Neues vom JSPS-Club 03/2025

Neues vom JSPS-Club 03/2025 (1.8 MB)


CONTENTS

 

EDITORIAL

30 Years JSPS Club

by Heinrich Menkhaus, Chairman and Representative in Japan of the JSPS Club

Picture: Foundation charter of the JSPS Club

I. Introduction

On August 26th,1995, the founding members of the JSPS Club were sitting together in the then recently established office of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) at the no longer existing Bonn Centre Building next to the Reuter-Bridge, vis-à-vis the Federal Chancellery in Bonn. We were only 11 founding members, but that was sufficient for the legal requirement of 7 persons for the foundation of an association according to the civil law of the Federal Republic of Germany. Together with us in the room was the actual initiator and at the time head of the JSPS Office in Bonn, Prof. Eichi Arai from the then Tokyo Institute of Technology, later to be named the first honorary member of the Club, who has passed away. Also present was his already named successor as head of JSPS Bonn Office, Prof. Yasuo Tanaka of Nagoya University, who at that time was on loan to the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching. He was also named an honorary member later and, unfortunately, has also passed away since. Actually, we established the first JSPS alumni club on the globe. Meanwhile, JSPS features 21 alumni associations.

We decided already in the inaugural meeting that together with the JSPS Office, we would hold yearly Japanese-German scientific symposia at some place in Germany with a topic that could be discussed on an interdisciplinary basis by the same number of Japanese and German researchers. The first one was held in Raunheim, in the vicinity of Frankfurt, and the last one in Munich this year. In 2026, the place of venue will be Jena. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we unfortunately had to pause for two consecutive years. To these gatherings, not only the members of the Club are invited but also all former German and Japanese fellows of JSPS and the Japanese scientists who happen to work in Germany, e.g., the Japanese sponsored by the Humboldt Foundation. This follows not only a legal requirement to keep the charitable character of the association, but it also enables us to get into contact with as many scientists as possible, having working relationships with German and Japanese institutions.

Later in our history, we created a separate event only for members, their spouses, partners, and children, which we call Members invite Members. One of the members of the Club invites the other members to his/her university or research organization, where we feature not only a strictly scientific event but also have a rich cultural program. Last year, this event was held at the Technical University in Dortmund.

As we are the only alumni association of German scientists having connections to Japan, we established from the very beginning an extraordinary membership for individual scientists not sponsored by JSPS but interested in scientific contacts to Japan. We also offer an institutional membership, which turned out to be of interest for Japanese universities having established offices in the German-speaking world, like Nagoya being present in Freiburg, Tsukuba having an office in Bochum, etc. Meanwhile, we have a membership of about 500 scholars, and I am a little bit proud to say that we did not lose members during the pandemic. We try hard to integrate into the network as many Japanese scholars, who work in the German-speaking area, as possible. We also expanded our activities to other German-speaking states like Austria, Switzerland, and Luxembourg.

We bestow our own award, which we call the JACA Prize, JACA being the abbreviation of JSPS Alumni Club Award, which goes to young scientists on both the Japanese and German sides who established their own scientific networks between Japan and German-speaking countries. The price comes with a return flight ticket to Japan or Germany and a certain amount of money for paying the stay in the host country. This year’s recipient is a Japanese female researcher at the University of Vienna.

About 60 members like me work in Japan itself, which means that we feature events also in Japan, e.g., the “Science Circle” and the yearly Club meetings at one of our institutional members in Japan. The last one in 2024 took place at the newly created Institute of Science Tokyo, an amalgamation of the former Tokyo Institute of Technology and the Tokyo Medical and Dental University, because they also happen to be an institutional member of the Club. This year’s Members invite Members event fell together with the celebration of our 30th founding anniversary at my alma mater, the Meiji University in Tokyo.

A newsletter that is published up to 4 times a year and a mailing list in which all the members exchange information and discuss certain topics complete the activities of the Club as well as country representatives in Japan, Austria, Switzerland, and Luxembourg, and regional groups in a couple of places in Germany.

