Category: Newsletter 10

The Award Selection Committee met on March 8, 2014 at the Community Resource Exchange conference room in Downtown Manhattan. It was attended by Masaaki Yamada (Chair of the Committee and Director of University Relations), Hisashi Kobayashi, Shigenori Matsushita, Masako Osako, Nobuko Sakurai and Amy Vaida (Secretary to the Committee). In a series of discussions that followed the preliminary selections done on March 8, the Committee has selected by April 21st 13 UTokyo (i.e., UTokyo) students and six U.S. students for this summer’s scholarship program. Ten out of the selected 13 UTokyo students will participate in various summer courses at U.S . universities, and the remaining three will attend English language courses at Yale University or the University of California, Berkeley.　Out of the 13 UTokyo recipients, eight are female students, and five are male. Seven are science & engineering majors, while six are humanities and social science majors. Eight are undergraduates (4 Sophomores, 2 Juniors, 2 Seniors), and five are graduate students (1 M1, 3 M2 and 1 D3). Four out of the six U.S. awardees will conduct research as summer interns at UTokyo’s laboratories. These 4 recipients were selected from 74 U.S. undergraduate students who applied to the University of Tokyo Research Internship Program (UTRIP), which is hosted by professors in the School of Sciences at UTokyo. While the number of applications from the U.S. this year was fewer than 123 of last year, many applicants were top students from leading universities. In addition to these internship students, two Yale students (one male, one female, both Juniors) have been selected to participate in the Global Summer Program (GSP) courses offered by UTokyo. The FUTI summer scholarship award, a.k.a. the “FUTI Global Leadership Award (FUTI-GLA),” is designed to nurture future global leaders of Japan and the U.S. One of the selection criteria is a demonstration of leadership quality. List of Scholarship Recipients English Language Training Courses (3 UTokyo students) Mr. Yosuke Tanigawa (Bioinformatics, Junior): UC Berkeley Summer Language Studies Mr. Shigeru Chiba (Sciences III, Sophomore): UC Berkeley Summer Language Studies Ms. Izumi Hayashi (Sciences I, Sophomore): Yale University Language Institute Non-Language Training Courses (8 UTokyo Students) Ms. Akane Inoue ( North American Area Studies, Senior):UCLA Anderson School of management “Managing Enterprise in Media, Entertainment, Sports” Mr. Daiki Iwata (Urban Planning, Master 2nd): UC Berkeley Summer Session Ms. Haruka Udagawa (Liberal Arts II, Sophomore): Harvard University Summer School Ms. Kiyono Fujinaga (Linguistics, Master 2nd): UC Berkeley Summer Session Ms. Zang, Xiaoxue (Sciences I, Sophomore): Yale University Summer School Ms. Yuka Kakinuma (Economics, marketing, Junior): UC Berkeley Summer Session Ms. Sakaya Fujita (Education, clinical psychology, Master 2nd): Ohio State University, Project Narrative Summer Institute Mr. Mahmoud Khalil (Geology, PhD Program 3rd ): Western Michigan University, Hydrogeology Field Program GSP Courses at UC Berkeley (2 UTokyo students) Ms. Akiko Segawa (Chemical Engineering, Senior): “Environmental Leadership Program” Mr. Tetsu Miyazawa (Law, Master 1st): “Media and Global Protest Movements” UTRIP at UTokyo (4 U.S. students) Mr. Taweewat Somboonpanyakul, University of Chicago, Physics, Junior: Prof. Motohide Tamura Mr. Kevin Hochstrasser, Yale University, Chemistry, Junior: Prof. Kumiko Ui-Tei Mr. Thong Nguyen, University of Texas, Dallas , Physics, Junior: Prof. Hiroaki Aihara Mr. Pramodh Ganapathy, Duke University, Evolutional Anthropology (1st major), and Asian & Middle Eastern Studies (2nd major), Senior: Prof. Hisayoshi Nozaki GSP at UTokyo (2 Yale students) Mr. Kevin Zhou, Yale University, Biomedical Engineering, Junior Ms. Julie Chang, Yale University, Biomedical Engineering, Junior Articles in this newsletter:

At the Board of Directors meeting held on April, it was reported that the donations of this fiscal year are significantly lower than those of last year and the year before. The dividends from Shintech’s Trust Account (shown in red in the graph) received by mid April are $52,960 in the current fiscal year (FY2013-2014), which is reduced by as much as $7,000 compared with $60,230 of FY 2011-2012 and $60,340 of FY 2012-2013. This is a result of the low yield of U.S. bonds. Donations from individuals (shown in green) are $49,750 as of mid April, which has gone down by as much as $10,680 compared with the donations of two years ago, and $5,750 lower than last year. Consequently, the total donations (shown in blue) are $102,700, which is lower by as much as $17,700 and $13,200 compared with the donations received two years ago (FY2011-2012) and last year (FY2012-2013), respectively. If this trend continues, the total revenue of this fiscal year may fall below the total expenditures, and we fear that we may be forced to scale down the size of scholarship programs and research grants next year. We must recover from this disturbing situation by all means in the remaining two months of the current fiscal year, which will end on June 30, 2014. We ask for your strong support. A list of donors as of April 30, 2014 can be found on FUTI’s website. Please click here. Articles in this newsletter:

As we did for the previous issue of our Newsletter, we asked several people among recent generous donors  to prepare a message.  The following donors (listed in alphabetical order) graciously responded to our request.  We hope that their messages will touch  a chord and help us achieve success in the fundraising campaign of FY2013-2014, by encouraging all other Friends of UTokyo to give contributions in the remaining two months. Teruaki Aoki President, Sony University 1964: UTokyo, Applied Physics, B.S. 1969: Northwestern University, Material Sciences, Ph.D. 1970: Joined Sony Corp. Director (1989), Executive Director (1996).Sony Electronics, Inc. President& COO (1998), Sony Corporation Senior Corporative Executive Officr.2005-present, Sony University, President. Currently serving also as Vice President, Sony Education Foundation, and as Advisory Board member of Northwestern University, Kellogg School. Get exposed to a different culture, especially when you are young. In looking back, I keenly feel the importance of the above message. Based on my own experience of having studied abroad (after graduating from the Applied Physics Department of UTokyo, I studied at Northwestern University for five years to earn my Ph.D.), I strongly urge UTokyo students to study in the U.S., and U.S. students to study at UTokyo. It was quite a while ago that I lived in the U.S. for the first time as a student. At that time I came to realize how distorted a view I had held about America and American people while I was in Japan. At the same time I often rediscovered nice things about Japan in a new light, which I had not noticed before I left my country. I did not work in the U.S. after graduation, but thanks to my study experience in the U.S. I was able to join Sony Corporation and was twice given opportunities of international assignments in the U.S., where I could play an active role in global environments. The human network that I built while I was a graduate student in the U.S., and the network of the Japanese people whom I met while working in the U.S. both helped me greatly in many critical situations that I encountered in conducting my business. Both America and Japan, despite their enormous difference in history and cultures, share common values in politics and economics. In the globalizing world of the future, it will be increasingly important that the two nations work in close cooperation, underpinned by our mutual understanding of each other. I wish that FUTI can make a contribution, no matter how modest, towards this goal. Tohru Asami Professor, School of Information Science and Technology, University of Tokyo 1974: Kyoto University, B.S. in Engineering 1976: Kyoto University, M.S. in Engineering Doctoral degree：University of Tokyo, Information Science and Technology 1976: Joined International Telegraph & Telephone Co. (now called KDDI), Director of KDD Lab（1993）, Managing Director of KDD Communications (1996), President of KDDI Lab (2001), Vice Chairman (2005). Joined the faculty of UTokyo in 2006. The word “Black company” (meaning a company that exploits its employees) is prevalent in Japan nowadays. The Japanese word “労働” (pronounced “Rohdoh,” meaning “labor work”) was created in the Meiji Era, when the Japanese scholar translated books published in America and Europe. Thus, this word is listed in Chinese dictionaries as a word of foreign origin, coming from Japan. In other words, this word did not exist in the Kanji culture of East Asia at that time. The absence of such a word means that there was no such concept either. Japan created various new words in such a manner, while it came into contact with Europe and America from the Meiji through Showa periods, and these words helped us enrich our own view of the world. I do not think that those periods were merely a hundred years of “increased national prosperity and military power.” These concepts have by now become so ingrained that we may mistakenly think that we have