JAPANADVANCED INSTITUTE OFSCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY1990

COE NEWS

Newsletter of the Center for Strategic Development of Science andTechnology, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST)

Vol. 4 No. 4On Social and Technological Innovations
from Knowledge ScienceYoshiteru Nakamori
School of Knowledge Science, JAISTnakamori@jaist.ac.jp

School of Knowledge Science
The objective of the School of Knowledge Scienceat Japan Advanced Institute of Science andTechnology is: From the standpoint of knowledge
creation as an activity of nature, the individual,organizations and society, to proceed with thecreation of an academic discipline that integrates
art and the sciences, to perform education andresearch in an excellent research and education
environment on the mechanisms of the creation,
accumulation and practical application ofknowledge, and to produce researchers and skilled
professionals who possess the advanced knowledge,
applied skills, broad vision, accurate powers ofjudgment and advanced communication skills tolead the information society of the future.
(The JAIST Charter, Chapter 9, Article 9-2)
The School of Knowledge Science is original to
Japan; it researches “knowledge” and as such has noparallel anywhere in the world. Ours may be the firstschool in the world to engage in knowledge
management research by means of systematic
knowledge creation theory and information
technology, and it leads the world in research into
knowledge creation theory. It was a trailblazer instarting education for working professionals in“management of technology” and “regionalrevitalization systems” in order to nurture thepioneers of the knowledge-based society, and suchactivities have made it the leader in educational
activities in this area. In the current 21st Century
COE Program1 the research area has been expanded
1 21st Century COE: Based on a MEXT (Ministry of Education,Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) report entitled "APolicy for the Structural Reform of Universities," thisprogram was established in 2002 to cultivate a competitive

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from the initial knowledge management in the fieldof business administration at the time the School
was founded to include technological innovations in
the field of technology development.

The 21st Century COE Program
In the current 21st Century COE Program:“Technology Creation Based on Knowledge
Science”, we have aimed to extend the scope ofknowledge management research from the field ofmanagement and organizational theories to include
technology development. Initially the overall
development of knowledge science was planned
however, based on the interim assessment that afocus was required, and activities to shape the COE
were focused on “innovation research an deducation.” Post-doctoral researchers and students inthe Doctoral Program were given training in transdisciplinary projects between the School ofKnowledge Science and the School of Materials
Science and courses to train coordinators.
The Integrated Science and Technology Course wasestablished for the sake of students promotinginterdisciplinary research (for masters and doctoral
students throughout the university, and for regional
business people at the Kanazawa campus). The
students on this course are attached to one of theschools to do research on a main theme, researchinga secondary theme in one of the other schools.
60~70% of the coursework is for the school inwhich they are enrolled, with 30~40% for the schoolof their secondary theme. The first batch of 3
students completed the course in September 2007,
and 8 students are currently enrolled. Every year
15~20 local business people are trained at theKanazawa campus as non-degree students.
academic environment among Japanese universities by giving
targeted support to the creation of world-standard researchand education bases (centers of excellence). By thus raising
the standard of both education and research at them, theprogram seeks to elevate Japanese universities to the world’s
highest echelons, while fostering people of talent andcreativity who will be qualified to assume roles as worldleaders.

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Strategic Development of Science and Technology
Cross-disciplinary projects on the following research
themes have been promoted by the faculty staff andstudents of the School of Knowledge Science andthe School of Materials Science:♦ Innovation in Mature Industries;♦ Knowledge Creation Activities Backed byResearch Philosophy;♦ Knowledge Representation Techniques forCoordination;♦ Laboratory Knowledge Management; and♦ Laboratory Management Using Mobile BlogAlbums.
Their research results are open to all students inrelay lecture form in the Integrated Science andTechnology course’s InterdisciplinaryCommunication Theory.

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Furthermore, a “Social Innovation” project was set
up, from academic year 2006 a lecture course on“Regional Revitalization System Theory” wasestablished in the Integrated Science andTechnology course in collaboration with the Cabinet
Office, and we embarked on an attempt to solve
problems in regional communities using knowledgescience techniques as well as scientific technology
and information technology. In addition, researchcarried out by faculty staff/students and working
professionals/business people based on theuniversity-government collaboration agreement with
Nomi City and Kaga City is bearing fruit (forex a mpl e, n u rtur ing a stud ent v e ntur e th atresuscitates the local natural resource of
undeveloped woodland near populated areas,developing new energies such as environmentallyfriendly bio energy, and the construction of a
medical care and fitness system in collaboration
with medical institutions in the cities).

