The commemoration of Japan's 2600th anniversary was a project to commemorate the enthronement of the first emperor, Jinmu Tenno 神武天皇, at the palace of Kashihara-no-Miya 橿原宮 as recorded in the Nihon Shoki 日本書紀 chronicle. The celebration was planned to be held mainly during the 15th year of the Showa 昭和 era, or 1940, and included many lavish events and projects. By just one official announcement made by government, a total of fifty million people in and out of Japan were mobilized, and helped organize and implement a total of 15,000 separate commemorative events and projects at a cost of 163,000,000 yen. This would make the celebration prewar Japan's largest social event. Unfortunately, the research to date has not matched its importance. In the present paper, the author attempts to place Japan's 2600th anniversary celebration in historical context based on the process by which it unfolded. The author's research here covers a period of time between 1930 and August 1937, takes up three examples of planned events … a World's Fair, the Olympic Games (both of which were abandoned in July of 1938) and the repair and expansion of the palace site at Kashihara-no-Miya … and focusses on the relationship between the three events, the people who sponsored them, and the public reaction to them. As a result of his research, the author shows that the movement to hold a 2600th anniversary, which was the national slogan behind the plan to host the 25th Olympiad in Tokyo, then spilled over into a plan to hold a World's Fair, and also formed the motivation for a locally sponsored plan to repair and expand the Kashihara Palace site. Therefore, we can see an expansion of the original plan to merely celebrate a Japanese historical milestone expanding into decisions to organize projects on the international scale of a World's Fair. The hosting of both an Olympiad and a World's Fair was a big step for Japan towards becoming a recognized world power, not only politically, but socially and economically as well. The decision to sponsor these events was regarded as a way by which Japan could be the first nation to escape the depression of the 1930s through the regional development projects they would stimulate, their beneficial effects on Japan's international balance of payments, and the long term growth and prosperity that would result. In other words, the main motivation behind the decision to hold a national 2600th anniversary celebration was not ideological, but rather the hope of making Japan into a first rate country of the world both socially and economically. Moreover, in the fact that the state made actual decisions towards the implementation of these international events (that were later abandoned) shows well the image that the Japanese of the 1930s held about the world and the times in their perception that the realization of a prosperous society, like that enjoyed by the leading nations of the time as a result of economic growth, was clearly within their grasp.

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The entry of Nihonkoki chronicle dated 805/6/8 records a report on the situation in T'ang China, entitled Toshosoku, which was issued by the 801-804 Japanese mission. This report tells us of important affairs, domestic and foreign, concerning T'ang China in those days. There is information on the circumstances of the imperial family, the movements of provincial governments, and an international dispute with T'u-fan. So far, however, concerning the authenticity and value of this report as an historical source material hardly any meaningful research has been done. This article, therefore, tries to examine the report by collating its details with various Chinese source materials. As a result of his investigation, the author concludes that the Toshosoku, as a whole, correctly records the situation in T'ang China in the early part of the 9th century, and that it also mentions some interesting historical facts that have been lost in the Chinese historical records. Thus, the report is a useful material not only for the study of Japanese ancient history, but also for the study of T'ang China.

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Republican (minkuo 民国) Shanghal was a city of continuous expansion with a rapidly growing population. It was also a city in which social welfare services were provided by nongovernmental voluntary associations under the leadership of local elites. Corresponding to the expansion of the city, many philanthropic associations were founded and be came active during the republican era. In order to relieve the poor and ease social discontent, food and clothing were supplied, funerals were performed, and livelihoods protected. The homeless ware accommodated and educated, unidentified corpses were buried, charitable schools were opened, all in order to maintain public health, peace and order. These nongovernmental philanthropies in republican Shanghai were active on a considerable scale and supported the stability and the development of this expanding modern city. Under the Headership of local elites, particularly the bourgeoisie, Shanghai not only had the economic where withal to afford nongovernmental social welfare services but also had motivation and organizing capability to support them. The motivation by which local elites resorted to such philanthropy stemed from "publicity" and the "public interests of the local community". These ideas were new values formed in modern Shanghai, where Confucian values of pre-modern China clashed with Christian humanism introduced from the West with the reality of the expanding urban society as background. Social welfare services in Shanshai were practiced not only by individual philanthropic associations, but also by networks formed among them. This reveale that urban utilities were based on nongovernmental networks in local society, and managed by autonomous local elites. Here, we can see an aspect of the formation and maturity of urban "society" in modern China.

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