CONNECT
KYUSHU UNIVERSITY

Issue 4

President's Message

Number 1
in Kyushu
Kyushu, Japan’s third-largest island, isleading Japan’s renewable energy
transition. As the top academic
institution on an island equaling
the size and economic output
of Belgium, Kyushu University
is the region’s engine
propelling the transition to
renewable energy.

Decarbonization,
along with environment
and food, and medicine andhealth, are the three pillars
of Kyushu U’s ‘Vision 2030,’
our blueprint for becoming
a truly global university thatdrives social change with integrativeknowledge. Central to this vision are
our international education efforts andworld-class research.
Kyushu U was the first national
university in Japan to launch undergraduate
programs in science taught entirely inEnglish, starting with our International
Undergraduate Programs (IUP) in

Engineering and in Agriculture. The Schoolof Agriculture’s IUP in Bioresource andBioenvironmental Sciences now offers adouble degree program with Northern
Arizona University—another first in scienceamong Japan’s national universities.
Our researchers are working on
breakthroughs in many areas fromhydrogen and fusion energy to carbon
capture and agriculture. At the ResearchInstitute for Applied Mechanics, ourresearchers study the environmental
impact of air pollution and mismanaged
plastics through computer simulations.
They are developing numerical targets—like those for carbon dioxide emissions
under the Paris Agreement—to coordinate
the worldwide effort of reducing thesepollutants in our environment.
Our main Ito Campus is the largest
in Japan, covering the equivalent areaof nearly 400 soccer fields. Equippedwith cutting-edge research facilities
and surrounded by beautiful nature,
it is becoming a powerful global hub
in research and education toward asustainable future. I look forward to seeing
many more international collaborations
emerging, as we welcome the faculty andstudents from all continents to Kyushu.

Tatsuro Ishibashi
President, Kyushu University

Fast Facts

Contents

7

th

135

th

THE World University
Rankings, Japan University
Rankings 2022
(out of over 200 ranked universities)

On the Cutting Edge
06	Visible ocean plastics just the tipof the iceberg
07	Indigenous dancers in blue jeans
08	For long plant life, the secret is in
DNA repair
09	Sniffing out your identity withbreath biometrics

QS World University
Rankings 2023

Features

Largest single
campus in Japan10	
Kyushu U Connect Community
Outreach
What you can do for theenvironment

272 hectares (672 acres)
Locatedin the#1most desirable
city to live in Japan

75

14	
K YURIOUS
The international student groupto help you through it all
15	
BEAST
An academic playgroundfor a better future in science16	Kyushu U Students and the legacy
of Dr. Tetsu Nakamura
Streams in the wasteland

Cover Story
programs
offered in
EnglishEnglishDegree Programs

7
68

Undergrad
Grad

02

29

th

QS Asian University
Rankings 2022

1:9

Faculty tostudent ratio

Diversity in Agriculture and theInternational Undergraduate
Program (IUP)
Moving partnershipto a new level
First bidirectional,
interdisciplinary, international
undergraduate dual degree
program in science
Interview with
Prof. Mako Nakamura
Maximizing international
partnerships for students

KYUSHU UNIVERSITY | CONNECT

01

Cover Story

DIVERSITY IN
AGRICULTURE AND
THE INTERNATIONALUNDERGRADUATEPROGRAM (IUP)
William Ka Fai Tse

Associate Professor, Center for Promotion of International
Education and Research, Faculty of Agriculture

To say that Kyushu University’s foundation is built
on the legacy of the Faculty of Agriculture is no
exaggeration. The department was established in
1919, eight years after the founding of the university
itself, making it one of the oldest faculties on campus.
Completing its move to Ito Campus in 2018, it ishoused in one of the most visually stunning buildings
on site. With its gridded windows and a pale golden
hue reminiscent of rice fields, the building can beseen all across Itoshima as it overlooks the ocean
and the great city of Fukuoka.

Today, the department is home to one of the mostextensive ranges of research fields at the university,from genetic research to high tech agronomy, and evenrobotics. All research topics can be found here. Given
Kyushu University’s history and diversity, it is no surprisethat it is pioneering the International Undergraduate
Program, or IUP, a four-year curriculum for international
students conducted in English.
“The IUP was inaugurated in October of 2010 under
the Global 30 (G30) program, a government initiative
designed to establish international curriculums at selected
universities,” explains William Ka Fai Tse, Associate
Professor in the Faculty of Agriculture’s Center for
Promotion of International Education and Research.
“While most universities set up graduate programs, Kyushu
University was one of the first national universities tostart a four-year undergraduate program run entirely inEnglish. These programs were established in the Facultyof Agriculture and the Faculty of Engineering.” Faculty ofAgriculture’s IUP offers a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture
for Bioresources and Bioenvironment. Naturally, thisencompasses everything from entomology and agronomy
to engineering and economics.
“There’s a misconception that the ‘agriculture department’is only about how to farm better, but this couldn’t be further
from the truth. The faculty here is very diverse and home tomore than 60 labs. In their third year, students go throughlab rounds to see which group they will join in their final
year, so they get the chance to experience many different
fields of study,” explains Tse.
“Of course, our facilities aren’t limited to the stateof-the-art equipment in the labs. We take advantage
of being the single biggest campus for a national
university and host our own farms covering agriculture,horticulture, and animal husbandry. On top of that, there
are 11 separate facilities across Kyushu that are used to
study everything from forest ecology to marine science,
IUP students playing games at the welcome party

