The National
Science Foundation's Tokyo Regional Office periodically reports
on develop-ments in Japan that are related to the Foundation's
mission. It also provides occasional re-ports on developments
in other East Asian countries. These reports are intended to provide
information for the use of NSF program officers and policy makers;
they are not statements of NSF policy.
Ambassador Thomas S. Foley addressed the Alumni Association of the US Naval Hospital at Yokosuka (which is located approximately an hour south of Tokyo by train) on April 1, 2000. The text of his remarks follow.
It is a pleasure to address this distinguished sample of the approximately 600 alumni of the US Naval Hospital, Yokosuka, Intern Program. It is a particular pleasure to congratulate the recipient of the Intern Alumni Association's Teacher of the Year Award: Dr. Surjya Das. I understand, Dr. Das, that you will be leaving the Yokosuka Naval Hospital in August for fellowship training in cardiology at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda. Let me join your colleagues here this evening to thank you for the splendid work you have done over the past two years as Director of the Yokosuka Intern Program, and wish you every success in your future career.
The fact that the alumni of the Yokosuka Intern Program have organized this association clearly demonstrates that you understand the important role that the program has played for almost half a century in creating and maintaining strong links between the US and Japanese medical communities. Since so many members of this association pursue teaching and research careers in university medical schools throughout Japan, this is an appropriate occasion to reflect on the significance of US-Japan cooperation in higher education and research to the overall bilateral relationship between our two countries.
Our cooperation in higher education began more than 75 years before the Yokosuka Intern Program was established. In 1876, the Meiji Government invited Dr. William S. Clark, President of the Agricultural College of Massachusetts in Amherst, to help found -- and serve as the first vice-president of -- the Sapporo Agricultural College, which became the nucleus of Hokkaido University. Many of you have probably seen the bust of Dr. Clark at the crossroads of that beautiful campus and have been inspired by his famous admonition-"Boys, be ambitious!" -inscribed on the pedestal in both English and Katakana.
The Yokosuka Intern Program was created in 1952 with the rationale that by introducing the most promising young Japanese medical practitioners to US medical education, links important to the future of our two countries would be established. The wisdom and foresight of those who founded this program as an investment in the future cannot be denied. For during the intervening years, Japanese contributions to medical science and to science more broadly have surely far exceeded the founders' expectations.
By 1962, a decade after the Yokosuka Intern Program had been established, Japan's accomplishments in scientific research-as well as its future potential-had become so impressive that President Kennedy accepted the advice of my distinguished predecessor, Ambassador Edwin Reischauer, that he negotiate with Prime Minister Ikeda a bilateral Cooperative Science Agreement between our two countries. The National Science Foundation (NSF) was named as the implementing agency in the United States, and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) was assigned the parallel role in Japan.
Next month, on May 10, the National Science Foundation [NSF] will celebrate its 50th anniversary, and we plan to use the occasion to organize several events in Tokyo recognizing the importance of our bilateral relationship in scientific research and higher education for the 21st century.
Three years after President Kennedy and Prime Minister Ikeda negotiated the first cooperative research agreement between our countries, President Johnson and Prime Minister Sato expanded our research cooperation with the US-Japan Cooperative Medical Sciences Program, concluded in 1965. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) was designated as implementing agency for the United States, with JSPS the implementing agency in Japan.
Since these beginnings in the 1960s, US-Japan cooperation in scientific research has expanded significantly, due in large measure to the increasing importance of Japanese contributions to research and development (R&D) worldwide. Japan recognized at an early stage that knowledge, rather than labor or capital, would be the key determinant of success in what economists have since come to call the knowledge-based economy. As I am sure you are all aware, the country's achievements in electronics and computer technologies, for example, have been nothing short of remarkable.
Investments in people and ideas are essential to remain competitive in the knowledge-based economy. The United States and Japan, together, account for approximately 60 percent of the world's R&D expenditures. We both recognize that the rate of progress in scientific research can be greatly accelerated through cooperation. US-Japan research cooperation now involves many ministries and agencies in Japan and their counterpart Cabinet Departments and Independent agencies in the United States.
Recognizing the continuing importance of research cooperation, at their May 1999 meeting in Washington, DC, President Clinton and Prime Minister Obuchi called for an expanded dialogue on the role of science and technology in our societies in the new millennium. A committee of Japanese scientists and engineers, chaired by the distinguished physician Dr. Hiroo Imura, a former president of Kyoto University, has had two meetings with a corresponding American committee with the intent of preparing a report, with recommendations, to our two leaders. The report is scheduled to be made public next month when Monbusho [Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture] Minister Nakasone makes an official visit to Washington. I understand that research cooperation in the area of human health will be among several areas that the two committees will specifically recommend.
