History of “History of Psychology” in Japan

Abstract

AbstractOnly a few Japanese psychologists have been interested in the history of psychology. The historiography—or the methodology of historical description—for the history of psychology has been ignored. Moreover, chairs for professors, academic journals, academic meetings, and an archive of the history of psychology remain to be established. In this paper, the history of the “history of psychology” in Japan is explored. This academic sub‐discipline has emerged only during the past few decades and a theory driven historiography covering the history of psychology was initiated in Japan only at the end of the 20th century. Activities on the history of Japanese psychology can be divided into three phases: (a) the traditional history (translations and introduction of foreign knowledge and celebration of history); (b) the transition phase (the movement towards social criticism and archival research from intra‐discipline); and (c) the history based on the historiography. Lastly, recent trends in the history of psychology in Japan are examined and discussed.