John D. Rockefeller III: Foreign Visitors to Keio University

2020/06/09

While there are many non-profit foundations worldwide, large-scale foundations are concentrated in the United States.

A well-known example is the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Seattle), established in 2000, which has boasted the world's largest scale since 2006 with the cooperation of investment mogul Warren Buffett.

Tracing the history of foundations, one finds the Rockefeller Foundation (New York State), established in 1913. It was founded by oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller. Later, his brother, a financial magnate, also joined the foundation. It became a pioneer of giant American corporate foundations engaged in philanthropic activities. Since then, numerous large corporate foundations have been born, but the Ford Foundation (New York City), established in 1936, is now said to be the second largest in the U.S. in terms of asset size, far surpassing the Rockefeller Foundation.

Since its inception, the Rockefeller Foundation has achieved the world's best record in philanthropic activities, and it has had strong ties with universities in the United States. Across borders, the first helping hand extended to the private Keio University was for the construction of the Building for Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the School of Medicine. This realized President Kiroku Hayashi's vision that "prevention is superior to treatment." The robust building, with four floors above ground and one below, was completed in 1929. Most of the total construction costs were covered by donations from the Rockefeller Foundation. This building was so sturdy that even when much of the hospital was destroyed by fire during the Great Air Raid in May 1945, it remained standing alongside the Kitasato Library, serving as a stronghold for hospitalized patients and faculty members who were able to evacuate thanks to the struggles of the staff.

The first assistance Keio University received from the United States after World War II was the establishment of the Japan Library School (JLS) with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation. At that time, the American side believed that establishing library science departments in Japanese universities was important for promoting democratization. Until then, there were no educational institutions in Japan to train librarians, nor were there places to research services for users.

The Director of the University of Illinois Library, an authority on library science in the U.S. at the time, inspected the candidate institutions: the University of Tokyo, Kyoto University, Waseda University, and Keio University. Furthermore, the following year, Professor Robert L. Gitler, Director of the School of Librarianship at the University of Washington, visited Japan for a survey. During his visit, he was impressed by the English translation of "The Autobiography of Fukuzawa Yukichi," which led to the opening of the library science department at Keio University in April 1951 (see the November 2016 issue of this magazine, "Foreign Visitors to Keio University").

President Fukutarō Okui was planning the commemorative projects for the 100th anniversary of the founding of Keio University in 1958. For some time, there had been momentum within Keio to establish a research institute regarding management and labor issues, and interest from outside the university was also growing. In the fall of 1957, President Okui and his party traveled to the U.S. with this issue and held talks with John D. Rockefeller III. As a result, in the summer of 1958, Professor Harbison of Princeton University visited, followed by President Kerr of the University of California in January 1959, both of whom visited Keio University and exchanged views on the establishment of the research institute. Both were top authorities in this field and had extensive experience in the establishment and operation of university research institutions.

As a result, a preparatory committee for the establishment of the institute was formed with specialized researchers from six faculties within the university and scholars from outside. After deliberations by the University Press, the Board of Trustees, and the Board of Councilors, the Keio Economic Observatory (KEO) was established on September 1, 1959. It was located on the 5th floor of the newly built South Building at Mita. The first Director was Professor Keizō Fujibayashi of the Faculty of Economics, who, along with those involved, visited various sectors of industry and labor to ensure thorough awareness. As a result, they were able to obtain immense support from various quarters.

On February 19, 1960, John D. Rockefeller III (Rockefeller Foundation) visited and held talks with President Okui and Vice-Presidents Machida and Matsumoto. Furthermore, he attended the 4th Steering Committee meeting of the Keio Economic Observatory (KEO) being held that day. After talking with the Director and steering committee members, he toured the facility (the author was then a prospective research assistant at the Keio Economic Observatory (KEO)).

In this way, human exchange with overseas universities and research institutions became active, centered around the Keio Economic Observatory (KEO). As part of this, exchanges with the Ford Foundation also began, and in September 1960, Mr. Everton and Mr. Barnett visited the Keio Economic Observatory (KEO) to talk with the Director and others. This served as a catalyst for deepening exchanges with the University of Illinois.

In the 1960s alone, $45,000 in research funds were granted by the Rockefeller Foundation over three years starting in 1962, and $350,000 in human exchange funding was received from the Ford Foundation over five years starting in 1963. The latter was intended to deepen international research exchange, with the Keio Economic Observatory (KEO) at Keio University and the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations at the University of Illinois serving as hubs.

