OIST: Japanese University Looks To Break Down Barriers To Good Science

Welcome to the rabbit hole.

Gone are the days of the multi-talented specialist—when one who wanted to dissect a body not only did the cutting, but perhaps also went and did the graveyard-robbing for a cadaver.

For the past 200 years, scientists have moved to become more of a specialist in their field—someone who only knows how to split an atom to create nuclear fire, but has no idea how to make coffee or what the effects of his atomic splitting might cause a living test subject. "I'm just a theorist! Besides... man would never use my invention for warfare!"

So... imagine my surprise when I recently discovered that Japan, a country with a very stiff hierarchy of the academics has broken away from tradition. Usually in Japan if you ask someone why they are doing something in a particular manner, they answer that it is because that is always the way it has been done.

It's a weird way if thinking - especially since Japan does think outside the box with many of its great (for example) robotics inventions, or just plain old wacky creations like a device to prop your head up so that it doesn't flop around while you sleep on the train.

Now... imagine, if you will, Japanese scientists not working alone, or with like minded thinkers (like only chemists) but working with a cadre of fellow scientists from a variety of different fields? The result? Well... we'll have to wait and see...

Welcome to the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) graduate university - a new way of thinking for Japanese scientists.

Just look at the locale—Okinawa. This is a small, subtropical island that is closer to Taipei and Shanghai than it is to Tokyo. Described as a Dali-esque building overlooking the East China Sea built on a forested hilltop, there are no beatnik clubs and coffee houses—well, maybe a couple—but there are more signs posted about warning the unwary of the copious number of poisonous snakes that are nearby.

OIST, which was inaugurated on November 19, 2011, is, beyond its locale, landscape and architecture, a very interesting concept. For one thing, there are no departments. Think of the place as one large skunk works, where geeky biologists, geeky chemists, geeky physicists, geeky mathematicians and computer geeks (they are a different breed) all intermingle (ewww), sharing the laboratory equipment (play nice, geeks!), teachers (I'm telling teacher you spilled plutonium!) and money (gimmee your lunch money!).

See Fukuoka? That's the southwestern part of Japan. Okinawa is further SW.

One of the reasons for placing OIST on Okinawa is that it is far away from the prying eyes of Tokyo and its center of government, but still close enough for a missile strike if one of their evil scientists doesn't get his 1,000,000 yen (Cdn/US $12,250). But really, it was to place the university as far away as possible from Japan's over-bearing academic center... to provide its student thinkers a bit of freedom. Also, in case things go horribly, horribly wrong with an experiment, either the project can be buried, or its victims, and there won't be any rampaging lizards knocking down towers and stomping on any gaijin English teachers - well, not too many, anyway.

Seriously, though... at this academic skunk works, if a project or experiment fails, it gets buried quietly. (Very little media). If it's a success, the project can continue to fulfillment - fully formed from its embryonic stage, and ready to take over from homo sapiens.

This is not a poor, little university. The government is involved - to the tune of some ¥77 billion (~ Cdn/US $943 million) over the past six years to create OIST. As well, there are a lot of academics involved: 212 researchers and, on its Board of Governors, five Nobel laureates (Sydney Brenner, Susumu Tonegawa, Jerome Friedman, Tim Hunt, Yuan-Tseh Lee). But no students yet.

However, beginning in the autumn of 2012, 20 students will begin their lessons, though it is expected to rise to 100 students over the next five years—probably as it allows 20 students in a year to study for five years. If my math is correct (must show the work: 20 students times 5 years equals 100 students over 5 years), that is 100 students! OIST was right with the math! So far, they are off to a great start!

Aside from the five Nobel laureates mentioned above, the OIST board of governors consists of:

• Lord Martin Rees, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge 
• Akito Arima, Japan Science Foundation Chairman
• Ichiro Kanazawa, Former president of the Science Council of Japan
• Kiyoshi Kurokawa, Former special cabinet advisor in charge of Science, Technology and Innovation
• Hiroko Sho, Director of the Okinawa Learning Center
• Jonathan Dorfan, President-Elect of OIST and Previous Director of Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
• Robert Baughman, CEO of OIST and Past associate director for Technology Development at NINDS
• Rita Colwell, Past president of the American Institute of Biological Sciences
• Hiroshi Komiyama, Mitsubishi Research Institute chairman
• Cherry Murray, Dean of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
• K. VijayRaghavan, advisory committee member of Janelia Farm Research Campus
• Takeshi Yasumoto, Senior research manager of the Academic-Industry Collaboration for Okinawa Coastal Lines, MEXT

Eggheads all, and if I was smart enough, I might know who some or all of them were. Actually, I am smart enough. I'm a classic under-achiever despite my 149 IQ. Under-achiever is so... harsh. I prefer the term 'slacker'. And who doesn't enjoy a fine pair of slacks? Still... the positions held by these individuals sounds quite impressive.