IUP students at a welcome party

not to mention our forest station on Japan’s northern islandof Hokkaido. Moreover, we have now established a dual
degree undergraduate program with Northern Arizona
University (NAU) in the United States that is exclusive toselect IUP students. They can spend a year at NAU and
get two degrees in their four-year study period.”
All first year IUP students diversify their knowledge
through the Kikan (General) Education program and learn
fundamental educational skills on “how to look, think,and learn critically.” It is also an opportune time to form
lasting friendships and collaborative groups with fellow
Japanese and international students. In addition, IUP
students take extensive Japanese language courses. By
graduation, students can acquire sufficient language skills
to enter Japanese companies if they so wish. Alternatively,
many students continue on to post-graduate education,with close to 70% of students going to graduate schools
around the world. Whatever their path, the university isequipped to support all students in their future endeavors.
“The research that takes place here is critical inconfronting the sustainability issues we face today andaims to help mitigate and survive the ever-worsening
climate crisis. Whether it’s the diverse research, stateof-the-art facilities, location here in Fukuoka, attractive
scholarships, affordable tuition, or job prospects, there
are countless reasons for international students to study
and thrive at the Faculty of Agriculture,” concludes Tse.

Applications open every Januarywith screenings conducted in March.

Prof. William Ka Fai Tse02

KYUSHU UNIVERSITY | CONNECT

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03

Cover Story

Moving partnership to a new level

FIRST BIDIRECTIONAL, INTERDISCIPLINARY,
INTERNATIONAL UNDERGRADUATE DUAL
DEGREE PROGRAM IN SCIENCEInterview with Prof. Mako Nakamura

MAXIMIZING INTERNATIONALPARTNERSHIPS FOR STUDENTS
One of the architects of the Kyushu U-NAU dual degree
program is Professor Mako Nakamura, a developmental
biologist in the Faculty of Agriculture. In this interview, shetells us how her own global experience contributed to hercareer choice, and how the dual degree program was born.

Q

Why did you decided to pursue a careerin biology?

During my master’s at Osaka University in 1996, I got ascholarship to conduct an internship at Procter & Gamble
in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA for two months. That experiencetaught me the power of a PhD degree at a company. People
with a PhD had a private office and they could become
project managers. On top of that, I saw more women in
the lab in the US than in Japan.
After the internship, I decided to go for a PhD. Then,
I continued my postdoctoral studies back in the US. I focusedon transgenic gene modification in two developmental biology
labs for five years, one in the Fox Chase Cancer Center in
Philadelphia and the other at the University of Massachusetts.

 AU President José Luis Cruz Rivera with faculty and staff with their Kyushu U counterpartsN
during the online ceremony launching the dual degree program in July 2021

Kyushu University’s School of Agriculture and Northern
Arizona University’s (NAU) College of the Environment,
Forestry, and Natural Sciences have partnered to launch adual degree program in biology and agriculture. This is thefirst bidirectional dual degree program for undergraduate
students in science offered by a Japanese national university.
“The pairing of the degrees of biology and agriculture
offers an opportunity for undergraduate students of ourinstitutions to study the life, landscapes, and cultivation
practices of the high desert of the Colorado Plato andfertile subtropical ecosystem of Kyushu Island,” said
Professor Jason Wilder, Vice President for Research andthe Dean of the College of Environment, Forestry, andNatural Sciences at NAU.
“They can take full advantage of the world-classeducation offered at both institutions, including our
new on-campus farm,” said Professor Miki Nakao, Deanof the Faculty of Agriculture at Kyushu U.

04

KYUSHU UNIVERSITY | CONNECT

The dual degree program is built on friendship andpartnership since 2015 between the two institutions.
Kyushu U has already hosted over 30 undergraduate
exchange students from NAU, providing them withoutstanding experiences in science and engineering.
The dual degree program brings this relationship to awhole new level.
At Kyushu U, the program is open to the undergraduate
students enrolled in the International Undergraduate
Program (IUP) in the School of Agriculture. Kyushu U
students will spend their junior year at NAU, enrolling inclasses alongside US students. NAU will send students fromits Interdisciplinary Global Programs who have a strong
background in the Japanese language and culture. Both
Kyushu U and NAU students will do their thesis work at
Kyushu U in their fourth year.

Q fter coming to Kyushu U, what isA
your key contribution to international
education?

My first assignment in the Faculty of Agriculture wascoordinating a graduate program taught entirely in English.
In 2007, we started the online application and screening
for candidates for the Japanese government scholarship,or “MEXT scholarship.” We got over 150 applicants for just
11 seats for the program that single year.

