It's important not to shy away from challenges. A wealth of curiosity and a proactive spirit will shape your future self.

Profile

Graduate of Bunsei University of Art High School, Tochigi Prefecture

His alma mater, a combined junior and senior high school, was one of the leading college-preparatory schools in the prefecture. He was a proactive high school student, proposing his own projects for the school festival and leading his classmates. After entering university, he was also active in research, winning the top prize at the graduation thesis and research presentation conference and receiving a poster award from the Japan Society of Applied Physics. Alongside that, he has also fully enjoyed student life, planning and hosting a voice actor talk show at the school festival and starting his own gaming club. This year, he is taking on the challenge of starting a business while still a student with friends he met through a lecture. What motivates him to lead such a busy life, balancing both research and business?

[*] Academic year at the time of the interview (July 2019).

I wanted to do things that you can only do "at that moment" as a high school student. That's how I spent my time. My most memorable experience is the film we made as a class for the school festival. I planned and proposed it, and we all worked together through trial and error on the script, acting, and video editing to complete it. The film was a coming-of-age story that depicted us as we were, as high school students, exploring the conflict of "What are we studying for?!" Since it was an all-boys school, the cast was all male (laughs), but it became a popular event at the school festival. Other than that, I participated in an English speech contest called the "International Understanding English Oratorical Contest" and won first place in the prefecture. I also got absorbed in my favorite games and experienced many other things I wanted to do. My study style was to "study at school and spend my time freely at home." I thought dozing off in class was the most inefficient thing, so I concentrated intensely during class and made up for any gaps by studying in the study room after school. Even before entrance exams, I didn't go to Juku and made sure to have time to relax at home.

I've loved math since I was a child. I found the process of logically deciphering things interesting. When I was in high school, I saw a TV special about the announcement of Professor Yoichiro Nambu's research in physics, "spontaneous symmetry breaking." I thought it was fascinating, and as I looked it up online, I started to become interested in fields not covered in textbooks. My interest in physics and philosophy grew around that time, and I would search for anything that caught my curiosity. When I was thinking about my future path, I knew I was broadly interested in physics, but I felt it was difficult to decide on a specialized field while still in high school. That's why I was attracted to the "Gakumon System[*]" at the Keio University Faculty of Science and Technology.

[*] Gakumon System: A unique system at the Keio University Faculty of Science and Technology where students choose one of five "Gakumon" (academic fields) at the time of admission. After enrolling, they gradually narrow down their field of study according to their interests and concerns, and decide on their department when they advance to their second year.

I had heard that there were many students who came from affiliated high schools within Keio, so I was worried about whether I would be able to fit in. But after enrolling, I learned that only about 15% of students in the Faculty of Science and Technology are from affiliated schools. There were many others who had enrolled with the same worries, and many who had similar backgrounds, such as having studied for national university entrance exams alongside their Keio University application, so it didn't take long for me to feel at home. Now that I'm actually a student here, I think there are many students who are naturally smart. When I think, "I want to learn about this field, I wonder if there's anyone who knows a lot about it?" there's always someone at Keio University who can help, so we can always learn from each other. It's a comfortable environment for me.

Since high school, I've been particularly interested in quantum mechanics within the field of physics. You don't really encounter quantum mechanics in everyday life, do you? But even if we can't see it with the naked eye, things are happening in the tiny world at the quantum level of molecules and atoms that we can't perceive in our daily lives. For example, objects can pass through walls, or exist in two places at once... There's a famous thought experiment in quantum mechanics called "Schrödinger's cat." When a cat is trapped in a box, it's common to think that the cat is either alive or dead, right? However, in the world of quantum mechanics, the cat is considered to be "both alive and dead." It's the idea that both states coexist probabilistically, and I found that way of thinking to be philosophical and interesting.

I was attracted to the fact that I could study across a wide range of fields. In addition to the foundational fields for understanding physical phenomena—"mechanics," "electromagnetism," "quantum mechanics," and "thermal and statistical mechanics"—you can also acquire basic knowledge in areas like "computer engineering," "circuit engineering," and "control engineering" as means for practical engineering applications. One of the reasons I chose this department is that I was more interested in hands-on creation than in methods that involve calculation or theoretical thinking. I also felt that the ability to study not just physics but also information-related subjects like programming and experimental data analysis was a good fit for me. Since you can learn about all sorts of fields in this department, I think it's a place where anyone who loves physics in general can have a very fulfilling time.

I think a unique feature of the Department of Applied Physics and Physico-Informatics is that it makes lecture videos available online. It started when Professor Kohei Itoh, the former Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology, said, "Let's actively record lecture videos so that everyone can watch and study them anytime." Many lectures from the Department of Applied Physics and Physico-Informatics are uploaded to YouTube, and more than half of them are accessible to anyone. It's great that anyone, including students not enrolled in the course or high school students preparing for exams, can watch these to study. Even for classes I've already completed and earned credits for, when I want to confirm something like, "What was this about again?" I rewatch the videos to deepen my understanding.

I am conducting research on the development of light-emitting devices using carbon nanotubes. A carbon nanotube is a very thin, cylindrical carbon material, about 1/50,000th the thickness of a human hair. As an innovative material with excellent mechanical strength and high electrical and thermal conductivity, it is expected to have applications in various fields. I am creating a special nanoscale light by making these extremely small carbon nanotubes emit light. This light emits a special kind of light that is completely different from that of a normal-sized light. By studying the properties of this light, I hope to discover as-yet-unexplained physical properties of carbon nanotubes and to develop groundbreaking devices by applying this light. I hope to contribute to the development of next-generation science and technology, as well as health and medical technology.

It was when I actually fabricated and assembled a light-emitting device (a light) myself using carbon nanotubes. Even though I knew in theory that it would light up, I still wondered, "Will the thing I made really light up?" The device I actually made is extremely small, about 1/10th to 1/50th the thickness of a human hair, but when I applied a voltage and made it light up, I was moved to see a dazzling light so bright it was visible to the naked eye. It was very encouraging for me when this research presentation won a poster award at the Japan Society of Applied Physics, the largest conference of its kind in the country, and was featured on the Department of Applied Physics and Physico-Informatics website. It's still a long way off, but in the future, I'm thinking of using this light to launch a venture company originating from our lab.

There's a lecture in the graduate school called the "Endowed Course for Entrepreneurship Training (Keio Innovation Initiative)," and the students who gathered in this course decided to "try to commercialize something," so this year we are launching a university-based venture company. I had already been talking with a close friend since last year about wanting to start a business, so I decided to commercialize an idea with several friends I met through this lecture. The business content is different from my research theme; we're thinking of an IT-related business. I think there will be difficult aspects, and it's hard to say if it will succeed, but since I enrolled, I've always thought, "I want to try many different things during my student years when I have a lot of free time," so this is one of those challenges.

I'm enjoying my research, so after completing my master's program, I'm thinking of advancing to the Ph.D. program. That means I'll be at the university for about another five years. As for my personal vision, I don't plan on getting a job at a company in the future and living a life dependent on a salary. I also think that if I were to start something after getting a job, I would be bound by time constraints. That's precisely why I wanted to launch a venture company while I'm still a student. I want to create an environment where I can do my own business while also conducting research.