June 5, 2025

Allow me to express my sincere gratitude to everybody who has contributed to the activities of the Engineering Academy of Japan (EAJ). I would also like to take this opportunity to reiterate my heartfelt appreciation to the many people who have provided guidance and support to the EAJ over the 38 years since it was founded in 1987.

As Japan’s leading independent academy of its kind, the EAJ is sustained by the volunteer activities of our members, who are chosen on the basis of their extensive experience and achievements in scientific and technological fields. We are also sustained by the substantial assistance we receive from supporting corporate members, who endorse the EAJ’s objectives. As this website describes, the EAJ is continuing to engage in a wide range of science and technology-related activities including dynamic initiatives at local branches in Japan and international exchange with leading engineering academies and other organizations around the world.

Here in Japan, the rapidly declining birthrate apparent since the 1990s has now raised widespread public discussion. This has revealed the need for major societal change across all areas: politics, economy, industry, daily life, education, and science and technology. At the same time, the necessity of economic growth to enable the transformation of societal structures is becoming increasingly clear. Now that some hope for the future is in sight following Japan’s three lost decades, it is the right time to alter our course fundamentally to target societal change and economic growth.

Turning to the international community, a situation has emerged in which, amid ceaseless wars and conflicts, actions taken by the superpowers can influence the fate of the entire world. Meanwhile, we are witnessing the retreat of the Western-style democracy spearheaded for a long time by the UK, France, Germany, and the US, as countries of the Global South that tend to be driven by practical interests gain in influence. The nature of the position Japan can establish between the Western powers and the Global South will affect not only Japan’s own national security, but the stability of the entire world, and is therefore a major consideration going forward.

The EAJ’s Basic Policy is “Engineer the Future Society for Human Security and Well-being” and now, as both Japanese society and the international community face epoch-defining turning points, our Basic Policy has come to have greater significance than ever before. This is because negotiating these historic turning points facing Japan and the world will demand the transformation of our society—in other words, engineering the future society—toward the goals of human security and well-being.

Responsibility for societal transformation, however, lies not only with researchers, developers, engineers, and others who are directly involved in science and engineering. Everybody has a role to play, including politicians, policymakers, local government personnel, business executives, and ordinary citizens, regardless of gender or age.

As an independent science and engineering academy, the EAJ will continue to work with all those who lead and sustain our society in actively pursuing activities to see us through these chaotic times. As we do so, I hope you will continue to offer us your guidance, encouragement, and assistance.

Yuichiro Anzai
EAJ President