A RECORD OF THE JAPAN VISIT

PREFACEThis is a record of the Japan Visit. The Japan Visit is an exchange program
between Uzbekistan and Japan supported with a grant from the Japan-Asia
Youth Exchange in Science Program of the Japan Science and Technology
Agency.In cooperation with the Uzbek-Japan Center, the Takeda Foundation
invited 11 Uzbek youth, and provided them with opportunities to learn about
Japan’s cutting-edge technologies and innovation. The Uzbek-Japan Centersolicited and selected youth for the exchange program, and the Takeda
Foundation facilitated the exchange in Japan.
The exchange involved visiting research laboratories of leading universities inJapan (Tohoku University, the University of Tokyo, and Digital HollywoodUniversity) to witness the on-going development of innovative technologies;
visiting the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation to learn aboutrobotics; and visiting the Museum of Maritime Science to learn about theimportance of the surrounding Ocean as source of aquatic resource. They also
visited a regional open innovation laboratory, “the Kashiwa Open Innovation
Laboratory” to study university-private company collaboration. The exchange
was taken place from July 26 to August 3, 2016.
Promoting science and technology is a key engine for materializing a bright
future for Asia. Therefore, it is vitally important to enhance the exchange of youth
in Asian countries and Japan who will play a crucial role in the fields of scienceand technology. Uzbekistan has been promoting innovation based on thedevelopment of new technologies in order to develop a robust economy without
too much dependence on natural resources. We believe that the experience theexchange youth have gained from this program will contribute to thedevelopment of human resources in science and technology and innovation inUzbekistan.

Norio Ohto
Senior Managing Director
The Takeda Foundation1

A RECORD OF THE JAPAN VISITJULY 26 ARRIVING JAPANThe 11 participants of the Japan Visit left Tashkent International Airport on July25, and they arrived as scheduled at the Terminal 1 at Narita International Airport.
They met pick up persons from a tour company at the exit of the Arrival Lobby,
and were led to Keisei Narita Station. They took Keisei Sky Liner, and arrived at
Keisei Ueno Station as scheduled They met the Foundation staff (Mrs.Miyajima& Mr. Ohto) at the station, and together they all went to the Hotel Forest Hongo.
Despite it being their first visit to Japan, the arrival was smooth and withouttrouble.
The Hotel Forest Hongo
6-16-4 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo,
113-0033 JapanThe group received orientation for the coming events by the Foundation staff.

Orientation at a meeting room in the Takeda Building

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After orientation, the group attended a welcome dinner at Matsumotoro
restaurant on the Hongo campus.

Welcoming statement by Chairman Karatsu, and happy participants.

The Takeda Building

The Hotel Forest Hongo
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A RECORD OF THE JAPAN VISITJULY 27 VISITING TOHOKU UNIVERSITY

Aobayama Campus
Tohoku University is located in Sendai, about 350 km north of Tokyo. It wasestablished in 1907, the third oldest national university in Japan. The University
holds about 3200 faculty, 11,000 undergraduates and 6,800 graduate students.
The University has a good reputation for its research and education in electricand electronic engineering. The group took a bullet train from Tokyo to Sendai,and could enjoy beautiful scenery of the Japan countryside. They arrived atSendai JR station at about 10 AM and took a subway from the Sendai JR station
to the University campus.
After an early lunch at the university cafeteria, the group took advantage ofvisiting laboratories in the open campus day.

Robotics demonstration

Dance with a robot
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During the afternoon, the group visited the Kuwano laboratory of the InformativeNanosystems, Division of Nanosystems, Department of Robotics, School ofEngineering. The laboratory studies micro/nano sensors and micro energy
systems aiming at the realization of an environmentally friendly, highly energy
efficient society that utilizes sensor networks. At the Kuwano lab, a graduate student,Ms. Sana Talmoudi explained the development of a road infrastructure evaluation
system. The system can collect vast amounts of data using drive recorders, andevaluate the levels of damages by analyzing the data. The system has been
co-developed with a venture company, “toor”. Another graduate student, Mr.
Nguyen Hoang Hung explained his research on an energy harvester.

Exchange with graduate students, Ms.Sana With Professor Kuwano
Talmoudi from Tunisia and Mr. Nguyen Hoang
Hung from Vietnam.

