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Japan and the United States signed in 1968 a new atomic energy agreement through which US light-water nuclear reactors, including those of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant of Tokyo Electric Power Company, were to be introduced into Japan. This paper studies the history of negotiations for the 1968 agreement using documents declassified in the 1990s in the US and Japan. After the success of the Chinese nuclear test in October 1964, the United States became seriously concerned about nuclear armament of other countries in Asia including Japan. Expecting that Japan would not have its own nuclear weapons, the US offered to help the country to demonstrate its superiority in some fields of science including peaceful nuclear energy to counter the psychological effect of the Chinese nuclear armament. Driven by his own political agenda, the newly appointed Prime Minister Eisaku Sato responded to the US expectation favorably. When he met in January 1965 with President Johnson, Sato made it clear that Japan would not pursue nuclear weapons. Although the US continued its support after this visit, it nevertheless gave priority to the control of nuclear technology in Japan through the bilateral peaceful nuclear agreement. This paper argues that the 1968 agreement implicitly meant a strategic measure to prevent Japan from going nuclear and also a tactic to persuade Japan to join the Nuclear Non -Proliferation Treaty.

The Seki Teisyo (see text for symbol), a manuscript compiled by Seki Takakazu (see text for symbol)) in 1686, is known to consist of 15 treatises which Seki extracted from an early Qing astronomical and astrological corpus, the Tianwen Dacheng Guankui Jiyao (see text for symbol). Containing a detailed account of the Shoushi Li (see text for symbol) as well as a comparative study of Chinese and Islamic calendrical systems, these treatises have drawn the attention not only of Seki but of modern historians. In this paper, I show that 14 of the 15 treatises Seki selected had been composed by a late Ming scholar, Zhou Shuxue (see text for symbol), who discussed issues with Tang Shunzhi (see text for symbol). Their time predates the era in which the mathematical basis of the Shoushi Li was scrutinized and a new Chinese calendrical system was invented incorporating Western astronomical knowledge. I also mention some earlier works that Tang and Zhou could have consulted. Although Seki never knew the author of the treatises nor their background, his concern centered on themes that seem to have derived from one of those earlier works: the Liyuan(see text for symbol).

Chii, the Japanese term for 'lichen', is widely used in contemporary East Asia. However, precisely when and by whom this term was first used to refer to lichen is not known. In addition, Japanese botanists from the 1880s to the 1950s had doubts regarding whether Chii was an accurate translation of lichen, given that Chii originally referred to moss that grows on the ground, whereas most species of lichens grow on barks of trees or on rocks. In this paper, the author shows that Li Shanlan and A. Williamson et al., in the late Qing dynasty of China, first used the term Chii to refer to lichen in Zhiwuxue, published in 1858. In Japan, Tanaka Yoshio, who was influenced by Zhiwuxue, first used the term Chii in 1872. However, further investigations led to the discovery that ITO Keisuke translated lichen as Risen in 1829. In 1836, UDAGAWA Yoan also translated lichen as Risen by using a different kanji (Chinese character) to represent sen. In 1888, in his article, MIYOSHI Manabu suggested a new equivalent term, Kisoukin, to refer to lichen (algae-parasitized fungi). In the article, he proposed the term Kyosei as the Japanese translation of symbiosis. Ever since the late 1880s, Kyosei has been used as the Japanese biological term for symbiosis.