Editors’ panel discussion
What the transformation of reality has brought to learning
Kotosaka: This is a very difficult subject, but I would like to share some of my thoughts. I am in business studies, and the reality of business studies has drastically changed. Twenty years ago, when I was making a web service for young people, it cost about one million yen to run a server with adequate capacity. Today, you can create a service without running your own server on-premise or in data centers; and by using TikTok and other apps, even high schoolers can do marketing for services. What is of importance now is to conceive and swiftly offer services that quickly and suitably meet trends. So, the reality is very different from what it was in the past. As the money-related order of things changes fluidly, optimal management strategies also change. Such is the reality of business. I feel that business studies need to catch up on this aspect, and I myself am strongly aware of this change in the premise.
Kamo: Thank you. Now some comments from Professor Wada.
Wada: Listening to Professor Kamo and thinking about what reality is, I felt that it might be based on experience. Recently, the term "evidence-based policy" is getting attention and has become widely known. I think that if making statements based on experience is one axis, then another opposite axis is "evidence quest."
We have many professors here at SFC promoting evidence-based policy, and I think that is very important. However, at the same time, it is crucial to examine what we consider to be evidence. Changing the way we look at something might reveal something different from what the numbers and data say, and changing the model can result in a different interpretation. I feel pursuing this point in a rigorous academic manner is essential.
On the same note, our first dean Professor Hiroshi Kato said, "Learning gives us knowledge but does not give us direction in how we should use it." I think these words have a common thread with "evidence quest." When the Faculty of Policy Management was founded thirty years ago, the only data available to us was macro data, such as national income and investment. However, later on, when data from individuals and households became available, analytical methods in economics took a dramatic leap. The existing academic discipline was able to cover increasingly wider areas.
Kotosaka: For this book project, I am in charge of the volume called "Social Innovation: methods and practices." In business studies, the most prominent topic in management strategy planning is the marked change in the amount of data available. Previously, interviews, surveys, and sampling were conducted based on the assumption that data cannot be obtained. However, now, the possibilities are opening up for exploration and research based on the assumption that all data for a site can be obtained. We now live in a world where retailers can obtain complete data on customers' whereabouts and actions while in the store, and connect this to POS. In addition, with point cards now being linked to credit cards, we can even see what was purchased. We are able to know everything. When we look at how executives are making decisions, there is not a lack of data, but rather, there is too much data for them to get a good grasp of it all. This is a situation never faced before. It is a completely different reality from the past.
Philosophy to connect reality and learning
Kamo: Thank you for your input. Professor Shimizu, do you have any comments?
Shimizu: While listening, I had the thought that to grasp reality is important, but where is this reality? I was especially interested in the comment "As the volume of information grows, how do we understand it all?" I think it refers back to what Professor Kamo wants to convey, but past deans at SFC often quoted Yukichi Fukuzawa's words "Do not learn for learning's sake." Of course, it is important to refine the methods of academic learning, but Fukuzawa's words caution us to be aware that the pursuit of learning can lead us away from reality. This campus has repeatedly made efforts to get close to reality, but at the same time, in this time of abundant data, we need to discuss where we are heading. It is true that people who are taking action make up one kind of reality, and we need to track these real actions and connect them to the realm of academia. When we do this, what will be our philosophy for the direction of policy management studies? I hope we will be able to present this through the book project.
Another essential point is that the Faculty of Policy Management, the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, and the Faculty of Nursing and Medical Care have in common a focus on people. All issues involve people. Where there are many people who each have their own version of finding it hard to live, I hope we can find solutions to help people live more easily. As Professor Yamamoto says, language, culture and communication in its broadest sense will increasingly become a vital factor in terms of looking at situations regionally and methodologically. This philosophy is widely shared at SFC. In my oral history seminar, our research takes the approach of incorporating real voices and the warmth of human kindness. I think this is another direction the philosophy of this campus is taking, and combined with reality, the course for SFC is becoming clearer.
Kamo: Thank you very much. Reality is a topic particularly relevant to the area of language, culture and communication, covered by the volume edited by Professor Yamamoto. Do you have any comments regarding this topic of reality in policy management?
Yamamoto: While listening to Professor Kamo, I also felt that being able to see the human side of things is crucial. I think the best part and most important thing about communication through language is that it is on the human level. For example, when conducting research on refugees, we can understand a situation as numbers and data, but if we add the experience of looking at a refugee as a fellow human being and listening to that person's words, that is where reality is born.
No matter how many eras go by or how advanced communication tools become,
communication through language will always be of fundamental importance. I currently teach Arabic at SFC, and students sometimes ask me what the point of learning a language is when automated translation technology continues to improve, and besides, there is only so much one can learn in four years of college. But that is not the point. Speaking the words yourself has tremendous significance. Earlier, when we were introducing each volume of the book project, I greeted everyone with the Arabic word "Marhaban (hello)." It was probably the first time for most of you to hear it. Going back to the example of refugee studies, if you go to a refugee camp, it is no doubt important to gather data on such things as the degree of poverty, but being able to say "hello" and exchange a few words in the refugees' language makes a huge difference in the amount of information you will be able to extract. This is not only from my experience, but I am sure it rings true for all professors who conduct interview-based research. How can we approach the person as a fellow human being and obtain real information, how will that information be incorporated into academics, and how will we think and act based on that information? From the viewpoint of language, culture, and communication, this is the reality for policy management.