Seiichi Iwao

was a Japanese academic, an historian and author. He was, for many years, a professor at the University of Tokyo.

Early life Seiichi was born in Tokyo. He attended the University of Tokyo, graduating in 1925.

Career Seiichi was a member of the faculty of the University of Tokyo. His contribution to Japanese historiography is measured in the effect his teaching and example produced in a younger generation of students.

Indonesian history Iwao was considered a leading scholar in the colonial period of Indonesian history. His study of Japanese towns in South Asia before the Pacific War was published in . The research used documents of the Dutch East Indies Company in the archives of the Hague and Jakarta.

Japanese history Iwao's research and writing covered a broad range, including his early work on Japanese emigrant communities in South Asia and his later work on the Edo period of national seclusion (sakoku).

1940 – 1943 – 1958 – 1962 – 1966 – 1979 – 2001 – 1982 – Biographical Dictionary of Japanese History 1982, with Burton Watson 2002 – Dictionnaire historique du Japon, Vol. I; Vol. II, with Teizō Iyanaga, Susumu Ishii, Shōichirō Yoshida et al.

Affiliations Japan Academy, elected 1965. Franco-Japanese Historical Society (Societe Franco-Japonaise des Sciences Historiques; Nichi-Futsu Rekishi Gakkai) Japan-Netherlands Institute (Nichi-Ran Gakkai)

Honors Imperial Academy, Imperial Academy Prize, 1941 Order of the Sacred Treasure, 1970.