Cool Japan: Smiles

■ Cool Japan: Smiles

NHK Cool Japan "Smile" edition.

"Funny smile"

I was surprised to hear that Drunkard's smile is cool.

This may be because there are fewer natural smiles.

There are many ways to express laughter in Japan.

"Fine smile" smile "Bashful smile" ugh

"Fake laughs" and "fake smiles"

"Chuckling" and "snickering" are so funny

"Sniffle" hehe, etc.

The fact that there are so many words means that he is conscious of using them in different ways to create humor.

However, this nuance is only conveyed among Japanese people, and foreigners see it as an "unnatural smile," which can lead to misunderstandings.

It may be necessary to communicate with foreigners while keeping in mind that they may not have understood the meaning of my laughter.

"Smile Class"

Learn to smile. Look like a serious Japanese person.

We practiced the shape of the mouth, and in Japanese emoticons for emails, the eye shape is used to express laughter.

In Europe and the United States, it is represented by the shape of the mouth.

I wonder if Japanese people are not good at laughing with their mouths shaped right.

Laughter is an expression of emotion, and it shows feelings such as happiness, pleasure, and good feeling on one's face.

If this is the case, then Japanese people, who do not like flashy expressions of emotion, may not be good at this at all.

By practicing how to laugh in this way, you can train muscles that you are not used to using, and eventually achieve a natural smile.

For foreigners, emotions come first and then a smile follows, but for Japanese people, a smile is more of a guide to expressing emotions that are usually suppressed.

"Smile Calendar"

A smile is powerful. And a smile is contagious.

This is exactly the effect that has been maximized.

The smiling faces on the calendar represent people who have been affected by the disaster, to a greater or lesser extent, strong people who continue to smile despite their hardships.

Seeing those smiles every day gives me the strength to do my best with a smile again today.

This calendar is a device for producing such smiles.

During the Meiji period, Lafcadio Hearn (Koizumi Yakumo) wrote a piece called "The Japanese Smile."

Japanese people smile in ways that Westerners cannot understand. They say it is a matter of etiquette, customs and courtesy.

He writes that the reason Japanese people smile even when they are in pain is because they are considerate of others.

It probably hasn't changed in over 100 years.

I feel that smiling, reducing stress, and giving strength to others is especially important now during these difficult times due to COVID-19.

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iU be like in 2030 ?

■iU be like in 2030 ?

I was asked, "What will iU be like in 2030 ?" That's six years from now.

Six years have passed since I wrote the blog "Digital Super School" in preparation for the founding of iU .

It has been three years since the project was conceived and three years since the school opened.

"I fantasized about a 'Digital Super School'" 2017.4

https://ichiyanakamura.blogspot.com/2017/04/blog-post_6.html

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It is an international education and research institute that combines the arts and sciences and has a focus on digital technology. It breaks away from the boundaries of existing universities and research institutes, bringing together cutting-edge talent to create an environment where faculty, researchers, students, and participants from industry can come together to work on everything from implementing specific services and products to creating businesses and industries.

1. Technology-driven education, research and implementation.

2. Digital-focused education and research.

3. Implementation of priority areas.

4. Integration of humanities and science.

5. Virtual x Real.

6. Mainly real projects.

7. The highest level of education in the world.

8. Students are high-level researchers.

9. Diversity.

10. Utilizing national strategic special zones.

-------

How close did you get to this?

We look back on the past six years and look ahead to the next six.

 

I'm still in the process of making it. What am I making?

 

A university that produces professionals who will create innovation in "information" (ICT) and "management" (business).

The company's mission is to develop three areas: social, creative, and frontier.

Our philosophy is "Enjoy change, learn on your own, and create innovation."

"Everyone should start their own business." "The target employment rate is zero."

No, most people fail. "Failure University" teaches us to learn from our failures.

First industry-academia collaboration project. A community of 1,000 collaborating companies.

A university with 1,000 visiting professors and more professors than students.

 

We have opened "B Lab" as a research platform where we can all work together to create an interesting future.

A collaborative research project between industry and academia has got underway.

