[Special Feature: 30 Years of SFC] SFC at 30: Aiming to Lead a New Civilization

Photo: Taken by drone in 2019 (Provided by the Keishi Takeda Laboratory)

In 2019, two events occurred at Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC) that signaled the arrival of a new era. First, the deans of the Faculty of Policy Management and the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies—two faculties established at the campus's founding—both transitioned from leaders in their 60s to those in their 40s. Second, Professor Jun Murai, who has had a decisive influence on the campus's image as the father of the internet in Japan since its inception, stepped down from the campus leadership (Dean of the Graduate School of Media and Governance) due to mandatory retirement (he currently remains at Keio University as a university professor and co-director of the Cyber Civilization Research Center). As the campus marks its 30th anniversary, this is a good opportunity to look back at the past and envision the future. SFC has continued to be a symbol of university reform not just for Keio University, but for Japan as a whole. By reflecting on what has been achieved and what remains to be done, we must consider the new mission we should fulfill moving forward.

It is said that the basic concept for SFC was first publicly discussed by President Tadao Ishikawa in 1983 at the Keio University 125th Anniversary Ceremony. While there was no explicit statement about opening a new campus, the fundamental concepts that persist today were certainly articulated. The address was published in the "Mita-hyoron Special Issue: 125th Anniversary Commemorative Publication," so I would like to extract some points from it.

First, as a basic awareness of the issues, he stated that "industrialization is posing various major problems around us," and announced the arrival of an era where "complex, fluid, and uncertain times will bring new phenomena we have never experienced in the past, one after another." To respond to this, he argued that "the nature of scholarship must change in various ways," and that "research in areas we previously did not target" and "research and education in the areas of negotiation between academic disciplines will also become important." Regarding education, he stated, "The focus of education must shift toward the ability to analyze, reason, judge, and construct things with one's own head in response to new phenomena," and that "the existing university research and education systems are by no means sufficient." This was followed by a call for international exchange. He concluded by saying that "scholarship is something shared by the world" and that "Keio University must develop into a school (Juku) that can withstand international evaluation." These points have lost none of their freshness even today, nearly 40 years later.

As the embodiment of President Ishikawa's vision, the most important philosophy SFC has championed is an interdisciplinary approach centered on "problem discovery and problem solving." Rather than focusing on academic disciplines, it gathers researchers with various specialties around the problem areas they are trying to solve. Beyond being a mere catchphrase, the faculty organization is built around research subjects regardless of academic field, based on the premise of fluidity called "projects." This means that as problems change with the times, the organization also changes. On a more practical level, even in the recruitment of new faculty, the idea of "replacing a predecessor" is discarded. Instead, the campus leadership searches for and appoints those who seem likely to contribute most to the problem-solving required for the next era. Recruitment criteria also include the ability to collaborate and produce output with researchers from diverse fields. The philosophy that diversity itself becomes strength is thoroughly implemented.

I should also mention that the reason such personnel management is possible is the "Steering Committee" system, where much of the faculty decision-making, including personnel matters, is delegated immediately after the dean election is completed. While there is much criticism these days of systems where presidents and deans are elected, SFC has shown that management with clear direction can coexist with management that respects the autonomy of researchers.

We have also developed methodologies for gathering diverse knowledge. To prevent an interdisciplinary team from becoming a disorganized mob, a certain amount of know-how is required. At SFC, we have worked hard to create a state where researchers from different fields can "speak the same language" by sharing common language systems across all fields, such as natural language, programming language, system design language (including institutions), and data science language (including statistics). While there is still room for improvement, I know of no other university in the world where interdisciplinary research happens as naturally as it does at SFC.

The Admissions Office (AO) entrance examination, a symbol of the entrance exam reforms started by SFC, has also become firmly established. Since it is not an entrance exam centered on general subjects, there was initially some mockery based on various misunderstandings. However, by continuing to operate without forgetting the original intent of "welcoming diverse students through multifaceted evaluation criteria," the essence of the system has come to be understood. It is now being recognized as the basic path for university reform throughout Japan. From a practical perspective, accepting diverse students through AO stimulates even the students who enter through general examinations, leading them to break out of conventional molds and excel.

