Message from the Representative:
Japan is one of the few happy countries in the world, and the excellent environment in which we live allows us all to live long lives, which is precisely why we are faced with the impending dilemma of a super-aging society and why we will soon be grappling with problems that nobody has ever experienced. If we continue at our present rate, then the economic burden of Japan’s high medical costs and the inadequacy of our infrastructure for senior citizens may lead to problems such as a diminishing quality of life and even depopulation of some regions, and the very longevity that should be our foremost source of happiness may in fact give rise to a warped, unbalanced society that will bring joy to nobody. Meanwhile, although the frontier of today’s life sciences has advanced to a point that is technologically more than adequate to solve all of the aforementioned problems, in practice, society cannot be reformed simply by adopting these technologies in isolation; instead, advances in the life sciences must be paired with the latest technological improvements coming from other fields, such as mechanical engineering, electronic engineering, and information technology skill, and incorporated into existing systems. At our Research Group for the Future of Sports and Health Science, researchers at the forefront of many academic disciplines work together, taking maximal advantage of Tokyo Institute of Technology’s unique ability to foster collaborations that transcend boundaries between fields and departments, to build an ultra-long-lived society in which all citizens can enjoy happy lives. To this end, we are fusing many new technologies, including biological data acquisition, micro-devices, bioengineering, and information-communication, into biological science technologies (artificial-intelligence [AI]-based diagnostic technologies) that will constitute our core platform technology. We will maintain close relationships with individuals on a daily basis and establish a partner system that will take care of people in consideration of their lifestyles and health histories, but we expect this process to be based on dialogue with many people. We want you to have the highest hopes for a happy, long-lived society, and we are sure that we will have opportunities to work together with you to achieve it. We are already looking forward to having you join us!