The video studio "Sumida Media Lab" was opened as an information dissemination base.

BS Yoshimoto moved in, and a television station was established at the university.

We will establish three pillars: education, research, and media.

 

So far, we have made it to iU1.0.

 

There were some things we couldn't do. 1.0 was left behind.

There are two points: education and research. These are short-term projects.

Education is about "diversity." We are not reaching our goal in attracting working adults and international students.

More than half of the students must be non-high school graduates.

The research is an "industry-academia collaboration" and has not yet been fully implemented.

More than half of your income must come from non-tuition expenses.

 

Complete your assignments and head to iU2.0 quickly.

However, the landscape has changed drastically since version 1.0.

There were two unexpected changes in the environment.

DX and AI.

The coronavirus pandemic has made Japan realize it has lost the digital battle, and the needle on digital transformation has been brought forward by about 10 years.

Promoting digital transformation is iU 's mission, so this is a good thing, but as the public has taken notice, other universities have also begun to focus on digital, and competition between universities has become much more intense.

 

And then there's the AI explosion.

AI can now take over the role of traditional teachers.

By combining it with digital technology, traditional education becomes unnecessary.

There is a theory that half of the world's universities will be eliminated in 10 years, but it may be even sooner than that.

The situation is especially dire in Japan, where the birthrate is declining.

However, it is not a university that will be needed in the future.

iU itself does not "enjoy change, learn on its own, and create innovation," it will be eliminated.

 

iU2.0 aims to create a unique and valuable real + virtual space in the world in the age of DX and AI.

The goal of iU 2.0 is to create a place unlike any other in the world, while maintaining the foundation for education and research that was established in iU 1.0 to bring about innovation through information and management.

The target year will be 2030.

 

 

First, education.

We aim to be the number one in the world in terms of the number of startups/students = startup rate. We also aim to be the number one in the world in terms of failure rate.

We place emphasis on competency rather than academic ability. We are a top competency school.

It's a diverse gathering of people of all ages, nationalities, cool people and introverts.

All lessons will use AI, and technologies such as robots, metaverse, and web3 will be implemented as quickly as possible.

 

Make it a participatory community.

The students, who are the clients, design the education. They form a "student movement" club and engage in battles with the university authorities.

Students will be given credits for clubs and extracurricular activities, allowing them to graduate if they devote themselves to something meaningful.

For example, in the e-sports course, students can study and participate in e-sports, intern at a related company, and start their own e-sports business before graduating.

 

In Japan, it's difficult to skip grades, but it's possible to become a professor. ( iU has a visiting professor who is an elementary school student!)

The 100-year lifespan is an era in which seniors continue to learn.

People from all over the world come to Japan because it's pop, delicious and safe.

Everybody come.

 

At the same time, as a means of providing more advanced education, we will establish an international doctoral degree awarding organization through university collaboration.

However, before that, iU will not create its own graduate school, but will instead invite several overseas graduate schools to create a graduate school department store. We are currently in discussions with graduate schools in the US, the UK and France.

We aim to be a unique community in the world.

 

And research.

The focus of iU2.0 is to flesh out research and turn it into a strong pillar.

We will create a department store of projects in three areas: social, creative, and frontier.

A large number of professors specializing in the project will be assigned to strengthen industry-academia collaboration.

Our goal is to have 100 projects running by 2030 and to become known around the world for their work.

 

Currently at iU /B Lab, projects such as "Superhuman Sports," which uses technology to augment the body, and "Super School Song," a collaborative research project with RIKEN that uses AI, are underway.

Projects such as e-sports, web3, and neurodiversity are also emerging.

We will also focus on areas such as media, otaku, art, and regional revitalization.

We would like to expand our wings to include food, fashion, health, and more.

 

One benchmark is the MIT Media Lab. It is a graduate school and research institute, but above all it is known worldwide for its industry-academia collaboration projects.

iU will also serve as an education and research facility through industry-academia collaboration projects.

But our approach is the exact opposite: we want to be a relaxed, open community, rather than a high-end, closed institution like the Media Lab.

