Asian Center Funds Sought By Reischauer

Edwin Reischauer, University Professor, has been meeting high level government and business officials in Japan since July 3 to secure $15 million in support of a Japan Institute at Harvard.

The funds would permit the construction of a building to house the Institute and the endowment of two professorial chairs, research programs, and library expenditures.

In the wake of the success of Jerome Cohen, professor of Law, in obtaining the endowment of a professorship in Japanese legal studies, and the concurrent reduction in temporary government and private foundation grants, the East Asian Studies Institute has recently begun to seek permanent resources.

Harvard was shocked when the Ford Foundation said that the "seed [temporary] money," (approximately $500,000) for East Asian Studies would cease in 1975, Dean Rosovsky said yesterday. For almost 20 years Ford has provided "seed money," presumably to sustain EAS until the university could secure endowed funding.

Effect of Reductions

The effect of all reductions has been outlined in a brief memorandum written by Marshall Pihl of the Council on East Asian Studies. Pihl estimates the losses to EAS will total $863,479 by 1975. More than half of the sum came from Ford; the rest has been provided by the government under National Defense Education Act federal grants.

Reliable sources report that representatives of other universities (including Michigan and Stanford) have been visiting Japan in search of assistance. Shortly after Cohen secured $1 million from Mitsubishi industries for the Japanese law chair, Yale received $2 million from the Sumitomo conglomerate.

William S. Olney '46, director of special projects of the office of Alumni Affairs and Development speculated yesterday that Japanese Prime Minister Tanaka's visit to the U. S. at the end of July could be significant in evaluating the outcome of the universities' efforts.

Last year, the Japan Fund, the Japanese version of the American Fullbright Fellowships, was inaugurated.

Economic Interdependence

In a bilingual brochure, "Harvard and Japan," John K. Fairbank, Higginson Professor of History and director of EAS, and Reischauer explain the United States and Japan face the danger that their economic interdependence and need for close cooperation in many fields will outrun their mutual understanding.