he didn't like the government-supporting disciplines 官学. So, he set up several private
schools and promoted private education in Japan.

Endo Ryukichi (1874 -1946）

Ariga Nagao (1860-1921)

Endo Ryukichi and Ariga Nagao 有賀長雄 were the students of Toyama andthey were the same generation of Takebe Tongo, but they didn't stay at university. Theychanged the disciplines, too. For example, Ariga started from his study on sociology,
when he visited Austria. But later, he changed his disciplines of sociology to statecraft
studies and he became interested in international law. Ariga and Endo were the firstgeneration sociologists who tried to translate the history of sociology written in German,
French or English into Japanese. And two intellectuals from China tried to re-translatetranslated Japanese concepts into Chinese. As is well-know, sociology was translated
into Japanese as shakaigaku 社会学, which was “exported” to China and they started to3use shèhuìxué 社会学 as a Chinese translation of sociology.
Founder of Empirical Sociology in UTokyo: Toda Teizo
The third generation of sociologists, notably Toda Teizo 戸田貞三 (1887-1955),
who was a good student of Takebe, however, changed the line of scholarship ofsociology. He's the first sociologist who promoted the localization of sociology, and he
declared that the main mission of sociology in Japan was to understand Japan and create
its own theoretical framework based on their empirical findings.
Previous two generations didn't show interests in promoting understanding
about the Japanese society. They were more devoted to creating abstract theories, rather
than applying the theories to the local conditions in Japan. But Toda, who became thethird Director of Tobunken 東文研, changed the nature of the Japanese sociology intovery modern one. In fact, he is the first sociologist who used that Japanese census data
which was conducted in 1920 to argue the nature and size of Japanese households.
Toda was so much interested in empirical studies, rather than creating abstract
concepts. And this is partly because of the opportunities of his going to Chicago andlearn what Chicago school did at the time. Toda tried to introduce American-styleprogrammatic utilitarian positivist approach, while previous two generations were moreinterested in metaphysical nature of sociology in Europe. After Toda, Japan sociology
became more and more Japanized, and his students became the first generation who
tried to understand the nature of Chinese society from sociological perspectives.
Two Students of Toda Teizo: Makino and Fukutake
Two scholars below are the core figures who tried to combine Japanesesociology with China studies. On your left side, you can see the picture of Professor
Makino Tatsumi 牧野巽 . His familial background has to do with his scholarship.
Makino’s father is a well-known scholar on Chinese classics, Makino Kenjiro 牧野謙次郎, and he himself was very knowledgeable about Chinese classics.
You know Fukutake Hall in UTokyo, right? Fukutake Tadashi 福武直, whose
picture you can see on your right side, has some familial relations with Fukutake
Soichiro 福武總一郎, who donated a lot of money to Johogakkan 情報学環.

Makino Tatsumi(1905-1974)

Fukutake Tadashi (1917-1989)
4

Fukutake was a descendant of relatively rich family in Okayama Prefecture.
Professor Fukutake deceased in 1989, when I was a research assistant (Joshu 助手) at
the Department of Sociology at the University of Tokyo.
Makino Tatsumi received a very traditional training of Chinese classics. Prof.
Fukutake was more knowledgeable about Western scholarships and, before heconducted researches on rural villages in China, he translated some papers and books
written in German language into Japanese.
Their nature was very different from each other, but the commonalities are thatthey're both the students of Toda and that both of them were more interested in doing
empirical researches than investigating theories.
Both Makino and Fukutake have published collected works. You can see thepicture of seven volumes of the collected works of Professor Makino Tatsumi below.
Studies on Chinese Family 『中国家族研究』, Studies on Clan in Early Modern China『中国近世宗族研究』, Some Issues on Chinese Social History『中国社会史の諸問題』 arethe book titles. He was interested in China, but not contemporary China. This is one ofthe very unique commonalities of empirical sociologists at a time. Professor Makino
utilized documents written in classical Chinese. He used historical documents withsociological frameworks to argue the nature of Chinese families and clans.

