ritsumeikan university

L
Ritsumeikan University has a reputation for
being not only strong in academics and research,
but also superior in athletics. Many
of RU’s sports teams have seen great regional,
national, and international success in
their most recent athletic seasons. Last winter,
the American Football Team captured
the national championship at the Koshien
Bowl for the third year in a row, once again
establishing itself as the strongest university
football team in Japan. Women’s Track and
Field, Women and Men’s Kyudo (Japanese
Archery), Women and Men’s Weightlifting,
Women’s Fencing, and the Shooting Club
also placed first in national championships.
A number of RU teams also finished second
in national competitions, including Men’s
Soccer and Women’s Kendo.
RITSUMEIKAN UNIVERSITY REPORT
KYOTO
ocated an approximate ten minute bicycle ride away from Ritsumeikan
University’s Kinugasa Campus in Kyoto, Shiramine Shrine
is a small Shinto shrine dedicated to sports. The shrine was built in 1863
by Emperor Meiji to honor the spirits of two former emperors, Emperor
Junnin (718-737) and Emperor Sutoku (1119-
1164) and is the only shrine in Japan that
houses Seidaimyojin, the god of ball sports.
Although worshiping at Shiramine Shrine is
thought to bring good fortune to players of
all sports, the shrine is particularly famous for
In individual athletic accomplishments,
RU’s Ejima Daisuke led Japan to a silver
medal in the 200 meter medley relay of
the men’s swimming final in the 2004
Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece,
and also finished fifth in the 100 meter
final individual race. In women’s weightlifting,
Saito Rika set a new national record
by snatching 88 kilograms in the 69
kg division at the 2004 University Women’s
Weightlifting National Championships.
Her teammate, Sumida Shoko, recently
won first place in the 48 kg
division of the 2005 Junior World
Weightlifting Championship, held in the
Republic of Korea. Ritsumeikan University
greatly values the role of sports in developing
well-rounded students able to excel
in various fields.
(Further information about the athletic activities of RU students will be featured in the next issue.)
kemari, an ancient ball game that came to
Japan from China via Korea in the seventh
century. Kemari was originally played by aristocrats
on a pitch marked out by four trees,
ideally a cherry tree, a maple, a willow, and
a pine. The object of the game is to keep a
small ball (made of deerskin and stuffed with
sawdust or barley grains) in the air for as long as possible by kicking it
from one player to the next. Each player is allowed as many touches as
necessary to control the ball before passing it on and all players must
work together to keep the ball in the air so that the game will continue
as long as possible. The game was most
popular in the 10th to 16th centuries. However,
kemari’s popularity drastically waned in
later years, spurring Emperor Meiji to found
the Kemari Preservation Society
in 1903. Today kemari
teams are hosted by many Shinto shrines and Buddhist
temples, as well as universities and other non-religious
organizations.
At the Shiramine Shrine, priests and monks can often
be seen practicing the sport and a festival is held every
year to preserve the kemari tradition. Both amateur and
professional ball-players visit the shrine to pray for athletic
success and freedom from injury. A wide variety of
sports paraphernalia as well as messages cheering on
sports teams decorate this unusual shrine.
RITSUMEIKAN
NEWSLETTER UNIVERSITY
3
Vol.1 Issue3
SUMMER

lobal. Cutting Edge. Creativity. These are the three key concepts of Ritsumeikan University’s (RU) Discovery Research
Laboratory (DRL), which was created to incubate projects that link information communication technology (ICT) with
human, social, and environmental needs. The DRL was founded by the current President of Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific
University and Vice-Chancellor of the Ritsumeikan Trust, Professor Monte Cassim, and is now managed by Assistant
Professor Fujiyama Ichiro of Ritsumeikan International. Working closely with corporations, governmental organizations,
and other universities both in Japan and overseas, the DRL combines cutting-edge scientific technologies with knowledge
of the humanities to advance research and development by utilizing ICT to solve the problems of society. An important
consideration in all of the projects initiated by the DRL is “inclusive design”—a concept that seeks to allow as many
people as possible, regardless of their physical, sensory, or cognitive capability, to utilize products, services, interfaces, and
environments. This feature article explores one DRL research project, the Total Access Care and Medical Information
System (TACMIS), that aims to make medical information more useful and inclusive of patients and medical and health
care professionals, as well as to cultivate partnerships with hospitals and other care facilities.
