Foundation of the Clay Science Society of Japan

Historical Review

Abstract

In the early 1950's, clay researchers in Japan became awareof the neccessity of organizing a national society of clay science in Japan. Having this purpose in mind, they held the first meeting on clay science (Nendokagaku-Touronkai, NT) in November, 1957. News Letters, No.1 to 3 were issued during the following one year by the organizing committee. At the second meeting of NT in December, 1968, they established the Japanese Group of Clay Research (JGCR) with 373 members, and elected Toshio Sudo as the first President.
JGCR was composed of six divisions; the first, geology, mineralogy and economic geology; the second, mining and petroleum engineering ; thethird, ceramics ; the fourth, chemistry and physics ; the fifth, soil science, and the sixth, civil engineering and agricultural-civil engineering. JGCR published two journals. One is Nendo no Kagaku in Japanese being renamed to Nendokagaku in 1961, and the other is Clay Science in English. In addition, they published five volumes of the Advances in Clay Science from 1959 to 1965.
In November, 1963, five years after the establishment of JGCR, the Group was promoted to the Clay Scienece Society of Japan (CSSJ) with T. Sudo, the President, and the same six divisions, publishing the two journals. The eighth meeting of NT, thus, became the first annual meeting of CSSJ and was held in November.
The CSSJ held the 30th meeting of NT this fall. During this30 years, many events had occurred. The most paramount event to CSSJ was to host AIPEA Congress in Japan in 1969 on the 10th anniversary of JGCR. The Congress was held successfully with 313 scientists from 23 countries. Also, Handbook of Clay Science in Japanese was published in memory of the 10th anniversary. Details of how clay researchers in the 1950's and 1960's devoted their times and efforts for the foundations of JGCR and CSSJ, and for the publications of the journals were described in the text.