JULY 28 VISITING THE MUSEUM OF MARITIME SCIENCE AND THE
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF EMERGING SCIENCE AND INNOVATIONIn the morning of July 28, the group visited theMuseum of Maritime Science (MMS). MMS wasestablished in Odaiba, Tokyo in 1974, in order topromote understanding of the importance ofmaritime science, ocean development andmaritime security. The museum building ismodelled after the British ocean liner “QueenElizabeth 2”. At MMS, the group learned theimportance of the surrounding Ocean as source of aquatic resource, and also ahistory of the first Antarctic research ship, Soya
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Studying the Exclusive Economic Zone

In front of the Antarctic research ship,SoyaIn the afternoon, the group visited the National Museum of Emerging Scienceand Innovation (NMESI)The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (NMESI) wasopened in 2001 to introduce cutting-edge science and technology to society, andto acquire feed back the society’s response and comments on science andtechnology for researchers. NMESI has multilingual interpreters who explain theexhibitions to visitors. At NMESI, the group studied thebackground and emerging technologies realized in variousrobots including ASIMO and humanoid robots. ASIMO is ahumanoid robot designed and developed by Honda. It is 130
cm tall and weighs 50kg. It can walk and run on two feet, andkick a football to the net. It can detect the movement ofmultiple objects with two camera eyes in its head, anddetermine distance and direction. It can respond to questions
verbally in different languages and can recognize different
faces and address people by name. The museum also exhibits
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humanoid robots who look like humans and talk like humans.
Some of them enjoyed riding a new vehicle,UNI-CUB. UNI-CUB is a personal mobility
device that was developed based on thebalance-control technology used for ASIMO. It isa new device—both a vehicle and a robot.
UNI-CUB embodies the concept of harmony
between the people riding it and the people
walking by in an indoor space.
On their way back to the hotel, the group took a water boat to Asakusa

Tokyo Water Cruise bus
July 29 Visiting VDEC, Todai Entrepreneur Dojo of the University of Tokyoand a start-up company, AgIC.
VLSI Design and Education Center (VDEC) was established in 1996 as anintellectual education center on VLSI (very large scale integration) technology.
VDEC aims at improving instruction on VLSI, and supporting VLSI chip
fabrication for national universities, public andprivate universities, and colleges in Japan. VDEC
distributes VLSI design information, provides
CAD software and licenses, and supports chip
fabrication.
In the morning of July 29, the group visited VDEC and received a lecture about ahistory and functions of VDEC by Associate Professor Mita.

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In front of a picture of the lateAt the Director’s office withDr.Takeda, the donor of the Takeda
Building to the University of TokyoProfessor AsadaTodai Entrepreneur Dojo (the University of Tokyo Entrepreneur training school) isa program established in 2005, for the education in entrepreneurship for theuniversity students. Both undergraduate and graduate students can learn how tocommercialize their ideas and inventions. Every year the program organizes
business plan competition, and almost one thousand students participate in thecompetition. At Todai Entrepreneur Dojo, the group studied its unique program ofentrepreneurship education.

At Todai Entrepreneur Dojo with Professor Hasegawa and students

8A RECORD OF THE JAPAN VISITElectric circuit printed out
on regular paper

With President and CEO Shimizu
at AgIC

After Todai Entrepreneur Dojo, the group visited one of the University of Tokyo
spin out companies, AgIC. AgIC was founded by an alumnus of the University ofTokyo in 2014. AgIC is named after Silver Ink Circuit (Ag is the chemical symbolof silver). They have developed and now are providing products with silver
conductive inks. Using their technology, you can print out electric circuits on
paper using a regular ink-jet printer.
JULY 30 & 31 EXPLORATION OF JAPANESE CULTURE
The weekend was assigned for free activity for the group. The group visited
traditional spots including Ueno, Shibuya, and Disney Land.

Asakusa

Tokyo Disneyland

During the weekend, the group was not accompanied by the Foundation staff.
What the Foundation staff were most concerned about was whether some of thegroup members would get lost or be involved in an accident. Fortunately There
were no problems.

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AUGUST 01

VISITING KASHIWANOHA OPEN INNOVATION LAB （KOIL）.

KOIL is located on the Kashiwanoha campus 20km away from Tokyo
Metropolitan Area. KOIL offers space for the creation of new ideas by bringing
together people with different background, cutting-edge information, andbusiness creativity. They have networks with venture support specialists andentrepreneurs from inside Japan and abroad thus leading to the cultivation ofnew business and fields and research areas.
The group learned ongoing innovation development including
Cybernics from Professor Kenji Suzuki of Tsukuba University.
The Suzuki lab of Tsukuba University studies Cybernics, a new
domain in the interdisciplinary academic field of human-assistive
technology to enhance, strengthen, and support limited cognitiveand physical capabilities. In Cybernics, several wearable ormodular devices are used in order to study behavior and affective
measurements based on augmented human technology.

With Professor Kenji Suzuki (center) and Mr. Masaru Murai, a designer of KOIL
(right corner)
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The group also learned a new user interface, aero TAP
with which you can operate your computer without
keyboard or mouse. You can interact devices bydisplaying the palm of your hand toward the webcam. aero
TAP works with any existing application and it does not
require additional development skill.

