Questions with No Right Answers | Tomoki Kamo, Dean of the Faculty of Policy Management
2025.01.31
What kind of education and research should we provide to students facing an unpredictable world full of questions with no right answers? I believe that the concept consistently upheld by the Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC)—and by the Faculty of Policy Management, the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, and the Graduate School of Media and Governance—since their founding is 'diversity.'
The Faculty of Policy Management, the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, and the Graduate School of Media and Governance have championed cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary studies, striving to maintain academic diversity. We, the faculty and staff, believe this is necessary because providing students with opportunities to encounter such diversity is a prerequisite for cultivating the wisdom that generates the knowledge needed to navigate an unknown world.
To begin with, societal problems do not necessarily manifest within specific academic fields, and perspectives from multiple academic disciplines are necessary to derive effective policy judgments for solving them. In addition, diversity creates 'kyoso' (cooperative competition), and an inclusive yet competitive environment fosters the seeds of innovation. I believe the same holds true in the realm of education and research. As a researcher of modern Chinese politics, I always think this way. When faced with perplexing questions about the rapidly changing politics and society of China, it has not been uncommon for specialized knowledge from other fields to quietly offer academically novel ways of thinking.
Maintaining academic diversity as an environment is necessary for pursuing studies that consider 'policies to pioneer the future.' However, such an academically diverse environment must be consciously created. It is not so easy to maintain a single cohesive entity while embracing diversity. But SFC—and the Faculty of Policy Management, the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, and the Graduate School of Media and Governance—have it. This is our strength.
In this way, the study of policy management has developed as a discipline that, while being well-versed in individual cutting-edge academic fields, re-examines them comprehensively and ventures into interdisciplinary approaches for problem-solving. This can be seen in the book series "Opening Up Policy Management," published in March 2023. This series organizes the academic fields that constitute the study of policy management at SFC into five areas (in five volumes): "The Fluid World Order and Global Governance," "Language, Culture, and Communication," "Methods and Practices of Social Innovation," "Public Policy and Changing Legal Systems," and "Methodological Developments in Policy Management." The study of policy management is often thought to be an extension of public policy studies, but this is not the case at all. You will understand why by picking up this book series.
To support the study of 'policies to pioneer the future,' the Faculty of Policy Management has welcomed new faculty members in recent years. Listing the areas of specialization of our faculty members gives a real sense of the breadth of our academic fields.
In the business fields, we have welcomed faculty specializing in corporate finance, social finance, venture business, and ESG; in mental health and industrial mental health, behavioral science, and clinical psychology; in organizational theory and management information systems, innovation, and technology management; and in career design, talent management, administrative reform, and public policy. We have also welcomed faculty specializing in demographic sociology and quantitative sociology, as well as health economics and social epidemiology. The same is true for the fields of sports coaching methods, fencing and sports kinesiology, and sports biomechanics. We have added colleagues in the field of American politics and diplomacy, and strengthened our expertise in social safety policy, science and technology policy, technology strategy, national security, and systems engineering. We have the fields of labor law and labor policy, and gender in work and family. In the field of language and communication, we have welcomed colleagues specializing in Chinese linguistics, conversation strategies, and Chinese language education; Japanese language education and cultural psychology, and refugee studies; management architecture, urbanism, urban sociology, and French language education; sociolinguistics and Korean linguistics; and Malay-Indonesian education and intercultural communication. All of this is the future. This is just for the Faculty of Policy Management; the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies has also welcomed new colleagues.
And in the next academic year, the Faculty of Policy Management will be joined by faculty members who will support the areas of data science and mathematics; Japanese politics and policy process theory; space policy and space security; social movements and civic leadership, social innovation, and gender issues; and security studies, organizational studies, and strategic studies. We are constantly confirming new directions for the development of policy management studies and seeking to strengthen the faculty's educational and research areas necessary for the future.
For example, the field of global governance studies—in other words, the field that considers issues of war and peace—exists as one of the educational and research areas of the Faculty of Policy Management. This is my field. Here, faculty members specializing in international politics, political science, national security, social safety, and area studies are developing their respective education and research. The field of security—that is, the study of war and peace—is a cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary academic area, and its significance has always been emphasized at the Faculty of Policy Management. To deepen this field, we should, for example, focus on the overlap between security and science and technology. We must also understand that policy issues are expanding beyond the deep sea and polar regions into space, and grasp that a game is underway concerning the formation of order in these new domains of human activity.
From the various fields that shape the study of 'policies to pioneer the future,' the Faculty of Policy Management is looking toward the future and considering what education and research are necessary. We have been re-examining the faculty's system of education and research and engaging in a process of 'scrap and build' for the areas where we should provide education and research. The faculty does not merely adapt to changes in order and values after the fact; it anticipates them. The Faculty of Policy Management has always confronted questions with no right answers. I hope you will look forward to and pay attention to the new developments at the faculty.