It was after the Second World War that educational sociology acquired standing in the Japanese academic world. However, even before this some Japanese scholars introduced the writings of European and American educational sociologists into Japan. For instance, Sukeshige Tase concentrated his energies on American educational sociology, and Tomisaburo Watanabe introduced sociological studies on the classroom based on the German model. In the 1930s, Japanese sociologists such as Kazuta Kurauchi studied education from the standpoint of cultural sociology, and introduced some of the theories of French sociologists such as Emile Durkheim and Jean Guyau. However, the discipline was, on the whole, not rated very high in pre-war Japan. This was mainly due to the prevailing educational and social system in which sociological studieswere considered unnecessary. However, the situation has markedly changed after the war. For example, a considerable number of positions in educational sociology have been established in the major new universities. The 'new education movement' necessitated a sociological analysis of education, since the movement's major aim was to make education more community based. These drastic educational reforms have paved the way for the rapid development of educational sociology in Japan. The Japanese Society of Educational Sociology was founded in 1949. In the following year, it held it first meeting and two years later, the first volume of the Society's journal, Kyoiku shakaigaku Kenkyu (Journal of Educational Sociology), was published. Since then, the Society's meetings have taken place annually or biannually and the proceedings have been published in the journal. The Dictionary of Educational Sociology (edited by Yoshihiro Shimizu, president of the Society) was published in commemoration of the 15th anniversary of the Society in 1965. Two volumes of essays on educational sociology in retrospect and on its future have also been published in 1971 to commemorate the 20th anniversary. The Society has a membership of 600, of which 60% are academics (professors or research assistants of colleges and universities), followed by teachers (20%), graduate students (7%), staff in research institutes (5%), and others (8%).