Matatarō Matsumoto
Japanese psychologist (1865–1943)

Matatarō Matsumoto (松本 亦太郎, Matsumoto Matatarō; 1865–1943) was a Japanese psychologist who set up the first psychological laboratory in Japan. He has been described as "the most eminent figure in the history of psychology in Japan". He founded the Japanese Journal of Psychology and the Japanese Psychological Association.
A native of Takasaki, Matsumoto studied for undergraduate and master's degrees in Tokyo, studying under Japan's first academic psychologist, Yūjirō Motora. He earned a doctorate at Yale University under the tutelage of psychologist Edward Wheeler Scripture. Matsumoto taught at the Tokyo Higher Normal School before he set up Japan's second psychology laboratory at Kyoto University. He then took over the psychology program at Tokyo Imperial University after Motora died.
Early life
Matsumoto was born in Takasaki in what became the Gunma Prefecture. At 15, the Matsumoto family adopted him. He attended the Doshisha School and the First Higher Middle School in Tokyo.
“Matatarō Matsumoto” enters the record as japanese psychologist (1865–1943). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Matatarō, Matsumoto and Japanese can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q11530850. VIAF identifies the subject as 31796419. The Library of Congress control number is no2008016301. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1865 and 1943.
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This entry incorporates text from “Matatarō Matsumoto” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.