RIKEN Institute

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理化学研究所

Japan's premier scientific research institute, involved in wartime nuclear research (Ni-Go project).

Prefecture

Tokyo

City

Tokyo

Region

Kanto

Significance

National

Today

Rebuilt

Access

Restricted

Location accuracy

Approximate

Period

1917–1945

Images

RIKEN's first cyclotron, completed by Yoshio Nishina in 1937 — Nishina's first cyclotron at RIKEN (1937), the first cyclotron built outside the United States. — Yoshio Nishina, Public Domain

RIKEN's second cyclotron (150cm), completed 1943 — The second RIKEN cyclotron (1943), part of Japan's wartime nuclear research. Destroyed by U.S. occupation forces in November 1945. — Yoshio Nishina, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

History

RIKEN (Rikagaku Kenkyūjo), founded in 1917, was Japan's leading scientific research institution. During World War II, physicist Yoshio Nishina led the Ni-Go project at RIKEN, Japan's principal attempt to develop an atomic bomb for the Imperial Army. Though the project never achieved a self-sustaining chain reaction due to resource shortages, it represented a significant wartime scientific effort. RIKEN continues today as Japan's largest comprehensive research institution.

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