NEWSLETTERNO.

36

2014. 7. 1

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

Contents

1 Celebrating the 10th Year Anniversary［Hideaki Shiroyama］
2 Murmurs and Musings, No.10［Daisuke Ueda］／ A Report on the iJFF Project［Masahiro Matsuura］
3 Student Interview, No. 17［ Mr. Satofumi Ushigami］
4 Farewell Message［Takatoshi Ito］／ Topical News

Celebrating the 10th Year Anniversary
Hideaki Shiroyama

NEWSLETTEROn April 1 this year, I took over from Takatoshi Ito as Dean of the Graduate School of Public Policy (GraSPP).
Established in April 2004 as a "joint venture" between the Graduate Schools for Law and Politics and the
Graduate School of Economics, GraSPP provides professional degree courses for training experts in planning,
implementing, and evaluating public policy. Japan is going through major social and institutionaltransformations that include its changing industrial structure and an aging society with falling birthrate.
Ongoing globalization, meanwhile, is another source of major change throughout the world. For Japan toignore its relationships with the rest of the world would leave its politics, foreign policy, and economics without
direction. This means that those people with a broad involvement in policy need the ability to identify issues
accurately, determine how to respond, and build a consensus by presenting these ideas to the other parties
involved. They must also be able to communicate this to the rest of the world. The objective of GraSPP is to
produce people who can demonstrate these skills in the highly specialized ﬁelds of policy making in Japan andinternationally.
As we mark the tenth anniversary of our founding, GraSPP is seeking to build on our successes to date andfurther enhance our research and teaching capabilities. Our ﬁrst priority is to strengthen our international
activities. Since 2009 we have oﬀered double degree programs in partnership with Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy at the National University of Singapore; the School of International and Public Aﬀairs at Columbia
University; Sciences Po Paris; Hertie School of Governance in Germany; the Graduate School of International
Studies, Seoul National University; and the School of International Studies, Peking University. We have also set
up academic exchange agreements with the School of International Relations and Paciﬁc Studies at the
University of California, San Diego; Heidelberg University in Germany; and Business Administration School ofSão Paulo at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Brazil. In 2010, we established the Master of Public Policy,
International Program (MPP/IP) taught in English. This was followed in 2013 by the Campus Asia Program(MPP/CAP), which requires students to participate in exchanges through our academic exchange or double
degree agreements with Peking University or Seoul National University.
We are also utilizing funding from various external sources to bridge the gap between the latest research andteaching and their practical applications. Our research programs include international transportation, energy
and the global environment, healthcare policy, capital markets, urban and regional policy, maritime policy,
space policy, e-government, and scientiﬁc and technology innovation policy. We are able to oﬀer moreadvanced and practical research and teaching by drawing not only on our on-campus resources, but also on
our extended network in the actual public policy world. Furthermore, these research and teaching activities also
include our leading role in the Science, Technology and Innovation Governance Program, a cross-disciplinary
program that encompasses departments across the university, and an important role in the also
cross-disciplinary Ocean Alliance Program. From the 2013 academic year, GraSPP has also been taking a central
role in the Global Leader Program for Social Design and Management, a MEXT-supported Program for Leading
Graduate Schools that spans a wide range of disciplines, including the Graduate Schools for Law and Politics,
Graduate School of Economics, School of Engineering, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences,
Graduate School of Medicine, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Graduate School ofInterdisciplinary Information Studies, and Graduate School of Frontier Sciences.
Through these activities, our aim is to achieve our core task of producing people with high aspirations
underpinned by specialist knowledge, while also working on issues that include internationalization,
engagement with society, and cross-disciplinary collaboration. I look forward to your support and cooperation.

1

M

10

urmurs and Musings

Daisuke Ueda

No.

Director for International Logistics Planning and Coordination, Policy Bureau,
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism[Project Associate Professor, GraSPP at the time of writing]

