Category: Newsletter 28

FUTI has recently begun accepting scholarship applications for 2023. Information is available at friendsofutokyo.org/scholarships-grants. The scholarships are offered to qualified students of UTokyo aspiring to study in universities in the U.S. and to students at universities in the U.S. interested in studying at UTokyo, regardless of nationality. Short-term studies are awarded with funding made available through the Hsun Kwei & Aiko Takizawa Chou Scholarship and the FUTI Global Leadership Award programs. However, an applicant need only submit their application through a single portal. FUTI prepares one set of procedures for application, criteria, selection, and awarding, and will notify recipients as to which scholarship will be awarded after assessing the best fit to fulfill the focus of each scholarship. The Hsun Kwei & Aiko Takizawa Chou Scholarship, administered by Friends of UTokyo, Inc. (FUTI) is funded by a generous donation made to the University of Tokyo New York Office (UTokyoNY) by Dr. Hsun Kwei Chou and Mrs. Aiko Takizawa Chou. The FUTI Scholarship is funded by three sources: Donations from Shintech Inc., which is the US subsidiary of Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd; donations from the UTokyo New York Office called UTokyoNY; and donations from UTokyo alumni and individual supporters of FUTI. There are several scholarships in the mid- to long-term studies category including the ITO FOUNDATION U.S.A.-FUTI Scholarship, IF Ikuei Scholarship, Hsun Kwei & Aiko Takizawa Chou Scholarship, and the FUTI Scholarship. As in the case of the scholarships for short-term studies, FUTI prepares one set of procedures for application, criteria, selection, and awarding. The ITO FOUNDATION U.S.A. was established in the US by its founder and chairman, Mr. Masatoshi Ito, who is the honorary chairman of Seven and i Holdings Co. He is also the founder and chairman of the Ito Scholarship Foundation which has a long history in Japan of supporting an extensive range of students with scholarships for their studies. We welcome applications from interested students.

The 2022-2023 FUTI Campaign is underway! As the Covid-19 pandemic slows down, Friends of UTokyo’s study abroad programs and international student exchanges are picking up steam. Since the inception of Friends of UTokyo, Inc. in 2007, 245 scholarships have been awarded to support University of Tokyo students to study in the US and US university students to study at UTokyo. These study abroad experiences, whether it be a few weeks participating in a summer internship or a long-term endeavor to obtain a degree, have made a valuable impact on the students’ lives. Students express their gratitude for the scholarship in their reports, often indicating that they would not have been able to afford the study abroad without the scholarship. FUTI’s scholarship programs are made possible through the generous donations from UTokyo alumni and other supporters of Friends of UTokyo who believe in its mission to support the global leaders of tomorrow. Click here to view the greetings from President Iwao Ojima and Vice-President Yuichiro Kuwama. For more information and to donate, please visit friendsofutokyo.org/donate

On November 11, 2022, the FUTI Advisory Committee (AC) invited three former scholarship recipients to report on their current activities as well as to discuss their thoughts on the topics of “Diversity”.  Invited former award recipients included an evolutionary biology graduate student currently enrolled in a PhD program at a U.S. university, a physician practicing hospital medicine in Tokyo, and an international relations graduate student pursuing her doctorate degree at UTokyo. The participants all agreed upon the importance of striving to attain “diversity,” while recognizing that it is a multifaceted and dynamic concept. The main conclusion of the group was that “diversity” has multiple aspects and interpretations that can change dynamically over time. Participants also agreed on the importance of recognizing/approaching this concept from a broad perspective while striving to achieve it. Highlights of the discussion are presented below.  The meeting included a presentation by Dr. Shige Matsushita (chair, FUTI Scholarship Committee) entitled “Outline of scholarship student selection process at FUTI.”  In particular, Dr. Matsushita noted that the pool of scholarship recipients at FUTI has been well balanced in terms of gender. While women students comprise about 20% of the student population at UTokyo, approximately half of our award recipients are women. We are interested in finding out why male UTokyo students appear to be underrepresented in our applicant pool compared to the university-wide ratio. He wondered if male students have a limited appetite for studying abroad because of concerns about establishing a career and family. Another reason why we receive more female applicants may be because more women than men aspire to work in the international arena. Student I (2015 Recipient of FUTI Global Leadership Award)      Student II (2018 Recipient of FUTI Global Leadership Award)      Student III (2018 Recipient of Ito-Foundation U.S.A.-FUTI Scholarship Award)  The students’ presentations inspired a lively exchange of ideas and opinions from the audience also. Some examples are given below:      The meeting ran overtime due to this lively dialogue among AC members and scholarship recipients. Closing the session, Dr. Yamada, Chair of the Advisory Committee, thanked the participants and proposed holding another session in the near future to continue this meaningful dialogue. 

