Tokyo Geographical Society
 

a scientific society of earth sciences founded in 1879

  provides you with the state-of-the-art knowledge of the earth and its human inhabitants
 
  Introducing the Society
 

The Tokyo Geographical Society, one of the oldest scientific societies in Japan, was founded in 1879 by the then leading personalities of Japan in both political and scientific communities. The objectives of the society were declared by the founding committee to be the development and dissemination of the sciences of the earth and its human inhabitants, which would facilitate the modernization of the country. The Japanese term for "geosciences" was first coined by the founders and used for the Society's name. It, however, was translated as Geographical Society which was interpreted by the founding members to include broad aspects of the study of the earth.

Although the political background has completely faded from the Society and scientists have taken the leading role for a long time, these objectives are still largely maintained. To attain these objectives, the membership of the Society comprises earth scientists of wide variety of disciplines, pure and applied: geology and mineralogy, geography, solid earth geophysics, meteorology, climatology and oceanography, and related sciences. And thus activities since its founding are carried out in a broad field of geosciences pursuing integrated understanding of the earth. The activities include, among others, publishing periodical journals and monographs, convening public conferences, funding scientific researches both domestic and overseas, and sponsoring international congresses and meetings.

   
   
   
  Journal of Geography, the Society's
representative knowledge dispatcher
 
The Journal of Geography, bulletin of the Society, is one of the most important tools of the Society for expanding the horizon of geoscientific knowledge. It is published bimonthly, five ordinary issues and one thematic issue. The contents of ordinary issues include papers presented by the members and non-members, while thematic issues are devoted to specific topics of strong public concern. Papers included are contributed from the specialists of the topic, working in the frontier of science. Sometimes in the ordinary issues, a collection of papers on a specific topic is also included. These articles are written mostly in Japanese, but short English abstracts are attached.

Some of the recent thematic issues:
1988 Bandai-san. Centenary of the 1888 Eruption of Bandai-san
1989 Particulate and Granular Materials and Earth Sciences
1990 Grid map for Geosciences
1991 Environment - Past and Future
1992 Predicting the earth
1993 The Bioplanet
1994 Quaternary Environmental Changes of the Pacific Region
1995 Tomographic Studies in the Geosciences
1996 Education of Earth Sciences
1997 University Education of Geography
1998 Museums of Natural History in Japan
1999 Future of Geoscience Journals in the 21st Century
2000 Leading Edge of Earth Science Technology

The early issues of the Journal are now transcribed
into CD-ROM and are available at a price.
   
   
   
  Publications of special interest
  Other specialized publications of the Society have contributed greatly to the dissemination of the fruits of geoscientific research. Some examples are as follows.

Geographical and geological maps of Korea, North China, South China and neighboring areas were compiled and published as early as in the late 1890's.

Text books of the earth sciences of college level were also edited and published by the initiative of the Society in the early 20th Century. Japan's first English-Japanese dictionary of Earth Sciences was published already in 1914 from the Society.

This last activity has declined with increasing availability of similar text books, especially in recent days.
   
  Field excursions
 
As field observations are essential to the earth sciences, the Society organized, even in the early years, field excursions both within Japan and overseas. The first excursion organized by the Society was already in 1900, to Ome in the western suburb of Tokyo. This activity continued since, and it is one of the regular activities of the Society in the present time. Recently overseas geo-trips are carried out on annual basis, such as the trip to Hawaii in 1999, to Taiwan in 2000, and to Alaska in 2001.

   
   
  Public and in-house lectures
 
As activities for dissemination of the recent achievements of earth sciences to the public, the Society convenes a couple of public lectures on current geoscience topics every year.

A free talking gathering, under the name of Earth Sciences Club, is held monthly, every time inviting an authority of the field to present the frontier issues of geosciences.
   
  Sponsoring the international congresses and meetings
  The Society assumes sponsorship to a number of international congresses and meetings. Special budget is allocated for funding international meetings, of which the Society members are organizers. Some of the world-wide scale congresses were convened under the Society's sponsorship, some examples are:
1925 3rd Pan Pacific Congress at Tokyo
198024th International Geographical Congress in Tokyo
1992 29th International Geological Congress in Kyoto.
   
   
   
  Overseas scientific expeditions
  The Society has sponsored and sent off a number of scientific expeditions to East Asia from the earliest stage of its history. All the results have been published as Monographs of the Society. One of the most outstanding enterprises is the mission to China, in 1911 to 1916, of which the final reports, entitled Geographical Research in China, were published in three volumes from the Society. Overseas expedition
could not be organized after the W.W.II under the Society's initiative, but the Society is still sponsoring
overseas researches through allocating annually research funds to the members.
   
   
   
  Research funds
  The Society reserves special budget for offering financial assistance to geoscientific researches.
   
   
   
  For further information, write to:
  Tokyo Geographical Society,
12-2 Nibancho, Chiyoda, Tokyo 102-0084
Phone: 81-3-3261-0809
Fax: 81-3-3263-0257
E-mail:chigaku@abox9.so-net.ne.jp
Web site: http://wwwsoc.nii.ac.jp/tokyogeo/