As we charge a membership fee, we can finance certain Japan-related scientific activities of others, e.g., scientific symposia of members, invitation of Japanese scientists for stays with their German collaborators, but also events like “Hallo Japan, Hallo Germany” which is taking place alternately in Germany or Japan, organized by German-Japanese and Japanese-German Youth organizations and brings together young Germans and young Japanese for two weeks, among whom university students are in the majority, who might become scientists.


II. Jubilee Anniversary

The German word for anniversary is Jubiläum, which includes the German phrase “Jubel”, which may be translated as “cheering.” But I would like to take the opportunity to share with you some of the problems that the Club is facing, because some of you might actually be able to assist with their solution.

We lack trustworthy statistics as far as the German-Japanese scientific cooperation is concerned. I do not mean to say that there are no figures at all. At least all science-supporting organizations on the German-speaking side and on the Japanese side have their own figures. But the education systems differ, and so do the figures. What is necessary is a working group analyzing the existing material and changing it into a pattern that can be understood by all sides, and collect additional data, if necessary.

We have trouble finding financial sponsors for our activities. This is partly due to the always interdisciplinary approach of our symposia. We, of course, appreciate the strong support of JSPS in financial as well as personal respect. We are also glad that the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) is partly financing events, because many of our members are former DAAD scholars. The criteria for application, however, lately became difficult to fulfil, and the amount of available sponsoring changes every year, which makes financial planning difficult.

We would like to integrate as many Japanese scientists as possible into the membership network. Most of them are former JSPS fellows anyway, and JSPS itself helps by inviting us to the JSPS-organized get-togethers of Japanese researchers in Germany, called Kaitoku, which is an abbreviation of Kaigai Tokubetsu Kenkyūin. We also welcome a network of Japanese researchers in the Düsseldorf/Cologne area as institutional member. We would, however, like to strengthen the participation of Japanese Humboldt fellows in Germany. Since the foundation of the JSPS Club, we have an agreement with the Humboldt Foundation to extend our invitations to their Japanese fellows in Germany, but only a very small number participates. We would also like to revive a similar agreement we had with the DAAD, even if many of their fellows are still students, but the students are the future scientists. We also have the impression that the international academic offices of the universities could be strengthened, because they do not necessarily have databases listing their students and researchers with Japan experience or Japan interest. We always notice this lack when we hold our mentoring sessions before the annual symposia. The same is true for the international academic offices of Japanese universities and research organizations. For our annual Club meetings in Japan, we would like Japanese scholars from that institution with experience in the German-speaking world to attend, but they cannot easily be identified, because the necessary database does not exist.

The legal situation on privacy data also causes us a lot of trouble. According to the legal situation, the Club is not supposed to know the German scholars on their way to Japan with a scholarship. We can only ask the scholarship-providing institution to add an invitation letter or a leaflet of the Club to the information material provided to the scholars. The legal situation in states where the alumni organizations are appreciated much stronger than in Germany is different.

We also lack contact with newspapers and journals specializing in science matters; we were, however, quite happy when the research field of one of our board members was even taken up by the famous weekly magazine “Der Spiegel.” Although we invite the science reporters to our get-togethers, they hardly accept our invitations. We, however, are in a position to name them the necessary Japan experts they are looking for, as we have members of almost every scientific discipline.

Let me touch on the subject of scientific awards. There is a famous German academic prize for Japanese scholars dealing with Germany, the Siebold Award, organized by the Humboldt Foundation and awarded by the Federal President of Germany himself. We would not only appreciate the right to nominate a suitable Japanese scientist for the award, which was refused so far, but we also would very much appreciate the Japanese side thinking about a scientific award in the opposite direction.

Finally, I would like to take up an issue concerning JSPS itself. Now we have 20 sister clubs around the world, and we should strengthen this network. We once did a symposium together with the French JSPS Alumni Association in Strasbourg, but that remained a single event. We would therefore like to emphasize again the importance of such collaboration. On Dec. 15th and 16th there will be the first get together of all JSPS alumni association chairpersons at JSPS Headquarters in Tokyo, where we will stress this point again.

