Liberal Arts in Japan

Perspectives and Policies in Science and Engineering

Ken Okano, Joshua D. John, Eri Yamamoto

• Publisher: Jenny Stanford Publishing
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9789814968058
• eBook ISBN: 9781000588958
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Teaching Arts & Humanities

This book compiles the experiences of Prof. Okano while teaching physics at ICU, a liberal arts school in Tokyo, Japan. It presents his unique views on teaching science to students at a liberal arts university, and how this compares to other approaches adopted in Japan. The book also presents example lectures from a basic physics course presented by him and as understood by the students, providing a unique perspective on whether the goal of the course is transferred to their benefit. It introduces a unique and inductive definition of education obtained by Prof. Okano over the many years of rich experiences of learning, teaching, and doing research in Japan and in many other countries.

Chapter 1 What is Education?

What I Learned from My Father

(8 January 2014, speech at my father’s (Osamu OKANO) funeral mass)

Let me start with introducing what I have learned from my father.

The first thing I learned is as follows; some of you might agree with me, but my father hardly ever changes his opinion. It sounds as if he was selfish and is very negative, but in fact it seems he was doing his best to allow himself not to change his opinion.

He had been reading four main newspapers of Japan every day, and sometimes he said “I could not sleep well last night and read six books…”

He was trying his best to prove that his opinion was based on evidence and not on emotional feelings, and he always analyzed deeply. This strong will supported him in not changing his opinion.

Second, he always thought about the point of view of the person with whom he was having a discussion. I was very surprised to hear that because he was always very strong and never changed his opinion. His advice was to find the “middle ground” because no one liked to change his or her opinion by force. It might be much easier if one showed the “middle ground” back and forth during the discussion and finished the discussion in a short while having “win–win” feelings.

Third is communicating in both Japanese and English. I am a university professor now, but for the last few years, as you might have heard, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in Japan has been encouraging educating “global human resources,” but I was a bit surprised when I learned that my father followed this criterion.

My father was a bank executive and not an educator, but he realized what would be important in the next 50 years and advised me to master the skills. Although he did not explain to me how he could predict the future, my understanding is that this is set to be my fourth task.

In my 20 years of experience as a university professor, what I learned from him seems to be universal and the essence of education. For me, my father’s passing away is really a sad event, but I will continue my struggle to carry out the fourth task for the rest of my life.

What I Learned from My Supervisors

Nature of Education

If we look up the word “education” in the dictionary, it says “Intentional movement towards others in order to change that person in good direction.” This matches the general understanding of the word “education” but obviously different from mine, which is “Gratitude to my mentors who brought me up.” I am going to explain my definition of “education” in this chapter.

About 40 years ago, I was not really well adapted to the Japanese educational system, the so-called “Jyuken,” and was not enjoying my life. What changed my life was again my father’s comment: “It might be one of the solutions to revenge ‘Jyuken’ but also it might be interesting if you could try to be number one in your class.”

I could never be number one in my class, but life is interesting, and a rumor spread: “There is a student who is very good at studying and also interested in research. In addition, he has been abroad and can speak English!” This was very rare in Tokai University, which may also be true all over Japan at that time. Many professors offered me to read the additional materials as well as to provide chances to start experiments.

In this situation, I started my research life and met three distinguished professors, which does not include my direct supervisor, and I am explaining what I learned from them based on my memories as they all have already passed away.

• Prof. Tadao Inuzuka
  Former Professor of Aoyama Gakuin University
• Prof. Makoto Kikuchi
  Former Director of SONY Central Research Laboratory
• Prof. Terutaro Nakamura
  Former Professor of the Institute for Solid-State Physics, University of Tokyo

What I Learned from Prof. Tadao Inuzuka

When I was a PhD student, I met Prof. Inuzuka and since then, he assisted me doing some of the experiments and writing manuscripts. The relationship between us was getting worse as my PhD was reaching its final stage. It seemed Prof. Inuzuka felt it and he asked me “Is it possible for you to look after my students at least once a week?” Throughout my visit to his lab every week, I realized Prof. Inuzuka’s unique point and charms.

I accidentally found an invitation to submit an article for a scientific journal on his desk when I was doing some experiments with his students. I remembered seeing a similar invitation a few months ago, and I thought “Prof. Inuzuka is asked to write the article regularly” and was very much impressed that he was so famous. But in fact, the invitation is the same one and the second one was just a reminder. I asked him “Is it still in time?” I thought the due date had passed. But his answer was “Listen Ken, if it has already passed the actual deadline, they will never send me a reminder. The fact that I received the reminder tells that we still have time before the deadline.” He started writing with a smirk.

I was once asked to assist him in setting up the International Conference site in Sendai with Prof. Sawabe and Dr. Koizumi, both from Inzuka’s lab. The task was not that difficult, and everything went smoothly and finished at around 3 pm. My talk was scheduled for the following day, but Prof. Inuzuka had invited us for a beer. Prof. Sawabe and I tried to find a pub that was open at 3 pm, but not many pubs opened before 5 pm. Eventually, we found one. We drank till midnight, but he made jokes on famous professors in our field and they were really funny. As you can understand, I had no time to prepare for my talk, but my talk was perfect on the following day. What I learned was that “preparation is not compulsory” and since then, I have not prepared for any of my talks.

I was not a graduate of Inuzuka’s lab, but he always invited me to his home party in the last week of December, which is called Bounen-kai in Japan. We all promised not to drink too much and stay till very late, but every year, we failed to keep our promise and his wife always gave us a ride to the nearest train station. I still have sweet memories about his home party, but our happiness did not last long as Prof. Inuzuka passed away in a few years. Of course, I attended his funeral, but I remembered that I could not stop crying in front of many people.

What I Learned from Prof. Makoto Kikuchi

Prof. Makoto Kikuchi was a Director of Kikuchi Distinguished Laboratory in Electro-Technical Laboratory and a Director of SONY Central Research Lab, Japan. He has been one of the most well-known researchers in early semiconductor development in Japan.

He was not only known as a physicist, but his soft way of talking to people was always welcome. Sometimes he appeared in TV programs in NHK, and thus, my mother was a big fan of “Makoto Kikuchi.”

He loved talking to young people and was so enthusiastic about experiments. He one asked me, when I was a junior researcher, “You are doing something very interesting. Can you explain to me what you are doing?” I started consulting with him since then.

After retiring from his directorship in the SONY Central Research Lab, he still held an office in Shinagawa, and I sometimes visited him for discussion. He obviously liked discussion, and sometimes our discussions made him cancel some of his scheduled meetings.

Once my manuscript was not being accepted for quite a long time, and I consulted with him. “May I see your manuscript and, if possible, experiments?” he asked me. There was nothing to hide, and I showed him everything. His comment was “I could not find any reasons for this manuscript to be rejected for publication. I will consult with one of my old friends who is now an editor of the journal.” As a result, the editor found the appropriate reviewer and he/she accepted my ma...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Chapter 1 What is Education?
• Chapter 2 What We Have Been Doing in ICU
• Chapter 3 Tips for Future Education
• Index