“When I joined SENTAN-Q*, I felt that the
support given by Kyushu U had brought me
to my current position. I didn’t really realize
how much was available until I made a listof grants that I received. There are so many
opportunities for the faculty.”— Professor Mako Nakamura

Prof. Mako Nakamura and students in her lab

In 2010, we built the International Undergraduate
Program (IUP) in the School of Agriculture as part of thegovernment’s Global 30 Program. Among the 13 participating
universities, the Kyushu U School of Agriculture and the
School of Engineering were the first to launch the Englishtaught undergraduate program.

Q

How did the dual degree program comeabout?

It was Northern Arizona University (NAU) that got theball rolling. NAU believes their students can get the best
results from international partnerships by going deeper
with the partner they trust rather than just increasing thenumber of partners. So NAU sends Japan-bound, science
major students exclusively to Kyushu U. With their trust,
I felt that we could build the program together. To turnit into a reality, however, took almost three years because
our undergraduate education systems are very different.

Q

Do you plan to build more dual degree
programs?

Currently, we are trying to develop a master’s program in
Biotechnology with a partner university in Thailand.

* SENTAN-Q program at Kyushu U is aimed tosupport female and early career researchers toclimb up the Kyushu U professional ladder.
Follow the QR code for SENTAN-Q website:

KYUSHU UNIVERSITY | CONNECT05

On the Cutting Edge

Simulations find majority of ocean plastics may be on theseafloor or otherwise difficult to monitor, with vastly more
plastic waste likely trapped on land.
Billions of tons of plastic products producedin the “Plastic Age” have drastically changed
the way we live for the better. But now,
this plastic waste is posing new challenges
for nature.
A new study led by Kyushu University
estimates that 25.3 million metric tons ofplastic waste has entered our oceans, butnearly two-thirds of it cannot be monitored.
Alarmingly, the analysis suggests this may
only be the tip of the iceberg, with another540 million metric tons of mismanaged
plastic waste still trapped on land.

The plastic waste we know about
is still the tip of the iceberg

06

KYUSHU UNIVERSITY | CONNECT

While scientists have been surveying
beaches and the oceans’ surface todetermine how much plastic waste hasentered our waters, copious amounts ofplastics are thought to be on the seafloor,
hidden from view.
In a paper published in Science of The
Total Environment, Professor Atsuhiko
Isobe from the Research Institute forApplied Mechanics and his team usedfluid dynamic computational models toestimate the amount of these hidden ocean
plastics. They drew on existing studies

to derive parameters that describe how
plastics breakdown and age, and usedsatellite-derived wind data to incorporate
movement of the particles.
Their results estimate the total amountof plastics floating on the ocean surface
account for about three percent of all
ocean plastics. While a similar amountof microplastics—plastics less than fivemillimeters in diameter—was estimatedto be on beaches, 23% of ocean plastic
waste was larger plastics littered on theworld’s shores.
However, their simulations alsosuggest that most of the ocean plastic
may be in locations that are impossible
to monitor. A little over half of this areheavy plastics that settle on the seafloor,
with the remainder being old microplastics
emitted decades earlier.
But compared to ocean plastics, theamount of mismanaged plastic waste on
land that could find its way into ecosystems
and the ocean in the future may be twenty
times larger.
“While we were able to estimate theamount of ocean plastics, this is really only
the tip of this plastic iceberg,” says Isobe.
“The next task is to assess the whereaboutsof the nearly half a billion metric tons of
mismanaged plastics trapped on land. It’sa herculean task but we recently launcheda citizen science program crowdsourcing
data collection of the mass of plastic waste
dumped in cities and beaches.”

INDIGENOUS
DANCERS IN
BLUE JEANS
Discovery of oil, Indigenous dance,
and two different paths to tradition
taken in Alaska.
The beating of tambourine drums, thedrummers’ vocables singing echoing
through the land, and dancers’ rhythmic
stomping to the beat. Dancing visually
depicts scenes from bowhead whaling, thecentral means of subsistence for Northern
Alaska Natives.
In her new book The Sociality ofIndigenous Dance in Alaska, Associate
Professor Hiroko Ikuta, an anthropologist
at Kyushu University’s International
Student Center, explores the contrasting
ways that Indigenous dance is performedby two different Northern Alaska Native
communities. And why both, despite being
so contrasting, are considered genuine
tradition by the practitioners.
Ikuta conducted fieldwork in Northern
Alaska among Yupik on St. Lawrence
Island and Iñupiat in Utqiaġvik between
2005 and 2007. On St. Lawrence Islandin the Bering Sea, Indigenous dance is
known as “atuq,” or a spontaneous dance
event, occurring any time of the day andvillagers dance in T-shirt and blue jeans.
These St. Lawrence Islanders grew up withatuq without formal instruction. 1,000 km
away in Utqiaġvik—still in Alaska—this is
not how Indigenous dance is practiced by
Iñupiat. For Iñupiat, Indigenous dance isa choreographed event, learned throughformal training and practiced on special
occasions like Indigenous dance festivals
in uniformed traditional regalia.
“I was wondering why different groupsof people choose different aspects ofculture as their tradition, and what theymean by tradition,” says Ikuta.
Ikuta pondered the reasons behindthe contrasting ways in which Indigenous
dance is practiced between the two
communities. She found that it lies inthe discovery of oil in Alaska in 1968 andthe decisions Yupik made half a century
earlier regarding land ownership. That waswhen petroleum companies came to theregion and wanted to settle Indigenous
land claims through the Alaska Native
Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) of 1971.
“Following the ANCSA of 1971,
Iñupiat, like almost many otherDrummers in Savoonga on St. Lawrence
Island (Hiroko Ikuta)

