Otani, Soji (1924-)

Japanese psychologist who founded the Japanese Society for Parapsychology. He was born on December 8, 1924, in

Chiba Prefecture, Honshu, Japan. He studied at the University of Tokyo (B.A. 1949), became a research fellow at the National Institute of Education, Tokyo (1951-52), and a lecturer at Chiba University, Chiba-shi (1952-60). In 1960, Otani began his career as a professor at the Defense Academy Yokosuka-shi.

Otani was a charter associate of the Parapsychological Association and councilor at the Japan Psychic Science Association, Tokyo. Otani studied and conducted experiments in Extrasensory Perception (ESP) and Psychokinesis (PK) through the 1970s. In the late 1970s, he headed a team studing the Japanese psychic Masuaki Kiyota in metal-bending and nengraphy (psychic photography); Kiyota later admitted the results were fraudulent. Otani is generally credited with helping to establish parapsychology in Japan.

Sources:

Otani, Soji. "The Aim of Parapsychology." Journal of Psychical Research and Spiritualism (1955).

——. "The Method of ESP Card Testing." Journal of Psychical Research and Spiritualism (1951).

——. "Relations of Mental Set and Change of Skin Resistance to ESP Scores." Journal of Parapsychology (1955).

——. "Studies on the Influence of Mental and Physiological Conditions Upon ESP Function." Journal of the Department of Liberal Arts (Defense Academy) (1959).

——. "A Survey of Public Opinion on Psychical Phenomena" Journal of Psychical Research and Spiritualism (1951).