Message from the Director-General

April 1, 2024
Director-General: Fujiki Kanji

I am Mr. Fujiki and have been appointed the Director-General of the Sakura Science Exchange Program (SSP) as of April 2024, succeeding my predecessor, Dr. Kishi. The SSP was initiated in 2014 and this year marks a fresh start for the second decade of the program. Besides preserving the founding principles of this program, we also plan to modify the program to adapt and be relevant to the changing social values and needs that flow and ebb with time. By accepting the Director-General position at this point in time, I am determined to take on this challenge.

Through the SSP, foreign students, researchers and civil servants have been invited to Japan to foster friendship and exchanges with their Japanese counterparts and also to promote sustainable exchanges with the institutions or organizations to which those invitees were affiliated. To date, approximately 40,000 young people have been invited to Japan through this program to see first-hand and have a feel for Japanese cutting-edge science and technology as well as to experience the culture. I hope to build on this achievement and expand it further by bringing it to the next level.

On the other hand, it is now widely recognized that for global technological innovation to move forward, it is imperative for Japan to collaborate with other countries/regions through the promotion of international brain cycle. The SSP will keep in view this concept and modify it accordingly to fulfill the demands of the contemporary situation. By bringing together youths from different countries/regions with different cultural and knowledge backgrounds, the SSP aims to produce novel ideas, new scientific discoveries and innovative creativity that might result from their interaction and cooperation. Moreover, I strongly believe that such initiatives and activities will also contribute to the enhancement of friendship and solidarity among the people of the participating countries/regions.

All participants of the SSP, after completion of their sojourn and program in Japan, are invited to join the alumni association, called Sakura Science Club (SSC). The SSC provides not only a platform for continuous interaction and networking among alumni members, it also disseminates up-to-date global scientific information and helps the alumni to keep in touch with Japan.

With the strengthening of the bonds between alumni and the deepening relationships with Japan and the world, I believe that the SSC alumni can jointly cooperate to find solutions to local, national, and global issues. Moreover, SSC alumni meetings have been already spontaneously and voluntarily conducted in some countries/regions along that line of thought. We, at the JST, would like to support such activities, hoping that each and every member of the Sakura Science Club eventually join world leaders and lead not only their respective countries and regions but also international community to a peaceful and brighter future.