Cross-Disciplinary Fields
As the Graduate School of Public Policy (GraSPP) spreads
its wings to undertake more activities far and wide, a set ofunderlying principles runs through these activities like abasso continuo. They are international, interdisciplinary
and in-practice. I came to GraSPP from a practical ﬁeld tobe a member of the practitioner faculty, and found theopportunity to participate in interdisciplinary education
and research on the theme of oceans which implies
international perspectives.
Oceans may not be as familiar as land to many. Yet many
people have lived near one since ancient times in spite ofthe dangers of tsunamis and storm surges in order to use
the ocean for ﬁsheries and transportation. In modern
times, the oceans are attracting considerable attention assources of energy and biological resources. They also play
an important role in conservation of the earth's
environment, and research, business and administrative
activities relating to these aspects of ocean are being
carried out.
The University of Tokyo has had many researchers
working on studies of the ocean, each of which is being
carried out autonomously. The University, however,recently created a cross-departmental organization called"Ocean Alliance." It aims at solving issues that transcend
specialized ﬁelds with the participation of diverse

departments by providing educational programs thatcross the borders of academic disciplines and byfacilitating interdisciplinary research projects.
In order to explain the perspectives of the University's
approach to ocean research, it is still convenient to identify
major disciplines involved in this organization by theirtraditional names: physics, engineering, biology, ﬁsheries,
environment and public policy. Public policy, whichsuggests strong connections to politics, law and economy,
might give one the impression that it is the only humanity
studies in a lineup dominated by scientiﬁc names.
Changes in society, however, are closely associated withthe rapid advancement of science and technology̶fromthe Industrial Revolution of old to the big data of today.
When one thinks of public policy, the fence between
humanities and science should be as low as it can be.
People with a humanities background must have certain
respect and a high-level of literacy relating to naturalscience. At the same time, people in scientiﬁc ﬁelds are
increasingly interested in public policy.
Those who study at GraSPP have the doors open to theirpaths leading to collaboration with science specialists
based on their knowledge of public policy, or to acting as
the cement between specialized ﬁelds or liaising withindustry, academia and government. The glue may bethin, but it can be a propelling force for creating newsociety.

A Report on the iJFF Project

NEWSLETTER

Masahiro Matsuura Project Associate Professor

2

Since 2011, we have been carrying out a project called “Integrating Joint
Fact-Finding into Policy-Making Processes," also known as the iJFF Project,as part of the undertaking of the Research Institute of Science andTechnology for Society of the Japan Science and Technology Agency. As
iJFF is scheduled to conclude in November this year, I would like to takethis opportunity to report on a wide variety of activities we have been
carrying out across Japan and beyond.
The purpose of this project is to develop and spread the concept of “joint
fact-ﬁnding” and its methodology as a framework in which specialized
scientiﬁc knowledge is used in policy-making process. When there arepolitically conﬂicting opinions, people who are involved often retreat intoa state of “defensive science” in which they pick up only the specialized
knowledge that is expedient to them in order to underpin their opinions.
This condition tends to create chaos in policy debates. “Joint fact-ﬁnding”
is an eﬀort to gather diverse stakeholders and professionals with clear roleassignments for the discussion and building of a policy evidence(rationale) that can convince the majority, including prerequisites for andthe models behind it.
As part of the iJFF project, we carried out action research projects such as
wood biomass introduction in Tsushima, Nagasaki, and marine spatialplanning in Bizen, Okayama. With respect to the establishment ofstandards for radioactive substances contained in food, we organized apublic forum which involved specialists. We are currently formulating
guidelines for a joint fact-ﬁnding activity based on what we as practicing
researchers have learned by stepping into the actual scenes of action.
These guidelines will be publicized at the ﬁnal symposium scheduled forthe coming fall.
Governance which combines policy and specialized knowledge is a hotly

debated issue around the world. As joint fact-ﬁnding is an eﬀort initiatedin North America, we carried out this project in close collaboration withprimarily researchers and practitioners in North America. We invited theformer Deputy Secretary of the U. S. Department of Interior to thesymposium we hosted in 2012 to make an appeal for need for joint
fact-ﬁnding. In March this year, we organized a workshop at the East-WestCenter of the University of Hawaii with top-rated practitioners andresearchers in North America attending to discuss the basic principles ofjoint fact-ﬁnding.
Although iJFF Project will conclude in this November, I will continue tobe involved in research into joint fact-ﬁnding based on its practice andreview through science education and research programs in the Science,
Technology and Innovation Governance (STIG) Unit of GraSPP.

Student
Interview
Satofumi Ushigami
Economic Policy Division, the Class of 2014

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO

17

No.

