French research in Japan

Last Saturday the annual meeting of the French researcher in Japan was held at the Maison Franco-Japonaise at Ebisu, Tokyo. The theme ‘’French research in Japan’’, was a good opportunities to understand how collaboration between French and Japanese researchers was developed since the last 20 years.

The day started with a presentation of Dr. Hidetaka Ishida, director of the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies of the University of Tokyo about the Todai Forum 2011, which focused on state of French speaking research in Japan.

Then a discussion about French laboratories in Japan was held. In Japan, there are some French laboratories. These laboratories are under the regulation of the CNRS but they are located in Japan and have strong collaboration with Japanese researchers. The University of Tokyo welcomes two of the three French laboratories in Japan.

In order to have a complete view of the French research in Japan, a second discussion focused on the research of French companies in Japan. The director of the research and development department of Danone Japan Co. Ltd., the director of Nihon Michelin Tire Co. Ltd., and the director of Nikon-Essilor International Research Center Co. Ltd took part of the discussion. They detailed why French companies developed a large research and development program in Japan and what are the advantages and disadvantages of this choice.

Then, French researchers were invited to give short presentation about their researcher in order to show the large variety of the research made by French researcher in Japan. In this context I gave a presentation entitled: Uranium in the Ocean.

Finally we finish the day, with a cocktail!

Nagasaki

My first trip outside Tokyo since I am in Japan was to visit the Nagasaki region. 

The three days trip was divided in a day of field excursion, a day at the University of Nagasaki and the last day to visit the Nagasaki city.

The first day I took part of a field excursion held at the end of the international symposium on the sustainability and productivity of coastal resources. I had the chance to visit Isahaya dike gate, Unzen Jogoku, the Nita ridge observatory and the Mt. Unzen Disaster Memorial Hall.

The Nita observatory and the Mt Unzen Memorial Hall were very interesting to understand what is the life near an active volcano.

The second day I visited Prof. Yu Umezawa laboratory at the University of Nagasaki. The aim of the visit was to make some tests on his RaDeCC system. The RaDeCC system is used to measure short half-life radium isotopes (²²³Ra and ²²⁴Ra).

Finally, I visited Nagasaki city and in particular the Atomic bomb museum and his Memorial Hall.