7 Volumes of Collected Works by Makino Tatsumi

Tatsumi Makino and His Chinese Study
Do you know why Makino showed little interested in contemporary China?
Because he was very sensitive that his scholarship would be utilized by the militaryforces in Japan. So he intentionally tried to disconnect what he's doing and what Japanwas doing. The same can be said to the case of Prof. Shimizu Morimitsu 清水盛光,
the author of the book Study on Chinese Society『支那社会の研究』.
Prof. Shimizu’s position in Japanese sociology is very similar to that of Makino.
Professor Shimizu had worked for Mantetsu Research Department 満鉄調査部 before
moving to the Institute of the Humanities at Kyoto University 京都大学人文科学研究所
after World War II. I had an opportunity to send a message to Professor Shimizu
5

before his death. He replied to me in a very short private letter. I asked him why he wasinterested in China studies, because he was the first generation of China studies withsociological perspective. Professor Shimizu confessed to me that he didn't want toremember these old days, because what he tried to do was a kind of nightmare. He knewthat the military forces, or militarism in China needed knowledge about China. However,in order to make a living, he had to do research to increase knowledge about China,
which gave him a dilemma.
Data accessibility was another reason. More importantly, Fukutake and otherempirical sociologists did some empirical studies, but they heavily depended on local
translators. When it comes to the written texts, they were more knowledgeable, butwhen it comes to oral aspects of Chinese language, they had difficulty. That's why
Shimizu and Makino heavily relied on classical documents to do their own empiricalstudies of Chinese society.
Sociology of Fukutake Tadashi
Fukutake was completely different from Makino and Shimizu. Fukutake is thelast generation who had a privilege of conducting fieldwork in China. Actually,
Fukutake was a multi-talented scholar.
I still vividly remember when Fukutake’s funeral was taken place at Aoyama
Cemetery. The former Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro 小泉純一郎 came, because
Fukutake was the central figure of the promotion of social welfare. Fukutake had many
faces and I guess he's the only one who could publish such large-scale collected works.
When he retired at the age of 60, University of Tokyo Press published 10 volumes of hiscollected works. He served for Univ. of Tokyo Press 東 京 大 学 出 版 会 and thecooperatives at the University of Tokyo 東京大学消費生活協同組合 as President.

10 Volumes of Collected Works by Fukutake
Fukutake was a very well-known scholar with very extensive network.
Fukutake was one of the core figures of Todai Toso 東大闘争, who was one of the
supportive members of Prof. Kato Ichiro 加藤一郎, President of Todai when the conflict
took place. If you read the names of the book titles, you see that most of the books deal
with methodologies, missions of sociology, and many related articles on understanding
6

Japanese villages and Japanese society.
Probably you'll be very surprised to know that this book on Chinese ruralsociety, The Structure of Chinese Rural Society 『中国農村社会の構造』, is the first bookin his academic life. In other words, books on Japanese rural villages followed his
writings on Chinese rural villages. Later in his life, Fukutake had an opportunity to go
to Indian villages and tried to compare China and India, about which I am not going indetail. His book, The Structure of Chinese Rural Society was published in 1946.
Remember that Fukutake was born in 1917. It is only when he was 29 years old that hepublished the book on Chinese villages.
Fukutake’s Chinese Study
Fukutake visited China, namely Suzhou in Jiangsu Province, five times. The
first visit was in March, 1940. Second time, August and September, 1940. Third time,
March to May, 1941. Fourth time, April, 1942, and finally the last time of his visiting
Suzhou was in August 1943. So, he almost all the time was rather short period, because
he had many obligations at the University of Tokyo. But by utilizing 5 times
opportunities of his visiting Suzhou villages, he made very minute observations.
He used two research methods: one is observation and the other is interview.
But when he was conducting interviews, he utilized local translators. Otherwise, he
couldn't conduct any interviews.
His family was in Okayama, but he was in Tokyo Imperial University in Tokyo,
so whenever he went to Suzhou from Tokyo, he visited his home on his way to
Shimonoseki from which to go to Shanghai. In Shanghai, he met local translators andsome Japanese guides who made some preparation for his visit to Suzhou. When hedescribed rural villages in central part of China, Huazhong 華中, he utilized these two
methods, but when it comes to the researches on the northern part of China, Huabei 華
北, he utilized only documents which were documented by the Japanese scholars whostayed in the city of Beijing, or Beiping 北平 at the time. They kept the so-called
collection of document of North China Survey 北支慣行調査資料, which later was
published by the Iwanami Publishers.
At that time, the documents were confidential, but Fukutake could utilize these
documents because he was a special student (tokkensei 特研生 in Japanese) of Tokyo
Imperial University who were free from military duties.
When Prof. Fukutake deceased in 1989, his students investigated what sort ofbooks and handwritings were kept in second house in Nagano Prefecture, because Prof.
Fukutake had a second house in Nagano Prefecture. Whenever he wanted to write abook and write a draft, he went to the second house in Nagano, where he kept a lot ofmany handwriting materials. Because Professor Hasumi Otohiko 蓮見音彦, Chair ofDepartment of Sociology when Professor Fukutake deceased, knew that I was studying
about China, he kindly made a duplication of Prof. Fukutake’s handwritings for me.
7