-Have you found a job?
Yes. I've accepted a job oﬀer from one of city banks. I became
interested in ﬁnance when I took a course taught by Prof. Ito(former Dean of GraSPP). I was also motivated by my desire to
w o r k f o r t h e g o o d o f p e o p l e . B a n k 's c l i e n t s i n c l u d ecorporations. Corporate activities need money for a starter.
They use that money for something useful to people. So I
thought I wanted to make myself useful to people by getting
involved in this very ﬁrst stage of ﬁnancing. I began getting
ﬁlled with trepidation after I saw the TV drama series Hanzawa
Naoki (featuring a banker working for a Japanese megabank
who ﬁghts against evil in his bank) though. Although I'm not
likely to be given big responsibility at ﬁrst in a Japanese bank, I
will be getting solid training which I appreciate.
Actually, I was thinking of applying for a doctorate program ata university overseas. While I was writing my research paper,
however, the feeling that I'd rather return my knowledge tosociety grew stronger than my desire to continue as a
researcher in a ﬁeld of my choice. When I asked Prof. Ito foradvice, he told me, “Becoming a researcher might not be an
appropriate choice for you if making social contributions is yourpriority. You can choose a research subject and social
contributions as your fundamental goal, but it will be diﬃcult tobring them to reality." His words were my biggest deciding
factor.
-I heard that you travelled a lot inside and outside Japan
I travelled across four countries of South America for about amonth at the end of last year. I went to Peru, Bolivia, Argentina
and Brazil. I'd been yearning to see South America for a longtime. It's a land of dreams, right? At the other side of the earth
looking from Japan, there are jungles and a stupendous spreadof nature. I also wanted to go to Venezuela, but a Colombianman I befriended while travelling convinced me that I should
avoid going there no matter what. My basic mode oftransportation was buses. I had
by Kotaro Sawaki (Shinchosha) with me. You know it's abackpacker's bible.

I enjoyed that trip a lot even though I came down with bad stomach trouble
in La Paz, Bolivia. Stomach trouble is like a rite of passage for me. I chewed on
CalorieMate and really felt how wonderful it was to be alive. As I wasrecovering, I was happy to see my walking distance getting longer by day̶
500 meters one day, and a whole kilometer the next day. When I came acrossa sandwich shop Subway in La Paz, I was so ecstatic to ﬁnd something I could
eat at last that I bought up several subs instead of one and made them ameal.
It was also in Bolivia where I had the most fun. I became good friends with a
Bolivian whom I met during tour of Uyuni Salt Lake. He taught me how to
seduce girls in the local Quechua language. I put it into practice right away,
but I only got a blank stare back. The girl must have reacted ﬁrst to myspeaking Quechua, wondering what was going on.

NEWSLETTERIn Argentina, I went to a town called Mendoza. It is famous for wineries. A town of Salta, which isoften called “Salta la Linda” (Salta the Beautiful), had really beautiful streets. I strongly recommend
visiting it.
When I participated in an all-campus program of the University of Tokyo in Hong Kong, I got
there a few days ahead and went on to private sightseeing. I made friends with a local man (a local
employee of a Japanese bank) I sat next to in a restaurant and was invited to his home. When I
went to Guilin and Shanghai with a friend, I made friends with a Chinese man who sat next to meon the ﬂight from Guilin to Shanghai. This man was the president of a company which madesundry goods and exported them to Japan. He took us on a tour of his factory once we were in
Shanghai. He took us to a barbecue dinner and sightseeing around Shanghai. At the end of theday, we were treated to drinks at a bar in a high-rise hotel.
I trekked through 150 km of Nikko Kaido with my GraSPP friends the other day. It was a 3-night,
4-day trip. We stopped overnight in old post towns of Kasukabe-juku (today's Kasukabe city in
Saitama), Oyama-juku (Oyama city in Tochigi) and Utsunomiya-juku (Utsunomiya city in Tochigi),
sleeping at a super public spa, a manga café and another super public spa, respectively. It was thehardest travel I ever experienced inside or outside Japan. The section from Senju-shuku to Nikko
was the road travelled by a famous haiku poet Basho Matsuo. We walked along telling each otherthat we were racing against Basho! Well, we couldn't outpace him. Basho either rode a horse or
had strong legs like, maybe, a ninja, I think.
(Interview and text by editor)

