CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL INNOVATION DESIGNFOR SUSTAINABILITY, OSAKA UNIVERSITY

Newsletter

October. 2013

No.

4

Newsletter No. 4 of the Osaka University Center for Environmental Innovation Design for Sustainability (CEIDS)
continues the series “CEIDS Research” and “Researcher Interview” that began in Newsletter No. 3. Among otherhappenings, the current issue also reports on the recent Totsukawa Village (Nara Prefecture) Commons Discovery
Student Seminar, a Japan/China/South Korea Research Exchange Seminar, and the “Frontiers of Sustainability
Science” joint educational program run by five universities. In these pages you will find information about a wide
range of CEIDS research and educational initiatives, from regional partnerships to international research exchanges.

1. FY2013 Educational and Research Initiative“Totsukawa Village Commons Discovery Student Seminar”
The Center for Environmental Innovation Design
for Sustainability (CEIDS) held the FY2013 educationaland research initiative “Totsukawa Village Commons
Discovery Student Seminar” based on researchconcerning regional safety and security and techniques
for commons management. Participants included 16
students from multiple academic departments of Osaka
University, 20 students from the Faculty of Economicsof Hannan University, and 11 faculty members fromthree universities/research institutes (Osaka and Hannan
universities and the Research Institute for Humanity
and Nature). During the three-day and two-night event(September 17–19), participants rediscovered andreassessed the variety of resources in Totsukawa Village(Nara Prefecture) from the “commons” perspective.
They spent time discovering the associated issues,
creating visions for the future, and proposing methods

for using those resources. In their research, the“commons” refers to ecosystem services (the functions
performed by nature that are essential to life andeconomic activity), social capital (connections between
citizens and industry), and so on as defined in thespace known as Totsukawa Village. Totsukawa Village,

Totsukawa Village

11. FY2013 Educational and Research Initiative“Totsukawa Village Commons Discovery Student Seminar” （2）Exchange session at Totsukawa SeniorHigh SchoolStudents stayed up until early morning
preparing their presentations

located in the southernmost part of Nara Prefecture, isJapan’s largest village in terms of area. It is heavily
forested and includes part of the Kumano Sankeimichi
pilgrimage route on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Historically, it was home to the Totsukawa Goshi and
Tenchugumi samurai groups. It is also famous for its
hot springs. Totsukawa Village sustained heavy damage
from Severe Tropical Storm Talas in September 2011.
The storm reduced tourism to the area and even led toa decline in population. The recent seminar therefore
took as its theme “a vision of the future that grows the
population of Totsukawa Village by rediscovering its
attractions from a variety of angles.” The 36 students
broke into teams of six, and two teams worked oneach of three sub-themes: 1) education, culture, andpublic welfare; 2) natural resources; and 3) tourism and

Presentation session for final outcomesthe local community. By the oddest of coincidences,another storm (Typhoon Man-yi) had passed throughTotsukawa Village just a day before the seminar. The
storm caused part of National Route 168 leading to
Totsukawa Village to collapse. The participants had totake a detour from the Wakayama Prefecture side of
the peninsula. In other damage, a bridge leading to afacility the group planned to visit was underwater. In
its place, they used an old suspension bridge ordinarily
used only by locals, not tourists. For the students, justgetting to the facility was memorable. The experience
impressed on the group how much a storm can impact
Totsukawa Village.
The group had visited CEIDS’s Co-creative
Design Laboratory for Sustainability as prior study.
There, each team wrote out their seminar objectives,

Seminar schedule
Education, culture, and publicwelfareTeam A
Sept.
17 PM

Team B

Natural resources
Team ATeam B

Team ATeam B

Visit Totsukawa Village Office
Totsukawa Senior High School

21st Century
Forest / Kii
Peninsula Forest
Sept.
Botanical Park
18 AM
Tamaki Shrine

Community nearlodging
Group home

(Hiratani Akinosato)

Wood Processing and Distribution Center, recovery model home
Hot springs area

(Totsukawa Onsen,
Tosenji Onsen)

Totsukawa Junior Totsukawa Junior Wood Processing
High School
High School
and Distribution
Folk museum
Folk museum
CenterSept.
Recovery model
18 PM
home
Wood processing
plant
Sept.
19 AM

Tourism and the local community

21st Century
Forest / Kii
Peninsula Forest
Botanical Park
Tamaki Shrine

Tourism
association
Roadside station
Kumano Kodo
pilgrimage routes

21st Century
Forest / Kii
Peninsula Forest
Botanical Park
Tamaki Shrine

Totsukawa SeniorHigh School
crafts class
Public welfare
association
Special elderly
nursing home