In its inaugural Fireside Chat, Prof. Ko-Yung Tung discussed the topic of “The Supreme Court: Why it matters so much in the U.S. and so little in Japan” on July 30 (US) and July 31 (Japan) via Zoom. The Chat was sponsored by Friends of UTokyo (FUTI), Satsuki-kai America and FUTI Alumni Association. Prof. Tung, a Lecturer on Law at the Harvard Law School, has been a Foreign Fellow at University of Tokyo, Faculty of Law, and General Counsel of the World Bank. The moderator was Dr. Geeta Mehta, Prof. of Architecture at Columbia University who earned her Ph.D. in Urban Engineering from UTokyo. Dr. Mehta started by asking Prof. Tung why the roles of the Supreme Courts of the U.S. and Japan differed so much when the Japanese Constitution of 1947 was essentially written by Americans under the Occupation. Prof. Tung briefly recounted the drafting of the U.S. Constitution by noting that it was a compromise document between the Federalists who favored a stronger national government against the Anti-Federalists who were concerned with protecting the rights of States, including slavery. This tension and compromise produced many provisions of the U.S. Constitution that still divides U.S. politics and jurisprudence. On the other hand, the Japanese Constitution was drafted essentially by three young and idealistic Americans without real opposition from the Japanese Government (which was under SCAP control) and people (who were not invited to participate in the drafting). The American drafters were primarily interested in “demilitarizing and democratizing” Japan in accordance with the Potsdam Declaration of 1945 with the so-called “Peace Provision” in Article 9 and with extensive civil rights to the Japanese people. Prof. Tung also noted a significant difference in how Supreme Court Justices are nominated and appointed. In the U.S., a Supreme Court Justice is nominated by the President of the U.S., subject to the “advice and consent” of the Senate, which makes it very political. However, U.S. Supreme Court Justices are appointed for life in order to make them immune from political or popular influences. On the other hand, Japanese Supreme Court Justices are appointed by the Cabinet (except the Chief Justice is appointed by the Prime Minister), in each case upon the recommendation of the Supreme Court and the Ministry of Justice. Each Justice is subject to a national approval at the first general election following their appointment and again every 10 years thereafter. Furthermore, Japanese Supreme Court Justices are subject to a mandatory retirement age of 70, and with the average appointment age being around 65, the average tenure of a Justice is about 5 years. Most of the questions from the participants focused on the Japanese Supreme Court and its decisions. One question was about the “independence” of the Japanese Supreme Court as it has overturned so few legislations as unconstitutional (only 8 during 1950-2010; as compared with over 900 in the U.S., over 600 in Germany, and over 1/3 in France). Prof. Tung noted the uniformity of the background and the closeness between the judicial and the executive branches of government in Japan making this quite an expected result. Another question asked was about “controversial” judicial cases in Japan. Prof. Tung mentioned that currently the same-sex marriage is very controversial. Art. 24 of the Japanese Constitution provides that “marriage shall be based only on the mutual consent of both sexes…”. Last year the Sapporo District Court interpreted that Article to allow same-sex marriage based on the sexual equality provision in Article 14 of the Constitution. However, this year the Osaka District Court ruled that same-sex marriage was barred by Art. 14. Both cases are up on appeal at the High Courts, and most likely will go to the Supreme Court. It will be interesting to see how the Japanese Supreme Court will rule on this issue. Given the time limitation, many other interesting questions could not be discussed. The online format enabled more than 35 participants to join this event from US, UK and Japan. Participants were of diverse backgrounds, ranging from graduate students to corporate executives, scientists, and legal professionals. The session ended with a huge applause with many participants asking Prof. Tung to come back and give a continuation of the talk.

