The is a society of Japanese studies (Japanology). Founded in 1872, the ASJ is Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

's oldest learned society.

Overview

The Asiatic Society of Japan (ASJ) was founded in 1872, five years after the Meiji restoration

Meiji Restoration

The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...

, at Yokohama

Yokohama

is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...

 by British and American residents - in particular missionaries, diplomats, businessmen etc. Ernest Mason Satow

Ernest Mason Satow

Sir Ernest Mason Satow PC, GCMG, , known in Japan as "" , known in China as "薩道義" or "萨道义", was a British scholar, diplomat and Japanologist....

 and John Harington Gubbins

John Harington Gubbins

-Education:Gubbins attended Harrow School and would have gone on to Cambridge University, had family finances allowed.-Career:Gubbins was appointed a student interpreter in the British Japan Consular Service in 1871; English Secretary to the Conference at Tokyo for the Revision of the Treaties,...

 were among the founder members.

The ASJ is Japan's oldest learned society and still very active today. Its journal, the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan , is published annually since 1874.

Select members

• Neal Lawrence
  Neal Lawrence
  Neal Henry Lawrence OSB was a naval officer, a diplomat, a monk, and academic/scholar and a poet. The chronology of his life comprises aspects of several disparate life stories.-Early years:...
  
  .
• Josiah Conder
  Josiah Conder (architect)
  Josiah Conder was a British architect who worked as a foreign advisor to the government of Meiji period Japan...
  
  
• Sir Ernest Satow