Hot springs area

Tourism
association
Community nearlodging(Hatenashi
community)(Three public bathsin Totsukawa
Village)(Takamori no Sato)

Presentation session for final outcomes (Totsukawa Village Office)2

1. FY2013 Educational and Research Initiative“Totsukawa Village Commons Discovery Student Seminar” （3）inquiries, methods, and plans.
They then divided up topics ofstudy to pursue in advance as
they got ready for the seminar
itself. On Day 1 of the seminar,
students went to Totsukawa
Village Office and listenedto Mayor Saratani, General
Affairs Department Director
Higashi, Tourism Promotion
Department Director Masutani,and Agriculture and Forestry
Department Chief Clerk Chiba Group photo with Village Office officials
talk about the situation and problems in the villagethat they had researched in advance, they evaluatedand the status of disaster recovery efforts there. A
Totsukawa’s tourism resources, making observations
particularly memorable phrase for the students came up
and conducting local interviews. The team then looked
throughout Mayor Saratani’s talk: “love and pride forfor means to fully convey Totsukawa’s attractions to
Totsukawa Village.” Afterwards, the teams taking on
foreign tourists. Natural Resources Team B, for their
the sub-theme “education, culture, and public welfare”
part, entitled their presentation “Nursing, Made in
had a chance to interact with students from Totsukawa
Totsukawa.” Following this theme, they explored how to
Senior High School. Many of the high school students
revitalize the village by using a public welfare industry
made comments like “I want to stay in Totsukawa
taking advantage of Totsukawa’s unique circumstancesin the future” or “Even if I go to university or
and natural environment. Having finished their field
vocational school somewhere else, someday I want towork, all the teams spent the second night getting readycome back here.” This made the greatest impression
to present their research at the presentation session foron the visiting students. These students of different
final outcomes. The students discussed their work latebackgrounds (students going to a rural high school andinto the night in preparation for their presentations. One
seminar participants attending urban universities) must
dedicated team stayed up past 3:00 the next morning
have had much to think about from their interaction.
talking about their presentation.
The teams studying the sub-themes “natural resources”
On the final day, the teams went to the village
and “tourism and the local community” visited thehall in Totsukawa Village Office to present theirlocal Wood Processing and Distribution Center andfindings to employees there. Counselor General Kawata,a recovery model home. The Wood Processing andGeneral Affairs Department Director Higashi, Public
Distribution Center is a complex where timber cut in
Welfare Office Director Odama, Tourism Promotion
Totsukawa Village is brought and shipped out to other
Department Director Masutani, Forestry Promotion
places. Workers here taught a variety of things to the
Office Director Yoshimoto, Disaster Recovery Officevisitors, including the fact that the forestry industry
Director Kamatsuka, and Construction Section Manager
is the most important primary industry in Totsukawa
Inui attended and offered critiques. The students, from(forested land makes up the greater part of the village).
their perspective as students and as outsiders, proposed
On Day 2, each team did field work based on its theme.
a variety of means for achieving their visions for
Tourism Team A, for example, studied how to get moreTotsukawa’s future, based on the previously mentioned
foreign tourists to the area. Based on statistical data
seminar themes. Totsukawa Village Office officials
3

1. FY2013 Educational and Research Initiative“Totsukawa Village Commons Discovery Student Seminar” （4）noted that these proposals tied in with projects alreadyunder way by the Totsukawa government. Their critiques
included points of agreement as well as some corrections
and additional information. Finally, Counselor General
Kawata gave his own critique of the presented content,
and in addition gave some firm but warm advice about
presentation format and how to create presentationmaterials. The students now look forward to applyingthat advice to their presentations and the faculty to theirinstruction and research activities in the future.
The proposals that the students came up withbased on their rediscovery and reassessment may not,for the most part, have been particularly new or of
immediate use to the village. However, in the process
they actually visited a site of interest to see andconsider the situation for themselves. They fashioned
their observations and ideas into actual proposals. They
presented those proposals to a crowd of working people.
They collaborated with their peers from another school
and other departments to accomplish these things. And
by taking part in this seminar, they learned just how
hard and interesting these things could be. While threedays and two nights is a short time, the students andfaculty both gained much in this seminar. CEIDS would
like to thank Totsukawa Village Office officials, staff
members of facilities visited, village citizens that sat
down for interviews, and everyone who has helped tomake Totsukawa Village the place it is.
(Yukari Fuchigami, Project Researcher, CEIDS)