Prof. Hiroko Ikuta

Indigenous communities in Alaska, chose
cash settlement over land ownership. Yupik,
in contrast, chose to retain ownership of St.
Lawrence Island, forgoing any cash settlement
or participation in the regional corporation
system. In the decades that followed, Iñupiat,
in whose traditional land oil was discovered,became financially well-off but almost lost
touch with their Native language. Yupik,
in contrast, became one of the financiallypoorest communities, but retained their own
Island and the Yupik language.”
For Iñupiat, Indigenous dance, liketheir traditional language, became theobject of formal learning. In contrast,
for Yupik on St. Lawrence Island, atuq
remained part of everyday life, just as the
local Yupik language remained with them.
“Dancing in the two communities may
seem contrasting to outsiders, but this is
not true to the Northern Alaskan Natives,”
says Ikuta. “For them, dancing completes
special tasks—caring for each other andpaying respect to the wisdom of the Elders.
And as long as dancing completes these
activities, both atuq and choreographeddance are tradition. Whether theydance in jeans or in traditional regalia,
it does not matter to them.” says Ikuta.
“Dancing lies at the heart of their social
relationships, relationships between
humans and animals, and between Nativeand mainstream societies.”

KYUSHU UNIVERSITY | CONNECT07

On the Cutting Edge

FOR LONG PLANT
LIFE, THE SECRET IS
IN DNA REPAIR
Researchers find high copy number of DNA repair
genes in long-lived trees.
The Jomon Sugi is Japan’s oldest known
tree, a massive conifer estimated to be morethan 2,000 years old located on the remoteisland of Yakushima, south of Kyushu. But
while conifers such as the Jomon Sugi canpotentially live for thousands of years, sometrees’ lifespans are counted in decades, withother plants living only a few weeks.
For years, researchers have been looking
into why some organisms live longer thanothers. Thanks to the growing amount ofgenome data, those mysteries are slowly
being uncovered.
One characteristic they have found is
how well an organism can repair its DNA.
However, despite advances in understanding
the longevity of animals, DNA repair’srole in the lifespan of plants has not beenclosely investigated.
Published in iScience, researchers from
Kyushu University’s Faculty of Science
report that they have identified a possible
gene family responsible for tree longevity.
The team analyzed the genomes of 61
different plant species and found that longlived trees had higher copy numbers of the
DNA repair gene family PARP relative toherb species with short life spans.
Our daily lives are inundated withelements that damage our DNA, and theaccumulated damage can lead to cellular
dysfunction and disastrous consequences.

The Jomon Sugi in Yakushima, Japan

08KYUSHU UNIVERSITY | CONNECT

Therefore, our cells work round the clock
to find and repair damage within our DNA.
Recent studies in animals have shown thatthe more DNA repair genes an organism
has, the longer they tend to live.

Breath odor-based individual authentication
using an artificial olfactory sensor could
become possible in the near future as
represented by this artist’s rendering

To examine the role of DNA repair inplant longevity, Akiko Satake and her teamcompared 121 DNA repair gene families in
61 plant species, including trees, annual
and perennial herbs, and algae.
They found that among the DNA repair
gene families studied, PARP was the only one
to have an increased number of gene copies
in trees relative to annual and perennial herb
species. For example, long-living trees suchas conifers and Douglas firs had the highest
ratio of PARP copies relative to their total
number of genes.
The team explains that PARPs play
pivotal roles in DNA repair and evenantipathogen defense in both plants andanimals, and hopes to investigate its role inlongevity further. They also acknowledge theunderlying mechanism for the differencesin lifespans between long-lived and shortlived tree species remains unknown, butthey intend to use their new findings forfurther study.

Picture of an artificial olfactory sensor used
for biometric authentication based on breath.
The sensor is made of a 4x4 channel array fora total of 16 sensors

SNIFFING OUT YOURIDENTITY WITH BREATH
BIOMETRICS
Researchers develop an olfactory sensor for biometricauthentication using your breath.
Biometric authentication like fingerprint
and facial scans are a staple of any spy
movie, and these days the technology is acommon feature on many of our phones.
Now, researchers have developed a new
potential odorous option for the biometricsecurity toolkit: your breath. In a reportpublished in Chemical Communications,researchers from Kyushu University, incollaboration with the University of Tokyo,
have developed an olfactory sensor capableof identifying individuals by analyzing thecompounds in their breath.
Biometric authentication is a critical
way to safeguard valuable assets, with avariety of ways for machines to identify you.

