“As we move toward a society in which automobiles are connected to many things, I was of the mind that it will become increasingly important to enhance the mobility of not just vehicles, but also people, money, and various other elements, and to improve the circulation of things and ideas to revitalize society. I was looking for a partner beyond the realm of academia who shared this awareness of the issues, and as luck would have it, I was introduced to Mr. Suzuki from Aisin in the summer of 2022. I was nervous and wondered what kind of person he was as the number two of a large, world-class company, but when I met and talked to him, he was very casual. Above all, I remember being drawn in by his personality.”

“When a company is looking for a partner to collaborate with on a particular topic, it is not easy to find the right academic talent. For many researchers, their job is to define a singular direction and write papers, so there is inevitably a gap between their needs and the needs of the corporate partner. However, when I met with Professor Tokuda, we were able to engage in a multifaceted dialogue. I had a gut feeling that I would be able to share my awareness of the issues with him. In layman's terms, I felt like we could become friends,” said Suzuki with a laugh.

“Mr. Suzuki said, ‘Let’s start with these four research topics, but if you find any of them academically uninteresting, you can stop doing the research, and we can think of which topics to pursue next.’ This was liberating, or should I say it fired me up to seriously tackle the project.”

“To use a sports analogy, conventional technological development has been directed toward the goal of how fast you can run around a track. However, in today's ever-changing business environment, some say we are entering a phase similar to surfing, where we do not run toward a predefined goal, but rather firmly catch and ride the currents of the times without a particular goal in mind. Therefore, I hope that this collaboration will also be a relationship in which we can allow each other to keep making mistakes as we seek to change.”

“From a global perspective, Japanese universities have long been challenged by their very weak ability to feed their research capabilities back into society. Therefore, in order to give back to society what society has invested in us, universities must play a part in the value chain and link their research outcomes to people's happiness. At Ritsumeikan, we refer to this as ‘harnessing collective knowledge toward creation of value for coexistence with society,’ and this is exactly the kind of university we are striving to become. As a partner, Aisin is very attractive not only because of its manufacturing capabilities, but also because of its focus on product evaluation. When we present new values to the world, we must first evaluate them as a comprehensive system that includes social, ethical, and legal perspectives, but Aisin already has a culture of rigorously evaluating whether the products they create are truly useful. By combining this with Ritsumeikan's design science, the academic approach of seeking the best solution to coordinate the interests involved in the search for the ideal outcome, I believe that we can undertake unprecedented joint research, achieve a true fusion of the humanities and sciences, and harness collective knowledge.”

“Aisin's production lines are already using AI-equipped robots. However, if we want to move out of the closed space of the factory and create innovation for society at large, we still need the perspective of the humanities and social sciences, as Professor Tokuda mentioned. I believe that the comprehensiveness and universality of academia is what will be important in solving social issues through manufacturing."

“Ultimately, making things is not the solution. We must look at how those things can be utilized in people's daily lives. How can Aisin's excellent technologies cultivated in the automotive parts business be utilized and deployed in a variety of products and services beyond just the automotive field? We will work together to consider all possibilities, taking into account the psychological changes in users as well as social, ethical, and legal issues," explains Professor Tokuda.

“For example, there is talk now about AI taking away human jobs, but what if we instead think about how we can use AI to support those who need help? As more and more people identify with this topic, research and technological development will accelerate. In this way, I hope we can create a place where people who share a vision of the society of the future can come together, transcending the boundaries between companies and universities," explains Mr. Suzuki.

“We are compensated for providing value to society, and the greater the social issue we tackle, the greater the value of our business. We chose not to set a clear goal for this joint research project, but if we share the same objective and passion for solving social issues, we will naturally arrive at a place where everyone feels that we are doing something beneficial. I hope that by getting many people to agree with what we are doing, we will be able to tackle even larger issues."

“Creating value for coexistence with society is one part of Ritsumeikan’s mid-term strategy for the year 2030. To realize this, I believe it is important to work with Aisin to explore approaches to open innovation and to make a firm impact on society. I also hope that this will be a good stimulus for universities and researchers in Japan. Compared to the natural sciences, it is not common in Japan for companies to make large investments in the humanities and social sciences, but with regard to this project, Aisin’s expectations for Ritsumeikan are very high. In order to live up to these expectations, I hope we can achieve results that will serve as a model for industry-academia collaboration that demonstrates our collective knowledge.”