Abstract
This paper discussed the origin of the scientific name, "Shinrigaku", in Japanese using various historical documents. Today we are accustomed to say that the original foreign word "shinrigaku" comes from psychology. However, historical documents tell us that psychology was translated into Japanese as "Seirigaku" at first by Amane Nishi in 1874. And he also translated "Mental philosophy, written by J. Haven" into Japanese as "Shinrigaku" in 1878. So there arises some questions about the relationship between Shinrigaku and Seirigaku in Japanese. Do these words have the same meaning or not? When and why, and by whom did the scientific name of psychology become "shinrigaku" in Japanese? Is this largely from Amane Nishi, or are there any other reasons, like the official university educational system in Japan at that time? There are left unsolved many kinds of issues needing further research.