 

EVENTS

Science Exchange Meeting at the Residency of the Consul General in Erkrath

by Katja Kölkebeck, board member of the JSPS Club

Picture: From left: GK Tsunoda, T. Bock, member, H. Murata, K. Kölkebeck (courtesy of JSPS Bonn Office)

On June 5th, 2025, Consul General Yoshitaka Tsunoda hosted a gathering at his residence in Erkrath to promote the exchange of researchers from various disciplines with Japan. Guests from the JSPS Bonn Office, the Japanese Cultural Institute, as well as members of the JSPS Club and JKI (Japanese Culture Institute Cologne) scholarship holders, were invited. In addition to Consul Tsunoda, the Director of the JSPS Bonn Office, Prof. Masahiko Hayashi, and the Director of the JKI, Prof. Harufumi Murata, gave brief presentations. Following the welcoming remarks, board member Prof. Katja Kölkebeck gave a short presentation on her experiences as a researcher in Japan in the field of neuroscience. Her suggestions for collaboration across different disciplines served as the basis for discussion at the subsequent buffet in the residence, which overlooks the Japanese garden. Among those present were individual members of the JSPS Club from Munich and Göttingen, as well as institutional members, such as the German-Japanese Society for Labor Law (DJGA). The JSPS Club board warmly welcomes the initiative of Consul Tsunoda and hopes for a regular repetition.

 

JSPS Abend 2025

by Katja Kölkebeck, board member of the JSPS Club

Picture 1: Attendants and musicians at JSPS evening (courtesy of JSPS Bonn Office)

On the 12th of June 2025, at the Ameron Bonn Hotel Königshof, the annual JSPS evening took place. Each year, the JSPS invites supporters, collaborators, and relevant players in the German-Japanese science exchange for a pleasurable evening in Bonn. Greeting remarks were spoken by Nozomi Haraguchi, Head, International Policy Planning Division, JSPS Tokyo. She pointed out that JSPS exists since 1932, and scientific exchange with German funding agencies for 52 years already. She spoke about different initiatives of JSPS, e.g., the excellence initiative J-PEAKS, identifying superlative universities in Japan. Finally, she pointed out this year’s 30th anniversary of the JSPS Club. H. E. Mitsuko Shino, Ambassador, Embassy of Japan in Germany, gave a spirited and oftentimes funny talk, starting out with the achievements of Siebold, leading to recent challenges in science cooperation between Germany and Japan, e.g., AI, green hydrogen, quantum technology, and the ocean. She also thanked the Club for its continuous commitment, stressing that scientific cooperation is, in the present times, more important than ever. Lastly, she invited everybody to the Expo in Osaka, specifically to the wa-Pavilion of Germany (wa meaning “harmony,” “circle,” and “wow!” in Japanese). Dr. Markus Zanner, Secretary General, Humboldt Foundation, admitted that he had only one experience with Japan, as he had just previously been responsible for Japan-related topics. This later inspired Prof. Hoch, rector of Bonn University, of a small lesson in Japanese. Dr. Zanner underlined very urgently the shared values of both countries that need to be continued for freedom of science. Dr. Birgit Klüsener, Director of the Department of Scholarships, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), very briefly thanked and congratulated all participants, but specifically stressed the passion with which the Club follows its activity in science exchange. Dr. Ingrid Krüßmann on behalf of Prof. Dr. Karin Jacobs, Vice President, German Research Foundation (DFG), pointed out the mutual activities of DFG and JSPS since 1984. She underlined that the DFG is interested in individual people, funding them, and presented the Leibniz lectures that will take place in Japan this year. 

