1. Personality in the pre-modern era

Although psychology was first taught in Japan as an “imported academic discipline,” indigenous personality theories have existed in Japan since the feudal era. Two books written in the 16th century, Jinkokuki and Koyo Gunkan, have dealt with the topic of personality (Ohmura, 1993). The former focused on different personalities and the value systems of people living in different providences, whereas the latter focused on the personality types of Samurai.

2. Importing of modern psychology and personality theories

Following the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the discipline of psychology was imported to Japan by Yuziro Motora (1858-1912), as a part of the process of modernization. Motora had earned his Ph. D. degree in psychology at the Johns Hopkins University, under the supervision of G. S. Hall. He had also read a variety of other social sciences (Sato, 2005). After returning to Japan, he became the first to be appointed as Professor of Psychology at the Tokyo Imperial University (now University of Tokyo). He considered the role of personality to be important and devoted many pages of his book Lectures on Psychology to this topic.

Later, Motora’s many distinguished students developed the concept of personality further and firmly established it among Japanese psychologists and educators. For example, in 1901 Hiroshi Hayami (1876-1943) translated Binet’s book, Personality Alteration into Japanese. Tohru Watanabe (1883-1957) published the first book named Personality in 1912. ?e also translated Stern’s Personology in 1931.

During the 1920s, clinical and abnormal psychology developed further. Masatake Morita (1874-1938) had a particular interest in neurosis when he was a medical student, due in part to his own neurotic symptoms. After graduation, he practiced psychiatry and later developed a unique cure for neurosis that became known as Morita therapy. He hypothesized that there was a specific type of neurosis prone personality, similar to Kretschmer’s psychosis prone personality.

Academic journals such as Shinri Kenkyu (Psychological Research) and Hentai Shinri (Abnormal Psychology) were launched in the 1910s, which gave psychologists in Japan the opportunity to publish their research. For instance, Watanabe (1912) published “Experimental Method for Assessment of Personality” in Shinri Kenkyu. Nakamura (1917) reported a case study of a dual personality in Hentai Shinri, which was a journal that he instigated.

Yuzaburo Uchida (1894-1966) was another leading personality psychologist during the 1920s and 1930s. Uchida modified the Kraepelin Mental Addition Test and developed the Uchida-Kraepelin Psychodiagnostic Test, which is the most widely administered test in Japan for measuring working ability (Sato, 2005). He also introduced the Rorschach test in 1925, just four years after its original publication in Germany (Oyama, Sato and Suzuki, 2002).

The Japanese Psychological Association (JPA), the first formal organization of psychologists in Japan, was established in 1927. In the same year, the Ministry of Education issued a directive (Kunrei) stressing the importance of “respect for individuality” (Kosei Soncho), an event that focused the attention of many people on the subject of personality. As shown in Figure 4, the number of books containing the word “Personality” and/or ”Individuality,” increased immediately after the directive was released. However, it decreased again in the late 1930s, after an ultra-nationalist regime came to power in Japan.

During the 1930s, Japanese psychologists were strongly influenced by Gestalt psychology. Usao Onoshima (1894-1941) studied psychology in Berlin and was attracted by Lewin’s approach to the subject, which had the ultimate aim of building a democratic society. Onoshima published Personality Psychology and Child Studies in 1933. However, his ideas were not widely accepted in Japan at the time, because the Ministry of Education under the military regime, abandoned the teaching of principles based on individuality (Takasuna and Sato, 2008).

3. Personality research in educational psychology: After the Second World War

After Japan was defeated in the Second World War, the General Headquarters of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (GHQ/SCAP) abolished the prevailing system of education based on Shintoism (ancient Japanese religion) and ultra-nationalism. Instead, a more scientific and democratic education system, in which psychology played a prominent role in training teachers, was introduced. Educational psychology became a core subject of teacher training courses. The topic of Personality and Adaptation was regarded as one of the fundamental disciplines of educational psychology, along with Development, Learning and Evaluation. Moreover, new concepts such as counseling, guidance, group dynamics and educational measurements were introduced from the U.S., along with a wide variety of psychological tests, including the MMPI and WAIS (Sato, 2005).

4. Establishing the association for personality research.

The Japanese Association of Educational Psychology (JAEP) was established in 1959. It had a membership that included many personality researchers. Clinical psychology, which had gone through a period of stagnation since the 1930s, was also gradually revitalized after the War. The Association of Japanese Clinical Psychology (AJCP) was founded in 1982 to support clinically oriented personality researchers.

In 1992, the Japanese Society of Personality Psychology (JSPP) was established and Professor Taketoshi Takuma (1927- ) assumed the first presidency of the association. Since then, JSPP has promoted the development of personality research in Japan by publishing journals and organizing annual meetings.

References

Ohmura, M. 1993 The mainstreams of personality psychology in Japan - On the one hundred and tenth anniversary of Prof. Tohru Watanabe's birth - Japanese Journal of Personality, 1, 15-27.

Oyama, T., Sato, T., and Suzuki, Y. 2001 Shaping of scientific psychology in Japan. International Journal of Psychology, 36, 396-406.

Sato, T. 2005 The History of Applied Psychology in Japan.?The Ritsumeikan Reports for Human Services, 9, 76-90?

Sato, T. and Sato, T. 2005 The early 20th century: Shaping the discipline of psychology in Japan. Japanese Psychological Research, 47, 52-62.

Takasuna, M. and Sato, T. 2008 History of Psychology in Japan before and during World War II. In Diriwachter, R. and Valsiner, J. (Eds.) Striving for the Whole: Creating Theoretical Syntheses. Transaction Publisher Pp.47-58.

Japanese Society of Personality Psychology
http://wwwsoc.nii.ac.jp/jspp/about_us.html