Welcome to OIST!

OIST president Jonathan Dorfan—a physicist who was working at Stanford University before being lured by good money, a great opportunity, and hopefully a non-fear of poisonous snakes—says that OIST is looking to tackle three problems in Japanese science.

1. To nurture independent thought in young researchers, and to encourage them to work for themselves rather than as foot soldiers for professors; 
2. To have Japanese science become more open to the outside world (which, if you will pardon the editorial intrusion is kind of weird when you consider the facility is set so far away from the rest of the world—but, I know what they mean to do);
3. To stimulate the emergence of technology clusters in a country where there is disturbingly little interaction between universities and industry.

Japanese students graduating in sciences and engineering has fallen off recently. While students everywhere often have to pay lip-service to the draconian university department heads, it seems to be taken to a higher degree in Japan's universities. As such, few want to go into such fields of academica. Now, there is the possibility that if one were really interested in sciences and didn't want to do it in Japan, they could always study abroad... but even that is not happening very often.

Between 1996 and 2007, 28 per cent of the science and engineering doctorates awarded in America went to Chinese; 11 per cent to Indians; nine per cent to South Koreans; and seven per cent to Taiwanese.

Japan? Only 2 per cent.

Researcher with zebra fish in a plethora of small tanks at OIST.

So... with Japanese science students apparently on the wane, OIST is looking for the best and brightest young minds in the world - hence the school's president. In fact, 85 of the OIST’s researchers are foreigners (gaijin).

Stop sucking air through your teeth, Japan. This is a good thing.

It provides an opportunity to have people not-Japanese provide ideas not rooted in the Japanese educational system.

In fact, OIST plans on having a decent 50:50 split of faculty and students from Japan and elsewhere.

As mentioned, everyone shares the resources: labs, microscopes, particle accelerators (not sure if they have one, actually) - but everything. That means everyone works together. Not only other forms of science, but other cultures. Welcome to wonderland, Japan.

Now... study your ass off and try not to create some mutant disease that will turn most of the world's population into flesh-eating zombie caricatures from Alice in Wonderland.

By Andrew Joseph

Super Free

Come, let us sing in all accord
And with raptures ring the air
To praise the honored name aloud of our Alma Mater dear!
Waseda, Waseda, Waseda.


The song above is actually the anthem of Waseda University in Tokyo, a very prestigious university founded in 1882, where more than a few of its graduates have gone on to become the country's Prime Minister including Koizumi Junichiro and Emperor Akihito.

Ir's probably why it was a tremendous shock when back on June 9, 2003, one student was arrested as being the leader of 13 other students who were part of an elitist rape gang who raped an estimated 500 women, though officially only three charges were laid. Later still, some 12 more women came forward alledging they had also been raped by members of the Super Free.

Calling themselves Super Free - yes, in English - it wasn't just rapes... it was a plethora of gang rapes that were organized by this 'club'. Established in 1982as a social club, it was incorporated as Super Free Yūgen Gaisha (Limited) (有限会社スーパーフリー.

In  1994 Wada Shinchirō (surname first) (和田 真一郎 Wada Shin'ichirō, born July 30, 1974 in Kawasaki-shi (Kawasaki City), Kanagawa-ken (Kanagawa Prefecture) entered the school.

Super Free was a highly successful inter-university rave event club, to the point that it was incorporated, and had five branches throughout Japan (including the University of Tokyo and Keio University - all told the three most prestigious universities in Japan), 30+ employees and an actual office in the party district of Roppongi in Tokyo. The club organized parties and social gatherings at various public night-clubs within Roppongi. 

The Super Free club members would, at the entrance, hand out special VIP cards to pretty co-eds. Attended by up to 2,000 people, the club members would scan the crowd for potential victims (plural), try and make friends with them and ply them with copious amounts of alcohol--a special cocktail called 'spiritus' manufactured by  Super Free.

Once the victims were long drunk and incapable of offering up much resistance, the club members would lure them to an abandoned room and then rape her one club member after another.

