Asiatic Society of Japan. This society was founded in 1872, for "the collection of information and the investigation of subjects relating to Japan or other Asiatic countries." The two seats of the Society are Tōkyō and Yokohama. The entrance fee is 5 yen, and the yearly fee likewise 5 yen to residents, but 3 yen to non-residents. It is also optional to residents to become life-members by paying the entrance fee and a lump sum of 50 yen; similarly, to non-residents for the entrance fee and 30 yen. Candidates are elected by the Council of the Society. Persons desirous of membership should, therefore, apply to the Secretary or to some other member of the Council. Members receive the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan free, from the date of their election, and have the privilege of purchasing back numbers at half-price. These are the Asiatic Transactions, so often referred to in the course of the present work. Scarcely a subject connected with Japan but may be found learnedly discussed in the pages of the Asiatic Transactions. A General Index is in preparation; hitherto only that appended to Vol. XXIII. has been available.
Besides the Asiatic Society, there is in Tōkyō a German Society, entitled Deutsche Gesellschaft für Natur- und Völkerkunde Ostasiens, the scope of whose labours is closely similar, and whose valuable Mittheilungen, or German Asiatic Transactions, as we have ventured to call them when quoting them, are strongly recommended to readers familiar with the German language. This Society was founded in 1873. The Japan Society, founded in London in 1892, has published many good papers, especially on subjects connected with art.