College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

• Changing times

  During a fellowship in Japan, Yong Lee saw the beginnings of a major change in that country.
  

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  Historians and scholars typically regard two significant turning points in modern Japanese history.
  
  The first was the opening of the Oriental country to the West in the 1860s. More than 6000 scientists, engineers and teachers were invited to Japan and helped sow the seeds for the Japanese Industrial Revolution.
  
  The second turning point was World War II and its aftermath when Japan rebuilt itself from the devastation of war into the world's second-leading economy power.
  
  Now Japan is on the brink of entering a third turning point in its history.
  
  That's the viewpoint of Yong Lee, professor of political science.
  
  "What's emerging is a new understanding of the Japanese economy, science and technology," he said.
  
  Lee has first-hand knowledge of that new understanding. Earlier this semester, he spent 60 days in Japan on a fellowship sponsored by the Japanese equivalent of the National Science Foundation (NSF). During his stay in Japan on the short-term invitation fellowship, Lee conducted research related directly to the reform that the Japanese government is currently carrying out with its science and technology policy.
  
  He received the fellowship under the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) program after being recommended to the JSPS by the NSF. Despite the recommendation, his selection was rare.
  
  "Most of the fellowships that the JSPS has awarded are to natural scientists or engineers," he said. "It's a rare occasion that they would give one to a social scientist like myself."
  
  Lee's background gave him an advantage. His research areas are science and democracy as well as university-industry collaboration on technological information. That made his selection by the JSPS a natural one. During the fellowship, Lee had the opportunity to discuss the upcoming changes, which will go into effect next April, with numerous Japanese government officials.
  
  "I had access to materials they normally wouldn't talk about," he said.
  
  Lee says Japan is currently reorganizing their entire Japanese government science bureaucracy with changes occurring particularly in the national universities and national research laboratories.
  
  "They're trying to separate the national universities and the national research laboratories from government control by making them independent administrative agencies," Lee said.
  "The existing research and development system is fragmented, inflexible and role-bound. The resulting research system will be a more open and competitive system.
  
  "This should allow greater collaboration between Japanese scientists and scientists from the U.S. and the rest of the world."
  
  Even though the changes are a year away, Lee sees good things on the horizon.
  
  "Based on an initial assessment and my interviews, I think the changes will be successful," he said. "If they are successful they will transform their whole science and technology regime into a new one which will be able to work and meet 21st century challenges."
  

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