Wada was arrested along with the other members of Super Free after gang-raping an intoxicated 18-year-old co-ed on April 27, 2003 on the landing of a building in Tokyo's Roppongi district during a party that followed a dance event organized by the group.

The victim was then taken later that night to the Toshima Ward residence-office of Super Free head Wada and then gang-raped again.

At the time of Wada's arrest on June 9, 2003 (now a graduate and employed at a cable communications company), he and his 13 other Super Free members all went down for gang rape. He said he considered the gang rape as a means to creating 'solidarity amongst the members' and that "those who do not participate in gang rapes are not members."

After Wada became the Super Free leader in 1995, he established a hierarchy that classified members as 'first string', 'reserves' and 'boys', with each level required to sell a quota of tickets to the Super Free parties.

Wada is believed to have made more than ¥10 million (~Cdn/US $130,000) a year from ticket sales.

Members of the club began to assume they would rape women whenever they organized a party and would even hold meetings to discuss rape tactics, including who would serve as lookouts, and allocating roles among members to separate targets from friends.

Super Free members frequently took photos of their victims with the threat to publicize the photos if victims went to police.

Wada was indicted for three counts of rape and on November 2, 1994 he was sentenced to 14 years in prison by the Tokyo District Court.

Two others sentenced at  the same time as Wada include Sekimoto Yuki, 23, who was sentenced to 32 months and his brother Takahiro, 20, who got 27 months. At  the time of their arrest, Yuki was a part-time worker and Takahiro was a student at Tokyo Denki University.

Judge Nakatani chastised Wada, then 30-years-of-age at the time: "You abused women as targets of your sexual desire, committing dirty and cruel crimes."

Although he appealed his sentence, the Tokyo High Court rejected it on June 2, 2005. The Supreme Court of Japan agreed on November 1, 2005.

After their arrest of Super Free, a statute for the prosecution of gang rape was established under the Criminal Code of Japan. In January 2006, three students in Kyoto University were arrested for gang rape under this penal code.

Needless to say, the Super Free club was dissolved on June 23, 2003.