“These techniques rely on the physicaluniqueness of each individual, but they
are not foolproof. Physical characteristics
can be copied, or even compromised byinjury,” explains Chaiyanut Jirayupat, firstauthor of the study. “Recently, humanscent has been emerging as a new classof biometric authentication.”
One such target has been compounds
produced from your skin. However, thesemethods have their limits because theskin does not produce a high enoughconcentration of volatile compounds formachines to detect.
So, the team turned to see if humanbreath could be used instead.

“The concentration ofvolatile compounds fromyour breath can be
multiple degrees higher
than from the skin,”
continues Jirayupat.
“In fact, human breath
has already been used
to identify if a person
has cancer, diabetes, andeven COVID-19.”
The team began by analyzing
the breath of subjects to see which
compounds could be used for biometricauthentication. A total of 28 compounds
were found to be viable options.
Based on this, they developed an
olfactory sensor array with 16 channels.
Each of these channels can identify a specificrange of compounds. When a subject’s
breath is passed through the array, eachsensor responds differently according to
the concentrations of various compounds
found in human breath. That data was thenanalyzed by a machine learning system thatwould study the sensor response patternand develop an individualized profile.
Testing the system with breath samples
from 20 people, the researchers found it
could identify individuals with an average
accuracy of almost 98%.
“This was a diverse group of individualsof differing age, sex, and nationality. It’s
encouraging to see such a high accuracy
across the board,” explains Takeshi
Yanagida who led the study.
Nonetheless, he admits that more work
is needed before it arrives on your next
smartphone.
“In this work, we required our subjects
to fast six hours before testing,” concludes
Yanagida. “We’ve developed a goodfoundation. The next step will be to refine
this technique to work regardless of diet.
Thankfully, our current study showed that
adding more sensors and collecting moredata can overcome this obstacle.”

KYUSHU UNIVERSITY | CONNECT

09

Features

Kyushu U Connect Community Outreach

Currently, to produce 1 kWh of electricity, Japan emits
almost 70 times more than Norway—487 g of CO2. EVs were
only one percent of new car sales in Japan as of 2021, while
the global average for the same year was 8.6%.
The good news is that here in Kyushu, we have substantial
renewable fuel sources. On a hot day like today, more thanhalf of the electricity in Kyushu is derived from solar power,
and Kyushu’s annual CO2 emissions per kWh is about thesame as Germany.
However, the need to shift toward a society with fewercars is just as, if not more, important. It would not only reduce
emissions, but also air pollution and accidents.

WHAT YOU CAN
DO FOR THE
ENVIRONMENT
As one of its top priorities, Kyushu University is taking on
environmental issues by bringing together its expertise in awide range of fields and pursuing integrative knowledge.
To highlight these multi-disciplinary efforts and connect
with the public, an afternoon of talks was held on July 2 in
downtown Fukuoka. Read on to discover what was discussed
and for excerpts from answers to audience questions.

CARBON COST OF DRIVING
ELECTRIC VEHICLESCIRCULAR ECONOMY

Professor Kentaro Yoshida is an environmental
economist and policy specialist in the Platformof Inter-/Transdisciplinary Energy Research(Q-PIT) studying policies and consumer
preferences for next-generation vehicles andrenewable energy.
One of his major tasks has been evaluating
the impact of technologies like electric vehicles(EVs) toward reaching climate goals. Although
EVs are often considered green, they are notnecessarily free of greenhouse gas emissions.
For EVs to avoid emitting greenhouse gases,
renewable energy, such as electricity generated
by solar cells, hydroelectric plants,
and wind turbines, is needed.

Q

Prof. Yoshida conversing with students

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KYUSHU UNIVERSITY | CONNECT

Putting more
EVs on the roadwould require
more electricity,and to produce
more electricity would
involve more CO2 emissions.
What can we do about this?

Prof. Yoshida When it comes to EVs, what
is important is the source of electricity. Cars
can run on different kinds of fuel, such as
gasoline, diesel, natural gas, electricity, andhydrogen. In Brazil, there are cars that run onboth gasoline and alcohol. The latter is derived

Prof. Valentine with a sample of mycelium, a fungus that could be
an alternative for plastic-based packaging
A filling station in Brazil

from sugarcane, and using alcohol as fuel isintended to reduce environmental burden.
In Norway, where electricity is generated
from 92% hydroelectric and 6.5% windsources, a total shift to EVs would significantly
reduce emissions. To produce 1 kWh ofelectricity, Norway emits only 7.2 g of CO2,
and over 86% of new cars sold in Norway
today are EVs.
Japan is a different story. Initially, inthe early 2000s, Japan’s plan was to supply
electricity generated at night by the nation’s
nuclear powerplants to EVs. But, following
the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake andFukushima nuclear disaster, nuclear power
plants halted their operations.

