Director's Message

Pursuing and Nurturing the Frontiers of Advanced Science and Technology and Connecting with Society

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• With the rapid advancement of information technology and artificial intelligence, the value of simply possessing or collecting knowledge is diminishing. Instead, the capacity for genuine creation is increasingly recognized as a uniquely human value. Furthermore, in our modern society, where human activity has expanded in scale and various pursuits are interrelated in complex ways, often generating severe trade-offs, merely gathering and superficially summarizing information is not enough. The power of imagination that enables us to deeply empathize with events distant in space and time will be valued as an essential human capability.

  In this context, the role of universities engaged in cutting-edge science and technology is undergoing profound change. Science has traditionally advanced by meticulously categorizing the phenomena of the universe and delving deeply into truth within subdivided domains.The accumulation of such specialized, advanced knowledge has long been a core source of a university’s value. However, in an increasingly complex society, universities are now expected to play the role of appropriately integrating these specialized areas of knowledge and working collaboratively with stakeholders to develop new solutions to pressing challenges.

  At the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), we pride ourselves on being an unconventional institute without rigid disciplinary boundaries. Researchers from diverse academic backgrounds—across both the humanities and sciences— come together on our compact campus, engaging in multilayered communication on the basis of both reason and emphathy. Our goal is to open the door to an “advanced” future that is both brighter and richer.

  This Master Book serves as a catalog to introduce you to the researchers gathered here at RCAST and to inspire your hopes for the future. Yet no matter how creative and imaginative our researchers may be, simply listing them side by side does not in itself create anything truly “advanced.” It is your passionate hopes for the future that act as the catalyst, enabling our researchers to transcend disciplinary boundaries, collaborate, and resonate with one another to forge new paths forward. This is the spirit of “Resonant Co-Creation” that we at RCAST seek to cultivate and advance.

Masakazu SUGIYAMA, Director

(October 2025)