Here I Go Again

Today is Thursday, October 17, 1991 here in Ohtawara-shi (Ohtawara city), Tochigi-ken (Tochigi Prefecture), Japan. I have been an assistant English teacher(AET) on the JET (Japan Exchange & Teaching) Programme for nearly 15 months now, and despite women problems, I have enjoyed my time in this country immensely.
My current social status reads as thus: single and datable, but I do have a friend-with-benefits with whom I still want as a girlfriend. Pathetic, I realize as I write these words, but true.
On this day, the JET Progarmme AETs for the Prefecture are supposed to get together in Utsunomiya-shi (Utsunomiya City), the capital of Tochigi-ken.
All 53 (I think) of us are supposed to visit Utsunomiya Daigaku (Utsunomiya University) and chat with the students before going to Nikko-shi (City of Nikko) to learn about the natural science of the Tochigi-ken area. It's to give us a broader knowledge of the part of Japan we live in. It's a cool idea, and I'm actually looking forward to the Nikko part of the trip.
The Utsunomiya University part of the trip... I'm dreading it.
Months back, a gorgeous Japanese Utsunomiya University student came up to Ohtawara Chu Gakko (Ohtawara Junior High School)--one of the seven junior high schools I teach at four days a week--to do a week-long internship.
Junko and I hit it off remarkably well. She was long, tall, lingerie fashion-model sexy, intelligent (she liked me!) and she spoke better English than I did (not that difficult a thing to do, if you have seen my grammatical errors in this blog). But, despite it only supposed to be a week-long fling before she had to go back to university, she tried to drop out of school to be with me, and then she, after me trying to nix that career-sucking goal, she said okay and went home... and began stalking me, watching me at work (the junior high schools)... and then waiting outside my apartment building...  always waiting until whatever visitor I was with had left (say at 9:30PM) before knocking on my door literally 10 seconds later.
I know, I know... what the hell am I complaining about? But, aside from constantly being dehydrated by this sexy minx, we also would have sex again and again all through the night. I know, I know... what the hell AM I complaining about? But really... every night? All night? Have you ever gone without sleep for a couple of weeks? Maybe got an hour or two of actual sleep? It's not a good situation. You start to hallucinate and get grumpy.
Anyhow... I got a Japanese Emglish teacher involved at Ohtawara Chu Gakko, as well as the OBOE (Ohtawara Board of Education)--my actual salary paying bosses who were as nice a group of people I have ever met in my life--to get her off my cl-ass. They did, and sent her back to her mom in Utsunomiya. To hopefully get some help. Or to also go back to school.
Despite me missing the nightly shenanigans and the morning chaffings, I did wonder how she was doing, but owing to the whole stalking thing, I did not try to initiate contact with her.
I also assumed that no matter what, she would somehow manage to be at this Utsunomiya University event today.
I'm unsure if I was dreading this day, or looking forward to seeing her again so that every other AET on the JET Programme could see me with her. Especially the women on the JET Programme, who might wonder why someone as fantastically gorgeous as her would be hanging around with me... it would make them curious, and would open the door and legs to a possible physical confrontation of our groinal areas. It was just a thought.
I like the way I think.
At the University, we all had to listen to speech after speech. Interesting speeches, sure... why not... they probably were, but not one of those speeches offered anything new or earth-shattering--especially to an old pro of 15 months here.
One female professor said the same thing I have always said about how to survive here in Japan: Have fun.
And guess what? I saw Junko sitting in on the speeches.
She smiled at me and waved and bowed at me... but did not come within 30 feet of me. Figuring she wasn't sure if I wanted to talk with her... I sought her out. I could smell the apple blossoms in her hair from her shampoo at 30 feet. It was how I first noticed her... that and one of the other make AETs elbowing me in the side to check out that hot chick over there.
But that apple blossom hair. Immediately, I was lost.
I floated over to her, bowed to her and she back to me. We looked at each other and smiled.
Oh, it was so on.
She grabbed my hand and led me out of the auditorium.
We found an empty classroom, which was small enough to hold maybe six people, and went at it. We didn't care about anything except for our own bodies. Clothes were strewn everywhere, and the only time we stopped was so I could dig a condom out of my wallet.
I'm not a Boy Scout, but I have always been prepared. Until I arrived in Japan last year at the age of 25, I was a virgin (thank you ex-girlfriend and now current friend-with benefits), but I had been carrying a condom in my wallet since I was 14. While that condom was never, ever used, I have since coming in to Japan always been prepared.
The good thing about Junko and I, was that when we have sex, we don't do a lot of screaming or heavy grunting. While there certainly was a lot of lifting, grinding and thrusting and slapping of parts, we were pretty quiet.
Or so we thought.
Caught in mid-thrust, we looked up to see that same female Japanese professor standing at the door way staring at us. Shocked at what was going on in her classroom, she meekly bowed, said something in Japanese, bowed again and closed the door.
She was pretty cool about the whole thing, as Junko and I carried on without missing a thrust ( I was on the bottom)... at least the professor knows there are at least two people who believed that the only way to survive Japan was to have fun. We had fun twice in her classroom.

Somewhere university can be fun,
Andrew "going down the only road I've ever known" Joseph
Today's blog title is by Whitesnake.
More on this day tomorrow, with Japan - Its A Wonderful Rife offering you a trip to Nikko and more of the same old Junko?
Here's a video of this classic Whitesnake song:

Japanese Farming Will Survive Radiation Fallout

Just in case you forgot, back on March 11, 2011, Japan endured a Magnitude 9.0 earthquake that spawned a - depending on whom you talk to - a 60-foot tsunami wave that smacked the northeast coast of Japan. It also took out power to the Dai-ichi nuclear power generating facility in Fukushima-ken (Fukushima Prefecture) causing it to go into near-meltdown but spewing radiative materials into the air, water and surrounding soil for days, if not weeks.

As such, people did have some valid concerns that farming in that sector of Japan would have to be shut down for years until it could be decontaminated.

However, recent studies looking at how the radiation in Japan has accumulated in plants and soil notes that there is no long-term threat and that farmers can get back to work (Ed. Note: even if it is October and harvest time?).

On April 22 (a month later) after the radiation had begun spewing, Japan's government had evacuated a 30-kilometer swatch of area surrounding the Dai-ichi nuclear facility privately-owned by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). They then imposed agricultural product restrictions.

On October 1, 2011, Japan lifted it's evacuation advisory in certain areas within a 20- to 30-kilometer radius from the shut-down nuclear plant (though it is still considered 'hot'). The effected areas include the towns of Hirono and Naraha, the village of Kawauchi, and parts of Minamisomo and Tamura, all located in Fukushima-ken. At the time, over 60,000 had forced to leave the area.

Even now, however, people are concerned about going back to recreate a normal life there because Japan's government has yet to reveal a proper strategy for dealing with the areas contaminated by radiation.