Professor Scott Valentine is a professor and the Director of
Research Promotions Office at the Institute for Asian andOceanian Studies (Q-AOS) focusing on circular economies
and regenerative planning. He is also the chair of the Advisory
Board of the Australian Circular Economy Hub.
During the last two centuries, the linear economy and its
dictum of “maximum gain with least effort” has dominated,leading to a culture of disposable products. A circular economy
is an alternative in which things do not get wasted easily.
Professor Valentine introduced how a circular economy
is like an ecosystem, using the example of a beer factory that
sends brewery waste to a mushroom farm. Mushrooms not
fit for sale are sent to a pig farm and the waste water to algae
ponds. Pig manure can be used to produce methane gas andalso combined with algae to make fertilizer. The ponds also
can be used to produce pure water, fish, and shrimp. In thiscircular system, where things end, they start again.

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11

FeaturesQ o make a perfect cycle ofT
circular economy and keepusing products, we need to
repair products. But in our
culture now, we are not eventrying to repair them. How can the
repairing mind take root in our culture?

Prof. Valentine Since a circular economy is about optimizing
resources, and not recycling or waste management, repairing
is higher in priority than recycling.
As a strategy to increase repair, we aim to enlighten ourconsumers and have the need for repair settle in their minds.
But we can also target people’s actions to make them dothings we want, without necessarily waiting for their minds
to change, through nudging. Nudging is to make peoplechange their way of thinking or behavior.
We can also design products in such a way that they caneasily be repaired. In the circular economy, we have a term
‘design for disassembly.’ Design so that you can take things
apart. It’s really important.
We can also make products naturally decompose such as
Mycelium packaging. We are now working on a project called
Circular Itoshima to get these kinds of circular economic
activities happening here.

Prof. Ikeda talking to students“We can also
target people’s
actions to makethem do things
we want, without
necessarily
waiting for theirminds to change,
through nudging.”

up to 60 km per hour. To create a senseof community and garner interest in
the cars, the team decorated them withimages drawn by the elementary
school students.

Q— Professor Scott Valentine

Kyushu U students with attendees

DESIGNINGPEOPLE’SDISPOSITIONSAssociate Professor Minako Ikeda specializes
in design and social communication in the
Department of Design Futures at the Facultyof Design.
Design-thinking is essential when wewant consumers to change their habitual
thinking patterns. As an example, Professor
Ikeda introduced a project in which she andher team worked with a consortium of local
mobility companies called the “Yokamachi
Mirai Project (Bright Town Project)” and 16
elementary schools in Itoshima to promote
the use of shared community cars.
The cars, TOYOTA’s micro electric car
C+Pod, are two-seaters with a cruising rangeof 150 km per battery charge and only reach

12

KYUSHU UNIVERSITY | CONNECT

 ars that areCconsidered‘cool’ today
drive faster,
longer, andhave a powerful image.
How can we transformconsumer thinking into
seeing cars that are goodfor the environment in thesame way?

Prof. Ikeda My team’s task was tointroduce values other than convenience,such as ‘Slow and small is cool’ and ‘Sharing
a car is good.’ By involving elementary
school students in the project, we could
get them interested in the idea that they
can ride a fun car with a distinct mark of
their own. So, we asked the students todraw pictures of their neighborhood and what they think is
special about it.
Through this project, elementary school students cameto learn and feel proud about the area they lived in. We then
combined the children’s drawings into one picture for eachelementary school that became ‘our drawing’ and placed it
on a C+Pod.
I believe that by including children in this manner they will
involve their parents, who in turn will bring their friends, andby actually riding a community car, they may experience fun.
Furthermore, since the car is so small and slow, it will allow
them to learn about the neighborhood and each other better.

 OYOTA’s microTelectric car C+Pod

KYUSHU UNIVERSITY | CONNECT

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Features

KYURIOUS:

BEAST:THE INTERNATIONALSTUDENT GROUP TO
HELP YOU THROUGH
IT ALLAN ACADEMIC
PLAYGROUND
FOR A BETTER
FUTURE IN SCIENCETsukasa Ryu, one of
the founding membersof KYURIOUS

Follow the QR codefor more details:

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It’s never easy leaving your home for university.
Uprooting your life can be painful, but
at the same time, there is anticipationand excitement for the educational
journey ahead. This is certainly
the case for many new students
joining Kyushu University Facultyof Agriculture’s International
Undergraduate Program (IUP) or
International Graduate Program(IGP). Thankfully, the student
group KYURIOUS, which launchedin October 2021, is here to help withyour new life in Japan.
“We know it’s rough getting started in Japanand Kyushu University, which is why we arehere to help. KYURIOUS was established tobuild bridges between students, as well as withthe local community,” explains Tsukasa Ryu,
PhD student in the Faculty of Agriculture andone of the KYURIOUS leaders.
“There’s a lot to navigate when you cometo Kyushu U. Academic work is hard enough,but you also have to do things like find anapartment, set up a bank account, and arrange acontract for gas and electricity. Not to mention
trying to make friends and then finding places
to go with them,” states Ryu.
Since the inception of IUP and IGP, theuniversity has been staffed with people who
coordinate international students moving toJapan. As time went on, students were hired
to help with this process.
“Each student would be paired with a
new international student, but we quickly

