in finding out how Japanese appeared to foreigners in day-to-day impressions and what drew the foreigners interviewed to settle in Japan.

Dr. Aiba said he intends to continue his study of American and European residents here and will publish his findings in Japanese and English. Gyo Hani

Tokyo

Nov. 2, 1959

To the Editor:

Ever since the article entitled "Homosexual Rate High Among Residents Here," concerning my research, appeared in the Oct. 10 issue of The Japan Times, I have been criticized by foreigners here who are under a certain misapprehension about the nature of my research.

Therefore, I would like to borrow this precious space in your esteemed journal to dispel the misunderstanding about it. Part of this misunderstanding is due to the fact that those critics of mine did not read the article by Mr. Gyo Hani carefully and correctly. This was apparently true with the writers of several articles in other English language publications, who distorted the meaning of the original article, further spreading the false notion in the foreign community. In this regard, I should like to offer my respect to Mr. Patrick J. Killen of UPI who at least interviewed me before writing his article and elaborating on my research.

Many of those who showed various degrees of objection to and disapproval of my study asked me why I was interested in "digging up dirt" about foreigners here.

First of all, let me state one thing clearly: my current research was not for such an objective at all. In fact, it started out as a program to study

the Japanese mind. My approach, however, is an indirect one, that is, to learn about the Japanese mind as mirrored by foreigners who come into contact with it.

Thus I used foreign residents in Japan as subjects. Then I discovered two interesting facts about them. One is that those foreigners who served my research purposes-those who do know the Japanese mind intimately— are ones who chose to live in Japan among Japanese because they either ran away or rebelled against their own culture. And the other is the fact that a large portion of the foreigners of this category-about one out of every four-is a homosexual.

This. I trust, would resolve the wonderment of some of my critics who asked me why I was not interested in "normal and wholesome" foreign residents here. Ironically, perhaps, people of this type are not interested in coming into close contact with Japanese. In most instances, they are here not by choice. They usually spend more time with their own fellow countrymen. If they do come into contact with Japanese, they do so only in the course of their official duty or for business purposes.

Another point I should like to make clear at this opportunity is that we owe a great deal to those Occidentals who are either escaping or revolting against their own culture. The reason is that they have contributed and are contributing a great deal to the understanding of Japanese culture by the Occidentals. Because many of them were or are maladjusted in their native habitat, they have reacted favorably to Japan as an alien environment. This psychological factor resulted in a specially keen interest on their part in Japanese culture.

As we all know, mankind owes much to neurotics for the progress of our civilization. And many homosexuals have produced great literary works.