2. International Workshop:“The 6th Workshop on Advanced Engineering Technology
for Environment and Energy: Environment, Energy and Sustainable Development”
CEIDS and the Ike Lab of the Division of
Sustainable Energy and Environmental Engineering,
Graduate School of Engineering held the international
workshop, the 6th Workshop on Advanced Engineering
Technology for Environment and Energy ―Environment, Energy and Sustainable Development inAugust 2013.
The purpose of the workshop was to exchange
information on the themes of leading-edge water
treatment technologies, sustainable energy production
technologies, and low-carbon technologies, and topromote interaction between students and faculty inthis manner. Through such exchange, the workshop
sought to build friendly international relations to solve
problems that require international cooperation, suchas problems of the global environment and social
sustainability.
The workshop has previously rotated between
Kumamoto University (Japan), Pusan National
University (South Korea), and Dalian Universityof Technology (China), with leadership from Kenji
Furukawa (then Vice President, now Prof. Emeritus at
Kumamoto University), Mr. Furukawa’s close friend
Prof. Changwon Kim (Pusan National University), andProf. Xie Quan (Dalian University of Technology).
Upon Prof. Furukawa’s retirement, however, Prof. Ikeof Osaka University became Japan’s representativeat the fifth workshop, held last fiscal year in Dalian.
As a result, Osaka University hosted this year’s
event. Attendees this year included two faculty andfive students from Pusan National University, threefaculty and seven students from Dalian University ofTechnology, and from Osaka University, a number ofteaching staff and students from CEIDS and the Ike
Laboratory. There were another five students and threeteaching staff including Prof. Kazunari Sei of Kitasato
University. With about 60 participants altogether, it wasa lively workshop.
Members gathered in Osaka on August 4, andjumped into the main event, the presentations of4

2. International Workshop:“The 6th Workshop on Advanced Engineering Technology
for Environment and Energy: Environment, Energy and Sustainable Development”

（2）

research, the next day on August 5. At the presentation
resource circulation. Perhaps because there had been
session, Prof. Ike gave a welcome speech and an
a presentation about this technology at the event the
introduction to Osaka University, and each professor
day before, the participants were very interested. Theiralso greeted the audience. The students from Japan,
questions ranged from the basics (such as case studies
China, and South Korea presented their research andof the technology in use) to the highly specialized (e.g.,answered questions in English. Many of the students,
materials used in the equipment).
having never attended an international conference
The group then went to Co-creative Design
before, were visibly nervous before their presentations.
Laboratory for Sustainability. There, Associate Professor
Each one, however, seemed to have done adequate
Hara and Associate Professor Uwasu introduced them
preparation and practice. Once on the stage, theyto CEIDS’s research and education programs. Both the
did not hesitate as they gave a confidence-inspiring
participating faculty and students were very excited topresentation. During Q&A, this workshop allowed allhear the talk about Meso-level research to close the gap
members to answer the sharp but friendly questions
between technological seeds and visions for society.
eagerly. All 20 were able to complete their presentations
Likewise, they took great interest in CEIDS’s advanced
in a relaxed atmosphere. The original plan called for
Sustainability Science Educational Program, which
selecting four individuals to receive “best presentation”
teaches graduate students of different specialties theawards, but the high quality of each presentation madeessence, approach, and methods relating to sustainable
it hard to judge. Ultimately, seven students received
societies.
awards. At the awards ceremony, the crowd cheered
loudly as each winner’s name was read. With thatrousing event, the presentation session came to a close.
On August 6, participants took a field trip to
REMATEC Corporation’s Sakai SC Plant and to CEIDS’s
Co-creative Design Laboratory for Sustainability.
REMATEC’s main business is recycling waste. Whenthe group visited the Sakai SC Plant, they wereable to see the company’s subcritical water treatment
equipment. Subcritical water treatment is a technology
for treating waste with water that is under highOverview of CEIDS initiatives at Co-creative Design Laboratory
pressure and high temperature but below the criticalfor Sustainability
point. It promotes hydrolysis
of substances contained inwaste, making its molecules
small. Unlike incineration,
which completely breaks
down substances to carbon
dioxide, etc., subcritical water
treatment converts substances
into a recyclable form.
Thus it is an eco-friendly
technology that contributes
to carbon reduction and Participants look cheerful after presentation session, August 5.
5

