One outstanding example of the maladjusted, neurotic Occidental who deserted the West to come to Japan, originally in search of refuge, and ended up a great interpreter and appreciator of Japanese culture was Lafcadio Hearn. And in the postwar years, too, we have seen more Hearns and potential Hearns among the foreigners who have come into close contact with the Japanese way of life.

As a Japanese individual, I have in fact a kind of gratitude to and sympathy for those men. At the same time, as a psychologist I am interested in why they are what they are.

I put this question before my colleagues at the fifth Congress of Psychoanalysis held recently at Kyushu University. Even specialists, however, could not produce a satisfactory answer. An American sociologist attending the conference agreed on my conclusion that homosexual rate is particularly high among Americans interested in Japanese literature, but he, too, could not offer any theory on the correlation between the two.

I might add in this connection that not all of those who are trying to escape from their own culture are homosexuals as such. But they are often sexually maladjusted just the same in that they find it impossible to have heterosexual relations with members of the opposite sex of their own race or cultural background. The problem is not difficult to solve for the Occidental male of this kind living in Japan, but it is far more difficult, I found, in the case of the Occidental female living here.

Still another critcism I have met is that I dealt with only 60 cases in my research to arrive at the conclusion. Such a criticism, however, ignores the fact that depth interview is an extremely time-consuming process, requiring many sessions with one subject.

It should be almost unnecessary at

one

this moment for me to refute still another criticism: my study of foreigners in Japan, which produced the facts I have touched upon, was an affront to the foreigner. Here, it is sufficent to repeat the almost hackneyed expression: science knows no national boundaries. I am interested only in objective truths.

I am also aware of a basic reason why my research has been criticized by so many foreigners who expressed their disapproval either by telephone or personally to me. That is, in most Western countries homosexuality is considered highly immoral and in many places, e.g., the State of New York, a criminal offense punishable by heavy penalty.

But the situation in Japan is quite different. The homosexual population is almost infinitesimal and the people as a whole are completely uninterested in it .People pass moral judgment only on something they are very much interested in or which affects them seriously. But homosexuality in Japan is socially and sociologically not important enough to deserve either approval or censure. In other words, I am criticized by those foreigners who reacted to the disclosure about homosexuality just as they would in their home. environment where strong stigma is attached to the subject.

Before closing my statement, I would like to add that there is a potential, practical value in my research. Since it deals with the psychological problems a foreigner faces in Japan and how he adjusts himself to them, it should be of interest and a certain practical value to the diplomat, businessman, and even the ordinary tourist who comes to Japan.

For such a purpose, I am in need of further cooperation by foreigners, and those who are interested in helping my research, whereby making contribution to increased understand-