RITSUMEIKAN UNIVERSITY
NEWSLETTER SUMMER 2005
The word ritsumei comes from a
passage in the Jinxin chapter of the
Discourses of Mencius. This passage
states, ”Some die young, as some live
long lives. This is decided by fate.
Therefore, one’s duty consists of
cultivating one’s mind during this
mortal span and thereby establishing
one’s destiny.” Thus, Ritsumeikan means
”the place to establish one’s destiny.”
Cover Picture Order of Names
Published by
The cover picture, entitled ”Nakamura Jakuemon as
Gotobei,” is from the ukiyo-e collection of Ritsumeikan
University’s Art Research Center. Drawn by Yoshitake,
this print depicts a scene in the kabuki play Hachijin
Shugo no Honjo, which is based on a puppet play.
Organization of Ritsumeikan
The Ritsumeikan Trust is the legal entity that operates the entire
Ritsumeikan Academy, which is comprised of Ritsumeikan University,
Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, and the affiliate secondary
schools. In this publication, ”Ritsumeikan” is used to refer to the
Ritsumeikan Academy, while RU and APU refer to Ritsumeikan
University and Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, respectively.
In this publication, the
name order for personal
names preserves the
original order of the
nationality in question. For
example, Japanese,
Chinese, and Korean
names are presented in
the surname/given name
order, while the given
name/surname order is
used for people from
Western countries.
Office of Public Relations
Ritsumeikan University
Designed by
Delights, Inc.
TACMIS was developed as part of the 2000 DRL-initiated
cross-national collaborative research and development
program, Design for Disability, Aging and Access
to Inclusive Information Tools, Technologies and Systems
(DAITS), focusing on the fundamental question,
“How can disabled and elderly people gain access to
and benefit from ICT?” Currently, DAITS is focused
on developing technologies and systems that allow for
greater inclusiveness among patients and medical professionals,
including doctors, nurses, and health care
staff. Within the DAITS program, the TACMIS research
project was initiated in order to make medical
services more effective and efficient by utilizing ICT
under the philosophy of “inclusiveness.” The TAC-
MIS project is led by Professor Cassim. The research
team includes Dr. Subana Shanmuganathan, Japan
Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Research
Fellow at the Ritsumeikan Center for Asia Pacific
Studies (RCAPS), and Murata Kyoko, Research Fellow
at the DRL, as well as several associates from research
institutions in Japan, UK, US, New Zealand,
and Sri Lanka. The TACMIS research team hopes to
improve health care informatics by developing a holistic
medical information system, which includes an
Electronic Patient Record (EPR) that will make medical
information more inclusive.
Electronic Patient Records are digital databases of a
patient’s medical records. EPRs offer many advantages
over paper records, such as being able to automatically
assemble a wide variety of information and present it
in graphic format. There are great possibilities for how
EPRs can be used in the medical field. One benefit of
EPRs is their ability to immensely improve the quality
of information shared among medical professionals,
health care service providers, the patient, and the patient’s
family members. The TACMIS team is developing
an EPR that includes both empirical and narrative-based
information.
In Japan, the current relationship between a patient
and the medical professional is not inclusive. Informed
consent is often not required of clinical professionals
treating patients. Medical information is often not
shared with the patients themselves and usually clinicians
have more authority than patients in regard to
the collection, use, and management of this information.
The TACMIS research team believes that information
sharing and feedback among concerned parties
is essential to mitigate the information divide and
rebalance the relationship between patient and medical
professionals. The challenge is to find a way to utilize
narrative information from the patient-clinician
interaction more effectively and reliably in EPRs.
Inputting narrative information into EPR systems is, at
present, an onerous task. In addition, health professionals
have to judge where and how narrative information
should be entered and deal with the difficulty of
extracting narrative information from free text docu-
ments. The research team proposes to retain
free text entries but use a data-mining
system to extract the relevant narrative
information from the EPR. Through this
system, better consideration can be made
of individual patients’ needs by analyzing
their stored narratives and evaluating
their individual circumstances and medical
histories.
In the medical field, the three most important
types of information are (1) evidential information
leading to diagnosis, (2) factual information
gathered through medical observation and examination,
and (3) narrative information gained from discussions
between patients and medical professionals.
