Abstract
Those mathematicians and historians of mathematics who have participated in the 21st International Congress of Mathematicians in Kyoto and the Tokyo History of Mathematics Symposium 1990 may be interested in the following problem: Japan is now one of the big powers in mathematics, as participants may have observed at the Kyoto Congress. Why was Japan able to introduce Western mathematics so rapidly? I propose the following answer to this problem: The old order of Japan already possessed a very sophisticated traditional mathematics called ‘wasan’, and new Japan was in a great hurry to reform educational systems drastically and to institutionalize military academies, a mathematical society, and universities, which all facilitated Japan’s adoption of Western mathematics.
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References
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Chikara, S. (1994). The Adoption of Western Mathematics in Meiji Japan, 1853–1903. In: Sasaki, C., Sugiura, M., Dauben, J.W. (eds) The Intersection of History and Mathematics. Science Networks · Historical Studies, vol 15. Birkhäuser Basel. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-7521-9_12
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