As a graduate student, Nakayama was a Fulbright scholar.[2] He worked with Thomas Kuhn and then Joseph Needham.[3] Besides those two scholars, he regarded Kiyosi Yabuuti (1906–2000) as one of his teachers.[1] At Harvard in the late 1950s, he met fellow graduate student Nathan Sivin, with whom he worked for many decades. [5]
Nakayama was on the staff of Tokyo University from 1960 to 1989.[3] As Professor Emeritus, he was at Kanagawa University.[6]
Nakayama died in Tokyo on Saturday 10 May 2014.[7]
Works
Japanese Studies in the History of Astronomy (1962)[8]
A History of Japanese Astronomy: Chinese Background and Western Impact (1969)[9]
Characteristics of scientific development in Japan (1977)[10]
Academic and scientific traditions in China, Japan, and the West (1984)[11]
Science, Technology, and Society in Postwar Japan (1991)[12]
A Social History of Science and Technology in Contemporary Japan: The Occupation Period, 1945-1952 (2001), with Kunio Goto and Hitoshi Yoshioka
A Social History of Science and Technology in Contemporary Japan: Road to Self-Reliance, 1952-1959 (2005), with Kunio Goto and Hitoshi Yoshioka
A Social History of Science and Technology in Contemporary Japan: Transformation period, 1970-1979 (2006)[13]
The Orientation of Science and Technology: A Japanese View (2009)[14]