The TACMIS researchers believe that improved sharing
of higher quality information should result in more
effective treatment of patients and that, in order to
achieve this quality, information needs to be not only
evidence based, but also narrative based. Currently,
narrative-based information is underutilized due to its
difficulty to record and use, as well as its disorganized
form. However, because patients have a great deal of
information to offer the medical profession, an understanding
of individual patients’ needs can affect both
diagnosis and treatment. This aspect of the holistic
TACMIS model would also help to establish a more
inclusive relationship between health professionals
and patients.
The TACMIS project commenced in 2002 with an
analysis of health informatics needs in several health
care and medical institutions in Japan and of national
trends in several countries. Based on this analysis, researchers
were able to define the core technologies to
be used in working toward prototype development and
design a case study of stroke patients and their residual
neurovascular disabilities. Research has been conducted
by the DRL in the UK, in collaboration with Professor
Lalit Kalra of the Guy’s, King’s and St. Thomas’
(GKT) School of Medicine in King’s College, London,
and the Acute Stroke Unit of
King’s College Hospital. Another
study within Japan is
scheduled to commence in a
Kyoto hospital’s stroke unit in
the late summer of 2005.
The design of TACMIS is based
on a detailed process analysis of
the needs of the clinical professionals
involved in the treatment
and care of stroke patients
progressing from acute
care, through rehabilitation to
discharge and independent living,
often with a residual disability.
Development research
for TACMIS is comprised of

the following three integrated subsystems: (1) Hospital
Information Management System (HIMS), which
deals primarily with the acute care phase and rehabilitation
in a secondary care situation; (2) Socio-Economic
and Health Care Support System (SEAHCS),
which extends the findings of HIMS into primary care
situations and into the aggregate realm of epidemiology
and health care policy; and (3) Patient Empowerment
and Environmental Control Support System
(PEECS), which extends care into the home environment
and supports independent living. These three
components are integrated into a holistic health informatics
record, with the patient seen as the integrating
element.
Work conducted thus far on TACMIS indicates that
information integration is the key to arriving at successful
inclusive solutions. This integration includes the following
three categories: (1) disability needs, lifestyle
preferences, and health condition information, including
links to a case record of clinical narratives; (2) environmental
constraints information, covering the physical,
sensory, and cognitive environments; and (3) capability
assessment information, including a case record of individual
coping strategies. Understanding the nature of
this information, and analysis of the information relevant
to the design task being addressed, is the starting
point for designers involved in TACMIS. Ultimately,
the TACMIS research team envisions creating a device
that will allow all parties (the patient, the patient’s family
and/or caregivers, and the medical and healthcare
staff) to easily and quickly input and extract information
relevant to the patient’s condition and care.
The results of the research team’s findings thus far
indicate that inclusive solutions through systems design,
interface design, device design, and data-mining
software applications will enhance the quality of electronic
patient health records by contributing directly
to improvements in a patient’s individual care. An integrated
system design based on a detailed analysis of
the processes involved in stroke patient care has become
the guide for directing the various work components
into a single holistic device. In selecting access
technologies for the TACMIS EPR, the research team
drew inspiration from University of Hawaii Professor
Neil Scott’s concept of a Total Access System (TAS)
and its accompanying core device, the Total Access
Port (TAP). The genius of Professor Scott’s idea is to
separate the accessor (or interface device), which is often
very expensive when it has to be customized for a
specific disability, from the target system, which is often
very inexpensive, through a bridging device-TAP.
The integrated device, comprised of the accessor, port,
and target system, is referred to as the Total Access
System (TAS). An intitial prototype test bed 2003
version of TAP (i-Tap) developed by Professor Scott
for the DRL is the precursor for one component of the
TACMIS device. The advantage of TAP is that it is a
robust system that is flexible and able
to incorporate new and changing
technologies.
Utilizing the neurocomputing software
environment NeuCom, developed by
Professor Nikola Kasabov of the
Auckland University of Technology,
and the application of Kohonen’s Self-
Organizing Maps (SOMs), the TAC-
MIS EPR will attempt to mine both
evidence-based alphanumeric information
as well as narrative-based information.
The EPR is being designed
to be an easy-to-use, easy-to-read, easyto-understand,
and inexpensive hardware/software
prototype. Because the
security concerns for highly confidential
medical records are high, the research team is also
currently working to produce a program where highly
secure information can be accessed safely and easily,
from anywhere in the world. TACMIS collaborator,
Superbase Developers, a British company known for
making databases with a “small footprint,” has developed
software that can be used in the EPR, even if the
computing capacity is small and the speed of communication
is slow.
