Analytical chemistry in Japan.

The International Congress on Analytical Chemistry was held in Japan, under the sponsorship of IUPAC and the Science Council of Japan in April 1972. This is a report on the progress of analytical chemistry in Japan which I gave as the opening lecture of the Congress, in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Japan Society for Analytical Chemistry. Analytical chemistry courses were first established in Japan in 1911 by Professor Emeritus Mat susuke Kobayashi of the Faculty of Science ofTohoku University; then in 1921 by Professor Emeritus Yuji Shibata of the Faculty of Science of the University of Tokyo, who has served as president of this International Congress and who is a former president of the Japan Academy. In the following year, 1922, Professor Emeritus Motooki Matsui established the course in the Faculty of Science at Kyoto University. In this year the author also established a course in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Tokyo. Sixty years have gone by since these beginnings. In 1952 the Japan Society for Analytical Chemistry was established by people from various fields, i.e. from science, engineering, medicine, pharmaceutical science, and agriculture as well as from various industries. Professor Emeritus Shibata, with Professor Emeritus Kenjiro Kimura, of the University of Tokyo (the president of the Japan Society for Analytical Chemistry) and his group, is well known for his contribution to the spectrophotometrical study of complexes'. This research was fundamental to the chemistry of coordination compounds. Its application to analytical chemistry, one of the largest research fields, was later developed by members of the Organic Reagent Research Committee, composed of Professor Kazuo Yamazaki of Nagoya University, Professor Nobuyuki Tanaka of Tohoku University, Professor Keihei Ueno of Kyushu University and Professor Motoharu Tanaka of Nagoya University. In addition to the spectrophotometrical study of complexes, Professor Emeritus Shibata began the study of rare earth elements2 and geochemistry in Japan and in other parts of the Orient3. These studies have been continued by many of his successors, including Professor Emeritus Kimura, Professor Emeritus Eiichi Minami of the University of Tokyo and Professor Kozo Nagashima of Tokyo Kyoiku University. The techniques of chemical analysis developed in the course of these studies helped form the basis of analytical chemistry in Japan.