People are panicking because there are no data," says plant radiophysiology expert Nakanishi Tomoko (surname first) at the University of Tokyo.

Nakanishi is the coordinator of seven teams studying the impact of the disaster on soil, plants, animals, fisheries and forests for the next decade by measuring contamination levels and assessing the long-term threat. Early results - appearing in Radioisotopes, a Japanese journal, say things are looking good for farmers.

Her teams studied crops at a Tokyo research field, including cabbages and potatoes that were planted a few weeks after rains showered the field with radioisotopes from the reactors in Fukushima.

These plants crops were harvested weeks later on May 16, 2011 and were examined, with findings of low levels of radiation—around 9-becquerels per kilogram (Bq kg–1 wet weight), much lower than the 500Bq kg–1 safety limit for human consumption.

It was also determined that since most of the had accumulated on the plant leaves, it could be washed off - meaning the plants were not absorbing dangerous levels of radioisotopes directly from the soil.

Even looking at the more highly exposed fields around Fukushima, Nakanishi's crew found similar results, finding that most of the radiation in the plants accumulated on their surfaces.

Wheat leaves that were open at the time of the greatest fallout were heavily contaminated, with combined levels of Cesium-134 and Cesium-137 ranging from thousands to about 1-million Bq kg–1.

But, the study shows, leaves that unfolded after the fallout were largely free of contamination. Wheat ears from these plants contained 300–500 Bq kg–1 — within the prescribed radiation limit.

"It's harvest time now and farmers are wondering what to do," offers Nakanishi. "They can throw the current harvest away. But it is okay to plant again."

Despite this good news, the team's data also show that the radioisotopes seem to be stuck firmly to the soil, mainly in the top five centimeters, and are not being washed away by rain. This might prevent the radioisotopes from entering groundwater, but suggests that cleaning up the more radioactive public spaces in Fukushima-ken will not be easy.

IMPORTANT: A separate group from Kobe University, led by radiation expert Yamauchi Tomoya, has found that soil radiation levels at four sites in Fukushima-shi (Fukushima City), some 60 kilometers from the reactors, measured up to 47,000 Bq kg–1, surpassing the 10,000 Bq kg–1 human exposure safety level set by the government. Yamauchi says that these areas, which are outside the current 30-kilometer evacuation zone, should be evacuated immediately.

In May, 2011, Japan's agriculture ministry showed off a ¥490-million (~Cdn/US$6-million) initiative to develop clean-up techniques, including removing contaminated soil.

However, results from these initiatives won't be known for many months, says Nakanishi, highlighting again that the lack of information for residents is damning.

Just how deep is the soil contamination in each area? That's what people need to know. As such, just to be sure, some local Fukushima schools have dug out the top 50 centimeters of soil... though even then they aren't positive.

Still, take a look at the graph above... according to that, only a few centimeters of soil are holding the contamination. But... that's just from where they took the samples. What about the Kobe research? Why did they get radioactive sampling well above what Nakanishi's crew did? Were these studies done at the same approximate time?

But, guess what the schools are doing with the contaminated soil they have dug up? After digging it up, the dirt sits in the corners of the schools' property... big mounds of radioactive dirt.... free to blow into kids faces.

The agriculture ministry is also testing how well plants can clean the soil in highly contaminated areas, and several non-governmental organizations have followed suit with a campaign of sunflower planting, with the assumption being that these plants will absorb the radiation from the contaminated soil.

Nakanishi called this "nonsense", noting that this phyto­remediation can only absorb small amounts of radiation

However, Inoue Chihiro, an expert in soil and groundwater remediation at Tohoku University, offers that the phyto­remediation technique is worth examining, but warns that even if it works, there is still the problem of having to dispose of the radioactive plants.

Burying the soil is expensive, however. Inoue says that the cost of cleaning up a school playground could be ¥50 million (~Cdn/US 650,000), and there are more than 100 schools in the affected areas (for about a $65-million outlay of moolah!), not to mention parks and other public places.

As well, there is the additional costs of digging it up PLUS the fact that since Cesium-137 has a radioactive half-life of 30 years meaning it's 30 years to lose half it's radioactivity, and 30 years again to lose that new current half of radioactiviy, and so on), this stuff is going to be around for a long time. This means wherever the soil is buried/stored, it's going to have to be constantly monitored for weather exposure (and thus having it go down into the drinking water table).

By Andrew Joseph