<p>Lee De Forrest is well-known in the US as an inventor of Audion, a vacuum tube, and Phonofilm, a kind of talkie system. He is remembered by Japanese scholars as an American inventor who, with Yoshizo Minagawa, De Forest’s agent in Japan, helped Matsutaro Shoriki, the owner of Yomiuri Shinbun to introduce Television to Japan, which has not been noticed by American scholars .</p><p>However, so far , little is known what De Forest and Minagawa had been doing before Shoriki became a central figure in the movement of introducing Television to Japan, with the support by Karl Mundt, a US Senetor who planned to bring “Vision of America”, a Television version of VOA to Japan. It was not clear, therefore, what kind of relationship they had with Shoriki, and what kind of contribution they made in the movement.</p><p>By using archives I found in Lee De Forest Papers in History San Jose, this article shed light on the endeavours by De Forest and Minagawa to introduce Television before Shoriki emerged as a chief promoter of Television.</p><p>It was found from the archives that De Forest and Minagawa wanted to introduce the color Television system De Forest developed in the US after the war and build Television Broadcasting Company and Television Manufacturing Company in Japan.</p><p>The archives also show that they tried to have Shoriki as a partner for their venture but SCAP did not allowed that because he was purged as one of wartime leaders. However, Shoriki attracted much attention from CCS (Civil Communications Section) officers who were in charge of telecommunications during the occupation.</p><p>It is no wonder that, when Mundt in 1950 wanted to introduce his Vision of America to Japan and ask SCAP for help, CCS officers recommended Shoriki to him because they know that the media mogul would be a perfect person for the plan once the occupation terminated.</p><p>From Mundt point of view, De Forest and Minakawa became subordinators to Shoriki even before he was actually de-purged in 1951. According to letters which Shoriki sent to Minagawa in 1951, Shoriki feel guilty for them because they started the movement and picked him up for their support.</p><p>When Shoriki founded Nippon Television Network, Japan’s first commercial Television Company in 1952, Shoriki appointed Minagawa one of members of the company’s Board of Directors, but no position was offered to De Forest because he lived in California.</p><p>Feeling sorry for De Forest, Minagawa built a memorial in Matsuchiyama Tensho, a temple near Asakusa, Tokyo in 1956 to commemorate De Forest’s achievement as a starter of the movement of introducing television (and Phonofilm) to Japan.</p><p>In the course of Japanese history, it turned out that Television was the most powerful medium in fostering and americanising post-war Japanese popular culture. It can be said that De Forest and Minagawa were instrumental in introducing not only Television but post-war American popular culture to Japan.</p>