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Director's Message

Sawako Takeuchi  (Program Director and Supervisor) Professor at Kyoto University Dr. of the Engineering Ph. D. Economics

   During the first decade of the 21st century there has been increasing social demand for the advent of epoch-making innovative leaders who slough off the older standard of value like exclusive pursuit of efficiency and scale expansion in the 20th century, thereby creating new paradigm in both economic and social aspects to go through a historic change. For achieving this goal the innovative leaders are expected to be capable of getting an insight into comprehensive social demands for sustainable developments under dramatically varying global environments, and therefore they should cultivate their own ability of formulating plots to make economic profits and return them to global society.

   Without exception all the innovations in the past era were created through inspiration of geniuses. However, innovation in the new era is greatly indebted to ability of leaders, by which fruitful outcome of science and technology is systematically applied to the progress of whole human society. In this context the younger generations with prospects for new innovative leaders are going to recognize evidence that globalization of industrial production system inevitably gives rise to the exhaustion of natural resources and the destruction of global environment, thereafter working over their plans to propose definite projects of producing sustainable benefits to global society with making rational use of limited natural resources and energy.

   The Nissan LPIE is a unique program to nurture global leaders with humanities and sciences aspects, through which the LPIE members can develop ability of analyzing the fundamental factors in the natural sciences, abstracting the comprehensive political, economical and social factors that dominate the human society, foreseeing a future trend of social structural changes, and proposing a realizable plan of the given projects. It is one of the main objectives for the LPIE members to plot an overview of social system in the near future, positively creating a new class of common ground between the highly specialized science and technology world and the human society.

   Typically, the Nissan LPIE program for the year is consist of the opening ceremony, the short-term intensive programs with lodging together to be held twice a year, the members-initiative long distant group discussion on the selected project theme throughout the year, the global sessions for providing opportunities of communication with world-wide prominent leaders to be held twice a year, the presentation of the final proposals by the individual groups, and the completion ceremony to award the LPIE certification. The document for proposal is requested to demonstrate a scenario for realization of "Sustainability & Humanity" along with the scientific rationality, the technological aspects to solve the certain global issues, and the social values demanded in the near future.

   The Nissan LPIE is not a field of knowledge education, but a self-enlightening program for cultivating an awareness of the global issues to be solved, an ability of setting up the targeted issues, an ability of communication in its international level, a sense of responsibility for the global society, and a self-reliance. The Nissan LPIE members are strongly expected to have a noble mind for facing difficult issues as well as a deep intelligence for flexibly constructing a network of knowledge in various disciplines, and thereby provoke a new wave of innovation upon linking technologies, industries, nonprofit organizations, and societies.

   This textbook has been edited to provide primarily the Nissan LPIE members an opportunity of touching and understanding the essential spirit of Japan, thus displaying "the structure of Japanese aesthetic ideals and culture" accompanied by an anthology of historical references. The prospective global leader with an innovative spirit should acquire excellent powers of understanding towards cross cultures as a common basis leading to the realization of "Sustainability & Humanity" in the global community. In this aspect, I hope that not only the Nissan LPIE members but also overseas younger generations possessing the markings of a leader could read this textbook for better understanding of Japan and Japanese sense of humanities.

　

Dr. Sawako Takeuchi, the Program Director
In the season of fresh green at Kyoto, 2009