2. International Workshop:“The 6th Workshop on Advanced Engineering Technology
for Environment and Energy: Environment, Energy and Sustainable Development”

The farewell party took place that evening in
the Senri Hankyu Hotel poolside beer garden. Having
gotten to know each other during the two-day program,the students enjoyed talking about all sorts of things,
from research to less serious topics. By all appearances,
the workshop had achieved its greatest objective of
helping to build friendly international relations. With
the students urging each other to meet again in Pusan（3）

next year, the workshop came to a close. Strong
ties between Japanese, Chinese, and South Korean
researchers, forged by opportunities like this, will
hopefully help create trilateral partnerships in the future
for building sustainable societies.
(Masashi Kuroda, Assistant Professor, Graduate School ofEngineering, Osaka University)

3.“Frontiers of Sustainability Science”
Joint Educational Program of Five Universities
The Center for Environmental Innovation Design
for Sustainability has held the “Frontiers of Sustainability
Science” course since 2008. The graduate-level programlinks to the University of Tokyo, Kyoto University,
Hokkaido University, and Ibaraki University through ateleconferencing system. For FY2013, the course took
place on the three-day weekend of July 13–15. Major
themes this year were global warming and climatechange. Leading researchers in each of these fields gave
lectures, and participants engaged in group work. Morethan 70 students from the five universities took part,
including five students from Osaka University.
Experts from the universities specializing in thefields of meteorology, oceanography, coastal engineering,energy, environmental policy, and development gave
lectures with a focus on the science of climate change,
climate change’s impacts, and how to mitigate them.
From Osaka University CEIDS, associate professors
Hara and Uwasu gave a basic overview of sustainability
science and provided a framework for considering the
problem of global warming. Assistant Professor Yohei
Yamaguchi of the Division of Sustainable Energy
and Environmental Engineering, Graduate School ofEngineering, discussed energy demand in the context
of global warming mitigation. Group work happened on
Day 3. Based on information and knowledge from thelectures, each group wrote a “climate change and global

warming policy brief* to the United Nations SecretaryGeneral.” Ten groups from the five universities thengave presentations. (*Policy brief: An expert summaryof information necessary for policymakers to draft
policy.) Discussions featured a lively question andanswer exchange involving the five universities. This
exchange included questions and comments that madesome speakers flinch. At last, the three-day curriculum
ended on a successful note.
From Osaka University alone, this year’s eventdrew participation from students in majors as diverse
as engineering, medicine, literature, and anthropology.
Students and faculty from specialties not offered at
Osaka University (agriculture and fisheries sciencesfrom Hokkaido University, sustainability science andenvironmental studies at the University of Tokyo andKyoto University, and education from Ibaraki University)
also took part and joined in the discussions. Ensuring
diversity is important for the study of sustainability andthe environment. The discipline requires people withwide-ranging knowledge of the environment, society,and economics. The most effective way to bring together
the variety of knowledge and use it to solve problems
is to assemble people with different backgrounds
and let them discuss the issues together. As part ofthe staff getting ready for the course, I had countless
discussions with faculty of the five universities and a6

3.“Frontiers of Sustainability Science”Joint Educational Program of Five Universities

（2）

number of other challenges, but it was a very fruitful
event for the students. Also, the cumulative knowledge
and experience from holding the course continuously
has helped to enrich the course content and deepen
the faculty’s understanding of sustainability. A smaller

number of students participated this fiscal year, but I
hope more will take part next year.

Class conducted with help from Polycom teleconferencing
systemGroup work

(Michinori Uwasu, Associate Professor, CEIDS)

Frontiers of Sustainability Science schedule

July 13

1

2

3

4

5

July 14

July 15

Guidance and overview ofsustainability science(Keishiro Hara and Michinori
Uwasu, Osaka University)

Impacts of climate change andresponse strategy(Hiromune Yokoki, Ibaraki
University)

Energy demand and related
environmental and social
challenges(Yohei Yamaguchi, Osaka
University)

Sustainable fisheries
co-management in Japan(Yasunori Sakurai, Hokkaido
University)

Adaptation to the flood risk: thecase of the Mississippi Delta in
the United States(Yayoi Haraguchi, Ibaraki
University)

Climate change and sustainable
development concern in Africa(Masafumi Nagao, The Universityof Tokyo)

Application of weather andclimate information for regionalsustainability(Tomonori Sato, Hokkaido
University)

New types of renewable energy:
prospects, development andintermittency issues(Miguel Esteban, The University ofTokyo)

