Information, Culture and Social Studies
Professor MIKURIYA, Takashi

Safety-security study and oral history with their signiﬁcance expanding
through the cultivation of human resources

Interviewers: Yuichiro Shimizu, special research assistant / Yosuke Tezuka, special research assistant̶̶ First, could you tell us about how this laboratory wassomething if we could widen the scope of viewpoints throughestablished?

collaboration with those specialized in science-related ﬁelds.

It was in December 2002 that I came here to serve as aconcurrent professor. Subsequently, our proposed project wasselected as one of the government-sponsored projects eligible
to the Special Coordination Funds for Promoting Scienceand Technology and thus, in October 2003, this laboratory

Collaboration or mutual consideration
between humanities and science fields rather
than fusion between the two

was ofﬁcially opened. Our research activities have two major
pillars. One is this newly launched project concerning safetysecurity and human resource development in the area of̶̶ At RCAST, various attempts have been made to fusescience and technology. Another is a project on oral history,

humanities and science fields together. Actually, it may beon which I have been working for about 10 years.

more suitable to call it collaboration between humanities
and science ﬁelds in which those specialized in the two ﬁelds̶̶ Could you tell us more about the Is Japan Safe Enough?

collaborate with each other. In this project, you have been

project, the one concerning safety-security and humanworking together with those specialized in science fields.

resources development in the area of science and technology,

What impression do you have so far?

sponsored by the governments Special Coordination Funds

for Promoting Science Technology? What is the objective ofCollaboration between humanities and science ﬁelds would

this project?

be the right way to put it indeed. Now, after a year of working
with them, what comes to my mind is the notion of mutual

By now, the level of safety as the objective norm of science

consideration between humanities and science ﬁelds. Thoseand technology has been generally improved. At the sameof us specialized in the humanities fields give consideration

time, however, when we look at the situation in the mass

to those specialized in the science fields, while at the same

consumption society, we have the reality that not manytime those in the science fields give consideration to us. It

consumers feel a sense of safety with goods and foods

would be difﬁcult to go beyond that point. I am past 50 years

produced by using science and technology. Against thisold now and I have been in the humanities fields for more

backdrop, I thought I would take up and ponder on the issue

than 30 years. Having come to this point, even a very briefof safety engineering and the psychological mechanism

conversation would be enough for me and my colleagues inof human thinking as one theme. Because my academic

the humanities fields to communicate with each other andbackground is in political science, a humanities field, thisinstantly understand what the others are up to. But this would

theme may be a bit beyond my capacity. But I thought thatnot be the case when working with those in the science ﬁelds.

we could be of some help when it comes to educating

Therefore, even if we approach those specialized in science

people for that purpose and that we would be able to achieve

and try to understand what they are doing, we may end up

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misunderstanding what they say. But even if we do end up

will be very much enriched in knowledge. The attendants

misunderstanding each other, I think it is still worthwhile. By

are working members of society. At the same time, however,working together with them, there emerges a certain domain

most of them are, in one way or another, a specialist of safetyof mutual comprehension, from which something new willand security, holding a post in which they have to think about

be born. Then, we will probably be able to have unexpected

the safety and security in their respective ﬁeld of work. Thus,

spillover effects.

there are lots of information exchanges and those who havecompleted the course often organize or participate in alumni

In the final end, it would be difficult to work together. But

activities. Specifically, an old boy school is being organized

we can still say, Lets keep our eyes on where we can work

once every month, which is being done without any help fromtogether and I think that is how things are supposed to be.

our side and solely under their own management. This is one

Trying to fuse the humanities and science ﬁelds is like trying toof major achievements of our project.

mix water and oil. That is, they would go back to the originalstate in due time.

On the part of teaching side, it is often the case that lecturers
do not know what other lectures are teaching. In a bid to

What I find interesting at RCAST is that collaboration is notprovide linkages among lecturers, we have set up a committee

limited to between humanities and science. Various sorts ofof those engaged. As we proceed with the seminar program,science-science fusions and science-engineering fusions

we try to ensure that each lecturer has a clear idea as to theare taking place between and among professors specialized

positioning of his or her lecture within the overall program by

in different ﬁelds of science, for instance, between the Faculty

holding committee meetings and giving separate brieﬁngs toof Engineering and the School of Science, or even on thethose unable to attend. Probably thanks to this effort, many oflevel of department or major, whereby various thoughts

the lecturers seem to feel identiﬁed with the whole programand ideas hitherto submerged in each field surface andas they actively participate in closing ceremonies, parties andinteract with each other. Through such fusions, or mutual

so forth. This, I think, is another major achievement.