On November 4, 2022, Mr. Hayato Kume (UTokyo alumnus), First Secretary of the Embassy of Japan in the USA, gave a talk titled “Japan’s Coronavirus Policies as Seen from my Perspective Gained in the United States.”  hosted by Satsuki-kai America of D.C. and New York and co-hosted by Friends of UTokyo. The lecture was lively and well-attended by 26 participants from the US and Japan representing various backgrounds.  In 2006, Mr. Kume joined the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare in Japan. During his tenure at the Ministry he worked on a wide range of areas including  policies for healthcare, those for the disabled people, and reforms in employment regulations.  After serving as Deputy Director of the Ministry’s Headquarters of COVID-19 Response, he was made in-charge of the department overseeing COVID-19 and global health as the First Secretary of the Embassy of Japan in the USA in September 2020.  In this lecture, he shared his own experience serving in the Headquarters for the COVID-19 Response in Japan and his reflections on Japan’s coronavirus policies after observing the US coronavirus policies on a first-hand basis. Using a slide presentation, he covered the following five main topics: 1) a statistical comparison of Japan with other G7 countries regarding coronavirus infection numbers and rates of vaccinations, 2) the circumstances surrounding the Japanese government’s initial response to the pandemic, 3) the conflict in prioritizing economy and medical resources, 4) the Japanese government’s progression  from vaccine procurement to inoculation of the populace, and 5) discoveries made in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. The comment by one of the participants is representative of the positive feedback from the audience when he said “I was glad to learn of the carefully planned strategies of the Japanese government’s coronavirus response”. In the words of another participant,  “[Mr. Kume] shed light on why the positive developments in Japan were not publicized abroad and how such communication can be improved”.  Another participant said that “I was truly glad to hear the stories of those who worked so hard on the frontlines during the coronavirus pandemic.” Many of the participants, who included  FUTI Vice-President Dr. Yuichiro Kuwama, were experts in medical fields, public health or pharmaceutical studies. This mix in the audience resulted in a Q&A session with  thought-provoking discussions and lively exchange of opinions. Excerpts from the lively discussion that ensued are below: (Participant) I would like to ask your views on policies/perspectives or methods of the pandemic response that the US, Japan and other countries would benefit from utilizing. (Kume) Early on in Japan’s response to the new coronavirus, fortunately or unfortunately, a team of specialists was placed on the Diamond Princess cruise ship to manage the situation and study the characteristics of the coronavirus (including asymptomatic infections and aerosol transmission). Their discoveries that were made early on in the pandemic helped Japan to form policies later on. Moreover, drawing on their prior experience of the “novel” influenza and SARS virus, the Japanese government was able to quickly institute the system of retrospective tracing  firmly in place in respect to  infection recognition, testing, and isolation. Also, Japan can take pride in its ability to plan countermeasures that are sensitive to regional characteristics because of their unique public health centers in each region. On the other hand, the US had an advantage in that the government and private sector have been investing in and working on vaccines even before the coronavirus pandemic, so that the quick development and implementation of a highly efficacious vaccine was possible. Compared to other countries, vaccine development was delayed in Japan due to a higher level of vaccine hesitancy and past experience of lawsuits that caused many pharmaceutical companies to withdraw from vaccine development. I believe that this issue will be a topic for discussion in Japan going forward. (Participant) In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, restaurants in the US ceased operation, but in Japan restaurants only shortened the business hours. Please share with us your thoughts on this matter. (Kume) In Japan, measures such as the closing of restaurants were not imposed. However, I believe that the measures taken by Japan, including the establishment of detailed guidelines to help mitigate the spread of infections such as shortening business hours, limiting the number of customers allowed to enter the facility, and limiting the alcohol supply had a solid effect. As I discussed in my presentation, finding a balance between economic and public health needs was essential, and these are difficult decisions. (Participant) Early on in Japan, the HPV vaccine (cervical cancer vaccine) inoculation rate was low, but I have heard that because of the wide-spread practice/implementation of Covid vaccination, the resistance to vaccines more generally has been reduced and the HPV vaccine inoculation rate has gone up. What do you think? (Kume) As the Covid wave peaked, the public’s scientific literacy about vaccines in general has gone up, and I think it shows great progress that the HPV vaccine inoculation rate has accelerated. However, I should caution that vaccines have to contend with efficacy and safety since vaccines can have widely different effects on different individuals. Therefore, the decision to be vaccinated rests on each individual and must be made after weighing the risks and benefits. From now on, it is important for the government to disseminate information regarding vaccines by working closely with specialists and the public. (Participant) I believe that a topic of this kind of lecture also could include the current state of mass media. (Kume) Absolutely. However, understandably the mass media needs to consider viewership numbers and there is a risk that viewership preference influences broadcast of news contents. In order to mitigate the effect of such a possibility, it is critical to further improve the scientific literacy of the public. Mr. Kume closed by saying, “It has been my pleasure to have the opportunity to present to everybody the effort by the Japanese government to counter coronavirus infections, and to have stimulating discussions with many of you.”…
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On October 19 (early morning of October 20, JST), the UTokyo International Research Center for Neurointelligence (WPI-IRCN) held The venue was the Cornell Tech Verizon Executive Education Center located on Roosevelt Island, New York. How does Human Intelligence arise? How does IRCN tackles this question? In the lecture session, Dr. Takao Hensch (IRCN Director and Professor), Dr. Yukiko Gotoh (IRCN principal Investigator and Professor at Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences), Dr. Kenichi Ohki (IRCN principal Investigator and Professor at Graduate School of Medicine), and Dr. Laurel Gabard-Durnam (IRCN Associate Research Fellow and Associate Professor at Northeastern University) each gave a talk and shared their findings from their cutting edge research results. During the discussion session that followed, the speakers answered questions from the onsite audience and webinar participants. At the networking reception held for onsite participants, a panel display was held to show some of the key differences between Human Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence, as well as the possibilities that can be opened up when these two are better understood and combined. A video outlining the activities of IRCN was also shown. These exhibitions showcased essence of IRCN’s unique approach of combining neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence. Note: UTokyo NY office hosts a variety of online and in-person events. For an updated list, please visit utokyony.adm.u-tokyo.ac.jp. With the permission from the UTokyo, this article is re-printed from UTokyo New York Office’s website: https://utokyony.adm.u-tokyo.ac.jp/news/2022/10/how-does-human-intelligence-arise-held/