Intra-school discussion(13:45 - 15:30)

Advanced technology forsustainable development: Analysis
of fusion from the sustainability(Satoshi Konishi, Kyoto University)

Policy options for decoupling
economic growth and GHG
emission reduction: Germany andJapan compared(Seiji Ikkatai, Kyoto University)

Intra-school discussion

Intra-school discussion

7

Presentations, Q&A(15:30 - 17:25)
Student ballots(17:25 - 17:45)
Conclusion(17:45 - 18:00)

4. 21st CEIDS Research Seminar
The 21st CEIDS research seminar took place on
August 6, 2013 at the CEIDS satellite office Co-creative
Design Laboratory for Sustainability, in Grand Front
Osaka. CEIDS holds the seminar regularly, inviting
lecturers from within and beyond Osaka University to
deepen knowledge of environmental innovation andsustainability science and promote interdisciplinary
discussion and research exchange. In the 21st seminar,
Associate Professor Damien Giurco of the Institute for
Sustainable Futures (ISF), University of Technology,
Sydney, Australia gave a lecture on “Sustainable
Resource Futures.” As research director for ISF, Prof.
Giurco’s specialties are mineral resources and energy.
In this seminar, he discussed a wide range of research
topics based on his knowledge. These included creating
a vision for using Australia’s mineral resources and aroad map for implementing distributed energy such as
solar or wind.
Thirteen persons from Osaka University andbeyond took part in the seminar. These select few
enjoyed a very free and easy Q&A session in the
open atmosphere of Co-creative Design Laboratory for
Sustainability. The seminar included more than justlectures. To further their understanding, participantsjoined in group work on the current hottest topic: themakeup of Japan’s power supply in 2030. Participants
discussed three scenarios of how much electric power
Japan might get from nuclear power plants (0%, 15%,
or 20-25%). Using the technique of Causal Layered
Analysis, they debated what conditions would makeeach scenario acceptable. Through discussions likethese, the participants gained a shared understanding thatdesigning energy systems for the future requires morethan technical knowledge. It also demands recognitionof differences in personal values and consideration ofpolicy, economic, and other perspectives.
The event was a reminder of the importance ofcontinuously bringing people of different backgrounds
together to exchange ideas through initiatives likethis. Such gatherings are essential for promotinginterdisciplinary research that spurs the environmental
innovation that CEIDS seeks. The schedule for the next
research seminar will be posted on the CEIDS website (http://www.ceids.osaka-u.ac.jp/ [English version
is http://www.ceids.osaka-u.ac.jp/english/ here andbelow.]) when it is available. We hope you will takepart.

Seminar at Co-creative Design Laboratory for Sustainability

Participants doing group work

(Yusuke Kishita, Assistant Professor, CEIDS)

Lecture by Prof. Giurco of the University of Technology, Sydney8

5. CEIDS Research 2: Basic Research towards Creating a Scenario
for Spreading Distributed Energy: Targeting Suita City, Osaka
Following the Great East Japan Earthquakeof March 2011 and the subsequent nuclear power
problems, more people have grown interested in naturalenergy (such as solar) and distributed energy (such asgas cogeneration). One advantage of distributed energy
is that it is low-carbon and less impacted by disaster.
On the other hand, it is not sufficiently known how
far distributed energy can spread and what impactthat spread would have on regional power networks.
The aim of this research was to create a scenario for
spreading distributed energy by anticipating a numberof different visions of the future, with a focus on Suita
City, Osaka in the year 2030. The distributed energy
addressed here was solar, the form of energy with thegreatest abundance in Suita City.
In FY2012, CEIDS researchers clarified the
problem to be solved, collected information to write
the different scenarios, and then developed simulation
model prototypes to predict the future under each one.
First they collected information to assess the current
situation, finding Suita City’s population trends, energy
usage, and abundance of new energy, etc. Next, towrite out the multiple different future scenarios, theyreferred to the information collected and brainstormed
factors that could have an impact on the spread of
distributed energy equipment. Factors were listed andused to create a causal network. In addition, Suita
City and Osaka University jointly conducted a surveyof 4,000 citizens to add to the essential data (e.g.,citizen environmental awareness and current spread ofphotovoltaic (PV) systems and energy-saving devices).
The problem of designing distributed energy
spreading scenarios is related in complex ways withproblems of stakeholder planning. These include
planning of energy equipment and power generation
facilities, planning for power transmission networks,
planning for government subsidies, and planning for
introduction of energy equipment by power users (local
communities and individual households). This researchsought to model the design problem by focusing on the
behavior of multiple stakeholders and then simulate that

