Starting with a brief account of early Japanese interest in Western philosophy, part one of this paper will focus on the influence of Ernst Mach's ideas on a small group of philosophers of science. We will begin with Ishiwara Jun, follow with Tanabe Hajime from the influential Kyoto School of Nishida Kitaro, and conclude this section with Mach's philosophical influence on Taketani Mitsuo, a thinker of some importance about methodological questions in science and a colleague of the Nobel prize winner, Yukawa Hideki.