Abstract
This paper provides an overview of why the bathyscaphe FNRS III came to Japan in
May 1958 and how it explored Japan Trench with Japanese and French scientists. Launched in
Toulon in 1953, the FNRS III was the most advanced submersible in the world at the time.
Professor Tadayoshi Sasaki of Tokyo University of Fisheries who had been conducting deep-sea
research in Japan, spent seven months at the Institut océanographique of Paris from January
1956. Then, he met Professor Louis Fage of the Museum National dʼHistoire naturelle and the
Institut océanographique who was President of Comité de Direction du Bathyscaphecf et de la
Calypso. After some persuasion by Professor Sasaki, Professor Fage promised to send the bathyscaphe
to Japan. Professor Sasaki with another Japanese organisations prepared to accept FNRS
III in Japan. The bathyscaphe arrived in Japan in May 1958 and descended into the Japan
Trench and surrounds to achieve valuable findings. Based on them, the Japanese-French
Oceanographic Society （SFJO） was established in Japan in April 1960 to develop and deepen
French-Japanese cooperation in oceanography and fisheries science. The SFJO has been promoting
and contributing to cooperations between the two countries in the fields of oceanography
and fisheries science since then.