Simulation of PV systemspread in 2030 in partof Tsukumodai area of
Suita City▲ (black): Household (no PV system)▲ (brown): Household (5kW PV system)▲ (orange): Household (10 kW PV system)■ (blue): Low-voltage node
■ (purple): Low-voltage node (output limitations)● : Pole transformer substation

behavior by computer. Multi-agent simulation (MAS)was used as the tool to do this. Based on the causal
network analysis described above, the researchers
identified multiple stakeholders and the relationships
between them, and created a model of these. Following
are examples of such relationships.
● Power users decide whether to implement PV
systems on the basis of economic means and values,
considering initial cost, operational cost, and revenue
from selling electricity.
● PV system implementation costs fall as systems
become more widespread.
● The government decides on subsidies on the basis of
the spread of PV systems and fiscal conditions.
● Electric utilities (those that generate and transmit
electricity) establish electric power rates andtransmission facilities (pole transformers, substations,etc.) on the basis of economic considerations andthe spread of PV systems. The establishment oftransmission facilities is affected by capacity to linkto decentralized power and power users’ decisions to
implement PV systems.
As a case study, the researchers looked at partof the Tsukumodai area of Suita City. They modeledtransmission facilities in the area and the decisionsof power users there. Under the model, they built an
MAS prototype system to simulate the spread of PV
9

5. CEIDS Research 2: Basic Research towards Creating a Scenario for Spreading Distributed（3）
Energy: Targeting Suita City, Osaka

systems. There were 42 houses in the subject area.
Researchers imagined a transmission network of sevenpole transformers and 19 low-voltage nodes. They
used artisoc (a registered trademark of Kozo Keikaku
Engineering Inc.) as the environment to implement
and execute the simulation model. Seeking to foreseearound the year 2030, they set the simulation period
to 20 years. The figure shows part of the execution
screen. The links between nodes represent transmission
lines. The simulation shows the distribution ofhouseholds implementing PV systems, the scale of theirimplementation, and places where there are limitations
on PV output. In other words, it reveals places where
there is room for the transmission network to beestablished.
Going forward, CEIDS researchers plan toexpand the subject area and link the stakeholder
planning problems into the MAS model they built.
The simulations they then run will be reflected in

scenario writing. They also plan to establish simulation
parameters based on the survey of power user plans to
implement systems and thus perform analysis based on
actual conditions in Suita City.
[List of main research project members]
Yutaka Nomaguchi, Division of Mechanical Engineering,
Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University
Hiroki Tanaka, Division of Mechanical Engineering,
Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University
Masashi Kuroda, Division of Sustainable Energy andEnvironmental Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering,Osaka University
Michinori Uwasu, CEIDS
Keishiro Hara, CEIDS
Yusuke Kishita, CEIDS
Hiroyuki Takeda, CEIDS(Yutaka Nomaguchi, Associate Professor, Division of MechanicalEngineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University)

6. Researcher Interview No. 2,“Exposure to
Knowledge from Varied Fields”
Prof. Yoshiyuki Shimoda (Professor, Graduate

by the Osaka Municipal Transportation Bureau, andwe were studying the thermal environment of the
subway. Soon after that, I had a chance to research
thermal environmental planning for the opening ofTokyo’s Oedo subway line. In the meantime, I was
also evaluating unused energy and urban waste heatand studying how they might be used. The lab itself
was led by a professor with a mechanical engineering
background, but our endeavor was actually quite
close to architecture. On the other hand, the field ofenvironmental engineering often brought us into contact
with government officials. So our research was also
different from pure architecture.
After five years of the kinds of research I justdescribed, I reached to a major turning point: I wastransferred to Osaka University’s new joint research

School of Engineering, Osaka University)

Visited: August 5, 2013
Visited by: Keishiro Hara, Yukari Fuchigami
Hara: Tell us about your specialty, and how
your research themes have changed over time.
I belonged to the Osaka University Department ofEnvironmental Engineering from undergraduate levelto graduate school, where I worked in a lab that was
researching air conditioning. For my bachelor’s degree
thesis, I researched computational fluid dynamics.
In graduate school, I wanted to get involved withenvironmental problems, so I focused on the heat island
phenomenon, specifically, underground temperaturefluctuation. At the time, the research was contracted
106. Researcher Interview No. 2,“Exposure to Knowledge from Varied Fields”