An online gathering for FUTI’s Mid- to Long-Term Scholarship recipients took place on December 3, 2022 at 8:00 PM EST via Zoom. This gathering has been occurring annually since 2020 after it was proposed by FUTI President, Iwao Ojima, and FUTI Director of Academic Affairs, Shohei Koide, to enable scholarship recipients to meet and share their studies and experience. The meeting began with brief greetings from FUTI Scholarship Committee Chair, Shigenori Matsushita, and FUTI Scholarship Committee Vice Chair, Nobuko Sakurai. FUTI President Ojima also welcomed the students and noted that the use of Zoom due to the pandemic has opened up opportunities to have online gatherings. Yoshikazu Toyama of the Ito Foundation was also in attendance and gave a brief history of the Ito Foundation and its founder, Masatoshi Ito, founder of the Japanese general merchandise and department store, Ito-Yokado. He shared that the scholarship was established as a way to give back to society since the founder had received help as a young student which bolstered his drive to succeed. Eleven recipients gave short presentations on their current projects and shared what they learned on and off campuses. The focus of the students’ studies ranged widely from urban architecture to robotics to politics. Some highlights from the presentations included studies on diet, microbiome, nutrition and microbiology, and the westernization of dietary composition; labor issues from various perspectives such as in different countries, rules and laws regarding employees, and the standpoint of HR and managers; and the aim for carbon neutrality and different methods that would help reach this goal such as an advanced composting facility, microbial fuel cell that generates energy from leftovers, and capturing emissions. Some of the students shared that the relationship between the student and teacher is different from what they are used to in Japan, as in the USA there is lots of exchange and teachers are often curious as to what students have to say. One student shared that before coming to the US, she was self-conscious being a female engineer, but after being surrounded by female professors, researchers, and students in the US, she has gained confidence. Between presentations, attending members and students asked thoughtful questions which made for interesting discussions about the presentation topics, current events, and life while studying abroad. To conclude, founder and president of the FUTI Alumni Association, Yuki Haba, thanked participants for the fascinating presentations and explained the impetus for the FUTI Alumni Association. As a former FUTI Scholarship recipient himself, he wanted to convey to the current recipients that the importance of FUTI was not just about receiving financial assistance, but it was more importantly about networking and forging lasting relationships.

At the Board meeting held on September 24, 2022, the following officers were appointed: For the Board: For the Advisory Committee: For more information on the officers, please visit our website’s About Us page.