Statement of My Views

The Research Institute of Science for Safety and Sustainability was founded within the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) on April 1, 2008. I was appointed as head of this research institute. The “safety science” that the new research institute envisages represents a new departure, since is not concerned with the pursuit of safety only. It is a type of science that aims to reconcile safety and sustainability.
The research institute was created in response to growing concerns about the global environment in order to widen or specifically redefine the generally understood meaning of safety. Its English name is the Research Institute of Science for Safety and Sustainability (abbreviated to RISS). This name clearly represents our ideas of “safety science.”
I feel that the foundation of RISS is a very well-tuned response to current needs. By this, I do not mean that current needs are the sort of thing everyone considers necessary. It is something that we have translated from a groundswell of opinion into concrete form.
I believe that AIST alone is in a position to do this. There are two reasons for my specifically referring to AIST. One is the high level of alertness that enables AIST to be aware of the needs of the times.
The other is its ability to restructure its organization or system without being impeded by the rigidities of conventional personnel structures. It would be quite impossible for any other Japanese institution to act in this way.
Returning to the definition of the demands of the times, I would like to talk a little more about what this term means.
Firstly, the ‘demands of the times’ refers to gaps in the safety system and the demand by society at large for greater safety.
Secondly, it is the need to cope with global environmental problems and the depletion of resources. In short, the time has come for us to take action against the ever more apparent problems faced by the Earth and the dangers to the future of humanity.
Thirdly, it is a need to make assessments in all situations.
The first and second issues are not vague and unexpressed notions, since they are a major part of current public discourse. However, it is noteworthy that the two are often contradictory and therefore in a tradeoff relationship. A crucial task is how we can adjust and control the two issues and work out their management rules.
In other words, each demand is important, but that does not help solve the problem. It is therefore necessary to reach clear conclusions after full consideration of the two issues. This could not be a more current issue.
The third issue is the importance of assessment. Decision-making for a single purpose is relatively easy if there is a need to set an order of priorities. However, almost all big tasks are concerned with how multiple factors should be balanced, making the assessment of adjusted results extremely difficult. We thus need to tackle the issue based on what may be called the “science of assessment.”
The reason why assessment is needed is that there is a growing number of problems involving multiple factors. Another element is the urgent need to clarify and explain the decision-making processes to the nation and the international communities. It is also essential for specialists in the humanities and social sciences to participate in research in this area.
I believe AIST should be proud that, with assessment work as its major task, it has founded a research institute dedicated to safety and sustainability at such a time.
This research institute was created by integrating three research units that had a separate existence at the end of March 2008: namely, the Research Core for Explosion Safety, the Research Center for Chemical Risk Management and the Research Center for Life Cycle Assessment. We have added new researchers from other research units, and have opened possible avenues of cooperation with other assessment units.
We have five research goals. Basically, our plan is to work on two projects designed to carry forward assessment tasks undertaken by the individual research centers originally set up by AIST and which have earned the public’s trust, and fuse these tasks, and tackle new ones.
We have decided to release the results of implementing the following four tasks as current projects that represent our research institute.

2008.06.25　Junko Nakanishi