Kaneko Kentaro, 1853-1942, was a distinguished diplomat, statesman, scholar, and jurist. As a young man he was chosen by Ito Hirobumi in 1884 to join the commission to draft the Meiji Constitution. He traveled to the United States and Europe several times; in 1892, for example, at Geneva he argued Japan's case for Treaty Revision, and during the Russo-Japanese War, 1904-1905, he was a special envoy in the United States, where he strove to promote a better understanding of Japan's position. From 1906 he was Privy Councilor and served successively under Emperors Meiji, Taisho, and Showa. He was created Count in 1934 in recognition of his work as head of the commission to compile the official biography of Emperor Meiji. Of Kaneko'sfive trips to the United States, none was so long or left a more lasting impression on him than his first, 1871-1878, when he was sent by his domain lord to study abroad. He settled in Boston, and after attending a high school, entered Harvard Law School, from which he graduated in 1878. It was during this formative period that Kaneko not only learned to speak English well but also formed lasting friendships with American legal scholars such as John Chipmnan Gray, James Bradley Thayer, and, most of all, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Kaneko never forgot his happy student days in the United States and for many years maintained correspondence with his legal friends, especially with Holmes, to whom he wrote until the latter's death in 1935. Some 130 of these personal letters have been gathered and are now publishedfor the first time. The first part of 'The Kaneko Correspondence' appeared in this year's spring issue of Monumenta Nipponica, pp. 41-76, and contained an introduction (summarized above) and the first seventeen letters, most of which were written by the young Kaneko to his American friends, reminiscing about his happy days in Boston and expressing a desire to return to the United States. The second part, in the summer issue, pp. 223-56, containedforty-nine letters, most of which were written by Kaneko to his legal friends in the United States. The third installment of the correspondence, in the autumn issue, pp. 289-316, is marked by the warmth of tone in the letters between Kaneko and Holmes, and the latter's concern for his friend's safety on hearing the news of the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923.