And the below are some pictures of materials that I’m still keeping in my office.

Photocopies of Handwritings of Prof. Fukutake

On your top left, you see the name of Survey on the Villages Developed by theJapanese Emigrants in Manchuria 満 州 開拓民 農村 調 査 . And if you look at his
handwriting, he might find that he was a very careful guy, taking notes of a lot of things
he observed. His handwriting of the map is still vivid. He did the same things in his
study in Suzhou, too, though Prof. Fukutake didn't have an opportunity to publish apaper by using this data of Japanese emigrants in Manchuria.
One of the uniqueness of Prof. Fukutake is that he has a career as aprofessional sociologist, especially an empirical sociologist, started from his
commitment to the studies on China, not on Japan. In other words, after he's comingback from China, he shifted his interest from Chinese villages to Japanese villages.
Later, he visited different parts of Japan, and he tried to divide Japanese villages into
two types; one is called northeast type (tohoku gata 東北型), and the other is calledsouthwest type (seinan gata 西南型). He was tactically using these schemes, because
he had his own experience to make a rough idea of what the structure of rural villages in
China was.
He tried to see how China and Japan are different, even though both villages
are commonly referred as “feudalistic” or “traditional.” He had clear eyes to see thedifferences. The following is his findings of difference between Chinese and Japanesefamily, clan, and village.
8

Table Comparative Analysis of Rural Villages in China and Japan by Fukutake

World War II Period as a Paradoxical TimeThe time of World War II was really a very paradoxical time.
While Toda didn't show strong interest in understanding China, but his
following generation, like Fukutake and Makino, couldn't ignore China, because of theJapanese commitment to military invasion to China. Japanese sociologists at that time9

had been innocently trained as a professional sociologist to understand China.
On the other hand, some students in outer Japan (gaichi 外地) came to Tokyo
Imperial University to study sociology. For example, Prof. Chen Shao-Hsing 陳紹馨,
who received education on sociology at the Tohoku Imperial University by Prof.
Shinmei Masamichi 新明正道. He is said to be the founder of Taiwan sociology. Ding
Kequang 丁克全, who received education on sociology at the graduate school ofTokyo Imperial University, had taught sociology before 1957, when sociology wasprohibited in China, at Dongbei 東北 area in China. Lee Man-gap 李萬甲, a Koreanscholar, who is a second first generation of teaching sociology at the National Seoul
University, also received education at Tokyo Imperial University.

Chen Shaoxin (1906-1966) Ding Kequang (1914-1989)

Lee Man-gap (1926-2010)

These scholars can be called “connectors” between UTokyo and the othernational universities in Taiwan, Korea and China. But I'm sorry to say that almost
none of the youngsters in these countries know their names. Some Taiwanese historians
know about Professor Chen, who was named Yamanaka when Japan ruled Taiwan,
because Taiwanese had to have a sir name of Japanese style. Right after World War II,
he converted his family name from Yamanaka to Chen.
Not only Mainland China but also Korean Peninsula and Taiwan were also
connected with Tokyo Imperial University. But after the World War II, theseconnections were lost and forgotten.
Losing Interest in Asia in Post-war Japan’s Sociology
Let’s see the post-war situation.
On your left hand below, you can see the picture of Professor Kagami
Mitsuyuki 加々美光行, who is a graduate of the Department of Sociology at Universityof Tokyo. One of the well-known works by Professor Kagami is his analysis of Cultural
Revolution in 1960s, who utilized documents to argue that “new China” was trapped bytraditional concept of blood relationship. Of course, it was impossible for him to go to
China and conduct interviews, thus he utilized several documents to understand how
blood relationship were utilized for criticizing “class enemies” during Cultural
Revolution. After his graduation from undergrad program, Prof. Kamami started to10

work for Institute of Developing Economies (Ajia Keizai Kenkyujo アジア経済研究所),
whose head quarter is located in Chiba Prefecture now.

