Social Troubles Institute

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The Social Troubles Institute, Social Troubles Research Center or simply Colonization Academy, founded in Japan in 1921, was a think tank dedicated to future conquest plans on the Asian Mainland, and political implications. It had the patronage of Crown Prince Hirohito and was set up on land that had once been the Imperial Meteorological Observatory.

This institution is discussed by David Bergamini, author of Japan's Imperial Conspiracy (ISBN 0-688-01905-6, 1971). The book has been heavily criticized as the first major 'revisionist history' work published in the West on Japan's war of conquest, yet much of the research it contains has substantially been vindicated. Bergamini describes the Institute as a secret indoctrination center (protected by extensive security measures) for select younger sons, of politicians, Japanese nobility and militarist supporters, who desired to participate in fulfilling the dreams of Imperial conquest harbored among elements of Japan's aristocracy. The first draft of Japanese conquest plans for world domination were traced by Bergamini to the Institute. Academics have generally considered Bergamini's research of his original sources to be telling, but his interpretations to be contaminated by conspiracy theories that cannot be accepted. This is a matter still discussed, though, and his ideas have not entirely fallen out of circulation.

Under the said theory, graduates of this ultrasecret 'political' think tank, recruited only by special invitation from rightwing circles, continued its 'political' and 'military' practice in the occupation zones in Manchuria. From this 'school' began the political and strategic debate between the Strike North Group (the Army group, pro-war against Soviet Siberia) and the Strike South Group (the Navy group concerned with the Chinese lands and especially Southeast Asia).

The Director and principal academic adviser was Dr. Shumei Okawa, with Mitsuru Toyama another 'professor' in the center. Both were adherents to the Black Dragon Society. Okawa had spied in China; his belief was that Japan had the Divine Mission to liberate the world.

This center was closed in 1945 by the Allied authorities, and its Director and 'professors' were arrested for war crimes.