held these concepts since ancient times. Such a progressive spirit of Japan has weakened, however, after the 1980s when Japan had caught up with the West, and it has gradually become an insular society, where the people tend to remain within the country. This tendency is found even among the people who work in the mass media industry, espousing globalism with their appearance of being progressive at a glance. Even the nuclear power plant issue, for instance, is seldom discussed in Japan as an international problem. I think the problem should be discussed from the viewpoint of Spaceship Earth. Education is a kind of brainwashing. Therefore, you cannot break away from the mindset of your native country, if you remain in the country, whether it being Japan or not. I would encourage you to leap forward overseas, while you are young with a flexible mind, and get to know people with different views, and grow to become a person with imaginative capability. Then you will understand that a war is by no means an unimaginable event, and you will appreciate that you have been raised in Japan. I believe such individuals, regardless of majoring in science or the humanities, will be the ones who can carry the world of the next generation on their shoulders. Sumiko Ito 　　 Arcadia Capital, Inc. President 1970-1974: UTokyo, Dept of Economics, B.A. 1974-1980: The Ministry of Welfare 1978-1980: The University of Oxford, M.Phil. After having worked for Strategic Planning Associates (Washington ,D.C.), Nomura Securities International, Inc. (New York) and Alex, Brown & Sons (Baltimore, MD), she formed he own company, Arcadia Capital, Inc. in 1991. Recently I received an e-mail from UTokyo’s Alumni Office, saying, “Do not miss the Home Coming Day of October 18th of this year. It is very important since this is your 40th year reunion after your graduation.” For a moment I was tempted to deny it, thinking that I was not that old. However, the Alumni Office is always right about such records. Soon I confirmed that 40 years have indeed elapsed since my graduation, and then I became a bit…
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As we reported in Newsletter No. 9, The University of Tokyo (UTokyo) offers a variety of privileges to express its gratitude to those who have donated to the university. They include the posting of your engraved nameplate on the wall of the Yasuda Auditorium, a commemorative plate as a gift, invitation to convivial meetings and other events. Your donations to FUTI will be added to your direct donations to UTokyo, and the accumulated sum will determine your privileges. As for the amount of donations, the titles and other items, please refer to the website http://utf.u-tokyo.ac.jp/english/index.html. Donors whose cumulative contributions have recently exceeded JPY 300,000 will have their engraved names be posted on the wall of the Yasuda Auditorium as Contribution Members. Furthermore, they will be invited to an “Appreciation Party” hosted by President Junichi Hamada at the Koshiba Hall and the Sanjo Conference Hall ‘s Harmony Room on June 11th (Wed), 2014. Sixteen FUTI donors are included. We extend our heartfelt congratulations to these donors and thank them for their generous support of FUTI. Listed below are the titles of FUTI donors based on their total donations at this time. Special honorary member Shintech Inc.; Honorary members, Mr. Junji Masuda and Mr. Hajime Sasaki; Special contribution members, Mr. Hiroshi Komiyama and Mr. Hisashi Kobayashi; Merit contribution members, Mr. Shigenori Matsushita, Mr. Kenichi Sugiyama, Ms. Masako Egawa, Mr. Hidehisa Shimizu, Mr. Toyoo Gyoten, and Mr. Hiroshi Ichihara; Contribution members, Mr. Teruaki Aoki, Mr. Toshiaki Ikoma, Mr. Haruo Kawahara, Mr. Hideki Imai, Mr. Takushiro Ochiai, Mr. Tsutomu Kume, Mr. Yuichiro Kuwama, Mr. Motoatsu and Mrs. Nobuko Sakurai, Ms. Sumiko Ito, Ms. Masako Osako, Mr. Shunichiro Kishioka, Mr. Yasuhide Watanabe, Mr. Asao Kasumi, Mr. Hirokazu Miura, Mr. Masaaki Yamada, Mr. Yasuo Okamoto, Mr. Tohru Asami, Mr. Sadayoshi Okubo, Mr. Seiei Ono, Mr. Hisao Kameda, Mr. Ko-Yung Tung, and Mr. Koichi Hamada. We would like to receive your continued support of the globalization of UTokyo by giving donations to FUTI. Articles in this newsletter:

As we notified all of you by email in early March, 2014, the postal address of FUTI has been changed, as of March 1st, from 331 W. 57th Street, #164, New York, NY 10019 to the following new address. So please take a note of it: Friends of UTokyo, Inc. 115 E. 34th Street #416 New York, NY 10156, USA As we reported in Newsletter No. 9, the English abbreviation of the University of Tokyo changed last year from UTokyo to “UTokyo.” FUTI’s Board of Directors has been discussing a possible name change of Friends of UTokyo, Inc (see related article). We will notify you by email, newsletter and our website as soon as we make a decision. Articles in this newsletter:

FUTI’s Board of Directors meeting, held on April 21st via teleconferencing, was presided over by President Kobayashi. The meeting started with the introduction of Mr. Kazutaka Yamaji, the newly appointed Director General of the Development Division of UTokyo. Prior to this appointment Mr. Yamaji was responsible for the operations of the Alumni Office of UTokyo. Mr. Shuta Kobayashi, Secretary, went over the minutes of the last Annual Board meeting held on September 21, 2013. After the approval of the minutes, Treasurer Dr. Yuichiro Kuwama reported on the current status of this fiscal year’s fundraising (see the related article). Then Dr. Masaaki Yamada, Director of University Relations, reported on the selection result of this year’s summer scholarship awards (see the related article). Then Dr. Masako Osako, FUTI Staff, suggested that we need to attract a larger audience to FUTI’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/foti2008). A recommendation was made to form a study group and come up with specific ideas to build a larger cyber community of FUTI supporters. President Kobayashi asked Ms. Osako to invite Dr. Shigenori Matsushita, Ms. Amy Vaida (FUTI’s Webmaster), Mr. Yamaji and others to form a study group. Kobayashi reported on a recent inquiry from a company that showed interest in placing advertisements on FUTI’s website. He made a preliminary suggestion that we should look into advertisements on the website as a new source for revenue. (After the meeting, Dr. Matsushita wrote a memo, supporting Kobayashi’s idea, and suggesting several approaches. Ms. Vaida feels that the current website must be revamped and enhanced by implementing, for instance, a technique for search engine optimization, if we are to place ads on our website.) Kobayashi then said that it would be convenient to FUTI donors in Japan, if we could open a bank account in Japan. Some participants responded pessimistically, however, by saying that banks in Japan are increasingly unwilling to take foreign-based organizations as new clients. Its feasibility will be further looked into by Kobayashi with help from Messrs. Yamaji and Yoshida. The last and most important item for discussion was concerned with a possible new name for FUTI. While many Board members seemed to endorse a new name that carries UTokyo instead of UTokyo (e.g., Friends of UTokyo), Kobayashi said , “We should not easily adopt UTokyo as our new name, because there are some important FUTI donors who are strongly opposed to the idea of doing away with the long-cherished abbreviation UTokyo. “Kobayashi also questioned how seriously this new abbreviation has been adopted on the UTokyo campus itself. Kobayashi reminded the participants of the fact that the acronym “UTokyo” (in Roman letters) was adopted as the official name just several years before it was switched to “UTokyo” last year. The new acronym “UTokyo,” when pronounced, is almost invariably mistaken as “New Tokyo,” a famous restaurant chain in Tokyo, added Kobayashi. The Board agreed that we need to further discuss this matter before we possibly take a vote. Soon after the meeting, Dr. Yamada proposed a new candidate name “Friends of UTokyo, Inc.: 東大友の会.” Kobayashi will seek an endorsement from the major donor, and will soon call for a special Board meeting for a possible resolution. This year’s Annual Board of Directors meeting, to be joined by with Advisory Committee as in the past, is scheduled to be held on Sunday September 28, 2014 at a conference room of the Community Exchange Resource, which is located in lower Manhattan. Articles in this newsletter:

FUTI President Hisashi Kobayashi, who is Senior Distinguished Researcher of the National Institute for Information and Communications Technology (NICT) visited Tokyo for two weeks from March 31, and on April 2 he paid a courtesy visit to Dr. Chihiro Kanagawa, Chairman of Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. as well as Chairman and Founder of Shintech, Inc. and Mr. Toshiya Akimoto, Managing Director of Shin-Etsu Chemical. Kobayashi was accompanied by Mr. Kazutaka Yamaji, Director General, and Mr. Yoichi Yoshida, Director of the Development Division of UTokyo. Shintech, Inc. (Houston, Texas), which established a Trust Fund of $5 million in March 2009 with FUTI as its beneficiary, has generously extended its agreement until 2020. Kobayashi