Kagami Mitsuyuki (1944-)

Hishida Masaharu(1951-)

The same can be said to the case of Prof. Hishida Masaharu 菱田雅晴, who is
10 years senior to me. He's now a leading scholar of Chinese politics. But when he wasan undergrad, he received influence from Professor Takahashi Akira 髙橋徹, a leading
sociologist at the University of Tokyo. After his graduation, he started to work for
JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization) because he couldn’t find a post within theacademia nor a professor who could guide his research on China.
These professors, Kagami and Hishida, promoted China's studies in Japan, but,at least in the early stage of their scholarship, they lost connection with the departmentof sociology. Why? There are several reasons behind.
First of all, Asian studies, especially China studies in Japanese sociology,
became marginalized. After World War II, many sociologists negated, denied, andcriticized Japanese colonialism and militarism. These mentalities functioned as notkeeping the memories, but to forget them. Scholars including Fukutake intentionallytried not to speak out what they had done.
Secondly, because of difficulty of conducting fieldwork in Asia, especially in
China since 1957 when Chinese Communist Party banned sociology because theyrecognized that sociology is “science for bourgeoisie.” Unless sociological researches
develop in China, it will be quite difficult for outsiders to understand Chinese society.
The third reason, which has to do with the changing nature of Japanese society,is that, as Prof. Marukawa mentioned in his last week’s lecture, many social scientists
including sociologists and economists paid more attention to the developed societies asa model after World War II. To put it differently, as Asian societies including China weredeveloping societies, it was difficult for ordinal sociologists to find good rationale to doresearch on China. As you can see in the case of Fukutake clearly, social scientists weremore interested in the change of their own society. In case of Fukutake, after his comingback from China to Japan, he energetically studied a lot of issues about democratizationof rural villages in Japan.
I think it's a good thing for Japan to have China experts who have a good11

command of Chinese language. Fukutake and Makino had difficulty in making
communication with Chinese in Chinese, which is a reason why they heavily depended
on translator as well as written documents. But in order for you to be an area study
expert, you cannot help learning foreign languages that you are studying. Kagami and
Hishida are good at speaking Chinese, but unfortunately, once they acquired linguistic
skill, their connection with the Japanese sociologists became weaker. Sociology andarea studies, which China study is a part of, were not in good terms.
China’s Opening-up and Its Impact on Sociological Studies on China
But such situation has changed, especially after China's opening-up.
In 1979, May, Deng Xiaoping suddenly declared the revival of sociology inChina, and just before the declaration, Japanese sociologists were invited to China toknow the revival of Chinese sociology. Fukutake played a very vital role in connecting
Japanese sociologists and Chinese sociologists.
Now everyone almost forgot about this episode, but Fukutake, after hisretirement from the University of Tokyo, sent a large number of his books to the libraryof Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. It’s before the Institute of Sociology was set up.
Chinese scholars appreciated Fukutake’s contribution and set up Fukutake Tadashi
Bunko 福武直文庫 (Fuwu Zhi Wenku) to show their appreciation toward Fukutake.
One year after the Japanese sociologist delegation to China, the Japan-China
Sociological Association was established in 1980. Again, Fukutake played a vital role.
He promoted that kind of exchange, but he deceased ten years after his first visit toChina in 1979 after World War II. Since then Aoi Kazuo 青井和夫, on your left side
below, who taught sociology at the University of Tokyo, took the Fukutake’s positionand he had served as President of Japan-China Sociological Association for a long time.

