Report of Tokyo Node

The Planning Committee Meeting

March 14 and 15, 2002

Washington DC, USA

Shinji Matsumoto

JSFS/CSP Japan

Renewal of Tokyo Node

• There have been two Nodes in Japan, Tokyo Node and JSFS Node.

• Mr. Jerome Glenn, the director of the project, recommended to combine them and establish new Tokyo Node.

• Structure of new Tokyo Node

Node Chair Shinji Matsumoto (JSFS)

Node Members JSFS Working Group

Members in old Tokyo Node

Recent Activities

• Workshop “Ethical Issues of Science and Technology for the Next Millennium”

21 September, 2001 ( Under the auspice of the UNU/IAS and JSFS)• Interviews on S&T Management 6 Persons November and December, 2001

Workshop “Ethical Issues of Science and Technology for the new Millennium”

• Date 21 September, 2001• Venue UNU/IAS

AGENDA• Opening Address A.H. Zakri (Director-General, IAS) Yujiro Hayashi (Chairman, JSFS)• Keynote Address Junnosuke Kishida (Emeritus Chairman, The Japan Research Instit

ute)• Speakers Biotechnology Kazuhisa Sekimizu (Univ. of Tokyo) Robotics Ken Tomiyama (Aoyama Gakuin Univ.) Media Hiroyuki Yoshii (Tokyo Keizai Univ.) International Edson Kenji Kondo (IAS)

Discussed Issues

• Social Software for S&T• Technology Assessment Systems• Information Disclosure• Production of Human Parts• Incentive of S&T Researchers• Systems for people to be ethical• Precautionary Principle• Global Economy and Community Economy

Interviews on S&T Management Interviewees

• Tetsuo Saito Congressman, Physics• Susumu Toda Director-General of National Lab., A

eronautics• Koji Omi Minister of S&T• Hiroo Inokuchi Prof. Emeritus, Univ. of Tokyo, Ch

emistry• Ken Tomiyama Prof. , Aoyama Gakuin Univ., Rob

otics• Kazuhisa Sekimizu Prof., Univ. of Tokyo, Biotech

nology

Important Comments (1)

• R&D freedom is very important.• But, some kinds of R&D and application should

be controlled especially in human life science. • Adequate S&T assessment systems are needed.• International and national open discussion systems

on S&T management should be established.• International standards to control risk from S&T

should be established by international organizations.

Important Comments (2)

• S&T Managers cannot understand sufficiently about advanced S&T.

• But, some experts can watch many kinds of S&T at the same time.

• Ethics issues are education issues.• Global benefit is more important than regional benefit.• Communication between S&T people and non S&T pe

ople.• Informal organizations for S&T assessment are someti

mes practical.

Plan of This Year

• Contribution to the Surveys in the Millennium Project

• 2nd Workshop of “Ethical issues of Science & Technology for the new Millennium”