consideration, people come to take interest in other domains
outside their own specialty and the same thing is happening

We chose Ark Hills, not Komaba (where RCAST is located),

between those specialized in the science fields and thoseas the location of the school partly because we had heldof us in the humanities ﬁelds. This is because RCAST has the

an intellectual property seminar there before. But morekind of environment that facilitates such interactions. It isimportantly, we thought that Ark Hills, located in the center

ﬁlled with lots of factors that help us enrich our thoughts andof Tokyo, would be far more accessible ‒ both physically andideas. The question is how I will take on my challenge in thispsychologically ‒ for participants because most of them aregiven environment. In this sense, working at RCAST is a very

active members of society, who are in a busy fulltime post andstimulating and precious experience.

have to struggle to attend the class starting from 6 or 6:30 p.m.
Making it psychologically easy is quite important. It is indeed̶̶ Indeed, many of researchers at RCAST are very willingnecessary to provide such motivation.

to mingle with and absorb various kinds of knowledge fromresearchers specialized in other ﬁelds and this enthusiasm has

We have provided the common course for two years and I

generated various collaborations.

believe we have produced certain results. From now on, it
is quite possible that those who have completed the course

Exactly, that is the very source of energy for RCAST and how

will become an epicenter for various new activities. Amongto bridge various seeds is our major challenge. In any case, it

those who have completed the course are bureaucrats

would be a shame if each researcher works on his or her own

and corporate employees. Along with journalists, they can

research project while being in this environment at RCAST.

probably create a certain unit of community. And then, ourWe need to link with each other and expand the domain ofchallenge will be how to support this community.

our study. It is important to have and pursue to realize such animage.

In the advanced course, we will incorporate simulations,games and role plays along with lectures so that those hoping
to learn practical know-how on safety and security can practice

The project on safet y-securit y and humanresources development in science andtechnology has generated various spillover
effects through organizing seminars

how they should cope with risks in various situations. This isgoing to be a very interesting experiment. We will start witha class of about 10 people but I believe this will be anothermajor achievement of our project.
Journalist education is another mission of our project. For thisparticular course, we have asked RCAST professor Toru Takeda,

̶̶ Let me ask about the framework of human resources

who is also a renowned journalist, to join us and left it to him

development courses. There are three courses, namely, theto determine most of the course design. The basic line remains

common course, the advanced course and the journalist

science technology and safety-security issues. But when itcourse. What are the characteristics of each of these courses

comes to educating journalists, there will not be substantial

and how do they relate with each other?

differences between educating general journalists and thosespecialized in science and technology. So, our approach is to

The common course is meant to be an open school. As wefocus on the characteristics of individual journalists. That is, wehave lecturers from various ﬁelds, those attending the course

provide journalist programs just as we would do in educating2general journalists but at the same time we are trying to makeeach of them develop special knowledge in a certain field

Linksof his or her interest. This course has just begun and we are
not sure how much we can achieve in one year. But what weRCAST

can say at this moment, half a year into this program, is that

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

we are beginning to have those who are capable of handlinglong-term research and news gathering. Also, some people

Takashi Mikuriya Laboratory

have had a chance to see the forefront of news reporting,

http://www.mikuriya.rcast.u-tokyo.ac.jp/working as an intern at a major newspaper company. Whenthese people develop their practical ability, that is, whenthose people ‒ who are generally younger than those in thecommon course with some of them still being students ‒ arefostered or nurtured into full-ﬂedged specialized journalists,
one layer of them this year followed by another layer the next
year with more to follow, I do expect that we will be able tochange something.
̶̶ As a project sponsored by the governments Special

Coordination Funds for Promoting Science Technology, there
remain another three years. How do you proceed with theproject in the remaining years?
I used to think that the cultivation of human resources
would be a tiresome task. But what came to my mind while
proceeding with the safety-security project is that thinking
about the cultivation of human resources has been a very
nourishing or enlightening experience for us. Without thisopportunity, we would not probably have thought about
rethinking of history. The project has been quite meaningful
for us in that it has widened the scope of our viewpoints. Thatis my honest impression now.
Lately, we have been in frequent contact with University ofTokyo Press. Finally, Anzen-Anshin-gaku (Safety-SecurityStudy), a book based on the content of the common courseand edited by three of us, Professor Yoichiro Murakami,Professor Hideyuki Horii and myself, will be published in May2005.
(October 20, 2004)

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