Although the Discovery Research Laboratory is the
focal point of the innovation and developmental stages,
it is important to establish a framework for part-
Ritsumeikan University Graduate School offers an
intensive, interdisciplinary course in universal design,
promoted by the Discovery Research Laboratory
and APU President, Professor Monte Cassim.
Because of its nature and content, this two-credit
course is suited to a broad range of disciplines, including
human and life sciences; health studies;
business, management and marketing; social sciences;
humanities and philosophy; human-computer
interaction and robotics; product and communication
design; architecture and planning; and
engineering, science, and technology.
Taught in English with Japanese-language support,
this course relies on extended interactive and participatory
workshops and is structured to include
lectures, an on-going assignment, discussion sessions,
and a final presentation of course work. The
week-long course is approached from a design
perspective and students study all areas of universal
design, including the key concepts of the universal
design approach, the role of good design in
meeting human needs, how technology can assist
in enhancing capability and lifestyle, and coordinated
strategic approaches
to the
challenges facing society
through the
“universal” agenda.
The course was piloted at Ritsumeikan University in
September 2003, run successfully again in 2004,
and has been revised and updated for 2005.
Twelve RU graduate students from a wide range of
disciplines will participate in the next course, which
will take place in September 2005.
The course is taught by Professor Alastair Macdonald
of the Glasgow School of Art, who is head
of a cross-disciplinary department that brings together
technology and human-centered design.
Professor Macdonald has significant experience in
teaching design at both the national and international
level, particularly in this emerging area. In
2004, he received a Japan Foundation Research
Fellowship and a Royal Academy of Engineering
Global Research Award to study Inclusive (Universal)
Design and Technologies in Japan. He has
worked in the field of universal design with the
Royal College of Art, the Royal Society of Arts,
and the Design Council.
For more information please contact
Yasuda Fumihiro
Office of Graduate Studies
Ritsumeikan University
56-1 Toji-in Kitamachi, Kita-ku,
Kyoto, 603-8577 Japan
Email: yasudaf@st.ritsumei.ac.jp
nership among academia, industry, government, and civil
society within which the TACMIS project can operate in
the long term as it moves towards institutionalization and
commercialization. When it comes to innovative research,
universities often have an advantage over corporations in
that they are able to approach research from a variety of
fields and are willing to objectively work toward solving major
social problems. The comparatively low financial cost of
working with university researchers also makes universities
an attractive research partner for organizations seeking to
make positive social contributions.
Through continued cooperation with experts from outside
Japan, such as Professor Lalit Kalra of the GKT School of
Medicine and King’s College Hospital, London; Professor
Neil Scott of the University of Hawaii; Dr. Richard Tannenbaum
of Superbase Developers; Professor Kumara Mendis
of the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka; and Professors
Nikola Kasabov and Phillip Sallis of the Auckland University
of Technology; as well as experts from all over Japan, Ritsumeikan
University’s Discovery Research Lab has become
a hub for progressive research and development that utilizes
information and communication technology to meet the
needs of society. The DRL team has high hopes that the
TACMIS project will have a significant impact on patient
care and promote an inclusive relationship among patients
and their families, caretakers, and medical professionals.
Universal design is an important concept:
by 2030, two thirds of the world’s
populations will live in cities. These will
have proportionately fewer young people
and many more elderly people. Japan is
one of the most rapidly aging societies in
the developed world; today there are sixty-six
times more people 100 years or older than there were
thirty-three years ago, and the country is having to make
careful and robust long-term plans to respond to this demographic
shift. One consequence is that as a society we will
need to think about a much broader range of needs and
capabilities resulting from this aging population, including
how this will impact our mobility, work, homelife, recreation,
general health, and our personal and social well-being. This
demographic change will have profound effects on how we
think about designing our physical cityscapes and services and
will present a significant challenge for designers, architects,
and planners. A key message of universal design is, if it is well
designed for older and disabled users, this generally results in
much better-designed products and services for everyone.
The purpose of this course for non-design graduate students is
to alert these future policy-shapers, bureaucrats, and technologists,
i.e. the future commissioners and consumers of design, to
the concept of universal design in the hope that they will have
an enlightened role in the creation of “universal” cities.
Murata Kyoko, DRL Research Fellow
Murata Kyoto is a 2nd year Ph.D. candidate in the Ritsumeikan University Graduate School
of Policy Science. Kyoko began her studies at RU in 1997 as an undergraduate student in
the College of Policy Science and plans to complete her doctoral program in March 2007.
