Japanese society is transitioning from Society 4.0 (an Information Society) to Society 5.0 (the concept developed by the Japanese government of a so-called Super-smart Society), where virtual space and real space are highly integrated. In Society 5.0, all people and things will be connected, vast amounts of knowledge and information will be shared, and unprecedented new value will be created. These are expected to provide new solutions to society’s problems and challenges. In this major movement toward Society 5.0, the importance of “knowledge professionals” who lead the production of knowledge and the creation of value has never been higher. Graduate schools are the key to fostering these knowledge professionals.
The recent novel coronavirus disease pandemic has made us keenly aware that we will always be threatened by zoonotic diseases moving toward the future. We have also come to understand that global food and energy problems arise not only from global challenges such as climate change, but also from regional conflicts. It is likely that serious problems related to life and food security will continue to confront humankind in the future. Veterinary medicine, veterinary nursing and technology, and applied life science are academic fields that can propose new solutions to these problems with innovation. For this reason, it is extremely important to nurture highly specialized talent, in other words, knowledge professionals, in these fields, and we believe that it is an important responsibility of our graduate school to do so.
At our graduate school, students need to acquire literacy in universally applicable skills such as logical reasoning, critical thinking, and communication. Further, they will also need to obtain advanced specialized knowledge and the ability to identify gaps in knowledge, and subsequently construct and test hypotheses on their own. Moreover, it is necessary to strengthen their ability to analyze and utilize vast amounts of information and enable them to understand and integrate different fields of science, and collaborate with professionals therein, in preparation for Society 5.0. At our graduate school, the faculty endeavors to work together to provide the utmost support for graduate students in their pursuit of these abilities. We will nurture future professionals who can think and act independently, create new knowledge and new value, and work beyond existing frameworks based on their advanced specialized knowledge and keen sense of ethics.
October 1st, 2022
Makoto Bonkobara