Lecture about aero Tap by Mr.Taisuke Sakamoto, Chairman of nexEDGEDuring the afternoon, the group discussed innovation with Mr. Godo Irukayam.
He developed the first groupware, LANWORLD, in 1988, and 2,000 companies
have adopted the software. Groupware is a program that enables the sharing ofschedules and tasks among members of a company. He also developed the first
mobile computing program in 1991. He joined NTT
docomo and developed a well-known personal digitalassistant, “sigmarion” in 2001, as well as smart watch,
WRISTOMO in 2003. He left NTT docomo in 2013, andestablished his own research lab.
WRISTOMOWith Mr. Irukayam (center), Mr. Sakamoto of nextEDGE, and Mr. Murai

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AUGUST 02

VISITING DIGITAL HOLLYWOOD UNIVERSITY (DHU)

DHU is a unique university that teaches the multiple specialized domains ofvisual imaging, 3DCG, animation, games, programming, and graphic design. At
DHU, Mr. Tomoyuki Sugiyama, President of DHU explained the missions andpolicies of DHU.

With Mr. Sugiyama (the third person fromleft)

Sola City building that
accommodates DHU

During the afternoon, two alumni, Mr. Erpan Yah and Mr. Takahiro Ishiyama
explained their projects.
Mr. Erpan Yah is from the Hsinchiang Uighur Autonomous Region, China. In
this region, it is becoming more and more difficult to transfer ethnic culture fromgeneration to generation. Mr. Yah opened a short course in anime production in
the region, and taught young Ughur students production techniques of Japanese
anime. They were able to produce ethnic anime to transfer their culture.

With Mr. Erpan Yah
Mr. Takahiro Ishiyama is a board member of the internet service company,
SIROK. He studied application software when he was a DHU student, and he12

A RECORD OF THE JAPAN VISITand his friends developed a new application software, “My365”. My365 was agreat hit and was downloaded 5000 times in 5 days. They transferred My365 toa cyberagent, and were interested in business in internet service. After
graduating from DHU, they established an internet service company, SIROK.
Their mission is to support the growth hack business, and they have produced
developer support tool software, Growthbeat and Growthpush, that help
application developers design and develop new application software.

With Mr.Takahiro Ishiyama
After DHU, the group returned to the Takeda Building for a summing up meetingwith the Foundation staff

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Farewell Party at a Faculty House restaurant. Mr. Yukio Ishida, former
Co-Director of the Uzbekistan-Japan Center, also joined the party.

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A RECORD OF THE JAPAN VISITPARTICIPANTS

Artur Pak

Odilbek Djumaniyazov

Shukhrat Agzamov

Tashkent

Tashkent

Tashkent

Otabek Rakhimov

Anatoliy Pyak

Filipp Yakimov

Tashkent

Tashkent

SamarkandGayrat Khaydarov

Natalya Deyneka

Yuliya Shapiro

Tashkent

Tashkent

Tashkent

Nodirbek Abdurakhmonov

Artur Le

Fakhriddin Ergashev

Tashkent

Tashkent, Group Leader

Tokyo, Interpreter

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A RECORD OF THE JAPAN VISITTHE TAKEDA FOUNDATION
2-11-16 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku,Tokyo
The Takeda Building
The University of Tokyo
TEL: 03-3868-0160
FAX: 03-3868-0161

Osamu Karatsu
Chairman

Norio Ohto
Mitsuo Akagi
Senior Managing Director &Director
Secretariat

Naoaki Aizaki Setsufumi Kamuro
Program
Program
Officer
Officer

Yuzo Mizonbuchi
Director

Mototaka Kamoshida Kyoko Miyajima
Program
Program
Officer
Coordinator

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A RECORD OF THE JAPAN VISITACKNOWLEDGEMENT

On behalf of the Takeda Foundation, I would like to express my sincere gratitude
to those who cooperated in the exchange program including Professor Hiroki
Kuwano, Ms. Sana Talmoudi, and Mr. Nguyen Hoang Hung of Tohoku University,Mr. Hiroshi Yamada and Mr. Kazuo Iinuma of MMS, Professor Kunihiro Asadaand Associate Professor Yoshio Mita of VDEC, the University of Tokyo,
Professor Katsuya Hasegawa of Todai Entrepreneur Dojo, the University ofTokyo, Mr. Jun Murai of TX Entrepreneurs Partners, Mr. Ken Matsui of Mitsui
Fudosan, Professor Kenji Suzuki of Tsukuba University, Mr. Taisuke Sakamotoof nextEDGE, Mr. Godo Irukayama of Irukayama Mirai Souzou Kenkyusho,
Professor Tomoyuki Sugiyama, Mr. Kazuhiro Iketani, and Mr. Ryuzo Yamamotoof DHU, Mr. Erpan Yah of the Tokyo University of the Arts, and Mr. TakahiroIshiyama of Sirok.
Osamu Karatsu
Chairman
The Takeda Foundation17