（2）base, the Collaborative Research Center for Advanced
Science and Technology. There I was involved inuniversity–industry collaboration and collaborative
research, and also a field of research that was completely
new to me: recycling. During this period I was able tolearn things from a different perspective than I had had
before. Teachers in the materials field at the time let me
participate in a recycling seminar, which broadened myown research.
Hara: How significant are university–industry
collaboration and collaborative research, inyour opinion?
At the time, there was not a lot of university–
industry collaboration and collaborative research goingon. They were not necessarily a major part of any
university professor’s work. In many cases, academics
started to branch out from the research that they would
have liked to do only because their collaborator asked
them to. But in my experience, collaborative researchallowed us to learn points of view and opinions that we
had not been expecting. Often, papers resulting fromcollaborative research won higher praise than researchfollowing the individual’s own ideas. Looked at thatway, it seems that not only does academic research
help industry develop products and solve problems,
but the academic world finds new directions andperspectives from different external stimuli. Exposure
to diverse ways of thinking changes the course of ourresearch into unexpected directions. When that happens,
researchers themselves find new inspiration.
Environmental problems are a typical example ofproblem-solving research. When you work with thoseissues, you have to engage in goal-oriented, problemsolving research. But even after a problem has beensolved, it is not the end for university research. We
have to bring something back to the university. Thatis, research has to lead to some stimulus for academia.

Laboratory (LBNL) for half a year in 2001. Ernest
Lawrence, a famous physicist, established the lab,which brought together many basic science researchers.
It includes the Energy and Environmental Technology
Division (EETD), a group begun by a basic physics
teacher. The group researches energy conservation
technology. EETD alone has 200 staff members witha wide variety of backgrounds and specialties, fromthe humanities to the sciences. For example, a policy
research team works next to a team creating energy
simulation models for buildings. So the researchers
assigned to each theme perform different analysis
and evaluation tasks. For example, in a project towrite energy conservation standards, some research thepotential of a device to save energy and what it would
cost. Others study how power supply and demand wouldchange if the standards were changed. Still others figureout how much CO2 and air pollutant emissions would
decline as a result of the standards. This organization
tackles a wide range of energy conservation fields.
You can only address environmental problems
if you bring the knowledge of many different fields
together. Of course we need people who specialize
in environmental problems, but we cannot solve suchcomplex problems involved in environmental problems
unless we also have new perspectives from otherspecialists. It is essential that individual researchers
constantly expose themselves to knowledge fromoutside their fields.
I have been back in Japan for about 10 years, but
most of the research I am doing at Osaka University

Hara: I hear that you have done some researchat an overseas institute.
I went to the Lawrence Berkeley National
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6. Researcher Interview No. 2,“Exposure to Knowledge from Varied Fields”

today, including energy demand forecasting, wasconceived during my time at LBNL. So it was a great
experience in that sense too.

（2）

knowledge and research motivation. It is fairly obvious
how the science technology and knowledge we getfrom them helps solve problems, but it is also importantthat the academics who provided the knowledge getsomething too. For example, if collaborative research
becomes an opportunity to get ideas for subsequent
research, there will be more cooperation between
researchers beyond the framework of existing fields.
If this point were better understood, we would see a
lot more interdisciplinary research and cooperation
at universities. Hopefully, CEIDS and its meso-levelresearch will make a difference here.

Hara: So it seems that broad experience,
including overseas, expanded your research
perspective.
Perhaps education should incorporate study andexperience outside our field. Learning and practicing
outside our specialties can give us new points of view.
Maybe we should require people to spend 10% of theireffort on learning some different specialty. We can learn
a lot from our failures and doing things that we neverintended or imagined. Giving teachers and students
other perspectives beyond their department or field is
one of CEIDS’s roles, is it not? It can indeed lead us to“design innovation.”

Hara: Finally, I would like to ask if there isanything we should be focusing on to advancemeso-level research.
We need to make the concept of meso-levelresearch better known. At this time, only Osaka
University is preaching the need for “meso” thinking.
As is, we are telling the world what meso-level research
is and why meso thinking is necessary, but it’s aone-way conversation. Any further advancement of themeso concept and meso-level research will require theoutside world to give us their criticism and input onthese things. We have to try to make two things clearer:
how the meso-level research concept is different fromthe current way of thinking, and how application of
the meso-level research concept can concretely (oreffectively) connect visions (objectives) and microlevel seeds (basic research). And it’s critical to growthe number of followers and researchers advancing
meso-level research. We need to establish the field as
an attractive one that will bring in more researchers.
That will require some examples of success. I hope toprovide such examples by overcoming the issues we
discussed earlier. Let us keep up the work.