 

We cherish and nurture the spirit of B Lab as "a lab where we all create an exciting future."

An interesting place where everyone can participate and create.

The aim is usually to be "interesting" rather than "intelligent" or "useful," which is what universities aim for.

 

iU will become the most interesting university in the world.

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iU President Gachon. Mr.Ryo Morikawa

■iU President Gachon. Mr.Ryo Morikawa

Former CEO of LINE. He built LINE into what it is today. And then he started C Channel. Amazing!

At its roots it's music and computer engineering.

The road to C Channel

When I was at Nippon Television, the Internet came out. I thought in my 20s that the Internet would change television. I also helped launch BS. Since then, I've been working on digital media. However, I felt restricted by the fact that television stations' main business is television, and that we can't go beyond television.

And I thought that Sony would become like Apple today, so I moved there when Idei was the president. I was trying to connect audio and televisions to the Internet and distribute content, but there was strong resistance within the company. I created a joint venture with Tokyu and Toyota, and launched a video distribution business earlier than YouTube. However, in Japan, rights issues are noisy and distribution is not possible.

So, since Korea was a broadband powerhouse, they decided to make games before videos, and moved into the gaming business. They created the first gacha system in Japan, which was a success. Then came search. They started in the social search field, such as NAVER Matome.

With the earthquake and tsunami, we decided that the time for communication via smartphones was over, not the time for search, and so we launched LINE. This was a hit, and we launched a business model that combined LINE with our products.

However, since the capital was from Korea, there were many complications.

I want to do something to invigorate Japan for the rest of my life. I've been doing videos since my time at Nippon Television, so the next step is vertical videos. I launched C Channel seven years ago (recorded in July 2022) as a new business model that combined these two.

It's not that hard because I'm scaling and tracing the future of digital and media in Japan. I'm grateful that I'm doing what I think I should be doing.

◆School

My father was a principal at an elementary school. He often told me that teachers' children should be polite. It was a bit of pressure. At the time, I was not good at studying or sports, and my grades were not very good. It was a relatively uncomfortable environment because the teacher's child's grades were poor.

Then I got into music and I was obsessed with it.

Fortunately, I was able to study before I knew it, and I continued to go to middle school, high school, and university. I had the feeling that studying wasn't something you did at school, so when I was younger, I tended to study alone.

I studied computer engineering at university. At the time, synthesizers were coming out, and I was researching them because I thought they would be fused with computers. From there, I got into jazz. I was involved in technology, but I wanted to do something that didn't fit into technology.

School is a community that expands your possibilities. It's more like a toy box with all sorts of interesting things than a place to study. It's like picking out the things that interest you and playing with them.

◆Message for you guys

For some people, studying can be difficult or boring, but for me, studying is an extension of curiosity. Digging deeper and deeper into things that you find interesting may ultimately be called studying. Growth is an extension of curiosity. Don't forget your curiosity, always be excited and do your best.

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Cool Japan: Fruits

 ■Cool Japan: Fruits

NHK Cool Japan "Fruits" edition.

Fruit is found in every country, but these days we are in an era where various Japanese fruits are exported overseas as luxury brand fruits.

"Luxury"

Japan is now abundant with fruit, but when Mr. Kokami and I were little, we had apples and oranges, but bananas and pineapples were rare and "special."

I'd never even seen a kiwi.

If someone is seriously ill and bedridden, the standard gift is a fruit platter.

I wanted to get seriously ill.

The occasional luxury of fruit is enjoyed modestly and with gratitude.

I carefully remove the skins from the bananas, pineapples, kiwifruit, apples, and mandarin oranges and eat them with gratitude.

By the way, the first fruit parlour in Japan was apparently opened by a fruit shop during the Taisho era, and fruit parfaits were on the menu at the beginning of the Showa era.

I think it was quite a luxury.

"strawberry"

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, there were only 35 strawberry varieties in the 1980s, but by the 1990s the number had increased to 87.

As of 2018, 250 varieties have been registered.

