午夜剧场

One of my favorite books is Shusaku Endo's "Silence." The main reason is that it makes me think deeply about the essence of Japan through the "ideological disconnect between the West and Japan" during the persecution of Christians. Shusaku Endo was a Christian, but he was reportedly baptized as an infant. Unlike those who chose to become believers, one can see in this work that he suffered from the gap between original Christianity and the Christianity that he, as a Japanese person, could accept.

I feel the same way about research. The field of mechanics that I am currently researching was born in the West. Mechanics was shaped by many great scholars, such as Newton and Leibniz, who were active in the 17th century. I believe they were able to construct such a beautiful academic system precisely because they did not doubt the existence of an overwhelming God who determines the rules of the world.

I, too, have been drawn to that beauty and have continued my research. However, even if a genius mathematician of the same caliber had existed in Japan during the Edo period when Newton was active, I feel it would have been difficult for them to conceive a theory at the same level. Similarly today, I have the impression that the scale preferred by the general Japanese public is distant from the global scale. Even if I push myself to research in the same way, it feels like fighting on someone else's turf. Even if one writes an impactful paper or wins a Nobel Prize, I think it is essentially different from doing research that resonates for 200 years, like Galois, who died in a duel at age 20 and left behind almost no papers.

So, how can I, as a Japanese person, continue my research and compete in the future? This is what I have been thinking lately.

Japanese people have a tremendous ability to accept external things and make them their own. This becomes collective intelligence, shaping Japanese identity. That blood must flow through me as well, and perhaps utilizing this is the research style that is most like me and most like a Japanese person?

Having reached this conclusion, my style lately has shifted toward incorporating and transforming things I personally find interesting, rather than following overseas trends. Since I started thinking this way, I feel like I have been able to relax.

With the development of communication technology, we live in an era where information from Europe and the US can be obtained almost in real time. I want to incorporate anything interesting and create new things in my own way.