She is an active researcher in TACMIS and the research coordinator of the Kansei Studies
Project at the DRL.
What does the word “kansei” mean? ents great possi-
Kansei is a Japanese word that does not bilities for the
have a direct English translation. Kansei re- medical field. It
fers to the way humans solve problems and will be useful for
process information, not just logically, but not only doctors
by using their emotions and senses. Kansei and nurses, but
is involved in every aspect of a person’s ac- also to the pations,
thoughts, and personality. The subtient and the paject
of kansei is an emerging area of research
among scientists around the world.
tient’s care staff and family members.
How far along are you on the research?
What are your goals for this project? I did fieldwork at King’s College Hospital in
There are six members involved in this pro- London from January to April 2005. While I
ject and right now we are learning the basics was there, I learned how narrative-based
of kansei research and building our knowl- information is derived in a hospital environedge
of how to gauge kansei. When ment. I interviewed a variety of medical
someone decides that they would like to professionals, including doctors, nurses,
research a specific area, we all discuss how physiotherapists, occupational therapists,
to approach the research and are able to and speech and language therapists. I
expand the scope of the research in that learned what information they consider im-
way. For example, one of our current proportant to their specific fields and at what
jects is using what we learn from our kan- opportunities they talk with patients. I will
sei studies to make computer keyboards be going back to King’s College Hospital
more accessible and easy to use for a wide from September to November of this year.
variety of people.
This time I will target a few specific patients
and study how they approach their recov-
How does this project relate to TACMIS? ery through their interaction with the med-
They are both different projects within the
DRL, but my kansei research will be useful
to TACMIS from an ergonomic aspect.
When developing the TACMIS device,
which patients will be able to use at home
to access their health information, we
want to design an easy-to-use device for
ical staff from the day they are admitted in
the hospital to the day they are released.
The next step in the project will most likely
be to expand the research to encompass
the lifestyle of the patient after he or she
leaves the hospital and moves back home
or into a community care facility.
patients who have disabilities or who are
inexperienced at using IT. When develop-
What are your plans for the future?
ing this device, we can use our kansei re- I love universities. I am sure that there are
search to measure stress when using the good points to compulsory education as
device, and then we can think about how well, but the university is where each indi-
to ease the stress of the patient. We can vidual is able to actively study exactly what
also use our kansei research to think he or she is interested in. I was able to pur-
about how we can make the patients’ sue my research because of the DRL. In the
hospital environment less stressful. We future I would like to become a researcher
may change the color of the walls, the col- and/or a university professor. I also hope to
or of the lights, etc.
continue my research in the kansei field in
the DRL.
Can you explain the Electronic Patient
Record (EPR) aspect of TACMIS?
EPRs, which are digital databases of a patient’s
medical records, are already being
introduced to hospitals, and many companies
and some hospitals are also developing
EPRs. The difference between these
EPRs and the EPR that we are trying to create
is the inclusion of narrative-based information.
It is difficult to work with narrative
data, but our first step is to discover ways
to organize and analyze what kind of
narrative-based information is most useful,
which narrative-based information is useful
is certain cases, and what patterns can be
found in narrative-based information in
order to find characteristics in narrativebased
information. After this analysis is
completed, the next step is to put the
information in a data-mining or data-processing
system. An EPR containing a
patient’s narrative-based information along
with traditional medical information pres-
Finally, can you explain the difference
between universal and inclusive design?
The real difference is that universal design
represents an abstract ideal. Universal design
means design that has to include literally
everyone, from babies to elderly people
and encompassing every kind of physical
and mental disability. It is practically impossible
to achieve this ideal. In contrast, inclusive
design aims to include as many different
people as possible. It is a very interesting
concept because you can start with something
that is accessible to only healthy people,
or the targeted consumer, and then
gradually expand the design concept to
include accessibility for people with various
challenges based on age, medical problems,
etc. And as the design become more
inclusive it also become more, not less, useful
to the original targeted consumer. One
can think of inclusive design as a process of
gradually including more and more people.

ofessor Gotoh Reiko of the Graduate School of Core Ethics
and Frontier Sciences has initiated the international conference
Ethics, Economics and Law: Against Injustices to be held from
October 28th to 30th, 2005. This conference will advance Professor
Gotoh’s research project “Justice as a Point of Contention” as well
as expand upon the results achieved at a similar conference held
two years ago.
