The whole of 2008 has gone by without a single blog! I wonder if anyone has noticed! Anyway one of my previous comments (June 2007) was on the question of whether foreigners in academia can get access to grants. Well, I'm glad to report that last year I was successful in applying for a JSPS grant to look at the way Scotland has managed its forestry resources and to compare that with Japan, which as you know is full of unused forest. That allowed me and a colleague from the university’s forestry department to carry out a survey in Scotland in September to see how well-integrated policy and industrial cluster organisation can beef up the competitiveness of a renewable natural resource industry. So don't let anyone tell you it's impossible to get research funding if you are not Japanese!

Other highlights include spotting my first Ruddy Kingfisher in the forests of Togakushi. Each year, a pair normally tries to nest in late May, but not just birdwatchers but cameramen with lenses about the size of the average Japanese car descend on the site and often cause so much disturbance the birds move on. In 2007, they moved onto the neighbouring prefecture (Niigata) but last year they just moved on to another slightly more remote part of the same forest, and it was possible to see them raise two babies. As you can see from the photo they haven't evolved any camouflage! As they are also very noisy when courting, they are one of the easiest birds to find. If in doubt go for the group of 30 Japanese with extremely large lenses gathered in a semicircle!

In April this year we are introducing a new course offering a ‘Green’ Masters of Technology. It is rather exciting - I get to teach two new courses of 15 lectures each, one on environmental sustainability and the other on business opportunities in sustainability. They are part of the Environment Ministry effort to green education, since business schools themselves have not exactly leapt at the challenge (too busy teaching about hedge funds)! So everyone have a Green and Happy New Year!

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While I prepare to return to the UK for Christmas, I leave students and staff with their schedules continuing uninterrupted until 28 before the New Year Break. This is despite increasing Westernisation in the form of Christmas decorations, Christmas Campaigns in the shops etc.

This trend even makes it into the TV dramas. For instance one popular drama (loosely translated as ‘Avarenbow Mama (Wild-person Mother)’ starring Aya Ueto) is about a refreshingly informal and energetic young family whose son goes to a status-conscious and fiercely competitive (amongst the mothers as much as the children) nursery school (see below). They celebrate Christmas with the full SantaClaus story for their son (Yuki). This is complete with the request letter to ‘S Claus N Pole’ posted into the postbox directly, followed by frantic attempts to discover what Yuki had requested. Very funny and not a little nostalgic for those who remember the anticipation of Christmas when very young! However in Japan even if you do follow the Christmas routine, the actual present has to be given before setting off for the usual work and school! No Christmas Turkey followed by a post-lunch snooze!!

For those interested in some statistics, the EU funded a survey of EU researchers in Japan and announced the results recently. They got replies from 571. No-one actually knows how many EU researchers there are in Japan but a figure of 8,000 is sometimes banded about (suspiciously high in my view). The report was asking them abut their needs for info about the EU so I am afraid no juicy data on whether they like living in Japan, what they do in their spare time, whether they have Japanese girl/boy friends! However you can see the summary at http://jpn.cec.eu.int/home/news_en_newsobj2543.php

Enjoy your Christmas and New Year!

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I herald from the USA, and grew up with a love for the holidays, from the 4th Thursday in November that marks Thanksgiving right to Christmas in December. I know that for many this time of year represents unadulterated consumerism and blatant merchandising that are all a result of base greed. My heart goes out to those people, as it seems they never had the opportunity to experience what I experienced when I was a boy and what I still carry in my heart.

Thanksgiving to us represented a time to stop for at least a moment or two and appreciate life, and what we DO have, with the most important being the people, our family and friends. I find myself reflecting on them, how they enrich my life, provide perspective and balance, hard truth and kind words, and bring levity and humor into my existence. I am grateful and hope that I, in some small way, give something back to them.

Thanksgiving really prepares me for the Christmas holidays. Christmas means to me thinking of others (particularly my family and friends), imagining what he or she likes, acquiring and wrapping it, and then presenting it. My reward is in the entire “giving” activity. I certainly hope they like the present, yet I can honestly say I never give a thought to what I may receive in return. In fact, receiving gifts is just not important. An added bonus is when I can surprise someone with a gift. The look of surprised pleasure brightens my life and brings a smile to my face.

So, I wish each and every one of you the best the Holidays have to offer, and I hope you enjoy a time of peace and serenity that will usher in a fine New Year.

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Japan had quite a hot summer with records tumbling in a number of places-just north of Tokyo reached nearly 42℃ on one day in August.
Fortunately I had chosen to go back to the UK so am unable to provide personal testimony as to the sheer discomfort of high humidity at such high temperatures.

But the summer also contributed to the gestation of a new policy called innovation 25.
This was the initiative of the rather short lived and ill-fated Abe administration, but with any luck may well outlive it since it is now absorbed as official policy.

The initiative owes much to the energy and ideas of Prof Kurokawa (former head of the Science Council of Japan and also serving as Science Adviser to the Japanese government) and you can see his summary at
http://www.kantei.go.jp/foreign/innovation/interim_e.html

there is also Web cast at
http://webcast.digital-one.fi/sitra/2007/sitraday/indexen.html

One innovation from this initiative is the logo- so typically Japanese cuddly toy type figure meant to signify something important!

Perhaps more relevant is to flag two key themes.

The first is that I25 identifyies sustainability of human existence as the most important innovation challenge for the coming decades.

The second is to identify the key barrier to Japanese innovation as being the lack of individuality and creative thinking.
The saying that the nail that sticks out gets hammered down in Japanese society has been taken up by Innovation 25 to symbolise a primary weakness in the system, and it argues for a broader outlook and more individual creativity to be stimulated in the Japanese education system.

So for the first time explicit policy includes encouraging Japanese students to look outside Japan for experiences and contacts.
The official welcome mat is now truly out for the foreign (gaijin) researcher!!

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I have yet to master a part of Japanese life and find myself when confronted with it, first frustrated, then embarrassed, and finally find myself laughing at my own ineptitude. It is the challenge of the traditional Japanese toilet. To the unknowing, the traditional Japanese toilet is a trough-like ceramic receptacle imbedded in the floor that a person squats over and …. . All that is well and good, save for the obstacle of clothes bunched about one’s ankles, the call for balance while in an extreme baseball catcher’s position and the knowledge one is so close to…..

There have been times when there was no western style toilet available and Nature would not be denied, so I was forced to adapt. I usually take off my clothes below the waist, save for my shoes and socks. This presents its own hazards as the stalls are quite narrow. In these cases, patience is truly a virtue. Once I assume the position I usually start laughing at my predicament because no one could possibly hope to have some sort of decorum or elegance in such a situation. My mind starts to think, “What would happen if an earthquake hit? What would I do?”, and I laugh out loud at the images that pop into my mind. It is a very humbling experience, and perhaps that is a good thing. It reminds me that I am merely one more life form, known as human, and our species (for all our progress and like all other life on this planet) is still rather basic and doing our best to survive.

So, if confronted with the challenging Japanese toilet, you might consider thinking of it as a lesson in patience, and humility.

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