{"id":13019,"date":"2015-01-26T11:37:12","date_gmt":"2015-01-26T21:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=13019"},"modified":"2015-01-27T09:09:06","modified_gmt":"2015-01-27T19:09:06","slug":"nobel-prize-winner-dr-shuji-slave-nakamura-urges-japans-youth-to-get-out-of-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=13019","title":{"rendered":"Nobel Prize winner Dr. Shuji “Slave” Nakamura urges Japan’s youth to “get out of Japan”"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. A discussion about the following article has already started here<\/a>, so I thought it prudent to promote it to its own blog entry for proper discussion. First the article, then my comment.\u00a0 (N.B.: people who commented before who wish to repost their commment here, go ahead.)<\/p>\n

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

Nobel Prize-winner Shuji Nakamura to Japan\u2019s young people: \u201cGet out of Japan\u201d<\/strong>
\n RocketNews, January 23, 2015<\/strong>
\nNobel Prize-winner Shuji Nakamura to Japan’s young people: “Get out of Japan”<\/a>
\n<\/a>Courtesy of lots of people<\/p>\n

In 2014, Dr. Shuji Nakamura, along with two other scientists, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for his work in creating bright blue LEDs. In 1993, Nakamura held only a master\u2019s degree and worked with just one lab assistant for a small manufacturer in rural Japan, yet he was able to find a solution that had eluded some the highest paid, best-educated researchers in the world.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

If his story ended there, he would no doubt be the poster boy for Japanese innovation and never-say-die spirit, but in the years since his discovery, he has instigated a landmark patent case, emigrated to the US, given up his Japanese citizenship and become a vocal critic of his native country. Last week, the prickly professor gave his first Japanese press conference since picking up his Nobel and he had some very succinct advice for young Japanese: Leave.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Although Nakamura praised the Japanese culture of cooperation, hard work and honesty, he called out the education system for focusing too much on the limited goals of exams and getting into big companies. He pointed out that it is failing to give young people the English skills they need to function on a global level.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cZero incentive\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the world, Japanese people [have] the worst English performance,\u201d he said. \u201cOnly they are concerned about Japanese life. That\u2019s a problem.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

He also said that lack of exposure to foreign cultures breeds a parochial ethnocentrism and makes young Japanese susceptible to \u201cmind control\u201d by the government.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Nakamura slammed Japan for failing to ensure that inventors are fairly compensated for their work, something that stifles innovation and provides \u201czero incentive\u201d for employees to be creative.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Article 35 of the patent law says that patent rights belong to the inventor, but in practice, companies dictate the terms of compensation to their employees. In fact, Nakamura\u2019s former company paid him the equivalent of just US$180 for his Nobel-winning invention. Nakamura sued in 2001 and a Tokyo court determined that his patent had generated about US$1 billion in revenue. Nakamura settled with the company for US$8 million.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important thing is to go abroad and\u2026see Japan from outside the country.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Since the litigation, many companies have switched from giving employees a flat fee for patent rights to a percentage of royalties, but the Japan Business Federation has also begun lobbying the government to clarify the law and place patent rights squarely with companies. Prime Minister Abe has hinted that he would like to do so.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIf the Japanese government changes the patent law, it means basically there would no compensation [for inventors]. In that case, I recommend that Japanese employees go abroad,\u201d said Nakamura.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In general, Nakamura encouraged young Japanese to leave, whether to get a better education, to expand their world view or to be better compensated for their work. Despite his criticisms, he is not advocating a wholesale abandonment of Japan either. Rather, a more internationalized population could be the key to meaningful reforms.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important thing is to go abroad and they can see Japan from outside the country. And they understand, \u2026oh, now I can understand bad thing of Japan. That\u2019s the most important thing, no? Japanese people have to wake up about Japanese bad things, you know. I think that\u2019s very important.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

ENDS
\n\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

COMMENT<\/strong>:\u00a0 Wow.\u00a0 “Slave” Nakamura not only refused to settle for the pittance regularly doled out to inventors in Japan<\/a> that transform innovation and profit for Japan’s corporate behemoths (yes, he sued — millions of people do in Japan every year<\/a> — and he won!), but also he wouldn’t settle for life in Japan as it is.\u00a0 He emigrated and now publicly extols the virtues of not being stifled by Japan’s insularity (and governmental mind control!?).\u00a0 Pretty brave and bracing stuff.\u00a0 Bravo.<\/p>\n

It isn’t the first time this sort of thing has happened within Japan’s intelligentsia.\u00a0 How many readers remember the “Tonegawa Shock” of 1987?<\/p>\n

