抄録
Edmund Naumann (1854–1927), the first professor of the Geological Institute, Science Department, the University of Tokyo, presented a proposal to found the Geological Survey of Japan to Hirobumi Ito, Minister of the Home Affairs of Japan, in 1879. The Japanese Government immediately accepted this proposal, so Naumann resigned his post as a professor of the university and returned to Germany, in order to find the necessary specialists and items for the upcoming survey. During his stay in Germany, on January 3rd, 1880 he gave an invitation lecture on Japan, which was published in “die geologische Verhandlungen der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin” as a paper titled “Ueber die wirthschaftlichen Verhältnisse Japans und die geologische Aufnahme des Landes” (The economic situation of Japan and the Geological Survey of Japan). This paper introduced the feudal system, which had controlled Japan through the Middle to Modern ages, the economic situation of Japan after the Meiji Restoration, especially for agriculture, means to promote Japanese agriculture and industry, and the purpose and tasks of the Geological Survey of Japan. The paper, which we have now translated into Japanese, is important because it is similar to the Japanese translation of the above proposal handwritten in 1879, and the original text of the proposal, probably written in German, has now been lost.