Aoi Kazuo (1920-2011)

Fei Xiaotong (1910-2005)

Lu Xueyi (1933-2013)

I had an opportunity to talk with Prof. Aoi why he was so energeticallysupporting activities of Japan-China Sociological Association. His answer was
straightforward and very moving. He said, “Sonoda-kun, you should keep it in mind
that Japan did something wrong to China. So, we have to do something good to China
now.” I guess that such sentiment must have been shared by all the members of the first12and second delegates of Japanese sociologists to China.
Luckily, Fei Xiaotong 费孝通, who is in the center above, and Lu Xueyi 陆学艺, who deceased seven years ago, knew that rural issues in China are so important.
Prof. Fukutake started his career as a rural sociologist, and when he visited China, ruralissues in Japan was not so serious. Prof. Fukutake has changed his interest from ruraldevelopment to the national development, or the creation of welfare state in Japan. But
Fei Xiaotong and Fukutake had a very good partnership. They passed their missions to
the hands of Profs. Aoi and Lu, which created a lot of collaborations between Japanesesociologists and Chinese sociologists. Thus, from the beginning of 1980s to late 1990s,
Japanese and Chinese sociology could enjoy honeymoon period.
Tominaga Ken’ichi’s Visits to Nankai University
One of the most impressive episodes for me during this time is Prof. Tominaga
Ken’ichi’s visits to China. He was invited to Nankai University in 1984, 36 years ago.
He was invited Nankai to teach a course on economic sociology which is Professor
Tominaga’s specialty. The below are six pictures of different professors who became a
big name of sociologists now.

Students of Prof. Tominaga at Nankai University
They attended two-months-long lecture by Professor Tominaga on economic
sociology. They wanted to understand the “secret” of the economic development ofJapan after World War II, so they visited our residence frequently to ask so manyquestions to Prof. Tominaga. These questions include Japan’s development policies,
people’s attitudes toward education, and so on. They put too many questions forProfessor Tominaga to take a rest, but he seemed to be very happy to have a lot of
discussions with promising young Chinese sociologists.
In the pictures below, Prof. Zhang Jing 张静, Chair of Department of Sociology
13

at Peking University, is just standing next to me. On her right side, you see the figure ofProfessor Jing Yuejing 景跃进, a political scientist in Tsinghua University. They were acouple and the classmates of the six professors in the pictures above. The picture wastaken in 2017, two years prior to Prof. Tominaga’s death. You can imagine how Prof.
Tominaga was appreciated by his promising young Chinese sociologists.

Prof. Tominaga (front, center) and Profs. Zhang (back, center) andJing (back, right) at Prof. Sonoda’s office in 2017
Prof. Tominaga visited Nankai University three times. In his autobiography,
Prof. Tominaga mentioned about his visits to Nanaki, describing them as mostimpressive academic experiences he has ever had.
How Should We Study Social Inequality in China?
Another hidden episode that I still remember about this honeymoon period is acollaboration between Japanese sociologists, especially UTokyo professors and scholars
in Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) on social inequality issues.
Professor Lu Xueyi knew that China needed some survey and research to grasp
what's going on about increasing social inequality. So, he organized a research team in
CASS to know what to do to study social inequality in China.
Prof. Lu knew that Japanese sociologists have carried out SSM (Social
Stratification and Social Mobility) surveys several times since 1955. So, research teammembers were interested in how Japanese scholars could successfully get money toconduct national-level survey as much as four times.
Secondly, they had some difficulties in creating conceptual schemes on social
inequality. As you know, China is a socialist country, and the concept of “class” is an
official concept. But it was a bit risky to use the concept of “class” when analyzing
enlarging social inequality because socialism is officially negating social inequality
caused by the class. Then the question is, what category can and should be used instudying social inequality? They wanted to hear some lessons from Japan.
Therefore, they invited Prof. Seiyama Kazuo 盛 山 和 夫 , who was Chair
professor of the Department of Sociology and expert in social stratification, and me in14

1999.
We were told that they had already invited two researchers from abroad; one isProf. John H. Goldthorpe, a British sociologist and Prof. Eric O. Wright, a US
sociologist. Goldthorpe is a Weberian and Wright is a Marxist. Their approaches tosocial inequality issues are different, and it seemed to me that Prof. Lu’s research teams
were considering which approach is more appropriate for China, a Weberian approachor a Marxist approach.
They eventually chose the former and they published a book titled Research onContemporary Chinese Social Stratification 『当代中国社会阶层研究报告』 in 2001.
Even though you cannot see any names of Japanese sociologists, but I can see many
influences of Japanese sociological concepts in their book. That's what happened during
this honeymoon period.
Some Works of UTokyo Researchers
Then, what sort of researches have been conducted by sociologists in Tokyo
school after the opening up in China? The following picture shows some of thesociological books published by professors or former students of the University ofTokyo.