In other words, the population has increased more than seven-fold in 40 years, and the driving force behind this was local warfare.

Nowadays, there are many varieties that are only native to the prefecture and are not permitted to be produced in other prefectures.

This is to prevent other prefectures from producing unpalatable food and tarnishing the brand.

This program also showed how regions are competing with each other over branding strategies for both chicken and udon noodles, but there is also a fierce battle going on when it comes to strawberries.

Next time you eat strawberries, why not think about the effort that went into them?

"Dried persimmon"

Dried persimmons first appeared as a ceremonial sweet in the Engishiki, a document dated 927, 1,100 years ago during the Heian period.

For over 1,000 years, it has reigned as the king of precious sweets.

By the way, the white powder on the surface is crystallized sugar from the persimmon fruit, and it is said that in Japan, this was once collected and used as a sugar substitute.

Persimmons are said to have originally been brought to Japan from China, but were improved in Japan and spread overseas, where they are now called "kaki" using the Japanese pronunciation.

A veteran of Cool Japan, improving quality and distributing products worldwide.

Japan, which once craved tropical fruits, has now evolved its fruits to be enjoyed by people from other countries.

I was reminded that this was also Cool Japan.

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Japanese language ability in the age of AI?

■Japanese language ability in the age of AI?

I was interviewed by NewsPicks about "Japanese language skills in the age of AI."

The question is why I gave both GhatGPT 's and my own speech at the spring entrance ceremony .

The AI's congratulations were correct and logical, but not funny.

 

AI is good at logical, orderly, and "correct" expressions, but not so good at interesting, unexpected, or moving expressions.

That's why AI is good at manuals, textbooks, and eulogies, but not so good at essays, comedy, or congratulatory speeches.

When I think of people who are experts in Japanese, I think of Yukio Mishima, Yuming, and Downtown. AI has a long way to go.

 

However, AI will eventually be able to overcome such obstacles. We just need to train it to get there.

What's important is the script that makes it interesting, in other words, the questions to ask the AI.

Until now, teachers have asked questions and students have answered. From now on, students will ask questions and AI will answer.

What is necessary for Japanese language skills in the age of AI is the ability to ask questions .

 

Another thing you need is editing skills .

Select, cut, paste, combine, and transform the countless pieces of information generated by AI into your own expression.

Yes, that's the job of a DJ. DJ skills .

 

I am right; my ability to express myself logically was honed during my time as a civil servant.

However, I long for cheesy expressions like "but"

tweet and comment on NewsPicks every day are:

It is training to hone that ability.

 

History has always been made in speeches, never in prose.

Oral expressiveness will be the focus of attention again .

I'm not good at improvising speeches or presentations,

In other words, their Ogiri skills are low (something they can improve through tweets and NPs),

Therefore, speaking ability is based on writing ability.

 

Train your questioning skills to draw out the basic sentences and turn ChatGPT into your servant.

your editing skills by combining these elements to create your own expressions .

speaking skills to strengthen your presentations and performances .

I think that's what Japanese language ability in the age of AI is all about.

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iU President Gachon. Mr.Toshiaki Endo

 2026/1/18

■iU President Gachon. Mr.Toshiaki Endo

The first Minister for the Olympics and Paralympics. At the time, I was asked by Mr. Endo to serve as a government advisor for the Olympics and Paralympics. We are still together at the Japan Sport Organization.

He served as the chairman of the bipartisan Education ICT Diet Members' League, and I teamed up with him as an advisor. In 2019, the "Act on the Promotion of Educational Informatization" formulated by the Diet Members' League was passed unanimously, which gave the impetus to realize one PC per student in school all at once.

The interview took place in the office of the LDP Election Strategy Chairman. He later became the LDP General Affairs Chairman. He has held two of the four top positions in the party.

◆Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games 2020

We apologize for causing concern, but in the end it was a great success. As there were no spectators, it seemed like the excitement was lacking domestically, but from overseas, there were almost no people watching in person, and they watched on TV. Someone overseas told me that 30-40 million people watched it. They said it was amazing that Japan could hold such a wonderful tournament at a time like that. They said it was possible only for Japan, and we received positive feedback. Japan's reputation is rising in every country. We are very happy about this.