In addition research into the infrastructure ofknowledge science has been promoted by theteaching staff and post-doctoral researchers of theCenter for Strategic Development of Science andTechnology, as well as the research assistants
employed at the Center, in the following project:♦ Evaluation of Knowledge Creation Models andKnowledge-Creation “Ba2”
The books expand Nonaka’s Organizational
Knowledge Creation Theory and expand the Theoryof Creative Space to make it applicable to wider
research activities. The second book below is acompilation of project members’ research results:♦ Wierzbicki, A.P., Nakamori,Y., Creative Space:
Models of Creative Processes for the Knowledge
Civilization Age, Springer Verlag, BerlinHeidelberg, 2006.
♦ Wierzbicki, A.P., Nakamori, Y. (Eds.), Creative
Environments: Supporting Creativity for theKnowledge Civilization Age, Springer Verlag,Berlin-Heidelberg, 2007.

One result of these initiatives was the successfuladoption in the spring of 2007 of the “Ishikawa
Traditional Handicrafts Innovator Training Unit” on
the program for the formation of bases to createhuman resources for regional revitalization underthe budget to promote science and technology. In
December of the same year the “Regionalrevitalization utilizing primary industries and thecreation of new local industries in the region byutilizing biomass” proposed by this university at the“Regional economic reconstruction from theprovinces” seminar organized by the Cabinet
Office’s Economic and Social Research Institute
was awarded the top Cabinet Minister’s Prize fromthe cabinet minister in charge in the Cabinet Office.
The current 21st Century COE founded the“International Society for Knowledge and Systems
Sciences” with its secretariat located in the COE andhas published the “International Journal ofKnowledge and Systems Sciences” at a pace of four
issues a year.

2 Nonaka et al. called the dynamic context which is shared andredefined in the knowledge creation process "Ba", which does notrefer just to a physical space, but includes virtual spaces based on theInternet, for instance; and more mental spaces which involve sharing
experiences and ideas. They claimed that knowledge is not somethingwhich can exist independently; it can only exist in a form embedded in"Ba", which acts as a context that is constantly shared by people. SeeI. Nonaka, R. Toyama and N. Konno: SECI, ba and leadership: A
unified model of dynamic knowledge creation. Long Range Planning,Vol.33, pp.5-34, 2000.

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Strategic Development of Science and Technology

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technological development and its development of
the new knowledge creation theory of “creativespace”, it has been instrumental in the spread of thetechnological development system of laboratory
knowledge management in postgraduate education.
At the same time we have made every effort tofulfill our role as a knowledge center in regionalsociety via education in the management ofknowledge and technology for working
professionals and business people, and theapplication of knowledge science to various issues
in regional society. The feedback from practicalactivities has promoted theoretical advances. The
major issue actualized in these activities is the lackof human resources to, firstly, coordinate suchmatters as technology and society, and the diversity
in knowledge and values, and secondly, to take thelead in solving problems.

Research on Social Innovations
At the present stage, knowledge science is more aproblem-oriented interdisciplinary academic field
than a single discipline. Its mission is to organizeand process human-dependent information and toreturn it to society with added value. Its central
guideline is the creation of new value (knowledge) such innovation being the driving force of society,but it mainly deals with the research area involvingsocial innovation (organizations, systems, andreorganization of the mind). However, society’s
progress is underpinned by technology and the joint
progress of society (needs) and technology (seeds) isessential, so it also bears the duty to act as acoordinator (intermediary) in extensive
technological and social innovations.
In order to fulfill the above mission, the School of
Knowledge Science focuses its research andeducation on observing and modeling the actual
process of carrying out the mission (Nonaka’s
Systematic Knowledge Creation Theory that was thekey factor in establishing this school, the CreativeSpace Theory developed in the 21st Century COE)
as well as developing methods to carry out themission. The methods are mainly being developed
through the existing three fields. These are theapplication of information technology/artistic
methods (knowledge discovery methods, ways tosupport creation, knowledge engineering, cognitives c i e n c e ) , ap p l i c a t i o n o f b u s i n e ss s c i e n c e /organizational theories (practical uses of tacitknowledge, management of technology, innovation
theory) and the application of mathematicalscience/systems theory (system thinking, theEmergence Principle, epistemology).

Continuing with dynamic knowledge creation andapplication (innovation from knowledge
coordination) and nurturing the human resources todo this is an urgent issue. Our next aim is that themembers of research projects that explore and solve
problems should implement them in tandem withyoung researchers and Doctoral students to nurturetalented personnel who can create innovation in avariety of fields and, via these practical activities, toestablish knowledge science, the learning to detectand solve problems in a knowledge-based society.
We will store up experience in regionalsociety/corporate collaboration projects andoverseas research to train human resources that canplay an active role globally in such areas as
information system, R&D management, and social
system development and management. In researchinto the infrastructure of knowledge sciencewe willdevelop research in the fields of social knowledge(the application of tacit knowledge, management oftechnology, innovation theory), knowledge media(knowledge discovery methods, ways to support
creation, knowledge engineering, cognitive science)and system knowledge (system thinking, emergent
principles, epistemology).

