Director General's Greeting

We would like to offer our sincere condolences for the loss of the lives and damage caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake as well as to extend our heartfelt sympathy to those in the disaster-affected areas.

Alongside the earthquake and tsunami, the disaster caused by the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident has had a major impact not only on the social economy of Japan but also on people’s lives and sense of values, spurring public mistrust and anxiety towards science and technology.

However, science and technology are essential for the reconstruction and further development of the disaster-affected areas, how Japan will recover the confidence of the international community and how overcome this unprecedented disaster as well as how Japan’s science and its systems will change, have become the focus of worldwide attention.

In the course of reconstruction, it will be necessary to engage in new initiatives unlike those of the past, to create robust and sustainable local communities and also to maintain the quality of people’s lives and for sustainable society. This endeavor is crucial to solve social issues not just through scientific wisdom and intelligence, but through synthesis with the knowledge, the characteristics and experiences of regional communities and others.

The Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society (RISTEX) is an institution notably unique in the world, and it engages in research and development projects aimed to achieve issue-oriented innovation.

Advances in issue-oriented innovation can take place when social experiments directed to specific regions and communities are carried out. Researchers must collaborate with the various kinds of people involved, including people from local governments, communities, and NPOs, engineers, and so on, and take into account the distinctive individual characteristics of the localities concerned. They must conduct their research and development so as to make use of the knowledge and experience gained not only in the natural sciences but also in the humanities and social sciences. In this they will be able to bring outcomes that are of real use in society.

As we see it, “Science and Technology for Society” will first become feasible when the research and development conducted as above yields new knowledge and methods that can then be transferred and applied to other regions and communities beyond the boundaries of disciplines, organization, generations and nations.

The aim of RISTEX is, bridging science and society, to perform as a space where many different people can work cooperatively to address the problems people and societies face through science and technology. We hope their knowledge and experience can be served as a platform for diffusing widely beyond the borders.