NEWSLETTERNO.

38

2014. 12 . 9

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY
THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO
東京大学公共政策大学院

Contents

1 SciREX Summer Camp Report［Miyu Ishiguro］
2 A New Beginning for Healthcare Planning［Kenichi Hanioka］
3 Student Interview, No. 19［ Mr. Yuichi Sakurai］
4 To GraSPP, SIPA, and Beyond［Nana Homma］／ Topical News

SciREX Summer Camp Report

Miyu Ishiguro Legal Policy Division, 1st YearI participated in the SciREX Summer Camp held over three days from
August 31 to September 2. This year's course took place on Awaji Island,with the topic being societies with a falling population. It involved
working in groups to develop likely and ideal scenarios for 30 years in thefuture, and producing policy proposals for achieving the ideal outcome.
●Up to the night before departure
Before arriving in person, we introduced ourselves to our groups andundertook preliminary exercises. My group was made up of people froma variety of disciplines, such as agriculture and philosophy of science, andwith diverse backgrounds, ranging from people with employment
experience to someone who already had a master's degree and aimed toreceive another. While I looked forward to the cross-cultural attraction ofhaving people from diverse backgrounds, I did wonder whether wewould be able to agree on a joint proposal. Given the diﬃculty ofconducting much of a conversation by e-mail, we approached the startdate without being fully prepared and I joined the course with somedoubts still in my mind.
●At the course
The summer camp primarily involved group work. In my group, we ﬁrst
had to make up for our lack of preparation, but once we got to meeteach other face-to-face, our discussion proceeded smoothly. The groupleader kept careful track of time and we all avoided focusing too muchon our own specialties. As part of their preliminary preparations, one ofour group, an expert in public health, had produced a concept diagram
looking 30 years ahead from the perspective of their own ﬁeld. At thecamp, though, his attitude was to contribute his own knowledge when

dealing with medical or public health issues but to pay careful attention
to what everyone else had to say when it came to ﬁelds outside theirarea of expertise, he declared. Having talked this over early on, ourdiscussions proceed with everyone respecting each other's diﬀerences.
What impressed me here was that, whereas we are in the habit oflooking at things like society and policy from within the frame of our own
specialties, this was a chance to gain insights into how these things lookfrom diﬀerent perspectives. Looking at legal matters from theperspective of someone who develops rockets provided a view of thelaw unlike what I get in my usual studies.

NEWSLETTER●After the summer camp
Having received some stern feedback from the teachers at the grouppresentation, the summer camp left me with an awareness of how much
I still have to learn. In regard to putting policy into practice, it waspointed out to me that the impressive outcomes I intended would notnecessarily eventuate straight away, and while this may seem obvious
when written down, it is something you tend to forget when engaged ingroup work at a summer camp. Nevertheless, while the expression may
sound a little clichéd, I found it a valuable experience to be involved in
the group work and other activities, and in the cross-cultural exchangethat resulted from contact with people I would not normally get to meet,including members of our group with diﬀerent specialties and academics
from other universities.
“Why do you always restrict themselves to their own ﬁeld?”
I particularly remember this comment being made by one of theteachers I had a chance to speak to. This has prompted me to adopt an
attitude of opening myself up to other ﬁelds.

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