Picture 2: Chairman of the Club H. Menkhaus (courtesy of JSPS Bonn Office)

Chairman of the JSPS Club, Heinrich Menkhaus, gave a lecture on the 30th anniversary of the JSPS Club. He pointed out the major stages of the Club since its founding in 1995 by a group of 10 fellows on the initiative of Eichi Arai, former head of the JSPS Bonn Office. The German JSPS Club was the first on the globe, with 20 others following up till now. An Italian club is in the making. He pointed out all the activities, prizes, funding opportunities of the Club and future planned activities. Finally, he also addressed some problems, e.g., the fact that the Club cannot access addresses of all funding agencies to gain knowledge about scientists that go to Japan or Japanese coming into Germany to address them and finding financial support for the activities of the Club, because the Club is quite mixed regarding its disciplines. He proposes to strengthen the international offices, that Japan should also honor the Japanese German Science exchange by calling out a prize as the Siebold Award, and finally, a meeting of members of all JSPS Clubs could strengthen the worldwide exchange of people with interest in Japan. Lastly, he called for invitations of Club members for lectures, interviews etc., as the Club can name experts for all disciplines with regard to Japan.

The musical performance was given by Wakana Takahashi and Mari Wakasugi, who performed pieces by Mozart, Schumann, Beethoven and Tamezo Narita on the violins. The toast was spoken by Prof. Dr. Michael Hoch, Director, Universität Bonn.

This year’s lecture was held by Dr. Iris Mach, TU Wien, Head of the Japan Austria Science Exchange Center (JASEC). She talked about her work in the JASEC, e.g., about the tea house project that our newsletter already reported on, but also other work together with Japan. Mach is an engineer who works with Japanese materials. E.g., a wooden spiral was manufactured by people of the JASEC that now is the exhibition piece in the Austrian pavilion of the Expo in Osaka. Iris Mach pointed out the successful Japan-Austrian Science Day in 2025 and mentioned that this will be an annual event, the next meeting coming up on 7th November 2025. Closing remarks were given by Masahiko Hayashi, Director of the JSPS Bonn Office.

 

European Contest for Young Scientists

by Heinrich Menkhaus, Chairman and Country Representative Japan

Picture: Attendants of the contest of young scientists (courtesy of H. Menkhaus)

On July 18th, I was invited to the EU Delegation building in Tokyo to a reception for four young scientists from four EU member states (Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, and Slovakia). They were said to be the winners of the European Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS) in 2025. I must admit that I did not know anything about this program and had to study the homepage of the EU.

There it says that the contest started already in the year 1989 under the Directorate General for Research and Innovation, and therefore the 2025 round was already the 36th one. The contest is supposed to bring together the best scientists aged 14 to 20 from the EU and beyond. The number of participating students is said to have grown from 53 in the first competition in 1989 to an average of 150 per year now. The successful candidates are supposed to get together at a city in the EU in 2025; the host would be the city of Riga, Latvia, and for 2026 it would be Kiel in Germany.

The EU Contest for Young Scientists gives students the opportunity to compete with the best of their peers at European level, meet other young scientists with similar skills and interests, and get guidance from some of the most prominent scientists in Europe. It highlights the best of European scientific student achievements and attracts widespread media interest.

The contest was set up to promote the ideals of cooperation and information exchange between young European scientists. The contest is an initiative of the European Commission under the Horizon Europe Framework Program where it seeks to strengthen the efforts made in each participating country to highlight scientific student achievements and attract young people to careers in innovation, science, research and technology.

Young European scientists, aged between 14 and 20, who have won first prize at their national science competition with a project in any field of science, might be eligible to compete at EUCYS. Each year, organizers of participating national contests are invited to nominate the first prize winning teams from the national contest to EUCYS where students compete at European level for prizes and prestigious awards. Projects can be composed by individuals or teams of up to 3 participants. Each country may submit up to 3 projects, with a maximum of 6 contestants per country in total. Contestants are asked to provide a short video, a written project and a poster suitable for display at a public exhibition during the contest. Contestants will also be required to answer questions from members of the scientific jury.

The criteria used to assess projects are as follows, originality and creativity in the identification of and the approach to the basic problem, skill, care and thoroughness in designing and carrying out the study, following through of the study from conception to conclusion, reasoning and clarity in the interpretation of the results, quality of written presentation and ability to discuss the project with the jury members. 

A jury of 20-25 international scientists, innovators, researchers, industry experts, is appointed by the European Commission to judge the competing projects. Jury members carry out this important work as individuals and not as representatives of an institution or country. They evaluate the projects adhering to the rules of the contest laid down by the Commission.