expressed his thanks by saying “The donations from Shintech constitute 50% of our revenue. Because of your generous gift, we will be able to provide summer scholarships to about 20 students again this year. We are very grateful to Dr. Kanagawa for his continued support of FUTI.” Dr. Kanagawa then responded, “It is our great pleasure that our Trust Fund can help nurture the young people in Japan and America who will carry their countries on their shoulders in the future.” During their meeting, which took about 30 minutes, the conversation moved to some old memories of Dr. Kanagawa, going as far back as the 1970s, which are also described in the book, “The Shintech Story,” (217 pages, published in March 2014). The book is a compilation of the history of Shintech, Inc., which will celebrate its 40th anniversary this year. Shintech, Inc. started the production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) at Freeport, Texas in October 1974. The annual production capacity was 100,000 tons, and Shintech embarked on the road to operation as the 13th largest manufacturer in the U.S. Dr. Kanagawa, who managed the company, aggressively penetrated both the U.S. and world markets, and expanded its production capacity to 450,000 tons in ten years, and by 1990, the production capacity reached 900,000 tons. In 2001, the company became the global leader with an annual production capacity of 2,040,000 tons, which further grew to 2,630,000 tons by 2010. We can learn a great deal about Dr. Kanagawa’s management philosophy from his series of articles “My life story,” which appeared as a running story in Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper in 2006, and from the several books he authored. “Select a few with exceptional talent” is his motto and underpins his management principle. Needless to say, he has received numerous awards and recognitions, both in Japan and from abroad. But it deserves special note that Dr. Kanagawa, a 1950 UTokyo graduate from the Faculty of Law, Department of Politics, was awarded in June 2011 a Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Engineering, UTokyo, for his thesis entitled “Management in the Polyvinyl Chloride Industry: Strengthening Business and Management of a Commodity Chemical Business.” Articles in this newsletter:

FUTI has its Facebook page, where the Friends of UTokyo community exchange their messages, photos, event news, or opinions on various topics of mutual interest (www.facebook.com/foti2008). We welcome your contributions. Please send your messages and photos that might be of interest to the Friends of UTokyo community. News of awards, books, lectures, blogs, and any other noteworthy activities of UTokyo alumni are welcome. Post your comments and indicate your “Like.” Encourage other alumni and friends of yours to join us. If you have any ideas or suggestions on Facebook, please send them to the Facebook page or email to  info [at] friendsofutokyo.org. We hope you enjoy the following example from recent postings. Garden Party Held for Major Donors at Koishikawa Botanical Garden On Monday, April 7, a cherry blossom garden party was held at UTokyo’s Koishikawa Botanical Garden hosted by The University of Tokyo Foundation (UTokyo Kikin) inviting those donors who had cumulatively donated more than 300 thousand Yen (about three thousand dollars) as well as their spouses and friends. The Garden is open to the public every weekdays and weekends except on Mondays. Therefore, a Monday party for donors was an exclusive/special event. The Garden is known as one of the famous places in Tokyo for cherry blossoms and has many varieties of species including the most popular Somei-Yoshino. Fortunately most species were in full bloom on the day of the garden party. A trio of musicians played popular and classic music and the UTokyo Co-op opened souvenir stalls. Professor Jin Murata (Director of Koishikawa Garden), Professor Masaki Tateno ( the director of another UTokyo botanical garden in Nikko), and staff conducted guided tours of the premises in the morning and the afternoon. The Koishikawa Garden is the oldest botanical garden in Japan with its history of 330 years. It originated when the Tokugawa Shogunate opened its first medicinal herb garden in 1684. The Garden features “historic” plants such as the descendant of Sir Isaac Newton’s famous apple tree and the descendant of the vines which Gregor Mendel improved. The University of Tokyo Foundation hosts the Koishikawa garden party for major donors every year during the cherry blossom season. Photos and narrative were contributed by Mr. S. M. who attended the party. Articles in this newsletter: