Raku-Yu

KyotoUniversityNewsletter

Greetings from Kyoto-U AUTUMN 2004Issue 6

Illustrated Books: Ise Monogatari (Tales of Ise)Paper with illustrations in color, manuscript, 2 volumes, author and publisher unknown, 28.0 × 23.3cm

The Ise Monogatari, completed in the early Heian Period (the first part of the 10th century), is one of the most beloved works of Japanese classical literatureand a cornerstone of Japanese culture, one that is repeatedly quoted as a motif in a wide range of genres besides literature, such as art and theater. It consistsof 125 Utamonogatari (poetic tales), a small collection of waka (traditional Japanese short poems) and their related episodes, which are said to have beenmodeled on the life of Narihira Ariwara (825-880), a nobleman celebrated as the greatest male poet in his age. Most of the Utamonogatari deal with romancesbetween young men and women, but section 9, entitled Azuma Kudari (Eastward Bound) and featured on this issue's cover, has been famous since the clas-sical period for its depiction of the heart of someone traveling away from home.

The painting on the cover is a scene of Narihira's party, having left Kyoto with heavy hearts in search of safe refuge in the East, as they looked upon the majesticMt. Fuji in Suruga (modern-day Shizuoka prefecture). Narihira looked up at the mountain from his horse and set his deep feelings down in a waka: "Fuji, themountain that forgets its seasons. What time does it think it is? Though summer, snow covers the ground in spots." He describes Mt. Fuji, with its piled-up snoweven in summer, in a somewhat critical tone as "the mountain that forgets its seasons". These wordsare suffused with a distinct feeling of homesickness for the gentle turning of the seasons in Kyoto'smountains which Narihira had grown to love. As a symbol of Japan, Mt. Fuji's shape and size isknown to us all. In this poem, however, its dignity is expressed as "twenty Mt. Hieis stacked on top ofone another". twelve hundred years ago when Kyoto was the capital, Mt. Hiei guarded the city andmight have embodied the image of the "sacred mountain" more so than Mt. Fuji. (Please refer to thepicture of Mt. Hiei on the back cover of this issue.)

The image of the sacred mountain represented by Mt. Fuji and Mt. Hiei transcends space andtime as one of the scenes of the Japanese people's collective imagination. The sense of faiththat pulls us to sacred mountains certainly lives on today in a deep place in our everyday lives.

Editor's notesAt Kyoto University, we promote creative research and self-education in an academic culture supportive of academic freedom and an open and stimu-

lating atmosphere. While a mentality that prizes freedom fosters creative and independent-minded talent, it also creates an aspect of permissiveness andtherefore demands a university's involvement in order to fulfill its educational responsibilities. The incorporation of Japan's national universities in April2004 was accompanied by significant changes to the research and educational system. Prior to that, Kyoto University established our basic policy for the21st century that emphasizes harmony and dialogue with local communities. We are also engaged in the establishment of a new research and educa-tional system while simultaneously maintaining our "free academic culture". In this issue, we will try to reflect on the current state of our research andeducational activities from various perspectives while taking note of these changes.

Jyuichi Itani, Senior Editor, The Editorial Committee of Raku-Yu

C O N T E N T S

1

2

6

10111213

14

What Characterizes a Kyoto University Education?Hirohisa Higashiyama, Vice-President of Kyoto University

Special Feature - The Kyoto University EducationLiberal Arts Education, The Kyoto University WayMasaki Maruyama, Director, Institute for the Promotion of Excellence in Higher Education

Kyoto University's Regional Education Program

Information for International Students

Forefronts of Research at Kyoto UniversityTsuneo Yoshikawa, Professor, Graduate School of EngineeringKazuo Fujita, Professor, Graduate School of Letters

Essay – Engelbert Jorissen, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies

Interview – Tang Zhong Hui, Graduate School of Law

Activity – Nobuhiro Ohnishi, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies

What's Happening on CampusPresident Oike Goes to Mainland China and Hong Kong

"The First KAGI 21 International Summer School on the Active Geosphere" Takes Place in Indonesia

Inaugurating the "Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere"

The 21st Century COE Program FY2004 Results

PROMENADE

Mount Hiei – A Prayer for Peace on Earth from one of the Most Sacred Sites in Japanese Buddhism

Editor in Chief

Junzo Munemoto

Associate Editor

Yoshitaka Ishikawa

Senior Editors

Naoyuki OsakaJyuichi ItaniKouji AsamiKazunobu NagasakiAkira AsadaYuzuru Hamada

Editorial Collaborator

TRANSWORD CO.,LTD.

Printed by

KOSAIDO CO.,LTD.

This name was taken from theassembly hall called "Raku-YuKaikan " that commemoratedthe 25th anniversary of thefounding of Kyoto University.

© The Committee of Public Relationsof Kyoto University

A Note on Order of NamesAs a general rule, names appearingin Raku-Yu are written in givenname/family name order.

Raku-Yu means to respect, treasure, and enjoyone's friendship.

1

As Vice-President and Director in Charge of Education andStudent Affairs, my work encompasses all aspects of academiclife at Kyoto University, insofar as students are concerned. Thisrole includes, but is not limited to, partnerships with high schools,open campus days, entrance exams, admission and orientation,guidance―especially regarding waiving tuition fees, scholar-ships, dormitories, off-campus housing, and studentinsurance-curricula, counseling, employment assistance, gradua-tion, and awarding of degrees. And the important thing in all ofthis is that our educational programs are focused on our students.

In the writings of Mencius, there is the following: "君子有三楽。父母倶存、兄弟無故、一楽也。仰不愧於天、

、二楽也。得天下英才、而教育之、三楽也"An English translation of which is : ‘The superior man has threethings in which he delights, and to be ruler over the Kingdom isnot one of them. That his father and mother are both alive, andthat the condition of his brothers affords no cause for anxiety; -this is one delight. That, when looking up, he has no occasion forshame before Heaven, and, below, he has no occasion to blushbefore men; - this is a second delight. That he can get from thewhole kingdom the most talented individuals, and teach andnourish them; - this is the third delight’ (Reproduced from "TheChinese Classics - VolumeⅡ The works of Mencius", JamesLegge, Hong Kong University Press, 1960) Great minds from allover are gathered together at Kyoto University, and it is the greatpleasure of our faculty to educate them.

Han Yu wrote, "千里馬常有、而伯楽不常有". Persons oftalent may abound, but one is hard-pressed to find personscapable of teaching them. Though one may attract persons oftalent, the hard part is being a sufficiently good judge of char-acter to be able to educate them.

And if there is one thing that the faculty of KyotoUniversity have learned from experience about being agood judge of character, it is this: do not teach.

Now, I know it sounds drastic to say, do not teach at a placeof education. Rest assured, however, that this is not anattempt to abdicate responsibility.

You are probably wondering, why, then, do Kyoto Universityfaculty not teach? Do they focus solely on research, because theydon't like to teach? And yes, there may well be some faculty

members who feel that way, now that you mention it. We humanshave this habit, however, of wanting to tell people what we know.Can you keep from telling people things that only you know? Doyou not feel the temptation to pass your knowledge on? Such feel-ings are especially strong for educators, given that telling peoplethings is considered the heart of what they do.That being the case, why, then, do we say that Kyoto University's

professors do not teach? Because teaching someone more talentedthan oneself ruins that very talent. Professors cannot teach stu-dents what they themselves do not know. They can only teach attheir own level. Therefore, students cannot rise beyond the levelof their professors. Top students frequently quarrel with theirmentors, postulating ideas at odds with their mentors' theories,who throw them out as a consequence. The reason being that thestudent is superior to his mentor.

Advances in scholarship, however, are born of unprecedentedideas that supersede established wisdom. Persons of talent chafeat conventional ways of living and doing things, because conven-tional thinking confines one to operating within the bounds ofsuch established wisdom. Those of Sigmund Freud's discipleswho later founded their own schools of thought all fell out withtheir mentor, while those who remained faithful to their mentor'steachings have gone unremembered. And the reason for this isthat, if we want to read Freud's ideas and teachings, we need onlystudy Freud's own writings, rather than those of his warmed-overdisciples. It is precisely those who went beyond what Freudtaught that we should learn from, in fact. Technique is learned byimitation, whereas ideas represent innovation.The members of the faculty of Kyoto University are character-

ized by taking on successors whose ability exceeds their own. Inthis way, they perpetuate this very tradition. It is not so very diffi-cult to respect an instructor, supervisor, or upperclassman whoseability exceeds one's own. The reverse, however, is not true: it isno simple thing to respect a pupil or underclassman whose abilityexceeds one's own. Better to make such a person one's successor,which is what we do at Kyoto University. And we will continueto make advances in research and scholarship so long as we main-tain this particular tradition.

Hirohisa HigashiyamaVice-President of Kyoto University

What Characterizes a Kyoto University Education?

Hirohisa Higashiyama Born in Osaka in 1942. Prof. Higashiyama graduated from the KyotoUniversity Faculty of Education in 1965. He earned his master's degree in 1967, and his Ph.D in 1973both at Kyoto University. In 1975 he became an associate professor at Osaka Kyoiku University, and afull professor in 1987. In 1997 he became a professor at the Kyoto University Graduate School ofEducation. In December 2003, he was appointed Vice-President of Kyoto University, and Director ofEducation and Student Affairs in April 2004.

A specialist in clinical psychology, Prof. Higashiyama knows from extensive experience in patientcounseling just how hard it is to make analyses and evaluations. Counseling, being the use of onepsyche to treat another, demands maintaining an ongoing dialogue with the patient, while alsoremaining constantly aware that the therapist and the patient are not the same. In these times whenKyoto University has become a National University Corporation, and evaluation, whether internal orexternal, has increasingly come to mean "numerical value," the fact that Prof. Higashiyama puts theutmost faith in "the power of the human spirit" both puts people at ease and gives them courage.

不　於人

2

about by profound consider-ation and the extensivecommunication that under-pins it.

These latter traits dependon good linguistic ability,which itself must be suffi-ciently strong and culturallysensitive to facilitate com-munication in commontongues, transcendingnational borders, drawingon a platform of under-standing of the properties of differentregions and indigenous cultures to do so.Such understanding is especially importantnow, when academe and society alike areoperating on a global basis in all respects.Thus, another of the keys to education inthe liberal arts at Kyoto University is strivingfor improvement in culturally sensitivelinguistic ability.

Before one can study in specialized sub-jects, one must first build an intellectualfoundation by learning the basic subjects.Another aspect to the "intellectual founda-tion" concept is creating a common base ofknowledge that allows communicationbetween different sectors, as best exempli-fied by the instilling of basic knowledgeand criteria for judgment of the humanitiesand social sciences on the part of naturalsciences students, and vice versa.

General Education and the Institutefor the Promotion of Excellence inHigher Education: Implementingand Conducting the Well-RoundedLiberal Arts Education

The Kyoto University General EducationProgram is primarily charged with the uni-versity's Liberal Arts/FoundationalEducation work, the goal of which isinstilling the academic well-roundedness,sensitivity to the cultural aspects of language,and intellectual foundation described above.The Faculty of Integrated HumanitiesStudies was the managing board of theGeneral Education Program, and as such, itboth provided the majority of the subjects,and contributed to the planning and imple-mentation of the program, under the auspicesof the Special Curriculum Committee. In2003, the Faculty of Integrated Humanities

Studies and Graduate School of Human andEnvironmental Studies were merged into asingle program, and came to share themanagement of the General EducationProgram with the Graduate School ofScience. The university, in turn, founded theInstitute for the Promotion of Excellence inHigher Education to plan, implement, andevaluate the General Education Program,which forms committees to deliberate onproblems facing the program objectives,draft specific courses, call on various depart-ments and boards to provide coursematerials, and audit the content of materialsso provided. These consist of the Committeeon Liberal Arts Education, the Committee onCore Curricula, the Committee on LanguageStudies, and the Committee on InformationEducation. These committees, which alloperate under the auspices of the GeneralEducation System Committee, which over-sees the Program's overall planning, giveinstructions to subcommittees representingthe various boards of liberal arts, sciences,seminars, health and physical education,mathematics, physics, chemistry, geog-raphy, biology, English language, andother beginning or remedial foreignlanguage programs. These subcommit-tees, in turn, work to resolve the issuesspecific to these various boards, in accor-dance with the instructions they are given.The Institute's Executive Council deliberateson matters pertaining to the operation andadministration of the Institute itself, with theSecretariat being its actual administrativebody. The Center for the Promotion ofExcellence in Higher Education is theresearch arm of the Institute. As such, theresearch it conducts forms the basis for itsplans, development, and implementation of

Liberal Arts Education, The Kyoto University Way

Keys to a Liberal Arts Education:Academic Well-Roundedness,Sensitivity to the Cultural Aspectsof Language, and an IntellectualFoundation

The fundamental principle of KyotoUniversity can be stated as follows: "toeducate top scientists and persons withadvanced degrees of specialized abilities,who are well-rounded and deeply humani-tarian, who place great store in responsibility,and who contribute to harmonious coexis-tence within global society as a whole."That is to say that, together with conductingacademic research on the leading edge ofall fields of scholastic endeavor, the uni-versity considers its duty to be to educatepersons capable of fulfilling these obliga-tions and assuming leadership roles insociety. There is a need for people withknowledge both broad and deep, ratherthan specializing in some narrow disci-pline, because we must, as individuals,assume leadership roles in academia andresearch on the one hand, and all seg-ments of society on the other. Add to thisthe fact that all of these are expanding intothe global realm, transcending nationalborders, and becoming both more diverseand more complex in the process, andsuch needs become all the more acute.With this guiding philosophy of trainingand education, Kyoto University's under-graduate educational program has elementsof advanced study in specialized subjectson the one hand, and a general, liberal artscurriculum on the other, at its core.

Seen from this standpoint, the liberalarts program at Kyoto University must notaim to provide ordinary culture or self-improvement for the masses. Rather, itmust ask what meaning we can derivefrom scholarship, that is, what scholarshipmeans to us as human beings. Confrontingacademia in such a way should enable stu-dents to become highly independent,cultivating strong values and a broad sense ofhumanism. Therefore, the goal is to connectthe liberal arts to the most advanced workbeing done in relevant fields of scholar-ship, thus bringing students and scholars inthose fields to places of academic study. Inother words, the goal is to apply academicrigor to the liberal arts, which is itself brought

SpecialFeature1

Yoshida South Campus Academic Center Bldg.

3

the General Education Program. The Centeralso provides operating support for theGeneral Education System Committee.

Revitalizing the Yoshida-SouthCampus: Building the LiberalArts Education Framework

As of this writing, the university'sliberal arts education is being held pri-marily at the Yoshida-South Campus.Facilities are being established here forthe General Education Program, includingthe construction of Building No. 1, therestoration of the North Wing of thecampus's Academic Center, and the sur-rounding framework of buildings thatwill accompany it. More teaching assis-tants are being assigned to the program,and the Computer Assisted LanguageLearning Education COE is also beingadopted. Both of these measures, aimed atimproving the education being provided,are already showing solid results.

Another essential part of the program'sequipment is sending and receiving infor-mation in a trouble-free manner betweenthe faculty and the more than 8000 stu-dents enrolled in it. The Institute isaggressively pursuing development of theKULASIS System to deal with this issue.

All incoming first year students receiveguidance in April, when the school yearstarts, regarding both liberal arts and basiceducation. Information is also regularlyposted to the Institute's website, includingcoaching on coursework, syllabus addi-tions, classroom and schedule changes,and lecture cancellations, in a bulletinboard, which can also be viewed at anytime on display screens in the Institute.In the not too distant future, all studentsenrolled in the General EducationProgram will have their own webpages onthis site, which will have personalizedclass schedules, lecture cancellation

notices, and appointments with instruc-tors, among other customized information.The Institute is further developing asystem that will allow online course reg-istration, whether from personalcomputers or cellular phones.

Issues Facing Liberal ArtsEducation: The Road Ahead

The Kyoto University General EducationProgram runs between 2000 and 3000classes, each running 15 weeks at 90minutes per week. The Program is one ofthe finest in Japan in terms of extent,diversity, and sophistication of content.

The question remains, however: to whatdegree has the philosophy cited at the outsetof this article been fulfilled? The results nec-essarily look encouraging. Some of theissues that need to be dealt with in the nearterm include:1) Developing and implementing courseevaluation procedures for understandingwhat students in the course want andneed, and meeting those requirements;2) Studying the role of Faculty Developmentin improving courses in accordance withguiding principles, as well as improving theteaching ability of course instructors;3) Using fewer visiting lecturers; and 4) Extending the educational environment-maintaining and enlarging lecture halls,laboratories, and equipment is a criticalproblem; need for a General EducationProgram Library is particularly urgent.

KUINEP＊ courses will begin in Fall2004, in the Yoshida-South Campus'sGeneral Education Program Facilities.These courses will bring together foreignstudents and Japanese undergraduates,especially first and second year students,in a livelier atmosphere than before, thushelping to facilitate the creation of a moreglobal outlook.＊Kyoto University International Education Program

What Characterizes a Kyoto University Education?

Masaki Maruyama・Born in 1944.・Specialized Research Field: Mathematics, Algebraic

Geometry・Graduate of the master's program, Graduate

School of Science, Kyoto University・D. Sci., Kyoto University・Professor, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto

University・Director, Institute for the Promotion of Excellence

in Higher Education, Kyoto University・Vice-President of Kyoto University・URL http://www.z.k.kyoto-u.ac.jp/greeting.html

(Japanese only)

Everyone who comes in contact with Prof. Maruyama isamazed by the force of personality that seems to radiatefrom his small frame. His personal presence and penetratinglogic lead him to resolve accumulated problems quickly andcleanly. Being a highly vital person and a strategic thinker,the Professor undoubtedly considers his involvement withhigher learning at Kyoto University to be worthwhile.Whereas it has not been possible to formulate a clear andunique higher learning policy due to complex intertwiningcampus interests, Prof. Maruyama has turned this situationback on itself, creating an attractive curriculum rich in diver-sity through participation by various departments. He usesboth the refreshing logical viewpoint of his mathematician'sbackground together with his personal charm in the cause ofeducating the next generation of world leaders.

Small Group Seminars: Initial Opportunities for First-hand Experience ofLearning, the Kyoto University WayDesigned for incoming students, Small Group Seminars take place in the instructor's laboratory, for thepurpose of exposing these students to the atmosphere of university research facilities. Kyoto University willhold 151 such Small Group Seminars in the 2004 school year. Students will be able to attend Small GroupSeminars in subjects of interest that may have no connection to their board of study, and in the process,may come face-to-face with both faculty and graduate students, which assists in another objective, that ofintra-campus networking. One popular Small Group Seminar is "Opening the Black Box," conducted byProf. Masao Kitano of the Graduate School of Engineering. As its name suggests, the objective of thecourse is to dismantle, examine, and record the inner workings of black boxes in our everyday lives, that is,devices that work simply with the touch of a button, such as personal computers, video machines, and cel-lular phones. In the process of such examination, students naturally find themselves drawn to trying to putthings together with their own hands, says Prof. Kitano, adding that the course also inspires free debate,which continues outside of course hours, both on mailing lists and online bulletin boards.

Class is in session. Thestudents are hard at workopening up various blackboxes.

The study roomat the Yoshida-South Campus.

4

on the Future, and musical concerts. Allthe university's departments and researchgroups, starting with the UniversityMuseum, hold frequent lectures, publicaddresses, symposia, and seminars, inorder to give the results of research atKyoto University back to the public.The university is also working toenlarge its on-campus amenities. KyotoUniversity is taking such measures inthis regard as expanding its informationcenter, building a new coffee shop, theCamphora, opening the CentennialHall, and putting the Media Commonsin the Kyoto University Library. Theuniversity hopes to make itself a moreopen campus by making these facilitiesavailable to the public.

Kyoto University's Regional Education Program

Kyoto University defines the basicpolicy of its "relationship to society" asbeing "to be an open campus, so as tostrengthen its ties to both Japanesesociety and the societies of its variousregions, and communicate knowledgeto these societies in an atmosphere offreedom and accord."

In accordance with this policy, theuniversity has sponsored public andcommunity lectures across Japan,starting with the series that was launchedin 1997 as part of the commemoration ofits centennial, and continuing through theceremony commemorating the comple-tion of Centennial Hall, in December2003, which in turn has led to suchadditional events as its series of Forums

SpecialFeature2

The 4th Forum on the Future of Kyoto Universitytook place on 9th July 2004, in the Centennial Hall.The theme of this year's forum was "The BuddhistView of Our Chaotic Times." The speaker, SomonHorisawa, is a high priest of Buddhism, who studiedin India and at Mt. Hiei, the sacred site in JapaneseBudhism, after leaving the Faculty of Economics atKyoto University. In his lecture, he said that modernsociety is near to "dying" with its unending con-frontations and repeated massacres, and that the

cause of, and solution to, this state of affairs lies withfour truths about life, as expounded by Buddhism.He went on to describe the concept of "kuu (empti-ness)", a worldview unique to Mahayana Buddhism,in terms of its potential to overcome all conflict andprejudice. Despite the complex subject matter, henonetheless held audience of some 250 listeners,comprised of students and the general public alike,spellbound. The question and answer session ranconsiderably longer than planned due to the great

number of questions asked by the audience as well.When asked their opinions, many of the atten-

dees stated that they frequently attended suchfunctions as these that the University made open tothe public, and that they looked forward to furthersuch program offerings. The hall itself also receivedacclaim for the glass wall behind the rostrum, whichafforded a changing view of the campus, as well asa relaxed atmosphere, making it easy for the atten-dees to concentrate on what was being said.

What Characterizes a Kyoto University Education?

Media Commons, on the third floor of the KyotoUniversity Library, has 32 booths with DVD, CD, audioand videocassette equipment. The area is open to thepublic as well as students and faculty. With a 50-inchplasma display, the room is used for listening to music,watching movies, and language studies, among otheractivities.

The 4th Forum on the Future of Kyoto University

The view from the Centennial Hall auditorium

Students enthusiasticallyask a speaker questions.

Attendees listen intently to a speaker.

5

Please visit the following three URLs for application detailscurrently available.

■International Doctoral Program in Engineeringhttp://interex.kuee.kyoto-u.ac.jp/IntC/ic-doctor.html

■International Doctoral Program in Energy Sciencehttp://www.energy.kyoto-u.ac.jp/doctoral/

■International Doctoral Program in Informaticshttp://www.i.kyoto-u.ac.jp/English/index.html

I n f o r m a t i o n f o r I n t e r n a t i o n a l S t u d e n t s

●●International Doctoral Program Kyoto University offers the following four International Doctoral Programs mainlyfor a graduate of a university that has the faculty-level Agreement of InternationalAcademic Exchange with Kyoto University: International Doctoral Program inEconomics, Energy Science, Engineering, and Informatics. Strong command ofEnglish is a prerequisite for participation, though Japanese language ability is notrequired. Students selected by Kyoto University will be recommended to JapaneseGovernment (Monbukagakusho) as candidates for a scholarship.

Kyoto University accepts students from all over the world for International Doctoral Programs as well asgeneral Graduate and Undergraduate Programs. Shown below are two examples of the scholarshipsavailable for international students: Japanese Government (Monbukagakusho: MEXT) Scholarship andHonors Scholarship by Japan Student Service Organization (JASSO). For further information, please contact: Foreign Student Division, Kyoto University ryugak78@mail.adm.kyoto-u.ac.jp

There are seven types in Japanese Government Scholarships. KyotoUniversity accepts students of the following status.

◆◆Japanese Government (Monbukagakusho: MEXT) Scholarships

Type ofScholarship

AgeMonthly

Allowance DurationNumber ofGrantees

Research Student*

UndergraduateStudent

Japanese StudiesStudent

under 35

under 22

under 30

175,000yen

135,000yen

135,000yen

2 years

5 years**

1 school year

4,000

560

340

* Graduate School Student & Research Student** 7 years : Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary Medicine

Outsi

de Ja

pan

Insid

e Jap

an

Foreign applicant Japanese embassy or consulategeneral (Embassy Recommendation)

Present university (Domestic Selection)

Japanese university under studentexchange agreement etc.(University Recommendation)

Present University

MEXT

Privately financedforeign student

First screening Second screening

Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO) provides scholarships forprivately financed international students to help them with their academicwork and research in Japan. Details are shown on the JASSO website athttp://www2.jasso.go.jp

AcademicLevel

MonthlyStipend

PaymentPeriod

ApplicationPeriod

Number ofScholarships

UndergraduateStudent

Research Student

Master's CourseStudent

Doctor's CourseStudent

52,000yen

73,000yen

One year(Apr-Mar)

Late March-early May*

7,450 students**

3,550 students

* Period varies from school to school** The No. of Japanese language institute student, Specialized training college student, College of technology　student, University Japanese program student, Junior college student are included.

(4) Recommendation

(5) Result notification

JASSO(1) Requestingschoolrecommendation

(3) Application

(6) Notification to applicants

(2) Publicityand invitingapplicants

Schools Internationalstudent

Notification of result

The general flow of an application

●●Graduate and Undergraduate ProgramsPlease check the following URL for general Graduate and Undergraduate Programs. http://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/english/etop2/e09-top.htm

◆◆Honors Scholarship for Privately Financed International Students

6

Fo

refr

on

tso

fR

ese

arc

ha

tK

yoto

Un

ive

rsit

y

sional space needs just six degrees offreedom, for this basic task the humanarm has one more degree of freedomthan necessary, which is hence calledthe redundant degree of freedom. Ahuman utilizes this redundancy, oftenunconsciously, for taking a comfortablearm configuration for a given task, per-forming a manipulation task of anobject behind an obstacle, and so on.Many robot arms are also designed tohave redundant degrees of freedom tomake it possible to perform a largerarray of tasks. However, to make thisarm work possible, it is of course nec-essary for an engineer to clearlyrecognize the purpose of redundancyutilization and to select an appropriatearm trajectory. For this problem wehave proposed the task-decompositionapproach in which the whole task isdecomposed into several subtasks withan order of priority and each subtaskwith higher order is realized first byutilizing a general kinematic solution ofthe arm motion. Since the degrees ofredundancy of humanoid robots aregenerally far larger than conventionalindustrial robots, much more study onredundancy utilization will be neces-sary.

(2) ManipulabilityIn designing the mechanism of a

robot arm or in planning the armposture for performing a task, oneimportant factor that should be takeninto account is the ease of arbitrarilychanging the position and orientation of

the end effector at the tipof the arm. To give aquantitative index of thisability, the concept ofmanipulability was pro-posed. This is based onthe idea that, when weconsider the set of all end-effector velocities that arerealizable by joint veloci-ties under a magnitudeconstraint (i.e., theEuclidean norm is notlarger than one), it isdesirable that this set islarge and Spherical as

much as possible. For example, con-sider a very simple case of a two-jointarm moving in a plane, then this setbecomes an ellipse (called manipula-bility ellipsoid). Regarding the area ofthis ellipse as a measure of manipula-tion ability of the arm (calledmanipulability measure), we can showthat this measure takes its maximumwhen the elbow angle is a right angle,and when the lengths of upper arm andforearm are the same if the total armlength is constant. These results areintuitively natural when we considerour arm moving on a table.

(3) Analysis and Control ofGrasping and Manipulation byRobot Hands

In grasping and manipulating anobject by a multi-fingered robot hand,many contact points and contact forcesbetween the hand and the object aregenerally involved. This causes thearbitrariness of the internal force,which can be utilized for securing thegrasp against various external distur-bance forces. In order to make thedetermination of the internal forcesmore systematic, we proposed a physi-cally reasonable definition of graspingand manipulating forces for multi-fin-gered robot hands. We also proposedthe concept of active closure andpassive closure to classify roboticmechanisms from the viewpoint of howthe mechanism constrains the graspedobject. Active closure means a graspthat needs a feedback control based onthe object's position and force, andpassive closure means a grasp that doesnot. These concepts will make the plan-ning of grasping and manipulationprocedure for robots much more rea-sonable.

(4) Understanding Human SkillUsing Haptic Virtual RealityTechnology

Automation of assembly tasks byrobots is still very hard, despite the factthat a human operator can perform thetask without much difficulty. If weunderstand this human skill better, itwill be easier to automate assembly

Robotics Research: Can Robots Have Human-level Manipulation Skill?

Manipulation by hands and walkingon feet are the two most significantkinetic skills of humans.

Robots appeared for the first time astechnological products called industrialrobots in 1962, and since then they havebeen numerously used in factories.Industrial robots are essentially mechan-ical arms and their manipulation skill isbased on various special purpose grip-pers and tools for each specific task.Recently, advancement of non-indus-trial robots, especially humanoid robotswith two legs, is taking place especiallyin Japan. People were surprised by thevery natural walking skill of thesehumanoid robots. They made peoplefeel the approach of an era wherehumans and robots coexist at home andin social spaces. One key technologyamong others for this expectation tohappen is manipulation skill by multi-fingered human-like mechanical hands,since grasping and manipulation ofvarious objects is a fundamental func-tion for these robots to be useful.

We have been studying basic tech-nologies for grasping and manipulationof robotic mechanisms. Some results inour laboratory in this area will be intro-duced in the following.

(1) Control of Redundant RobotManipulators.

A human arm can be regarded as alink mechanism with seven degrees offreedom. Since the task of holding anobject and keeping it at an arbitraryposition and orientation in three-dimen-

Figure 1: Locations of the seven degrees of freedom (DOF) in the humanarm. Even after fixing the hand position and orientation, the elbow can movealong a part of the circle shown in the figure, implying that the arm has oneredundant degree of freedom.

3DOF

1DOF3DOF

7

Fo

refro

nts

of

Re

sea

rch

at

Kyo

toU

nive

rsity

tasks. But it is often the case that theoperator cannot describe his/her skillexplicitly. It is also rather difficult tomeasure motion, force, contact state,and so on during the execution of thereal task. To overcome this difficulty,we developed a virtual task environ-ment using haptic virtual realitytechnology. A peg-in-hole task invirtual space was provided using thissystem. By a comparison study, we sawthat although the virtual task needstwice as much time as the real task, theorder of the three motions required toperform the task using three assemblystrategies is almost the same in the realand virtual tasks, implying that thevirtual task environment could be validfor qualitative study of human skill. We

are also working on improving the per-formance of haptic display devicesfrom several aspects.

In our laboratory, we are also working onother robotics-related research topicssuch as modeling and control of flex-ible manipulators, analysis and controlof master-slave manipulator systems,mixed reality, development of rescuesystems, and legged robots.

I believe that there is a strong possi-bility that diffusion of intelligentmechanical systems like robots willchange our lifestyles drastically in thenear future. I hope that many youngpeople will become interested inrobotics and contribute to the researchand development of robots that will beuseful for mankind.

Tsuneo Yoshikawa・Born in 1941・Specialized Research Field: Robotics, Mechanical

Control Engineering・Graduate of the doctoral program, Graduate

School of Engineering, Kyoto University・D.Eng., Kyoto University・Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto

University・URL http://mech-server.mech.

kyoto-u.ac.jp/lab/yoshikawa/

"Can you imagine what the world might be like ifrobots were to come into possession of psyches?One important aspect of the work being done by wewho research robotics is defining the future ofrobots, or a vision of that future. "The most interesting recent development in robotics con-cerns humanoid robots. Prof. Yoshikawa's research, on theother hand, involves manipulatory systems, of whichperhaps the best known example is the human hand. Whilethis field has traditionally focused on industrial applications,the professor's work in this regard is now considered to be akey element in determining the future outlook for humanoidrobots. For acquiring the ability to "work with objects", that is,to grab and manipulate them, is essential if robots are tobecome truly useful in human society.Unlike many roboticists, Prof. Yoshikawa, whose originalspecialty is control theory, did not enter the field out of anychildhood fascination with children's robot superhero pro-grams. Accordingly, he is not optimistic about therelationship between humans and robots, instead cease-lessly emphasizing the need for constant examination of thepolicies of robotics research and development. The pro-fessor's awareness of the tremendous impact of scienceand technology gives him an equally tremendous sense ofresponsibility vis-à-vis society, in his capacity as a scientist.Prof. Yoshikawa's voice is lively and his eyes alightwhen he speaks of his robotics research, much like aninnocent little boy's would be under similar circum-stances. That very enthusiasm may give us all hope forpeaceful coexistence on the part of humans and robots.

Figure 2: Manipulability ellipsoidand manipulability measure of atwo-joint arm. The blue arm con-figuration with a right elbow angleattains the maximum manipula-bility measure.

Figure 3: Human skillobservation usinghaptic virtual realitytechnology. The oper-ator can perform avirtual peg-in-holetask getting the feelof touch through hisfingers.

Prof . Yoshikawa advisess tudents regarding theirexperiments. The YoshikawaLab adopts a one researchtopic per person approach,wherein students choose theirown research topics for theirtheses, an approach thatplaces much store by theoriginality of students' ideas.

8

Our interfaculty group of psychologistsin Kyoto University was selected as oneof the 21st Century Center-of-ExcellencePrograms in 2002. This group, namedKyoto University Psychology Union,aims at comprehensive understanding ofmental functions by integrating experi-mental, field, and clinical approaches tothe mind.

We are working on the four majorquestions regarding the mind: namely,what are the nature and functions ofmental images and representations, howdo the body and the mind interrelate,how does the mind interact with socialand cultural milieu, and how does themind change in time? I myself havestudied cognitive processes of nonhumananimals to answer the last question froman evolutionary point of view.

Drawing a picture of how the mindhas evolved is not an easy task. Becauseminds do not leave their shape as fossils,a direct sketch is of course impossiblewithout a time machine, except in suchlucky cases where the mental functionsof our ancestors left outcomes like toolsand painting. However, we are able toinfer the evolutionary process of the mindby exploring the minds of our currentnonhuman relatives. This academic fieldis called comparative cognitive science or

comparative cognition.The specific question my colleagues

and I ask is how nonhuman animals rec-ognize objects and events that are notdirectly detected by sensory organs. It is agood idea to compare recognition of suchinvisible objects and events across speciesbecause the characteristics of a perceptualsystem should be most evident when thesystem receives incomplete andambiguous information.

One such case in point is referred to asperceptual completion. For example, werecognize the complete clock tower whenwe look up at it through the camphor tree,though what we actually sense is a collec-tion of visual fragments through the leavesand twigs. Humans routinely completehidden portions of partly occluded objects.

A laboratory version of perceptualcompletion is shown in Figure 1a. Whenhuman infants see the two rods movingin concert behind the occluding belt,they recognize the rods as unitary. Theinfants are in fact surprised if they are showntwo separate rods without the occluding beltafter they become bored seeing the rodsbehind the occluder many times.

Using a computer display we trainednonhuman animals to match a unitary rodand a pair of broken rods; they weretrained to choose the same comparison

stimuli as the sample. Then we testedwhich type of stimuli they choose as amatching comparison when they are pre-sented the non-distinguishable samplehaving its critical central portion occludedby a surface.

A language-trained chimpanzee and threetufted capuchin monkeys overwhelminglychose the unitary rod when the non-distin-guishable sample was presented. Thus theyclearly complete the occluded portion likehumans. In later experiments the capuchinmonkeys were shown to share most of therules of how to complete the hidden partswith humans (Figures 2b and 2c).

However, pigeons tested in the sameprocedure chose the pair of broken rods.This choice was maintained when wemodified the shape of the occludingsurface to an undulated one so that the topand the bottom portion of the rod changedin shape and size as the rod moved alongthe surface. Pigeons do not seem to com-plete occluded contours. Actually the datawere consistently negative although wehave tried many other situations includingphotos of food as stimuli.

Pigeons are known to perform extraor-dinarily well in a variety of cognitivetasks such as concept-formation, memory,image processing, and insightful problemsolving. They are highly cognitive butseem to perceive the environment verydifferently from humans. We humans areapt to think that the way we perceive theworld is the single ultimate solution torecognize the environment. This notion issimply wrong. Perceptual systems seemto have evolved diversely even amongspecies having well-developed centralnervous systems, probably to fit the waythe species live.

The second topic we tackled was hownonhuman animals recognize others' mentalstates. Mental states are another set of eventsnot detectible by the sensory organs. Thissocial intelligence to "read" others' minds hasbeen suggested as a clue to understandinghow physical intelligence such as tool useand logical thinking has evolved.

We tested whether capuchin monkeys

Exploring minds of nonhuman relativesF

ore

fro

nts

of

Re

sea

rch

at

Kyo

toU

niv

ers

ity

Figure 1. a) An example of perceptual completion. Human infants are surprised at the broken rods after being habitu-ated to the rods moving behind the occluder. b) A tufted capuchin monkey working on the matching task on thecomputer screen. c) Capuchin monkeys tend to match the straight rod to the sample on the left and broken rods tothat on the right. How the monkeys complete occluded portion is like humans.

a)

c)

b)

9

spontaneously deceive conspecific oppo-nents. Two food boxes were placedbetween a dominant monkey and a subor-dinate monkey. Only one of the boxescontained food. The subordinate monkeywas able to see the contents of the boxesand to open them. The dominant monkeywas unable to do either, but was able tousurp the food once the box was opened.

Two of the four subordinate monkeysstarted to open the empty box first inmore than 10% of the trials. It is hard toconclude whether this behavior incorpo-rated deceptive intention or not. However,it is evident that capuchin monkeys havethe intelligence to adjust their behavior inresponse to social situation in which mis-leading others could benefit themselves.

We also discovered that this species spon-taneously cooperate by dividing laborbetween two monkeys. We first trained eachindividual monkey to perform a two-actionsequence to obtain two rewards in a tandemcage (Figure 2a). Then we separated the cageinto two areas and two monkeys were simul-taneously put into each area (Figure 2b).Now the two monkeys had to divide theaction sequence between themselves.

All of the three pairs started tocooperate without explicittraining (Figure 2c). In one of thetests that followed we placed onlyone reward at a time so that oneof the workers never obtained thefood. When the placement of themonkey was switched every oneor three trials, the monkeys main-tained this cooperative behavior.Thus they not only solved a coop-erative task spontaneously but also showedreciprocal altruism.

These results led us to think that a varietyof social intelligence humans exhibit in bothcompetitive and cooperative situations mayhave their roots in the common ancestor ofhumans and New World monkeys that livedabout 30 million years ago.

A brief look at nonhuman animal studiessuch as the above tells us that human percep-tion and cognition are both evolutionarilycontinuous to and ecologically different fromthose of our relatives. Such diversity amongrelatives must be the most important thingfor the symbiotic ecosystem the earth hasfostered. All the lives share the same evolu-tionary time of nearly 4 billion years.

Kazuo Fujita・Born in 1953.・Specialized Research Field: Psychology, Comparative

Cognition・Graduate of doctoral program, Graduate School of

Science, Kyoto University・D.Sci., Kyoto University・Professor, Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto

University・URL http://www.psy.bun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/fujita/(Japanese only)

"Being with nonhuman animals makes mehappy. Take chimpanzees. They're closelyrelated to humans, which makes it fairly easy tounderstand what they're thinking. I can alsoempathize with them to some extent."Prof. Fujita has kept a wide variety of nonhumananimals in his life, ever since he was a small child.Hence, it seemed only natural that he should go intoscience, specifically, animal ecology. What is sur-prising is that he went on to become a professor at thegraduate school of letters. Yet, his unraveling of the"behavior" of animals, including human beings, pro-gressed dramatically, spreading into all manner ofdisciplines. Kyoto University is an ideal research envi-ronment for this, with scientists all over the place,studying all kinds of subjects.Prof. Fujita believes that psychology needs to expand thescope of its research subjects to encompass the diversityof psyches. He describes one such direction as "evolu-tionary diversity," saying that the human psyche does notexist in isolation; rather, that it has evolved, as the humanbody has evolved, and thus, ought to have some links tothe psyches of nonhuman animals. He derived this ideafrom his own extensive empathic experiences with non-human animals. "My field of research is peering into thepsyches of animals," the professor says with enthusiasm.The accompanying twinkle in his eye is that of a little boywho grew up with nonhuman animals all around. Now agrown man, he runs the only animal laboratory in theFaculty of Letters, where his search for the wellspring ofempathy continues.

Fo

refro

nts

of

Re

sea

rch

at

Kyo

toU

nive

rsity

Figure 2. a) A tandem test box in which individual capuchin monkeyslearned the whole two-action sequence to obtain rewards. b) The sepa-rated tandem box used to test whether the monkeys in Box A and Box Bspontaneously cooperate by dividing the action sequence between the two.c) Two capuchin monkeys performing the cooperation task. The monkey inBox A is waiting for the second action by the monkey in Box B.

a)

c)

b)

Prof. Fujita workswith his students inpreparing for experi-ments with animals,placing some monkeyfood in the experi-mental apparatus.

Engelbert Jorissen

Engelbert Jorissen・Born in Germany in 1956・Specialized Research Field: Comparative Studies of

Culture and Literature・Graduate of the Faculty of Arts and H umanities,

University of Cologne・Dr. phil., University of Cologne・Associate Professor, Graduate School of Human and

Environmental Studies, Kyoto University・URL http://www.h.kyoto-u.ac.jp/jimu/staff/

223_jorissen_e_0_e.html

When different cultures overlap, they do not do so infriendly ways; rather, they collide, violently, in any andall aspects. This is the view of Dr. Jorissen, an asso-ciate professor at Kyoto University, and when hespeaks of it in his calm, rational way, listeners cannothelp but be struck to the core by the impact of hiswords. Yet, seeing the constant half-smile on his face, itwould be difficult, if not impossible, to imagine him asstruggling in the three decades since his own collisionwith what, to him, is an alien culture, to wit, that ofJapan. Nonetheless, man is not inclined to be broad-minded with regard to differences in lifestyles, and theimportance and difficulty of multicultural coexistence isa subject not merely to be found in historical records oron faraway battlefields. Rather, as Dr. Jorissen'swarmth and hospitality informs us, it is a problem thatconfronts us on a daily basis, here on campus.

10

At the end of the 1970s I visited Japan forthe first time. I spent about two months,February to April, in Kyoto. To a certain degreeI had been 'prepared' for my stay. My principalsubject as a student was Italian language andliterature, but I had begun to study Japanology,and I had Japanese friends. I should perhapsadd that my only professor at the institute ofJapanology was interested in authors of the Edoperiod, like Matsuo Basho, Kobayashi Issa, andin classical Japanese literature. One of the firsttexts of Japanese literature I was introduced towas the "The young lady who loved insects"from Tsutsumi Chunagon Monogatari (Tale ofthe Tsutsumi Middle Counselor) from the 11thcentury.

In Kyoto, I had experiences, which Iremember, but not exactly. For example, I atesome tasty pickled vegetables, tsukemono,but I could not remember where. I also ate,but did not appreciate sufficiently, udonnoodles, which for me at that time had asomewhat "weak" taste. Of course, manyexperiences I kept vividly in mind, such as theplum blossoms at the Kitano TenmanguShrine, which I knew before coming to Japan,because I had heard about the god of litera-ture Sugawara no Michizane (845-903). Thevisit to the shrine on the occasion of thebaikasai plum blossom festival was impres-sive because of the large crowds strollingthrough the long line of yatai stalls vendingdelicacies. At that time, I was worried howintroduction of the western calendar in 19thcentury would affect what I had learned aboutseasonal flowers in traditional Japaneseculture.

I soon learned that Kyoto could be rather

chilly. Theoretically I had put the geograph-ical position of Kyoto into one context withthat of the island of Crete, which I had visitedexactly in March the year before, and it hadbeen very warm. At once I began to like thesubtleties of Japanese architecture, like thehorikotatsu heater. And I understood muchbetter a passage from a letter written by asouth-western European of the 16th centurywho reported that, on a winter journey fromKyushu to Miyako (Kyoto), he had coveredhimself with tatami mats because of the cold.

But I had begun to like Japanese everydaylife and, while having become critical towardscertain aspects of Japan and its lifestyle, I stilllike and enjoy it. I became so sad when Iboarded the plane to take me back to Europe.It was dark weather with heavy rain clouds,but an acquaintance had brought some of thefirst cherry blossoms to the airport.

Repeatedly I visited Japan and, then, beganto live there. Looking at my daily life now, andmy liking for delicate seasoning in cooking,too, I sometimes ask myself how much I havechanged or not in behavior and feeling.Cultural relations between Europe and Japanhave become one of my main objects ofresearch. A fascinating question for me is,how did Europeans coming to Japan in the16th century, settle into Japanese life, some-times for decades. There are impressingdocuments that clearly tell of likes and dis-likes. There was one figure who, even after tenyears in Japan, refused to drink Japanese tea.But there was another who gave up eatingbread and turned to eating rice only. For metoday, such documents give, too, hints toquestions about why international culturalrelations do or do not work in a smooth way.

Beginning Japanese daily life in Kyoto

The courtyard of the Yoshida-South Main Bldg. Dr. Jorissensays he preferred the disorderlyatmosphere of the old Yoshida-South Facil i ty. The courtyardmaintains this traditional atmos-phere as the building itself isrenovated.

11

Tang Zhong Hui speaks of "happiness" overand over, with a brilliant smile. Just talking toher is enough to make one terribly happy. And itappears that the power with which she commu-nicates her "happiness" is due to the influence ofher supervisor, Prof. Shiomi. Born and raised inXinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China,Tang Zhong Hui came to Japan after three yearsas an attorney at law, out of a sense that the ruleof law was not something that people in hernative country had yet internalized and made partof their daily lives, despite China's rapid andongoing economic development. She opted forKyoto University out of admiration for the Kyotoregion, the cultural heart of Japan. It seems thatwhat she actually found, however, was therespective hardships and kindnesses associatedwith the notion of "freedom of study."

■What are your impressions of KyotoUniversity?

There was a teacher here who told me just afterI'd enrolled that "studying at Kyoto Universitymeans doing research in isolation, making youa research scientist, not a student." At the time,I had no idea what that meant. My own thinkingwas just the opposite: that I was here to studybecause I was a student. After about threemonths, however, I started to realize what thatinstructor meant. Students at Kyoto Universityreally are lonely in their intensive study pro-grams, and the instructors really enjoyeducating them. I find this mutual support rela-tionship, wherein students and instructors alikelook out for one another, to be very enticing.

■Does the atmosphere at Kyoto Universitydiffer from that at Chinese universities?

When I went to school in China, I never had asense of studying being lonely or somethingdone in isolation, because I thought that stu-dents received knowledge from their teachers.That's not how it is at all at Kyoto University,however. Right now, for example, I'm workingon my master's thesis, and my instructors areletting me write what I please. They respect stu-dents' rights to study what they want, and topursue whatever research topics they desire. Inreturn, students must actually do the researchthemselves if they want to accomplish anything.It is important for research scientists to beself-aware, for they must use this very self-aware-

ness as a platform from which to conduct theirstudies in isolation from one another. I'm trulygrateful to have the time and freedom to thinkabout anything and everything, all on my own.

■You have tremendous respect for Prof.Shiomi, don't you?

Indeed I do! You see, about a month after Ienrolled at Kyoto University, I wasn't surewhether I should continue my studies here, orgo back to China. Meeting the Professor,however, convinced me to stay. It was hissmile that did it, the way he always looks sohappy. The sight of it just naturally makes mefeel happy too. At first, I couldn't figure outfor the life of me why the Professor shouldalways be so happy and energetic.

■And have you figured it out yet?Well, I think it has to do with Prof. Shiomihaving already passed beyond the hard andlonely parts, and has now reached the fun part,that of supporting and educating students. Heis always telling me to take it easy, not to get ina rush. When I first enrolled, the Professorhelped me think through things I didn't under-stand. He didn't force knowledge on me;instead, he got me to think things through formyself. And I might very well have quit schoolif he had just forced his ideas on me at thatpoint. I owe what I have now to Prof. Shiomi.I'm sure I would have regretted it for the rest ofmy life if I had gone back home instead.

■Tell us what your current research work isabout.

The topic of my master's thesis is environ-mental law. Before that, though, I was thinkingof writing about credit law instead. But then wehad the SARS outbreak in China, which got meinterested in environmental law. So I startedreading lots of books on environmental law,and I found that the provisions of Chinese andJapanese environmental law are almost entirelythe same, which raises the question of whyChina has never had any environmental aware-ness. And that got me interested in everythingfrom prevailing notions when these laws weredrafted to the religious and cultural differencesthat led to those notions. And at that point, Ifinally began to devote some serious thought tothe root idea of what exactly law is.

■What are your plans for the future? Do youintend to go back and practice law inChina?

My thinking has changed considerably fromwhat it was before I started my study programin Japan. I believe that what I've learned atKyoto University should be put to use on aninternational level, not just for the benefit of onesingle country. Right now, I feel like working forthe happiness of people from all over the world,but I haven't made any precise decisions. I wantto use my legal expertise in the service ofhuman freedom and happiness, that's theimportant thing. For now, however, I want to belike Prof. Shiomi! I'm very glad that I've beenable to enroll at Kyoto University, get to knowthe Professor, and do research here. And I wantmy scholarship to help make people every-where be happy, as many people as possible.

I want to work on behalf of happiness for people in countries allover the world.

Tang Zhong Hui・Born in China in 1972.・Presently in the second year of master's program,

Graduate School of Law, Kyoto University

Ms. Tang goes over her research materials as she sits in acorridor facing onto the courtyard of the Faculty of Law andEconomics Main Bldg.

Tang Zhong Hui

Fourteen field stations were launched inAsian and African countries under the 21stCentury COE Program "Aiming for COE of inte-grated Area Studies" from 2003. These stationswere established for intensive on-site educationand field research. Yangon Field station is sit-uated in our counterpart organization,SEAMEO-CHAT, in Yangon, Myanmar, whichis one branch of SEAMEO (Southeast AsianMinisters of Education Organization), the inter-national organization in education, science andculture in the Southeast Asian region.

Recently, many foreign researchersbelonging to such universities and institutes asthe Natural History Museum and SmithsonianInstitute from the USA, or École françaised'extréme-Orient (EFEO) from France, arelaunching joint research projects with Myanmarcounterparts. Kyoto University is also con-ducting joint projects, some of which areparticipated in by Yangon Field Station.

One focus of Yangon Field Station is themanagement of the joint research activities forthe integrated area studies. According to myunderstanding, such study is a challengingenterprise to synthesize several scientific disci-plines for understanding human beings.Therefore, the main objective is to find out uni-versal rules among the findings from naturalscience, social science, human science and soon. Behavioral ecology (or sociobiology), onefield of natural science based on the evolutionaryviewpoint, is considered to be a good guidingdiscipline, which has revealed adaptationalaspects of social behaviors preformed by organ-isms including humans. In a similar way,psychology, ethics and economics have alsostarted to be cross-fertilized with an evolutionary

viewpoint.Now, we focus on the

cooperation of fisheryactivities in the west coastof Myanmar, as the evolu-tion of the cooperation isone of the major topics inthe behavioral ecology. Wetry to extend our viewpointto the social matters.

There are wide varietiesof cooperative system infisheries. Family membersare very important coopera-tors in the small-scalefishery. In this case, the

husband and sons catch fish in the sea, rivers orpaddy fields, and the wife and daughters sellthem in the villages. They share the catch andthe income, that is, the result of the cooperation.On the other hand, the large fishery group isorganized by the owner of a boat or net as com-mercial fishing. A large number of fishermenwork together to operate the large boats andnets. Their wives and children may participate inthe processing of fish to be shipped. Workerscan personally receive the income, which mayamount to higher than that obtained through thesmall-scale fishery. The employment systemsupports cooperation among unrelated persons,and each worker is paid wages regardless of hisor her position in the family. Thus, difference inthe way of resource use may cause difference inthe cooperative relationship among familymembers. It is important to note that the family isthe cooperative system for the acquisition anddistribution of the resources, especially in thesmall-scale fishery. However, the employmentsystem of commercial fishing does not neces-sarily depend on family cooperation. In terms ofbehavioral ecology, the human cooperation maybe explained as the division of labor throughwhich the partners can raise their benefits in theevolutional process. The employment system iscommon in the cities. This may also give someclues to understanding the recent rapid changein lifestyles in cities, for example, solitaryhouseholds, the tendency to marry later, andthe declining birth rate.

The letter from Yangon Field Station

Nobuhiro Ohnishi・Born in Tokyo in 1966・D.Sci., Osaka City University・COE Research Fellow, Graduate School of Asian

and African Area Studies, Kyoto University

Fields of regional research as encompassed by KyotoUniversity run the gamut from collecting samples of naturalresources to throwing light on the social systems of village com-munities. Mr. Ohnishi, a resident researcher at the Yangon FieldStation in Myanmar, has a long research career in such fieldsas molecular biology, evolutionary biology and ichthyology,under the auspices of the Faculty of Science. Being long fasci-nated by various forms of life, Mr. Ohnishi says, "bacteria,plants, and animals, all have practically the same biologicalfoundation." Based on this recognition, Mr. Ohnishi appears tohave embarked on a new direction of research in Myanmar,which should offer various subjects for study, including thebehavioral ecology of humans, the most interesting animal ofall. With a keen sense of and passion for his own research thatis only fitting for a rising scientist on the cutting edge, Mr.Ohnishi's work is worth watchingfurther in future.

Nga kone nyo (herring) fisheryin Rakhain State, Myanmar.

Nobuhiro Ohnishi

12

Fish market in Rakhain State, Myanmar.

13

Kazuo Oike, President of KyotoUniversity, and Vice-President KojiroIrikura attended the 14th Board ofDirectors Meeting of the Association ofEast Asian Research Universities(AEARU) in Shenzhen, Canton Province,China, on April 22nd of this year.AEARU is a consortium of importantresearch universities in the East Asiaregion, linked by shared geography andcultural similarities. Founded in 1996 by ajoint declaration of the Hong KongUniversity of Science and Technology(HKUST) and the Pohang University ofScience and Technology in South Korea,the association currently boasts 17members, including Japanese representa-

tives of Tsukuba University, TheUniversity of Tokyo, Tokyo Institute ofTechnology, and Osaka University, inaddition to Kyoto University, whose pres-ident is serving a two-year term on theAssociation's Board of Directors thatbegan in January of this year.

There are five Board members, presidentsof the Hong Kong University of Science andTechnology (HKUST), the Korea AdvancedInstitute of Science and Technology, TaiwanUniversity and the University of Science andTechnology of China, whose president cur-rently serves as Chairman.

At the meeting, the report on the previousyear's business was ratified, as was the 2004-2005 operating plan. It was further agreed

President Oike Goes to Mainland China and Hong Kongthat the 16th Meeting of the Board andWorkshop would be held in Kyoto in 2005.

President Oike also visited the HongKong University of Science and Technology(HKUST) and the University of Hong Kongon April 23rd, engaging in discussions withthe chancellors of these universities aboutacademic interchange.

In the course of his visit, the Presidentreceived positive calls from all of these uni-versities for Kyoto University to enter intoscholastic exchange agreements with them.As he believes that it would be worthwhile toenter into partnerships with other major EastAsian universities, the President is arrangingto have the Committee for InternationalAcademic Exchange review the matter.

The Kyoto UniversityActive GeosphereInvestigations for the21st Century COEProgram (KAGI21)held the "First KAGI21International SummerSchool on the ActiveGeosphere" at Institut

Teknologi Bandung (ITB), in Indonesiafrom 11-26 July, 2004. Six professors, sec-onded from Kyoto University, led 50 risingyoung researchers and post-graduate stu-dents from 13 countries in Asia and Oceania,including eight post-graduate students fromKyoto University. A series of lectures andpractical studies on the theme of the "ActiveGeosphere" was held for six hours each dayfor two weeks. The students were then

divided into three groups for advanced com-puter exercises at ITB and for field work atboth the Kyoto University EquatorialAtmosphere Radar and at Merapi - one ofthe most famous volcanoes in Indonesia.On July 17, the program held an opensymposium in collaboration with the Facultyof Earth Sciences and Mineral Technologyof ITB. Three emeritus professors fromKyoto University with demonstrated accom-plishments in field research in the regionwere in attendance. Among them was Dr.Kazuo Oike, President of Kyoto University.They took part in an interesting debate withtop scientists from universities and researchinstitutes in Indonesia regarding the scienceof the "Active Geosphere". Simultaneously,nearly 100 KAGI21 participants, includingDr. Kojiro Irikura, Vice-President for

"The First KAGI21 International Summer School on the Active Geosphere"Takes Place in Indonesia

International Relations, were assembled atthe Kyoto University Academic Center forComputing and Media Studies, where theyused satellite and terrestrial high-speed net-works for real-time, two-way audio-visualinformation interchange with the sympo-sium, thus broadening the range and scope ofthe possible research collaboration.KAGI21 defines the "Active Geosphere" as"the critical space required for the sustainablecoexistence between man and nature in whichgeophysical variability develops, in particular,on the time scale of human activity". Theprimary research goal here is the elucidation ofthese very variations in the Earth's dynamicbehavior, particularly in the Asia-Oceaniaregion, where these variations are greatest. Referto http://kagi.coe21.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/index.htmlfor details of the KAGI21 program.

The "Research Institute for SustainableHumanosphere" has been established inApril 2004. Its purpose is to do researchon human habitats, forested areas, theatmosphere, and outer space as a collectiveecology for mankind, or, a "Humanosphere,"in a manner both organized and comprehen-sive; to make precision diagnoses of thestate of this "Humanosphere," to eval-uate and learn the right things about thepresent and likely future conditions of thisrealm, and also to develop advancedrestorative technologies that will beneeded to resolve the many issues thatthreaten not only mankind's prosperity,

but also its very survival. In addition tocore research departments in various spe-cialties, the Institute's organization alsocalls for building a department for open-ended research, and another center forbasic academic research into the"Humanosphere." Collectively, thesegroups will carry out the Institute's four-part research mission. Efficient operationwill allow collaboration between theInstitute's researchers and other scientistsall over the world. The Institute will alsoundertake to advance the state of the art inresearch in its fields and train scientistswith the skills necessary for it.

Inaugurating the "Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere"

Field of study

The Cutting Edge ofnew scientific fields Applied Entomology Innovative Food and Environmental Studies

Pioneered by Entomomimetic Sciences

Branch of learning Program title Program leader

Kenji Fujisaki

The 21st Century COE ProgramFY2004 Results

President Oike gives aspecial lecture on seis-mology.

＊＊

＊COE…Center of Excellence

Public Relations Division

KYOTO UNIVERSITYYoshida-Honmachi, Sakyo-ku,Kyoto 606-8501, Japan

URL http://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/index.htmPDF files of Raku-Yu may be downloaded from the above URL

E-mail kohho52@mail.adm.kyoto-u.ac.jpFAX +81 75 753 2094

For inquiries regarding Raku-Yu, contact:

Mount HieiA Prayer for Peace on Earth from one of the Most Sacred Sites in Japanese Buddhism

The Kyoto University Yoshida Campus is an ideal place for admiring the holy mountains that adorn the eastern rim of theKyoto Basin. Of these, the most sublime is the sacred peak of Mount Hiei (Hieizan), which is included on UNESCO's list ofWorld Heritage Sites. Located in the Northeastern part of the Kyoto Basin, the austere majesty of Mt. Hiei has been a placeof faith and worship since ancient times.

It was in the Ninth Century that Hieizan became the holiest site in Japanese Buddhism, when Dengyo Daishi Saicho foundedEnryaku-ji temple there, inaugurating both the Tendai school of Buddhism and Tendai education and learning, both importedfrom China. And for the past 1200 years, it has defended and passed down the teachings of Buddha, in its capacity of theheart of Japanese Buddhism. Over the centuries, it has at times allied itself with temporal rulers, and at other times, been threat-ened by them. And its functions are taking on even greater importance than ever before in these days when intolerance andlack of understanding are giving rise to tragedy on a worldwide scale.

Since 1987, the annual Hieizan Religious Summits have brought religious leaders from around the world under one roof toconverse and pray collectively for peace on Earth. The abbot of Tendai school attended the Prayer for World Peace in Assisi,Italy, in 1986, in answer to a call made by Pope John Paul II for that purpose. In 2002, the current abbot invited Islamic,Jewish, and Christian leaders from outside Japan, in reaction to the prejudice and hatred directed at Islam in the wake of theSeptember 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington. The "Hieizan Message," which states that the futureof mankind does not lie in continued armed conflict in the name of religion, was adopted at that time.

Kyoto University also strives to contribute pro-actively to "harmonious coexistence" throughout the world through its researchwork. Religion and academe, prayer and scholarly research both continue to strive for human happiness, regardless of the dif-ferences in their positions and methods.

P R O M E N A D E

The view of Mt.Hiei from the Yoshida Campus

Konpon Chu-do. This is the central hallof Mt. Hiei, originally founded byDengyo Daishi in 788. From the begin-ning, an "Inextinguishable Dharma Light"burned in this hall.

These straw sandals "waraji" have beenwell-worn by ascetic Buddhist monks. Themonks' voices can be heard chantingnearby.

The Monument of Prayers for Peace by World ReligiousLeaders' Religious Summit Meeting held on Mt. Hiei