In terms of accepting diverse students, the GIGA (Global Information and Governance Academic Program), which started in 2011 and allows students to complete their studies from entrance to graduation through classes in English, is also growing steadily. In September 2019, it became a program with 79 enrollees. Including international students in other programs, it has become an international campus with students from 30 countries. Note that the title of the GIGA program itself is problem-solving oriented, focusing on the integration of arts and sciences and governance. The interdisciplinary organization of universities starting from problem discovery and problem solving has recently become an important evaluation point internationally and in university rankings. For example, the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) were a central theme at SFC even before the term was coined. Keio University entered the world's top 100 universities in that category (THE Impact Rankings) in 2019, and I am proud that the evaluation of SFC's activities was a major factor.

The stance of being involved not just in problem discovery but also in problem solving has also become established as a characteristic of SFC. This means a stance of collaborating with industry and government agencies to be involved in the work of concretely embedding research results into society. If we understand "discovery" as clarifying principles, "invention" as developing new technologies, and "innovation" as creating a mechanism that incorporates discoveries into concrete social systems to continuously generate value, then SFC commits to going beyond mere discovery and invention to the point of creating innovation.

One form of innovation is the creation of ventures. It is no exaggeration to say that there are few ventures active in Japan today where SFC graduates are not seen; the campus has produced many entrepreneurs. While those who start businesses while still students are prominent, that is not all. In fact, looking only at career paths upon graduation, the majority are not that different from other faculties at Keio University. The difference is that many people throw themselves into ventures after gaining experience for a while after graduation. In the early days, the fact that many people changed jobs was often spoken of as something bad, but recently the world has changed. During this time, a culture has taken root at SFC where, watching the examples of their seniors, creating innovation is not seen as something special, but as a natural thing to do. In the uncertain and fluctuating world predicted by President Ishikawa, I am often surprised by the toughness of SFC graduates who can build their own careers while adapting to the changes of the times.

A major factor that served as the foundation for producing many entrepreneurs is likely SFC's role as a major hub for the internet. It can be said that the internet accelerated the evolution of the world pointed out by President Ishikawa, such as the progress of globalization, the interdependence of problems, and the resulting expansion of uncertainty. Furthermore, it was the internet that gave birth to many "new research methods" for problem solving, and the value of being able to demonstrate leadership in that field was immense. The new leaders currently managing the campus belong to the generation that experienced the cutting edge of internet evolution and understand the meaning of informatization firsthand, for better or worse. They will surely steer the campus in a way that responds firmly to the digital society, which is accelerating its speed of evolution even further.

I have listed the achievements of SFC above, but here I would like to return to President Ishikawa's warning that "it is not enough to simply praise past history and glory." There are many things we envisioned but could not do, and many new challenges are emerging.

While various issues remain if we speak of specifics, the greatest seems to be that we have not yet fully drawn a solid vision for the new form of society following the industrial society that President Ishikawa spoke of. Due to the progress of informatization, we are now at a phase where the industrial society that supports the modern civilization Yukichi Fukuzawa introduced to the East is undergoing a major transformation. It is a transition from a society that produces material goods and generates value through exchange mediated by money—governed by institutions such as property rights and markets—to a society that distributes value generated by the accumulation (sharing) of data using technologies such as AI, cloud, and IoT, based on the degree of contribution to society. While such a rough image is visible, the specific mechanism for governing that society is not. For example, regarding the management of data, there is a conflict of ideas that could be called a clash of civilizations between the Eastern idea of considering it as belonging to society and the Western idea of considering it as belonging strictly to the individual, and the discussion is not aligning at all.

In the near future, humanity will transcend conflict and welcome the dawn of a "cyber civilization" suited to the new era. Welcoming a new civilization and making it something good can be called Keio University's mission in world history. The time has come for Keio University to compile a new "An Outline of a Theory of Civilization." There are great expectations from the world for Japan, which deeply understood Western civilization in the East and achieved prosperity under democracy, to act as a bridge. SFC should be in the best position to realize that mission. As a member of the Fukuzawa Juku, I want to lead Japan and the world into the next era.