3

Farewell Message
Takatoshi Ito

TopicalNews

I have now completed my term as the Dean of the Graduate School of Public Policy (GraSPP) eﬀective March
31. I was very fortunate that I had meaningful experiences during the management of GraSPP for a total of four
years, ﬁrst as the Deputy Dean and then as the Dean. I owe my success to the tireless support I received fromthe Dean's Assistant and the staﬀ members at the Graduate School Oﬃce as well as the International Aﬀairs
Oﬃce. My heartfelt thank-you to you all!
I spent one-third each of my academic career as a researcher in the United States, at Hitotsubashi University
and the University of Tokyo. I also had an opportunity to work at IMF and the former Ministry of Finance whichgave me “practical” experience. It was an unexpected fortune for me that I spent the last two years of myacademic life as the Dean of GraSPP.
Indeed, I have had a variety of experiences to reminisce about in these four years as the Deputy Dean and theDean. The ﬁrst was international collaboration, with a signiﬁcant expansion of double degree program andstudent exchange networks. We created international programs. We developed the Campus Asia course. The
number of foreign students increased ten-fold in the last several years, from just several students a year toseveral dozens. Our campus has developed into a cosmopolitan one. No one could imagine this when GraSPP
as born ten years ago. GraSPP has secured an important position in Asia and the world through active
participation in the Global Public Policy Network (GPPN), a network of world's major public policy schools, andthe triple-campus exchange program of Japan, China and Korea. GraSPP is the only graduate school of the
University of Tokyo to have implemented a double-degree program. My fond memories include achieving
formal membership in GPPN and successfully bringing a GPPN conference to Japan. The speech given by Mr.
Haruhiko Kuroda, Governor of Bank of Japan, at the GPPN conference impressed deans of public policy schools
overseas attending the conference. A network of friends I had cultivated during my time overseas helped
GraSPP attain the membership in GPPN. With respect to the success of our international collaboration eﬀorts, I
would like to give the biggest applause to myself and the International Aﬀairs Oﬃce led by Ms. Nobue Nachi.
Secondly, I demanded a building for GraSPP which had not been given proper facilities, through a budget
request. The construction of a new building is well underway (although we can only have a half of it toourselves). This endeavor gave me a precious experience in terms of the University's internal politics as well as
national politics. While I had thought I just pushed through a demand which GraSPP deserved, I was told laterthat I had disturbed the internal order by jumping the queue. However, the “practical” network I had cultivatedthroughout my career helped me. I also received assistance from a “practitioner” professor of GraSPP. I learned
that it was easier to push a good cause through at the government level than inside the University. I feel
regretful that I will not have my oﬃce in the new building when it is completed. At least I can console myself bythinking of the building as my parting gift to GraSPP.
The last one was the successful acquisition of (the status of coordinating department for) a grant program forthe “all-round leading graduate schools of the University of Tokyo”. We started to develop a doctoral program.
Since the program is still in its cradle at this point, I have to pass it along to the new Dean and the Deputy Dean
before I could put it on track. I wish both of them good luck.
I feel that the position of professional graduate schools has not been made clear even at the government
level. I would like to conclude my farewell message with a prayer that GraSPP, now succeeded in going global,
will continue to evolve by taking advantage of being a professional graduate school.

NEWSLETTER

The commencement ceremony was held on March 24. 80 students received theirdiplomas and left the school to start their life in many parts of the world. It was asunny day, perfect for outdoor photo shooting. Graduating students in their ﬁnest
clothes smiled and posed for photographs with their beloved professors. At thethank-you party that followed the ceremony, everyone got into the swing grapplingwith a game of extreme GraSPP quizzes, trying to answer tough questions such as:
When was the last time the study room was “raided”? Can you name the
manufacturer of two elevators in the Administrative Bureau Building 2?
On April 11, the GraSPP welcomed 83 new students. Classes have started. Some
classes did not have enough room for all students. In some, overﬂow students wereseen listening to lectures in the hallway standing on their toes.

4

The subject ofcame up during thestudent interview. Kotaro Sawaki wrote the book based on his
experience of a journey from Delhi, India, to London almost exclusively
by bus. The book enjoyed a cult-like popularity in the late 1980s as a
backpacker's bible along with
by Jinichi
Kuramae.
ends with a scene in which the protagonist sends atelegram saying “Ware Tochakusezu (I HAVE NOT ARRIVED).” I suppose many of thereaders will still remember this ending. For the ﬁrst time in a long while, I started tofeel like embarking on a travel such as this myself. (Editor)

Editorʼs
Postscript

NEWSLETTER
No.

36［Editor+publisher］GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC POLICY

THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO

東京大学公共政策大学院［date of publication］2014. 7. 1
［design］Masahiro ABiCo

7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan tel 03-5841-1710 fax 03-5841-7877
E-mail grasppnl@pp.u- tokyo.ac. jp

http://www.pp.u-tokyo.ac.jp