A dozen years ago, we created the Basic Act on Sports in order to utilize the power of sports. A national organization to enforce this law was needed, so we created the Sports Agency. At the time, we were in the era of administrative reform, and there was a lot of opposition to creating a new ministry. After much consideration, we thought that if we brought the Olympics, everyone would cooperate, so we started bidding. We also did the Rugby World Cup.

As a result, the Basic Act on Sport was enacted, the Sports Agency was established, and this led to the success of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. I was able to engage in fulfilling political activities for 10 years.

◆ Education and Digitalization in Japan

I first saw ICT education at Tsuchido Elementary School in Onomichi a dozen years ago. My parents were school teachers, so education was a policy theme. By using ICT, I could instantly know the students' answers and develop good answers. It was an eye-opener for me to see English pronunciation classes. I thought that if we used this, education would advance dramatically. Since then, I have been promoting ICT in education.

During the Aso administration, they allocated 300 billion yen to install tablets, Wi-Fi, and electronic whiteboards, but when the government changed, the budget was cut and it was not possible. In 2013, they formed a parliamentary group and started to move forward again. Three years ago, the law was finally passed.

The purpose of digital education is not to use it as a tool to help students understand and cooperate with each other. There are issues such as the gap between schools and the lack of teachers, but we should try it first. We want to move forward with the ICT in education and GIGA School Initiative.

◆Message for you guys

Have hope and challenge your dreams. I wanted to be a politician when I was in the fifth grade of elementary school, but my father was not a politician, so I thought there must be some way to become a politician. I graduated from university, trained as a secretary to a member of parliament, and then I took on the challenge. I have lost two elections so far. Including the time I spent in Korea, I was a ronin for 8-9 years. Not everything will go well, but I will pursue my dreams and work hard. That kind of passion moves people.

Every job is important. Whatever your job, have the biggest dream and work hard to make it come true. People around you have high hopes for those who have dreams and work hard. My favorite saying is "Whoever has a dream has a way." If there's a will, there's a way. Look forward and do your best.

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Cool Japan: Otaku

■ Cool Japan: Otaku

NHK Cool Japan: "Otaku" edition.

The word otaku is said to have been created in the 1980s, and has since become an international word, but even when this program began in 2006, the word still had an image of being a reference to "weird people" and had not yet gained widespread acceptance.

That is clearly turning out to be a positive thing.

"Otaku Affairs"

Otaku-related events, including those related to Japanese anime, are now held all over the world, with the number of participants reaching 20 million per year.

In many cases, events are held by researchers from well-known universities.

So they established something called the "Global Otaku Research Institute" to connect researchers from around the world, but when you ask around, you'll find that the word otaku has become firmly established and is no longer something to be embarrassed about.

Moreover, it is not just pop culture like anime and games that is being referred to; saying "I'm an otaku of ___" has the same meaning as saying "my hobby is ____."

The same is true in Japan.

It's been almost 40 years since the word otaku was coined, and since we original otaku are now old, the term has become mainstream and has become more of a casual term referring to people with a hobby.

The era of 100 million otaku.

"Virtual Idol"

In the past, anime songs were just a supporting role that explained the anime, but from the late 1990s, there was an increase in high-level music by top-class artists that was independent of the anime, and these music began to be distributed around the world.

In 2004, a voice synthesis technology called Vocaloid was developed, and virtual idols became popular, with characters such as Hatsune Miku becoming popular around the world.

It combines the pop expressions of anime and music with cutting-edge technology.

Otaku discovered it, mastered the technology, and took the lead.

As cutting-edge users of technology, otaku also play a role in pioneering culture and markets.

It is also important from an industrial perspective.

For example, compared to the sales of anime itself, the subsequent developments in merchandise and live shows are 10 times larger.

The age of media mix: anime, music, concerts, cosplay, technology.

With so many different ways to get involved, virtual idols will likely develop into a new otaku culture and industry.

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