The international conference Publicness Towards the 21st Century —
Realizing Sen in Theory and Practice was held at Ritsumeikan University
on June 2nd, 2003, with Professor Amartya Sen as the
keynote speaker. Professor Sen was awarded the Nobel Prize
in Economics in 1998 for his contributions to the field of
welfare economics and is currently Lamont University
Professor and Professor of Economics and Phi-
he Man-Machine Synergy Effector (MMSE) is robot that combines
the facility of human beings with the strength of machines. By using
this robot, a person is able to effortlessly handle large objects that would
normally be too heavy and cumbersome for one person to lift alone. The
MMSE amplifies human strength and dexterity, giving anyone the power
of a superhuman.
Developed by Lecturer Kanaoka Katsuya, the main feature of the MMSE
is the Power Effector that implements the robot’s high power. Through
”hold and use” technology, the person’s skills are combined with the robot’s
power. Through this synergy, it is possible to accomplish tasks that
could otherwise not be performed by either just a human or just a robot.
Normally, it is dangerous for a person to directly hold a high power robot.
But Lecturer Kanaoka and his team were able to remedy this problem
by introducing the control technology Virtual Power Limiter System
to stabilize amplification-controlled power. The Power Finger is a simpler
version of the MMSE, with more practical uses. This robot maintains the
facility of a human’s fingers while exhibiting a powerful grip (max. 200
[kgf]) beyond human ability.
The MMSE robot is expected to greatly enhance overall operation efficiency
in the construction, manufacturing, and wholesale industries.
Additionally, because the MMSE can be operated so intuitively, it may be
an answer to the problem of an aging population, allowing aging employees
to complete tasks without physical strain.
losophy at Harvard University. As the project administrator and a
specialist of economics and philosophy, Professor Gotoh served as
the coordinator for the conference and gave the welcome address.
Approximately 2,000 people took part in this conference, which
commemorated the establishment of the Graduate School of Core
Ethics and Frontier Sciences. This graduate school is not affiliated
with any other faculty and conducts research and educational projects
based on the four themes of Publicness, Symbiosis, Life, and
Representation.
The June 2003 conference shed new light on common themes in political
philosophy, such as rights, freedom, and democracy. The conference
indicated the necessity of reforming the framework of modern
economics into a discipline that truly contributes to human life,
while making use of the theoretical tools of neoclassical economics.
Conference delegates explored such questions as: “What must be
done to realize the rights of individuals based on a broad understand-
ing of consequences?” and “What must be done in order to strike an appropriate
balance between consideration for the rights of individuals and public interest
in welfare and the environment?”
The next international conference in October 2005 will bring together economists,
philosophers, political scientists, and legal theorists from around the
world in order to facilitate a critical exchange aimed at rethinking the relationship
between law and economics and the underlying frameworks and
methodologies of each. The conference content will concern the questions of
human dignity, well-being, and rights, as broadly understood in relation to the
objective “against injustice.” In particular, the conference will refer to the contribution
of Professor Sen’s work on these issues from theoretical and practical
perspectives.
Professor Gotoh and her colleagues hope that the conference will contribute to
the new academic field of “normative legal economics” and envisage an economic
system, as well as a legal and political system, that functions against injustice.
OHARO is a soft robot that uses its malleable form to roll and jump
across the earth’s surface. KOHARO, which can jump up to thirty
centimeters and change its spherical shape and movements depending on
the terrain, represents a new concept in irregular surface traveling robots.
The robot was developed by Professor Hirai Shinichi and College of Science
and Engineering graduate student Sugiyama Yuta. Professor Hirai
says, “KOHARO has a soft body. Soft actuators within the soft body transform
the robot’s shape. By controlling the body’s transformation, the robot
is able to crawl across the surface of the earth. The robot can also
jump along the surface of the earth.“
Both KOHARO’s jumping-crawling model and crawling model were demonstrated
at the 2005 World Expo. In each model, three round bodies are
combined and the inside is composed of either twenty-two or eighteen
shape memory alloy actuators. The jumping-crawling model has a small,
light body, while the inside of the larger body of the crawling model is
equipped with a computer that acts as a brain. The crawling model robot
can accept signals from outside sensors and communicate with other robots
while it is crawling along. This "soft robot" has great potential for
practical use due to the advancement of actuators and soft mechanics in
recent years.