Many US Cabinet Departments and Independent Agencies are involved
in research cooperation with Japan. However, the National Science
Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) [within
the Department of Health and Human Services] are the principal
US Government organizations that support research in our colleges
and universities and, therefore, facilitate international cooperation
in both higher education and research. Let me briefly describe
the several opportunities to work with Japanese colleagues that
the NSF, in cooperation with its Japanese counterparts-primarily
the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Monbusho, and
the Science and Technology Agency (STA)-offers to American scientists
and engineers. These provide a good indication of the breadth
of our cooperation in higher education and research:
Probably my favorite of all the cooperative programs sponsored by US Government agencies and their Japanese counterparts is the Summer Institute for Graduate Students. This program, created by NSF and STA in 1989, brings some of our brightest young scientists and engineers to Japan for two months during the summer to spend about half their time conducting research in a Japanese laboratory, and the remainder studying the Japanese language and immersing themselves in Japanese culture. Because of the early success of this summer institute program, two other US agencies-NIH and the Agricultural Research Service-have joined NSF as sponsors on the American side.
The explicit objective of the summer institute program is to demonstrate to promising researchers at an early stage in their scientific careers the value of cooperation with Japan. I believe we are succeeding admirably in meeting this objective. A majority of the summer institute students are impressed with the access to state-of-the-art apparatus that they enjoy during their brief research experiences here. They have been equally impressed with the amount of "hands-on" time their senior host scientists devote to them. Most of all, they profit from the professional and personal rapport gained by working alongside their aspiring Japanese peers.
A total of 57 students have been accepted into the 2000 Summer Institute program, and an additional 32 into a similar program established more recently by the NSF and the Monbusho. I am pleased that two of these outstanding young scientists are from my home state of Washington. We look forward to welcoming all of them to Japan in late June.
Japan's demonstrated commitment to research will continue to
make it advantageous, perhaps imperative, for American scientists
to come here for extended working visits. Two examples from the
frontiers of biomedical science serve to illustrate this commitment:
Of course many young Japanese scientists still go to the United States to conduct research in our facilities. The Yokosuka Intern Program has introduced promising young Japanese physicians and medical scientists to US practices in those fields, and many of you went on to study in the United States. The precedent you established continues. As an example, last year there were approximately 300 Japanese medical scientists working in the laboratories located on the splendid campus of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. Many of these scientists are being supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. Others are being supported by NIH's Fogarty International Center
I should also mention here one particularly noteworthy multinational organization devoted to the support of international cooperation in higher education and research: The Human Frontiers Science Program (HFSP). HFSP, with headquarters in Strassbourg, France, was established in 1989 at the initiative of Japan, which for several years contributed the bulk of its financial support. Since its inception, a number of other countries, including the United States, Canada, several Western European countries and the European Union, have augmented Japan's investments in the program. HFSP offers post-doctoral fellowships for young scientists in the fields of molecular biology and brain science from one supporting country to conduct research for one to two years in a laboratory in another supporting country. The program also provides research grants in these same fields for international teams composed of scientists from two or more HFSP countries.
HFSP awards are considered very desirable and for that reason have become highly competitive. Last year, fewer than one-quarter of the applicants for fellowships and fewer than one-sixth of the applicants for research grants were successful. I am pleased to note, however, that among the 50 successful research grants awarded during 1999, 16 went to international research groups headed by American scientists. This is just one concrete illustration of the way that the American scientific community continues to benefit from its long and close association with Japan.
It is my belief that scientific knowledge will increasingly provide the key to more than simply economic well being in the years ahead. In contrast to material goods or human labor, the available quantity of knowledge does not diminish with use. On the contrary, knowledge frequently increases and is refined with use, particularly when it is shared among individuals with differing perspectives. That, I believe, is one of the principal arguments in support of international cooperation in research. Cooperation among individuals and groups working in the same scientific field who approach a problem from differing cultural perspectives can augment their joint knowledge more effectively than if they remain isolated within their national borders.
In the 21st century, knowledge will be easily transmitted across national boundaries and available for use by anyone who possesses the means to understand and exploit it. In taking the initiative to create the Human Frontiers Science Program, Japan recognized this increasingly international character of our knowledge by providing opportunities for research cooperation among scientists and engineers from the world's developed countries.
However, the rising scientific capabilities of countries outside the privileged developed country circle has been one of the more significant changes that has occurred since the Yokosuka Intern Program was created almost 50 years ago, and even since HFSP was created a little over a decade ago. Many of the more important of these rising scientific nations are in this part of the world.
Japan and the United States now have the opportunity and, I would suggest, the obligation to draw on their long and productive experience with bilateral cooperation in higher education and research to work together with these emerging scientific countries to create a knowledge-based society that is genuinely global in character. With the help of people such as yourselves, today's researchers, and those being educated for the work of tomorrow, we can make of this dream for the future a present reality.
Thank you for your attention.