Mitsubishi at Harvard

By Mitsubishi.

Japan has never had a tradition of private or corporate philanthropy. Nevertheless, last week the huge Mitsubishi group of industries gave $1,000,000 to endow a professorship in Japanese legal studies at Harvard Law School. The occasion was the 54th anniversary of a similar gift by U.S. Banker A. Barton Hepburn for a chair in American studies at Tokyo University Law School. For Mitsubishi, Harvard was a logical choice: it has both great prestige and some of America's foremost Asian specialists, including Edwin O. Reischauer, former U.S. Ambassador to Japan.

As one of the world's largest conglomerates--its operations are as diverse as banking, shipping and steel --Mitsubishi wants to help improve strained Japanese relations with the U.S., which ranks among its biggest markets. "Every effort must be made to preserve and foster our ties," said Mitsubishi Corp. President Chujiro Fujino, as he handed the gift check to Harvard President Derek Bok. Then they toasted the event with Kirin, a Japanese beer exported, naturally, by Mitsubishi.

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