The Kyoto Museum for World Peace is the first peace museum in the world
created by a university. Ritsumeikan University’s decision to establish this
peace museum was based on a desire to represent Japanese war history as
accurately as possible. In the thirteen years since its establishment, over
450,000 people have visited the museum, and approximately 260,000 people
have attended the over fifty special exhibitions hosted by the museum over
the years. The peace museum is particularly proud to have hosted student
groups from over 3,000 different schools, approximately half of those being
elementary schools. RU’s peace museum has developed into a leader of
peace education in both national and international circles.
There is hardly a more important task for educational institutions in the
world today than the promotion of learning and understanding of the
things that make for peace. Peace education (covering issues from the
personal to the global level) can take many forms, and can be pursued in
both formal and informal educational settings. As representatives of the
latter, peace museums are ideally suited to convey the peace message to
a large and diverse public. Perhaps more than any other instrument of
peace education, peace museums inform and inspire, as well as entertain
and engage the visitor, resulting in a heightened awareness of his or her
ability—and responsibility—to work for peace.
In a world that continues to be threatened by the existence and proliferation
of weapons of mass destruction, the imperative of nuclear disarmament
is clear. This is a message which the museums in Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
but also the Kyoto Museum for World Peace at Ritsumeikan
University, as well as other peace museums in Japan, are uniquely qualified
to put before the world.
The Kyoto Museum for World Peace is especially known abroad for being
one of the first peace museums in Japan to document the process
of the country’s militarization (including, pertinently,
the education sector) resulting in much
bloodshed and misery during the
Fifteen Years’ War, both
at home and abroad.
The message that human rights and liberties are vital bulwarks to prevent
militarization is strongly conveyed. Related to this is another important
message which the museum, since its creation, has courageously put
before the public. This is the need for an honest appraisal of Japan’s
war-time record and the responsibilities associated with this.
A durable peace between Japan and its neighbors cannot come about
without trust and reconciliation. In this process, history must be squarely
faced up to, and this is yet another area where the Kyoto Museum for
World Peace continues to play a pioneering role which, as recent events
have shown all too clearly, is more than ever necessary.
Although an increasing number of universities have established peace
studies departments, peace research institutes, and conflict resolution
centers, Ritsumeikan University can take pride in the fact that it is the
first—and so far only —university worldwide that has created a peace
museum. This makes the Kyoto Museum for World Peace especially noteworthy
in the growing family of peace museums.
Lastly, I would like to express the profound gratitude not only of myself,
but also of the International Network of Museums for Peace, to Professor
Anzai Ikuro, Director of the Kyoto Museum for World Peace, for his great
support for the network, including the unforgettable Third International
Conference of Peace Museums (1998) co-hosted by the museum.
Ritsumeikan University has a past history of
institutional militarism. In 1928, RU organized
an armed unit called the Ritsumeikan Imperial
Guard to protect the imperial palace during the
enthronement ceremony of the Showa Emperor
(Hirohito). In the years during and preceding
World War II, RU was deeply involved with
defense education studies and even counted an
Institute for Defense Studies among its academic
faculties. Between 1943 and the end of World
War II, the university sent some 3,000 students
to the front and approximately the same number
of students to military factories. Many of these
students were killed, either in battle or during air raids.
Shortly after the end of World War II, General
Douglas MacArthur of the General Headquarters
of the Allied Powers decided that militaristic
universities should be dismantled and RU was
among the three universities he enumerated for
abolishment. At that time, RU drastically changed
its philosophical direction from war to peace by
inviting Dr. Suekawa Hiroshi from the Osaka
Municipal University to be the president of RU.
Dr. Suekawa went on to serve as chancellor of
the Ritsumeikan Academy from 1949 to 1969.
During his years at RU, he made great efforts in
reconceptualizing the university by introducing a
series of democratic reforms that established the
educational ideals of peace and democracy.
In 1953, Chancellor Suekawa arranged for the
Wadatsumi Statue, which was created by a noted
sculptor, Hongo Shin, and depicts the grief and
anger associated with war, to be displayed at
Ritsumeikan University. On December 8th,
1953, the university held a ceremony in front of
the statue and university officials vowed to never
again become involved in a war or send students
to the battlefield. Since that day, a similar anti-war
ceremony has been organized every year on
December 8th at RU.
In 1990, on the 90th anniversary of RU, professors
and students decided to establish a peace
museum in order to give new life to the educational
ideals of peace and democracy. After two
years of planning and construction, the Kyoto
Museum for World Peace was established on
May 20, 1992.