The contestants compete for core prizes on the basis of a written description of their work, their exhibited material, and the interviews with the Contest Jury. In addition to this, the Jury awards a limited number of special donated prizes. These prizes offer some winners the opportunity to benefit from the specific experiences linked to the prize. It is up to the Jury to decide whether a prize-winner can receive both a core prize and a special donated prize. Core prizes are awarded to teams. Honorary awards are awarded to individuals; special donated prizes are mostly awarded to projects.

The Core Prizes are the main cash prizes awarded by the European Commission at the contest. In the case of a team winning such a prize, the amount is shared equally between the members of the team. There are four categories of Core Prizes:

  • Four 1st prizes worth €7,000 each
  • Four 2nd prizes worth €5,000 each
  • Four 3rd prizes worth €3,500 each
  • Special Jury prize for youths €2,500
     

These prizes are restricted to EU members and Associated and Neighborhood Countries.

The Special Donated Prizes are offered to contestants who, according to the EUCYS Jury, would benefit from the specific experience that these prizes offer. They are mostly study visits to leading scientific organizations.”

I had a number of questions about the program that could not be answered completely. I was wondering how the participants are elected, if they are provided with a stipend or only with the prize mentioned, if Japanese young scientists could participate, and what the four I got to know were doing in Japan, how long they would stay there, and with whose money they were traveling.

Anyway, a newly detected science promotion activity of the EU might be worth knowing to the members of the Club, who might know youngsters who are eligible.

 

Tobitate Japan (Study Abroad Initiative of Japan)

by Heinrich Menkhaus, Chairman and Country Representative Japan

Picture: Participants of the Tobitate program (courtesy of MEXT)

In edition 2/2024 of this newsletter, I wrote about my first participation in a send-off of students who were awarded the scholarship Tobitate Japan in the Japanese Ministry of Education and Science (MEXT). This year, I again received an invitation to join the 17th send-off of 268 students in the ministry on July 20th. Compared to last year, the profile of the first official part, the greetings of the representative of MEXT and the Japanese enterprises backing the program financially, were lower. MEXT was represented not by the minister, but by the Secretary of State (beamteter Staatssekretär) and the enterprises not by a member of a board, but by an executive officer of Japan Tobacco, who straightly said that he did not come to encourage the participants to smoke cigarettes. Everybody who knows Japan Tobacco today is familiar with the completely new portfolio of businesses that the company runs. As in last year’s send-off, greetings by two alumni and three new awardees were added.

Again, the students going to the German-speaking area were numerous. That was the reason why I was invited to give advice. Two different groups were set up for them, each run by an alumnus to Germany; in one group a former student in Marburg, in the other group a former student in Heidelberg. In both groups, representatives from program-supporting enterprises or ministries with experience in the German-speaking area were invited as additional advisers. As last year, the questions were quite detailed, which showed that the students had already tried to achieve the necessary knowledge. They centered on the acquisition of visa. It became clear that the foreign ministries on both sides (Japan and the German-speaking states) had been of little help, and that there were substantial fears about discrimination against foreigners in Germany. For questions I could not answer, I recommended the welcome centers of the German universities, the local German-Japanese Societies and the JSPS Club, which consists of members active at many universities who could be contacted through me, if need be.

It again became obvious that there were many more females than males among the participants, that the number of students studying or doing research in natural science and engineering was much higher than in humanities and social sciences, and that the knowledge of German as a language was very limited.

Again, I could not find answers to the questions I raised in my report of last year’s event in this newsletter, but it was again a good opportunity to present the JSPS Club as a mentoring organization. In the aftermath of the send-off, I was contacted by a Tobitate Japan officer to help a female student of a medical school going to the LMU in Munich to study forensic medicine. She said she was very interested in the interface between law and medicine and wanted to speak to public prosecutors and judges, which I could arrange through people I know in the vicinity of Marburg.