KYUSHU UNIVERSITY | CONNECT

BEAST Vice President
Kouhei Kakino

KYURIOUS leaders and staff

realized that doing things one-on-one
was unsustainable. We might not be wellequipped to handle all issues, or be available
in emergencies,” Ryu explains. “So instead, we
moved to collectively organize and support
each other.”With backing from the International
Office, Ryu, along with two other students,
Sohta Harigai and Yiheng Wang, establishedKYURIOUS. Much of their network and support
is facilitated through their Slack channel wherestudents regularly share information regarding
everything from setting up a bank account tothe best places to buy fish.
KYURIOUS pride themselves on providing
information fast and keeping it inclusive andaccessible. They take great care in making it
understandable even for students whose native
language may not be English.
One event they recently held brought
in representatives from a local real estateagency to assist students with finding newapartments. In the end, some students cameout with housing prospects already lined up.
According to KYURIOUS, the response to theevent was fantastic and timed perfectly sincesome students were looking to move out ofthe dorms to live on their own.
“Our membership is growing, and wehope to see students both new and old help
each other during their time at Kyushu U,”
concludes Ryu. “KYURIOUS provides you withthe opportunity and platform, but it’s up to you
to be proactive in organizing and connectingwith others. Come join us at Kyushu!”

Follow the QR codefor BEAST Website:Members of BEAST

Most students have likely had the awkward experienceof trying to explain their research to a friend or family
only to be met by glazed eyes and genial nods. That’s
understandable: communicating your research to a generalaudience or connecting it to society isn’t a skill thatis taught at university. Nevertheless, many academic
institutions and governments are recognizing the value
and necessity for better science communication, and aremaking efforts to support such endeavors.
For many university students in Japan who are keen
to share their research findings, that undertaking canbe found in BEAST, a self-proclaimed ‘eclectic groupof students’ eager to bring together fellow students
from around the world under the mission of “Society
with Science.”“We initially founded BEAST in 2021 as a businessfocused platform for students to pitch their research
to venture capital firms with the hope of getting theirresearch funded. But our priorities changed quickly tomore of a network that connects science and society,”
explains Kouhei Kakino, Vice President of BEAST and
PhD student at Kyushu University’s Graduate Schoolof Agriculture. “Now we like to think of the platform
as an academic ‘playground’ for students who are wild,
energetic, ambitious like beasts, and want to contributeto society through their work.”
BEAST is student-founded and studentled, and works under four main principles:to raise recognition and understanding of
science; support student research and seed
their research for real-world applications;provide a place where researchers fromvarious fields can gather to meld theirwork; and to foster and inspire the next
generation of scientists.

Today the group has more than
400 members and has gatheredinstitutional support from both theprivate and public sectors. Some ofthese include organizations suchas the Japanese Association for the
Advancement of Science, and theacademic crowdfunding site Academist.
“The growth and support we’ve gotten
are incredible. With the help of all thesepassionate students we set up our own podcast,a YouTube channel, have grown our social media
following, and implemented a few PhD career
training and consulting events. Not to mention
building bridges between students acrossdifferent disciplines through our new projectcalled SCInterChange,” continues Kakino.
“But our flagship event ‘GENSEKI’ is still
our proudest achievement.”
Roughly meaning ‘raw gemstone’ in Japanese,
GENSEKI is an annual competition wherestudents across Japan showcase their researchin the form of three-minute pitches. The purpose
was to find and encourage students with apassion for their research and provide themwith the opportunity to pitch their findings toindustry and academic representatives. Students
are judged by said representatives, with thewinner awarded a cash prize of 50,000 yen.
GENSEKI 2021 had four preliminaries online
with the finals in Tokyo.
“These are all live streamed and available
to the public. Our secondary goal is to get the
public interested in the work of these young
researchers. That is why we take great carein coaching each student in good science
communication techniques,” explains Kakino.
GENSEKI 2022 is shaping up to be muchbigger. They’ve received more student entries
from across Japan and financial backing fromindustry groups. The cash prize has ballooned
to 300,000 yen. Preliminaries are scheduled to
run until December, with the finals scheduledfor February 2023.
With the number of members wanting to get
involved growing every day, BEAST is continuing
to look ahead at more projects that bring students,
science, and the community together.
“It’s not easy being a university student inJapan, but if we can encourage and support
each other while at the same time promote
our research to a large audience, we can makethings better for everybody. It’s good for scienceand it’s good for society,” concludes Kakino.