Books on Chinese society written by professors/students of UTokyo
On your left side above, you see the front page of the book titledIndustrialization and Community Life in China『中国の産業化と地域生活』, edited byProfessor Aoi Kazuo. This is a collection of chapter papers written by Chinese andJapanese sociologists, who closely worked together to understand family life, local
governance, welfare arrangements, education in local communities in China. They
stayed at the same city, shared the same aspects of social life to write their independent
chapters. Basically, they relied on qualitative data rather than quantitative data.
Patriarchy in East Asia 『東アジアの家父長制』, written by Professor Sechiyama Kaku
瀬地山角 who is now teaching at Komaba campus, is also using qualitative data. My book15

titled China, An Unequal State 『不平等国家 中国』, on your right side, is based on theextensive survey covering four different cities of Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqin andGuangzhou, which I think is a very exceptional book.
Final Episode: Odaka Kunio’s Occupational Sociology
The biggest change of the University of Tokyo took place when Toda, the third
generation of sociologists in UTokyo, changed from metaphysical sociology toempirical sociology in 1920s. The nature of Japanese sociology changed. But one of theuniqueness of the University of Tokyo is that, even though students were encouraged to
do some empirical researches, they were also strongly encouraged to know aboutsociological theories. I still vividly remember, when I was undergrad, I was asked toread many theoretical books on sociology. And later, I was asked what concrete facts I
was interested in. Thus, theory is still important in the mainstream sociology at the
University of Tokyo.
I’d like to conclude this lecture by introducing the case of Prof. Odaka Kunio
尾高邦雄, who was a mentor of Professor Tominaga.

Odaka Kunio (1908-1993)
When Prof. Odaka became eighty years old in 1988, I was a research assistantat UTokyo. We had a small party to celebrate his 80th birthday. Professor Odaka asked
me about my specialty. I said, “I'm interested in China affairs.” Then he said, “Oh
you’re interested in China? When I was of your age, I did research in China. So, I
know how difficult it is to master Chinese. Good luck!”
Some years later, Prof. Odaka’s former students edited three volumes of hiscollected works. Interestingly, the first paper in his collected works is the one which
explains how he developed his own career as a professional empirical sociologist.
Odaka is very similar to Fukutake in the sense that both received a lot of influence ofWestern theoretical sociology. In fact, Prof. Odaka translated Max Weber's book Science
as a Vocation into the Japanese when he was very young.
Prof. Odaka was interested in occupation and he tried to create occupationalsociology by himself. But why did he want to do so?
He left his passage like this:16

“When I was drafted in the autumn of 1944, I was sent to the Army Hospital,
because I was sick. I was released from it immediately, though. This was the time
when I was reluctant to continue to study about theory or methodology, and I
wanted to do something empirical. Right at the time, I was invited by the Navyand I studied to do ethnic research in Hainan Island, which is located south partof China. I spent one month to do research on family practices of the locals andit was the most enjoyable time in my life.”
Prof. Odaka started his career as sociologist from theoretical sociologist who
was knowledgeable about German sociology, but later, he was reluctant to do it. It isthrough his commitment to ethnographic research in Hainan Island, China, that herealized the importance and enjoyment of conducting empirical research.
My professor Tominaga criticized Professor Odaka for his lack of theoreticalinterests, but this is an answer for my professor’s criticism. Odaka lost his interest intalking too much about abstract, theoretical things after his visit to Hainan Island. He
realized the importance of knowing something local, knowing something empirical,
knowing something concrete. Odaka as well as Fukutake is still regarded as one of thefounders of empirical sociology not only at UTokyo but in Japan. Fukutake and Odaka
started their carrier as an empirical sociologist through their commitment to China
studies, which contained a lot of contradictions and tragedies.
That’s the end of my lecture. Thank you very much for listening.
October 15, 202017