 

Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) Visit in Yokosuka on the 3rd of October 2025

by Katja Kölkebeck, board member of the JSPS Club

Picture: JSPS Club members at JAMSTEC site in front of research vessel Kaimei (courtesy of JSPS Bonn Office)

On the 3rd of October, the JSPS Club members invited to Japan on the occasion of the 30th anniversary symposium in Tokyo visited the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) in Yokosuka near Yokohama.

We were greeted by our member Paula Prodzinsky, who had organized this event and Prof. Ken Takai, Director General of the X-Star group within JAMSTEC, who was one of the Japanese speakers at our symposium in Kiel in 2023. JAMSTEC was founded in 1971, has 900 employees and six research sites, and six research vessels, a drilling vessel, one submersible, and several underwater vessels. One very famous vessel is the Shinkai 6500, which is able to dive 8000 meters. The budget is 34 billion yen and is under MEXT administration. The yearly publication output is 600 papers per year. The headquarters is in Yokosuka, with mostly “wet” research. Other sites are, e.g., in Yokohama and Okinawa. Within their vessels, Kaimei, which we were also able to visit, is the newest ship. Another ship will retire soon, while a new icebreaker, Mirai II, will be launched from 2026.

JAMSTEC has 5 institutes of research:

  • Global change
  • Marine biology and mineral resources
  • Marine geodynamics
  • Value-added-information generation
  • Cutting-edge and avant-garde research
     

For most of the topics, one speaker was available during the presentation. Six speakers and Prof. Takai presented their research track and their research in different action areas.

Prof. Takai introduced his work on bacteria that grow in a very hot surrounding of 122°C, so he is interested in electrotrophic research. Electrotrophy is a new way to form energy, preparing biothermal evolution. After electrotrophy, photosynthesis and later hyperthermal systems and conductivity paved the way to our present human biological energy systems.

Dr. Ingo Richter works in geoinformatics (value-added information generation) and on biases and seasonal predictions, simulating the climate for longer-term view of one to two years. He uses this information on crop forecasts, leading to a good overview on climate change models. He also creates extreme event databases and looks at tropical basin interaction (e.g., El Nino).

Dr. Michio Kawamiya is the director of the Research Center for Environmental Modeling and Application. He investigates human influence on climate change and fluctuations of CO2 over seasons depending on the take-up of oceans and woods. E.g., he pointed out the uncertainty of CO2 uptake depending on cloud formation.

Dr. Masaru K. Nobu investigates the beginning of life, looking at hyperthermal vent minerals, which are precursors that organisms can use for energy, for example, acetate. LUCA, the predecessor of life, used these minerals to make acetate from hydrogen. Iron then “tipped the scale.” Asgard archaea formed a partnership with bacteria. Bacteria took over the role of the mitochondria, and archaea might have formed the nucleus of eukaryotes.

Dr. Paula Prodzinsky, who was also the host of the day, is a member of X-Star. She did research in Helgoland in microbiology first, and she is now a postdoc at the JAMSTEC. She performs research on photosynthetic organisms, for example, cyanobacteria. She researches their evolution, physiology, and environmental contributions.

Dr. Yukio Morono also works in X-Star. He researches ocean drilling and has collaborations with Germany and Japan. He is specifically interested in deep ocean drilling to investigate microbial cells. He said that many things are yet unknown about microbes.

Dr. Yoshinori Takano has worked in the research team of the Hayabusa 2 Mission. He has collaboration partners at Helmholtz Center Munich. The Hayabusa 2 mission was a three-year mission to Ryugu, a 0.5 km broad asteroid with almost 100-degree temperature difference between day and night. Several minerals have been found there, and many publications have documented the success of the mission.

At the end of the day, a reception was hosted by the JSPS Club at Meiji University for former and current employees of the JSPS Bonn Office. There, Prof. Keiichi Kodaira (former director of JSPS Bonn Office) and Prof. Uwe Czarnetzki (former chairman of the JSPS Club) were awarded honorary memberships. The party was catered by food from a German chef.

