The secondary teacher training curriculum at the College of Literature of Tokyo Imperial University in early twentieth-century Japan made pedagogy-related subjects compulsory. Kumaji Yoshida, the leader of the institutionalisation of pedagogy at Tokyo Imperial University at the time, considered scientific research in pedagogy essential for the training of secondary school teachers as well as for college education. Through Yoshida's theories, this article demonstrates how Japan attempted to link secondary teacher training and pedagogy at Tokyo Imperial University during the early twentieth century.