After World War II, labor movements became active in every country, and conflicts with management sometimes turned into major disputes, leading to frequent discussions of laws and systems at universities. Particularly in the United States, researchers were often involved in the mediation of disputes, and research institutes specializing in labor-management relations were established at universities, including the University of Illinois (Keizō Fujibayashi, Director of the Keio Economic Observatory (KEO), was the fourth chairman of the Central Labor Relations Commission, Japan's labor-management mediation body). However, in Japan, where the tradition of the ivory tower was strong, university researchers rarely participated in mediation or arbitration at the workplace level.

The purpose of establishing the Keio Economic Observatory (KEO) was to conduct research that could gain trust from both the management and labor sides. The leaders of the Keio Economic Observatory (KEO), who had sufficiently exchanged ideas with authorities on how to establish and operate American research institutes, collected donations from both labor and management—a rare occurrence at the time.

The first reason the Keio Economic Observatory (KEO) was innovative at the time was that it raised operating expenses from outside the university in the form of membership fees. This included over 100 organizations, such as business corporations and labor unions. Second, within the university, it organized researchers across six faculties around specific issues. This was unbelievable in the siloed universities of that time. Third, to return the results of the institute to its supporters, it engaged in publishing activities and seminars, and also responded to commissioned research. At the time, being too close to companies led to being called a "government-affiliated scholar," but the goal of the Keio Economic Observatory (KEO) was to be a scholar useful in the long term.

Fourth was likely the exploration of the unknown world in social sciences, which was most expected of academics. As a result of the defeat in the war, Japanese academics positioned themselves as "frogs in a well" and imported social sciences from overseas, especially from the U.S., U.K., and Germany. On the other hand, for American researchers, the different culture of Asia, especially the island nation of Japan, was an attractive subject of study.

Among the famous achievements is James C. Abegglen's "The Japanese Factory" (1958). The theory that lifetime employment, the seniority system, and enterprise unions are the three pillars supporting "Japanese-style management" still remains relevant today. Furthermore, Abegglen's research method involved visiting and surveying 19 large Japanese companies and 34 small companies after the war. At the time, there were no researchers in Japan conducting such factual surveys. Through this publication, the term "lifetime employment" became established.

With various forms of domestic and international cooperation, the research achievements of the Keio Economic Observatory (KEO) gradually bore fruit. Professors from the University of Illinois frequently held research meetings with researchers from the Keio Economic Observatory (KEO) to conduct joint factual surveys in Japan.

What was impressive at that time was that the Japanese side's explanations were met with the request "specifically..." at every turn. While the rest of the interaction was in English, this part was done in Japanese as "gutai-teki ni." We were wary that discussions in Japanese social sciences tended to become empty theories, but even though we took pride in being Japan's representative in empirical science, I reflected that we still ended up talking about general principles. However, such exchanges were likely the very significance of joint research.

The goal of the Illinois team was to conduct a factual survey of labor-management relations in Japan. This would be difficult without the cooperation of Japanese researchers. Therefore, the labor relations group of the Keio Economic Observatory (KEO) took on that role. Just as the dispute at the Mitsui Miike Coal Mine in Kyushu was tentatively resolved in November 1960, the Illinois researchers wanted to conduct interview surveys of labor union members in March of the following year.

This dispute was notorious, with the labor union split into two and raging for two years. For a company, if there is more than one labor union to negotiate with and opposing elements form a second union that is more pro-company, resolution often becomes difficult. In this case, because the once-powerful union split, the dispute was slow to resolve, and the animosity between the unions was severe. Even among union members living in the same company housing, families of the first and second unions were at odds. In such a state, they intended to conduct interview surveys of members from both unions.

For the Keio Economic Observatory (KEO) side, for whom even interview surveys of union members were a first, it was a staggering plan. An Illinois-Keio survey team was formed, and they conducted the first interview surveys by dividing into groups for the first union, the second union, and the company side at the Mikawa Pit coal mine housing of the Miike Coal Mine (for results, see Yasumitsu Nihei, "Grassroots Solidarity: A Human Record at Miike," Japan Institute of Labour, 1971). Such an awareness survey of labor union members was the first of its kind in Japan and was unthinkable in Japan at the time. There is an anecdote that labor relations officers on the company side made armor out of weekly magazines to protect themselves from the bamboo spears of the opposition.

The Keio Economic Observatory (KEO) was launched based on the model of American university research institutes, but looking back after 60 years, one cannot help but feel the passage of time. This is because Japanese universities, research institutions, companies, and industries changed and developed at a rapid pace. As a result, things that were done because they were new became "commonplace." Research institutions themselves increased rapidly outside of universities and became ready to meet social needs. Survey and empirical research, which were firsts in Japan, became commonplace, and microdata and international comparative data became everyday occurrences. If we include the application of AI, how far will future development go? Society as a whole must respond with speed.