 

Symposium on the Occasion of the 30th Anniversary of the German JSPS Alumni Association on Quantum Physics

by Katja Kölkebeck, board member of the JSPS Club

Picture: JSPS Club members at Meiji University Tokyo (courtesy of JSPS Bonn Office)

The joint symposium on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the German JSPS Alumni Association on Quantum Physics took place on October 4th, 2025, at Meiji University in Tokyo. It was jointly organized by the German JSPS Club and the JSPS. About 80 members and other participants took part in the symposium.

Welcome remarks were spoken by Prof. Dr. Heinrich Menkhaus (Chairman of JSPS Club), Tsuyoshi Sugino (President of JSPS), Prof. Masao Ueno (President of Meiji University) and Timotheus Felder-Roussety (Social Attaché, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Japan, standing in for the Science Attaché of the German Embassy who had to attend the STS Meeting in Kyoto).

Heinrich Menkhaus welcomed all participants to the event and recounted the history of the Club that was founded in August 1995 by the initiative of Prof. Arai, who was at the time director of the JSPS Bonn Office (founded in 1992). The first acting chairman was Uwe Czarnetzki until 2003. He pointed out the wish of the JSPS Club to work together more closely with other alumni associations, e.g., from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Humboldt Foundation (AvH). He also pointed out that a commemorative volume is on its way in memory of the 30th anniversary of the Club. In December, there will be a large meeting of all the heads of JSPS Clubs in the world. Finally, he pointed out activities of the Club and invited the participants to our next symposium in Jena in May 2026 on the topic of “Visions” and Members invite Members, in Linz. He thanked the Meiji University for the facilities, the JSPS Headquarters and the JSPS Bonn Office, as well as the speakers of the day.

President Sugino named the Club an ideal model for other clubs to come. He extended his gratitude to Heinrich Menkhaus and thanked him for his service. He pointed out the long-standing cooperation between Japan and Germany and also stressed that the Japanese university system has been built on the German one and underlined that German literature and music are loved by Japanese people, but that in Germany things like anime and manga are also very popular. He wished for the continuation of the work of the German JSPS Club.

Prof. Ueno greeted the guests in Japanese and pointed out his collaboration with Heinrich Menkhaus, who is his colleague in the law department.

Social Attaché Timotheus Felder-Roussety offered his warm congratulations from the German embassy. He pointed out that personal relations are the core of scientific exchange. He also stressed the role of JSPS next to DAAD and DFG, which have fostered the careers of many young students. In times of geopolitical uncertainty, trust is very important in keeping up the science, and that the Club plays a role in this.

The first session of the scientific talks was performed by Dr. Thomas Mühlenbernd (Manager of the Market Launch Support Office, Hymo Corporation Japan, and member of the JSPS Club) on his “Nearly 40 years' experience as a German Feodor-Lynen/JSPS fellow with and in Japan (1986-2025).” He related to his first experiences with the Japanese language, which he started learning in university. He was motivated by his colleagues to go to Japan to do research and learn the language in 1986. Furthermore, he related to his travels to Japan by railway, two weeks after the Chernobyl atomic catastrophe, stopping over at the Siberian Division of the USSR Academy of Science in Novosibirsk to exchange some research papers. It took him two weeks to get to Japan. He stayed in Yokohama at an institute for organometallic chemistry, with Prof. Yamamoto, in a very international research group. He recommended a book called “Japanese Inn” by Oliver Statler, an American soldier. This book recounts the Japanese history in a fun story as related to an inn owned by the Mochizuki family. Mühlenbernd joined BASF after his return to Germany and was asked to go back to Japan in a position that organizes researchers from BASF and Japanese researchers. At the time, there was a hype about Japan in Germany, so many politicians and press visited. He also was head of a German-Japanese joint venture. Another book he recommended is “The Goal” by Eliyahu Goldratt. Mühlenbernd is now working at Hymo corporation, which is also a business partner of BASF, and joined it after his retirement in 2022.

