January 1, 2023

Happy New Year.

Last year, in the world, human security and well-being, global peace and safety, and continuous development were threatened by various challenges including the COVID-19 pandemic whose end is still not in sight, the invasion of Ukraine by the government of Russia, security, global warming, prolonged energy and food crises, the disparities arising from the extension of conventional capitalism, inflation pressures, and currency appreciation. Also, returning to Japan, in addition to such issues, the people are being struck by extremely difficult problems as their own day after day including the recovery of Japan as a technology-based nation, cults, intensified global warming phenomena, the stable supply of electric power, and the enhancement of diversity .

In the past, there was a time when it was thought that humanity’s difficult problems such as infectious diseases, war, and starvation had been overcome. However, while science and technology have been accumulated over thousands of years, humans encounter death after 70 to 100 years, at most. Hypothetically, if information were interrupted by death, one would have to question whether individual people would have evolved from the era of Plato and Aristotle in the democracy of ancient Greece. Formerly, science and engineering were thought to be well separated from politics, but today the common sense is that decisions cannot be made unless politics is based on science and engineering. I believe that now is the time when each individual must reevaluate the vectors of conventional common sense and values and act toward fundamental change. In such an era, the idea that EAJ is in a position to play a very important role is becoming the common understanding.

To resolve the various problems mentioned at the beginning, I believe it is more important than ever before to manifest diversity and collective intelligence which transcends the arts and science. In our activities to date, EAJ has provided insight toward how society should be in the future, conducted forums, symposiums, and projects in line with that direction, and formulated various proposals based on the conclusions of those examinations. Precisely because this is a time of great change when the future is difficult to foresee, I believe that even more than in the past EAJ has a mission to earnestly communicate policy proposals and advance their implementation in society.

We must determine what to focus on and how to communicate the high ideal and purpose of “engineer the future for human security and well-being.” This year, keeping the vision for the ideal future in mind, while maintaining awareness of our significance as an academy, I intend to advance comprehensive activities to prepare for the future together with all of you based on our respective fields of expertise.

I conclude my New Year’s greetings with my wishes for the greater health and activities of all our members.

Yoshimitsu Kobayashi
EAJ President