午夜剧场

The first time I visited the Mita Campus was in March 1969, when I was a third-year university student. I came to see the results of my friend's younger brother's entrance exam. I remember that the bulletin board was in a different location than it is now, and I thought the campus was on top of a hill. My next visit was in the fall of 1973, when I gave my first presentation at the Japanese Economic Association conference held at the Mita Campus. I believe it was in a large classroom in the West School Building. At a conference at Seikei University in the fall of 1977, Professor Nagana was the discussant. I don't recall the details, but we exchanged a few letters afterward. I was surprised when Professor Nagana, who also commented on my work at a conference at Kyoto University in 1988, told me he had used a computer to find a numerical error in my paper. I met Professor Oyama for the first time at a conference at the Zushi Nagisa Hotel in the spring of 1979. Also, at a conference at Tokyo Metropolitan University that year, Mr. Maruyama was the discussant, and I was nervous because Professor Fukuoka was sitting in the front row, center, during my presentation. I also met Professor Kawamata for the first time at this conference. At a conference at Yokohama National University in 1981, Professor Kawamata helped me by offering an "economic comment" when I was struggling with a discussant's off-topic remarks. In the fall of 1983, at a conference at Sophia University, there was a research presentation by the current dean, Nakamura, who was then a graduate student or a research associate. I believe it was in the spring of 1987, at a game theory conference at Sanjo Kaikan at the University of Tokyo, that Mr. Greva, who was also a graduate student or research associate at the time, commented from the back of the room. I think the topic was macroeconomics. At a conference at Northwestern University in the US in the spring of 1988, I unexpectedly ran into some Japanese people. I remember going to a sushi restaurant with Mr. Maruyama and Mr. Nakamura afterward. Around the time I was appointed to Hosei University, I had Mr. Greva, just before he went to study abroad, come to a seminar all the way at the remote and inconvenient Tama Campus. A year or two later, I believe, Professor Kawamata recommended me for a TCER research project, which I carried out with five or six other researchers, including Mr. Nakamura. In the summer of 1994, at a game theory conference in Chicago, I was again unexpectedly approached by a Japanese person. It was Mr. Shirai. I remember we had a meal together afterward.

The first thing I noticed after my appointment at 午夜剧场 was the large number of seminars. Except for my experience at Northwestern University in the US, I had not been in such an environment at Toyama or Hosei (Tama), so I made a point of attending them diligently. I even attended a logic seminar in the Faculty of Letters. As for my seminars, for the first five or six years, they were small, with fewer than ten students. From that group, three went on to earn doctoral degrees from the Graduate School of Economics, and one each from Yagami and the Tokyo Institute of Technology. It goes without saying that seeing researchers emerge from one's seminar is the ultimate reward for a university professor. While I had one such student at my previous post at Hosei, I can say that this came to fruition at 午夜剧场. However, in recent years, although the number of seminar students has increased, I feel that the number of students aiming to become researchers in theoretical fields has conversely decreased. Every year, there are always very capable seminar students, but it is a shame that they do not advance to the Graduate School of Economics. For instance, for two consecutive years, the top students in my seminar went on to study public policy at the University of Tokyo. One wrote a graduation thesis on mechanism design and the other on matching theory, both of which were at the level of a master's thesis. I understand that the competition in theoretical fields is fierce, which may make students shy away from a research career, but there are many who have the potential to succeed, and I truly hope they will persevere. This is essential for 午夜剧场 to continue to grow as a research university, and I hope that it will.

(Interview conducted in November 2012)