Hara: Going forward, what will it take to solve
environmental problems?
There are three important points. First, we cannot
expect to solve environmental problems unless we
expose ourselves to knowledge from a variety of fields.
This is what we have been talking about. Second, thestyle of our approach to environmental problems is
crucial. For example, university–industry collaboration
has contributed much in the engineering field, where
the ultimate goal is to create a product for the so-calledindustrial world. On the academic side, engineering isgreatly stimulated by collaborating with the industrial
world. But since solving environmental problems does
not necessarily lead to products, the industrial world
may not have a clear goal in such a partnership. As
in the case with global warming, the problem itself
has to be addressed from the field of natural sciences.
When we address environmental problems, we need
university–society collaboration, which is somewhat
different from university–industry collaboration. Third,
people trying to solve environmental problems often
collaborate with academics from other fields. When we
do collaborative research with specialists from fields
close to basic research, we should give them new(Keishiro Hara, Associate Professor, CEIDS;
Yukari Fuchigami, Project Researcher, CEIDS)

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7. Announcements from CEIDS
Collaboration, Suita Campus. Six researchers from
CEIDS and the university’s graduate schools ofEngineering and Pharmaceutical Sciences of Osaka
University will also present topics. Participants canlook forward to interdisciplinary discussions of a rangeof themes, including behavior analysis and proper
treatment of environmental pollutants, effective use ofresources and energy, and the impact of environmental
policy on technical innovation. Program details will
be uploaded to the CEIDS web site (http://www.ceids.
osaka-u.ac.jp/) in early October. CEIDS values its
international ties and will continue to use chances likethese to strengthen these ties and academic exchange.

1 CEIDS education and research featured in
Osaka University 2013 Environmental Report
Each year, Osaka University publishes anEnvironmental Report covering the school’s initiatives
to solve environmental and energy problems. The 2013
edition reported on education and research at CEIDS.
CEIDS conducts research to strategically tie different
kinds of promising technical seeds, such as the useof solar energy and waste heat, to macro-level social
visions (e.g., a low-carbon society) and social needs andpromote environmental innovation thereby. While thisresearch is both theoretical and practical, CEIDS always
pursues it in a practical manner, focusing on specific“locales,” such as Suita City. The Environmental Reportspecifically focused on variety of CEIDS’s education
and research programs for environmental innovation.
These include CEIDS’s “meso-domain research” inpartnership with local governments and other parties,
human resource development and related educational
programs for environmental innovation leaders, andthe practice of becoming an energy-saving, low-carbon
campus. See page 16 of the 2013 Environmental Report,
available at the Osaka University web site (http://
www.osaka-u.ac.jp/ja/guide/information/environment[English version is “http://www.osaka-u.ac.jp/en/guide/
information/environment/report”]).

3 Osaka University CEIDS/Suita City joint
symposium (November 12)“The Frontiers of Innovative Research in a Creative
Technological Society: What cooperative community
research at CEIDS aims at”
When: 13:00 - 18:00, Tuesday, November 12
Where: Osaka University Suita Campus
Convention Center, 2nd Floor,
Conference Room 3
Co-hosts: Osaka University Center for Environmental
Innovation Design for Sustainability (CEIDS),
Suita City (Osaka)Participation is free
[Symposium inquiries, registration](Please tell us your name and affiliation)

2 Environmental innovation seminar with
Shanghai Jiao Tong University researchers(October 23)
Osaka University periodically holds seminars with
Shanghai Jiao Tong University to promote academic
exchange. Osaka University will host this fiscal year’s
event, the 16th in the series, October 22–24. Researchmeetings on a variety of academic disciplines will takeplace during this period. Three researchers from thefields of environmental engineering and environmental
law of Shanghai Jiao Tong University will attend
the event, entitled “Environmental Innovation andTechnologies for Sustainability.” A research meeting
will take place October 23 in the first-floor seminarroom of Building A, Office for University-Industry

Publisher

Contact information
Osaka University, Center for Environmental Innovation
Design for Sustainability (CEIDS)
Office for University-Industry Collaboration,
Building D, 6F
2-1 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka, Japan 565-0871
Tel: +81-6-6879-4150 / Fax: +81-6-6875-6271
HP: http://www.ceids.osaka-u.ac.jp/english/

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