The Nan’yô Gakuin (Institute of the Southern Ocean) was established

in Saigon (Vietnam) in 1942, the year following the outbreak of the Pacific War, for the purpose of training young Japanese as leading businessmen to work in Southeast Asia. The Institute was run by the Nan’yô Kyôkai (Association of Southern Ocean). It was first sponsored by the Gaimu-shô (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and later by the Daitôa-shô (Ministry of Greater East Asia). It admitted thirty to fifty Japanese students every year, and was staffed by approximately twenty teachers invited from Japan, as well as a few Vietnamese and one French instructor, who were recruited locally. The Institute ceased its activities in 1945, when Japan lost the war. The Institute was rather small in scale, and only existed for a short period of time. However, it was a unique Japanese educational institution of the kôtô-senmon gakkô (prewar college) standard, the first and only to be established in Southeast Asia. This paper mainly discusses how the Institute was established, managed and devitalized, with the hope of contributing to the further understanding of Japanese relations with Southeast Asia and especially Indochina during the Pacific War period.