When the 1987 Nobel Prize was given to [Susumu] Tonegawa, who had moved to the US so he could be inspired and free to carry on his research, Japanese academics took notice and some were humiliated. Tonegawa had asserted that if he had remained in Japan, he would have had to spend years courting favor with mentors and dealing with disinterested colleagues, lagging unchallenged and unmotivated, certainly never to attain Nobel laureate. The press labeled the phenomenon as “Tonegawa Shock” which described the actions of similar Japanese scientists, such as Leo Esaki, a 1973 laureate in physics, who left Japan to work at IBM in the US. [Source<\/a>]<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Tonegawa Shock set off a chain of events that led to the despotic Ministry of Education deciding to “enliven” (kasseika<\/em>) Japan’s education system by doing away with tenure.\u00a0 Sounds great to people who don’t understand why tenure exists in an education system<\/a>, but what happened is that the MOE first downsized everyone that they could who was not on tenure — the NJ educators on perpetual contract eemployment (ninkisei<\/em>) — in what was called the “Great Gaijin Massacre” of 1992-1994 where most NJ teachers working in Japan’s prestigious National and Public Universities over the age of 35 were fired by bureaucratic fiat.\u00a0 It was the first activism that I took up back in 1993, and the underlying “Academic Apartheid<\/a>” of Japan’s higher education system exposed by this policy putsch became the bedrock issue for Debito.org when it was established in 1996.<\/p>\n

With this in mind, I wonder what reverberations will result from Dr. Nakamura encouraging an exodus?\u00a0 Hopefully not something that will further damage the NJ communities in Japan.\u00a0 But if there is more NJ scapegoating in the offing, you’ll probably hear about it on Debito.org.\u00a0 That’s what we’re here for.\u00a0 Dr. ARUDOU, Debito<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RocketNews: In 2014, Dr. Shuji Nakamura, along with two other scientists, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for his work in creating bright blue LEDs. In 1993, Nakamura held only a master\u2019s degree and worked with just one lab assistant for a small manufacturer in rural Japan, yet he was able to find a solution that had eluded some the highest paid, best-educated researchers in the world.<\/p>\n

If his story ended there, he would no doubt be the poster boy for Japanese innovation and never-say-die spirit, but in the years since his discovery, he has instigated a landmark patent case, emigrated to the US, given up his Japanese citizenship and become a vocal critic of his native country. Last week, the prickly professor gave his first Japanese press conference since picking up his Nobel and he had some very succinct advice for young Japanese: Leave…<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the world, Japanese people [have] the worst English performance,\u201d he said. \u201cOnly they are concerned about Japanese life. That\u2019s a problem.\u201d He also said that lack of exposure to foreign cultures breeds a parochial ethnocentrism and makes young Japanese susceptible to \u201cmind control\u201d by the government.<\/p>\n

COMMENT: Wow. “Slave” Nakamura not only refused to settle for the pittance regularly doled out to inventors in Japan that transform innovation and profit for Japan’s corporate behemoths (yes, he sued — millions of people do in Japan every year — and he won!), but also he wouldn’t settle for life in Japan as it is. He emigrated and now publicly extols the virtues of not being stifled by Japan’s insularity (and mind control!?). Pretty brave and bracing stuff. Bravo.<\/p>\n

It isn’t the first time this sort of thing has happened within Japan’s intelligentsia. How many readers remember the “Tonegawa Shock” of 1987? It set off a chain of events that led to the despotic Ministry of Education deciding to “enliven” (kasseika) Japan’s education system by doing away with tenure. Sounds great to people who don’t understand why tenure exists in an education system, but what happened is that the MOE first downsized everyone that they could who was not on tenure — the NJ educators on perpetual contract eemployment (ninkisei) — in what was called the “Great Gaijin Massacre” of 1992-1994 where most NJ teachers working in Japan’s prestigious National and Public Universities over the age of 35 were fired by bureaucratic fiat. It was the first activism that I took up back in 1993, and the underlying “Academic Apartheid” of Japan’s higher education system exposed by this policy putsch became the bedrock issue for Debito.org when it was established in 1996.<\/p>\n

With this in mind, I wonder what reverberations will result from Dr. Nakamura encouraging an exodus? Hopefully not something that will further damage the NJ communities in Japan. But if is there more NJ scapegoating in the offing, you’ll probably hear about it on Debito.org. That’s what we’re here for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,43,44,19,50,20,12,26,4,15,56,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pinprick-protests","category-bad-business-practices","category-discussions","category-education","category-gaiatsu","category-history","category-immigration-assimilation","category-ironies-hypocrisies","category-japanese-government","category-lawsuits","category-nj-legacies","category-unsustainable-japanese-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13019\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}