Introduction

This project, itself a contemporary experiment in international education, had as the occasion for its launching a brace of historical events. The various essays were prepared for limited circulation and discussion, at an international conference of scholars convened as part of the celebration of the bicentennial anniversary of Rutgers University. The authors— together with a number of Japan specialists who acted as discussants— gathered for three days, April 26-28, 1967, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The date also roughly approximated the one hundredth anniversary of contacts between Rutgers and Japan. By coincidence, the following year, 1968, marked the beginning of the centennial anniversary of the Meiji Restoration in Japan.