KYUSHU UNIVERSITY | CONNECT

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Features

Kyushu U Students and thelegacy of Dr. Tetsu Nakamura

STREAMS IN THE
WASTELAND

 r. Nakamura
Din Afghanistan.
Photograph courtesyof Peshawar-kai/PMS

Dr. Tetsu Nakamura was nothing short ofa modern-day miracle worker in war-tornnortheast Afghanistan, who resurrectedvillages by successfully drawing waterfrom the snow-capped mountains to what
had become a “valley of death.” Following
his death in Afghanistan in December 2019,
Kyushu University started the Nakamura
Tetsu Memorial Lecture Series in his honor.
Here, we interviewed students who took partin the Lecture Series.

Dr. Tetsu Nakamura (1946–2019) was manythings—a physician, an alumnus and Professorof Kyushu University, and the executive directorof Peace Japan Medical Services (PMS), thenon-governmental organization he founded
to provide medical service in Pakistan and
Afghanistan.
Since 1983, Dr. Nakamura dedicated
all his skills in medicine and engineering
to northeast Afghanistan, as wars andenvironmental disasters uprooted its people
and unprecedented droughts turned villages
into uninhabitable dryland.
In 2003, at age 56, he embarked on a canalengineering project to bring water from theGreat Hindu Kush Mountains to the Gamberi
Desert. The canal turned 3,000 hectares ofland, once called a “valley of death,” intogreen pastures, resurrecting villages along
the way, and began providing subsistence toover 650,000 people. Today, the same valley isawash with green, with wheat fields, vegetablegardens, and a park full of roses for people torefresh their war-torn souls.
Dr. Nakamura was shot dead along withhis driver and four bodyguards in Jalalabad,
Afghanistan in December 2019. He died in a placethat he loved and adored. He was cherishing thetime with students in Miran Training Center,equipping local communities with knowledgeof the PMS/Nakamura method for irrigation
 ame place in 2003
S
and 2009. Credit:
Peshawar-kai/PMS

development, a method drawn
on a centuries-old, Japanese riverengineering technology.
Today, the Kyushu University Dr.
Nakamura Tetsu Project continues his
legacy. In 2021, thirty-two students
participated in the annual Nakamura
Tetsu Memorial Lecture Series: Passing
on the work and the spirit of “Dr. Sahib,”
here are their voices.

Helping the weak andrespecting all life
“I saw the flags raised at halfmast on campus that December
morning. That’s when I realized
how big a figure Dr. Nakamura was,” says
Muhammad Aulia Rachman, a doctoral student
at the Graduate School of Integrated Sciencesfor Global Society.
“I come from Indonesia, the biggest Muslim
nation in the world. Debates on how intolerance
and religion should play in people’s day-to-day
lives are very nuanced. Depending on where
and whom you speak to in Indonesia, it’s either
Afghanistan is good because they are trying tobe Muslim, or it’s totally bad.”“I found it interesting that Dr. Nakamura
was Japanese and pretty much a third-party.
Neither from the West nor a Muslim-majority
nation. A medical doctor who was building anirrigation canal, leading agricultural projects,
and tackling social problems in Afghanistan.
He also wrote extensively about what is truly
needed in society.”

Story of environmental revival
Ryota Todoroki is a fresh graduate fromthe School of Pharmaceutical Sciences withinterests in infectious diseases.

Todoroki and his team in Nepal

16

KYUSHU UNIVERSITY | CONNECTMuhammad Aulia Rachman“Dr. Nakamura used to say, ‘One irrigation
canal is worth more than one hundred
doctors.’ And with that conviction, hebuilt that 27-kilometer-long canal. The
news about the climate crisis we hear
today is mostly doom and gloom, thathumans have destroyed the environment,that it’s too late. But Dr. Nakamura resurrected
the environment in such a way that people havereturned to their war-torn villages and are now
harvesting wheat, honey, sugarcane, oranges,
radishes, and sweet potatoes. His is a story ofenvironmental revival.”

 iran Training
M
Center. Credit:
Peshawar-kai/PMS

Saki Okada in Nepal

Be moved by small things“I was interested in what led the doctor to
Afghanistan. He was born in Japan in an affluent
family. Why did he choose to quit a life of comfort
to go there?” asks Saki Okada, who earned an MSc
in engineering in March 2022.
Okada thinks she found an answer to thisquestion in Dr. Nakamura’s book From an Afghan
Clinic (1993): “In Peshawar, the people and theirwarmth I encountered in the streets were so consolingthat I almost forgot about the terror and violence
happening at that time.”“The streets and the warmth of the people
living in them; that’s what attracted the doctor andkept him returning to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
His heart was so tender that it could be moved
by such small things. I think the doctor was notthat different from me, because I too am moved bysuch small things. It was reassuring to find in him asensitivity similar to what I find within myself.”

Read more in The
life and lessons of Dr.
Tetsu Nakamura PartI & II on the Kyushu U
Connect website:

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Published
January
2023

Public Relations Office

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