Knowledge engineering (a branch of information
science) is still the mainstream in the world ofknowledge science. The School of Knowledge
Science is unique and pioneering in that it aims for
integration with knowledge management (humanmanagement), the importance of which is recently
garnering worldwide attention. However, it will takesome time to integrate the above three fields
theoretically and establish a new academic system.
Our aim is to first attempt their integration inpractical use (problem-solving projects), accumulate
actual results and then to establish them as adiscipline in a new field.

Academically, we will exploit the advantage ofbeing the first in the world to commence suchactivities to take the lead in pioneering the new
discipline of knowledge science. Based on its
achievements so far, we will set up a number ofcollaboration institutes overseas and promoteacademic exchanges for faculty members andstudents. We intend to further expand our scope tocover research into social innovations based ontechnological innovations.

The current 21st Century COE Program stresses
research and education dealing with technologicalinnovation. As well as being highly regarded for its
extension of knowledge science into the field of3

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z.zhu@hull.ac.uk

good at sending men and women to the moon andrun more cars on the road, social sciences help
raising value-rational issues, focusing attention atinterest and power, brining ethics and purpose in,answering basic questions such as ‘what shall we doand how shall we live?’.

Combining natural and social knowledge is a central
and persistent theme in the JAIST COE project onknowledge creation and innovation. As the projectapproaches to completion, it is good time to ask: isthe tirelessly pursued combination a realistic
endeavor or an illusive dream?

All the differences make it impossible for detached,formalized, theory-oriented knowledge integration,i.e., to integrate natural and social sciences into a
grand theory, a united methodology or a universal
combining procedure. It is not surprising that efforts
along this direction failed.

Exploring the differences and commonalities
between natural and social sciences may help toanswer this question.

Nevertheless, the commonalties allow us to pursue
problem-solving oriented conversation andcollaboration. There are numerous successful
practical examples, from Xerox’s Eureka knowledge
management project to the UN collaboration projecton environment protection.

Combining Natural and Social Sciences:
Towards Pragmatic Practice
Zhichang Zhu
University of Hull, UK

Knowledge of the natural and the social areessentially different. The differences lie at the levelsof complexity they engage (Boulding), the modes of
explanation they demand (Elster), the investigation
aims they allow (Flyvberg) and whether they asserta ‘double hermeneutic’ effect to the behavior of thestudied objects (Merton).

In pursuing collaboration, our political will, open
mind and teamwork skills are critical. Particularly,
we need to understand that division of intellectuallabor (into natural and social sciences) is valuable
only when subsequent exchange happens (between
natural and social scientists). We need to overcome‘specialized deafness’ (Boulding) and engage in‘dialogical encounters’ (Bernstein). To achieve this,continuous education and conversation are the key.

Knowledge are significantly in common in that they
are all construed out of available resources(Gadamer), justified based on the consequences ofacting upon them (Dewey), settled until better,competing alternatives emerge (Pierce), and serving
as a walking stick for beating unknown paths inhuman life (Roethlisbergers).

Knowledge serve humankind best when weunderstand their respective strengths andweaknesses, when we take them as complementary
tools for coping with contextual problems, when ourjudgment and action are guided by situational ethics.
We need to bring issues of value and purpose backin, we need to engage passionately in power andpolitics as we engage in science and technology.
Given the interconnectedness in and of real world
problems, we need to invite Confucius, Newton andPicasso into our projects, invite them as equals. Inevery project, our values, intentionality and skills
matter. The collaborative possibility is at our hands.

Because of the essential differences, there can be nohierarchy or unity of sciences. Natural and socialsciences, ‘science’ and ‘non sciences’, are different
forms of knowledge that we create for coping withlife projects. One cannot tell which is more true orvaluable: Confucius’s teaching, Newton’s theory or
Picasso’s painting?
Natural and social sciences have their strengths andweaknesses respectively. While natural sciences are

JAIST-COE News is published by the Center for Strategic Development of Science and Technology, Japan
Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 1-1 Asahidai, Nomi, Ishikawa 923-1292, Japan.
Questions, comments, article proposals and for more information about the JAIST-COE News, contact
Tomoko KIKUCHI at tkikuchi@jaist.ac.jp, tel. +81-761-51-1839 or go to the link:www.jaist.ac.jp/coe/index.htm
Articles in this newsletter are based on a variety of sources. Signed articles reflect the views of the author.
Unsigned articles are prepared by the editorial staff, which is solely responsible for their content.

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