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Message from Director

Good Scholarship and the Spiral Upward
One of my aspirations is that the researchers of this institute will
pioneer work that inspires many over a long period of time and continues to be cited. Good scholarship is, in time, properly evaluated.
Such evaluation becomes visible through various quantitative indicators—citation counts, h-index values, competitive research funding, and the like. It is then returned in the form of research funds, enabling new challenges.
By repeatedly advancing through this virtuous cycle—this spiral upward—research ascends to ever greater heights.
Another of my aims is to substantially reduce administrative burdens.
Creating an environment in which all members of this institute can focus, with sufficient margin, on their primary missions is an institutional responsibility.

What Must Be Avoided
At the same time, there are things that must be avoided within this institute.
They are:
• exhausting people,
• wasting time, and
• placing excessive emphasis on money.
In recent years, I sense a growing tendency to determine the value and direction of research—and even educational policy—according to the amount of funding secured.
As a personal way of life, such a choice is free.
However, I am concerned when one attempts to compel others to agree with that stance, or to present it as though it were justice itself.
In every era and in every place, there are such individuals. That fact in itself is not surprising.

Who Casts the First Stone?
Allow me to introduce a story recorded in the Christian Bible.
(For the record, when I die, I shall be buried according to the rites of the Honganji branch of Jōdo Shinshū.)
On one occasion, scholars of the Law brought before a certain teacher a woman caught in the very act of adultery. They said in unison:
“This woman has committed a sin that, according to the Law, deserves to be punished by stoning. What do you say?”
Their intention was clear.
If the teacher defended her, he could be accused of violating the Law. If he remained silent, he could be condemned as merciless.
At that moment, the teacher said:
“Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
I have no intention whatsoever of imitating that teacher.
Yet when confronted with researchers who boast excessively about funding— who attempt to impose their chosen way of life upon others,
or who hold it up as though it were justice—
I find myself inclined to pose the following question:
“Can you sustain, solely through the indirect costs of the research funding you have obtained, your own salary, the salaries of your junior faculty, social security expenses, and administrative costs?”
I know a few giants who have in fact accomplished this.
Interestingly, however, they never speak proudly of funding, positions, or status.
Perhaps this is because they understand the weight and difficulty of money.
And it is precisely this understanding, I believe, that makes them true giants.

As Director
That said, as Director, I wholeheartedly welcome our researchers’ success in securing major projects.
I pledge my fullest support to those who boldly challenge prestigious large-scale programs.
To establish an environment in which good scholarship is properly evaluated—
that is my responsibility.