As Professor Anzai Ikuro, the museum’s director
since 1995, explains, “the fundamental principle
of the peace museum is to face the past faithfully.
We must face the past sincerely and admit what
actually happened in history. We feel that the
Japanese government is not facing the past faithfully
and (as a result) there are many controversial
problems between Japan and Korea and China.
But the peace museum believes it is very
important to face the past faithfully. So we display
not only the damage and aftereffects of the
wars as experienced by Japanese people but also
the aggressive acts conducted by the Japanese
military forces in the Asia Pacific region. This is
one of the most honest museums to display both
what we experienced in the war as well as the
experiences of the Asian people at that time.”
The Kyoto Museum for World Peace encourages
an understanding of the importance of establishing
peace by conveying the tragic realities of war
and illustrating the efforts of those who oppose
war. The museum features a critical review of
Japan’s own militarist past, while also maintaining
an exhibition devoted to the courageous
efforts of Japanese people who opposed the war.
In the spring of 2005, the peace museum went
through a massive renewal, including significant
revisions to the permanent exhibit which now
contains materials from the Manchurian Incident
in 1931 to the Iraq War, as well as other recent
conflicts around the world.
2005 marks sixty years since the end of Japan’s
most recent fifteen year period of war (1931-45).
This was a tragic period for the Japanese people
as well as the many peoples in the world, especially
in other parts of the Asia Pacific, who were
killed or otherwise victimized by the war. To
commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the end
of WWII, the peace museum has organized several
special exhibitions. In May and June an exhibition
called Manga Art Exhibit—Young Boys’
Memories from China was held, featuring cartoons
(manga) drawn by Japanese cartoonists
about their experience of living in China and
Korea during WWII. From November to December,
the museum is planning an exhibition of
the writings of students who were killed in the
war. In addition, an exhibit of the winning photographs
from the World Press Photo Contest as
well as a photography exhibition from the photo
journal Days Japan will be displayed in the fall.
These photo exhibits complement the special exhibits
on WWII by showing the present state of
war throughout the world.
The Kyoto Museum for World Peace plays an
important role in assisting the peace education
initiatives of the university. Besides hosting university
programs such as the Hiroshima-Nagasaki
International Exchange Seminar, a joint course
with American University that explores Japanese
wartime aggression and the devastation caused
by the atomic bombings, the peace museum also
organizes and hosts a variety of international
symposiums. In recent years, the museum has
hosted the World Student Peace Summit (1995),
Youth at the Millennium (1999), and the International
Peace Forum (2002); all three of these
large symposiums have involved both Japanese
students (from RU and APU, as well as other institutions)
and international students.
RU’s peace museum is an active member of both
national and international peace museum networks
and works closely with a number of peace
museums overseas. Currently, the museum has
signed collaboration agreements for academic
exchange with the Memorial Hall of the Victims
in the Nanjing Massacre in Nanjing, China, the
International Museum of Peace and Solidarity in
Samarkand, Uzbekistan, the War Remnants Museum
in Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam, and the
Gernika Peace Museum Foundation in Gernika,
Spain. The museum also plays a large role in
national and international peace networks as an
active member of the Association of Japanese
Museums for Peace and the secretariat of the
Citizens Network for the Museums for Peace in
Japan. The official International Network of Museums
for Peace was recently established at the
5th International Conference of Peace Museums
held in Gernika, Spain in May 2005. The General
Coordinator of the organization is Professor
Peter van den Dungen of the University of Bradford
in the UK and Professor Anzai is on the Advisory
Committee.
In the near future, Ritsumeikan plans to expand
the peace museum by creating three new museums
devoted to various aspects of peace education.
The Ritsumeikan Academy will establish a
Museum of Science and Technology for Peace at
RU’s Biwako-Kusatsu Campus (BKC) and a Museum
for International Understanding at APU.
The latter will contain, among other exhibitions,
history textbooks from all of the different countries
represented at APU (currently seventyfive).
At the affiliate schools, the academy will
build a Digital Resource Museum for Peace Education
that will unite the schools and open the
museum’s educational resources up to the world
as well as facilitate further developments in peace
education curricula. The construction of this
museum is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2005.
As a complex, these three new museums along
with the Kyoto Museum for World Peace will
collectively be referred to as the Ritsumeikan
Museum for Coexistence. Maintaining its principle
of “facing the past faithfully,” the Kyoto
Museum for World Peace plans to continue to
make positive contributions to peace education
around the world.