Japan’s “New World-Civilisation” at the First Universal Races Congress of 1911

The First Universal Races Congress of 1911 offered a golden opportunity for Japanese to represent themselves at a conference devoted to relations between races and civilizations.  I will pay particular attention to Kobayashi Teruaki, the official Japanese URC delegate appointed by the Ministry of Education, and his mentor, Takebe Tongo.  Drawing on their extensive writings in Japanese, I will analyze and contextualize Kobayashi’s and Takebe’s ideas about the hybrid nature of race and civilization in Japan and their argument for a uniquely Japanese project to synthesize Asian races and civilizations and then harmonize Eastern and Western civilizations in a “new world-civilisation.”