The second talk was “Quantum Mechanics for Non-Quantum Mechanicians” by Dr. Hans-Georg Mattutis (Professor at the Graduate School of the University of Electro-Communications Tokyo, Member of the JSPS Club). Starting out with an introduction to the history and development of research in quantum mechanics, he talked, for example, about Planck’s constant and the Planck elementary quantum (or h = Hilfsgröße). All wobbling, e.g. in jelly or water surface, is possible in the boundaries of Planck’s constant. Change is only possible in multiples of h. In 1925, the new quantum theory was established, including the well-known right-hand rule (matrix mechanics (MM), Born-Heisenberg-Jordan). Schrödinger’s equation is an advanced way of describing a rotation (wave mechanics (WM) and equivalence between MM and WM,1926). Psy (ψ) introduced here, is the statistical description of the position of the electron, a statistical probability of a possible position. Tunneling means that you bring the electrodes over barriers by getting the mass center over barriers. Our daily life looks continuous because h is so small, we do not notice the changes.

The second part of the afternoon was started by the talk “Quantum Tunneling Everywhere: From Nanotechnology to Cosmology” by Dr. Tetsuo Hatsuda (Executive Director of Science, RIKEN; Professor em., The University of Tokyo; International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences). He explained the applications of quantum tunneling. Heisenberg, Schrödinger and Dirac, and Born received Nobel Prizes. In 1928, Dirac discovered relativistic quantum mechanics. The sun shines and smartphones work because of the principles of quantum mechanics. This principle was also applied to uranium, used in fusion reactors, emitting alpha particles. Tunneling probability can be calculated by a formula using also Planck’s constant, the height of the barrier, and the energy of the particle . So, e.g., the chance of a human penetrating a wall is, more or less, nonexistent. Semiconductors with a tunneling diode were discovered in 1954, and later tunneling in superconductors. Later, Qubit and Flash memory (Fujio Masuoka) were developed and are used in computers and memory cards. Electrons are stored either in “0” or “1.” By making an electric field, one can change the barriers so the electrons can pass. The sun is emitting neutrinos constantly by quantum tunneling. There is also a theory that the universe is expanding due to passing the barrier through tunneling.

In the second talk, Dr. Hidetoshi Nishimori (Professor Emeritus and Specially-Appointed Professor, Institute of Science Tokyo) presented “Quantum Computing: Perspectives from the Viewpoint of Quantum Annealing.” Dr. Nishimori was invited to the research center Jülich, as they have the largest supercomputer in Europe and also a department of quantum computing. Quantum computers can accelerate normal computers and optimize them, e.g., by quantum simulations. One practice example could be chemical reaction calculation in fertilizer. Fertilizer production is energy-consuming and also produces CO² on a larger scale, so more efficient processes can be found by using quantum computing. However, it is very complicated, and it is rather an application for the future. Also, the efficiency of the power grid could be optimized with quantum computing. Digital and analog quantum computers exist. Gate-based computers work stepwise and are slow with the exception of very specific operations. Their use in industry is many years away. Quantum annealing specializes in optimization of problems. Using combinatorial optimization, it could be used to solve logistics problems of stock selection or project selection budget allocation. The computers are solving such problems within seconds. Superconducting circuits are, however, sensitive to noise and decay rapidly. It is estimated that the first results for gate-based computers, which are applicable, will have been developed within 10-30 years. For quantum annealing, it will be available soon.

Closing remarks were spoken by Masahiko Hayashi, director of the JSPS Bonn Office. After the symposium, a reception hosted by the JSPS Headquarters took place in the reception hall of the highest building of Meiji University Surugadai Campus, the Liberty Tower. There, a Noh performance was presented, including an introduction to Noh in the English language.

 

Visit of Research Institute for Humanity and Nature

by Heinrich Menkhaus, Chairman and Country Representative Japan

Picture: JSPS Club members with I. Tayasu (at the left) and M. Taniguchi (first row with blue short-sleeved shirt) at RIHN (courtesy of RIHN)

As part of the events to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the JSPS Club, members of the Club visited the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN) in Kyoto on October 6th, 2025. We were invited by the Deputy Director General, Prof. Dr. Makoto Taniguchi, already at our annual symposium in Braunschweig in 2024, where he was one of the speakers. He also offered the attached guest house for our members during their stay in Kansai for the events of the 30th anniversary. Both are located in wonderful green surroundings in the northern parts of Kyoto in the vicinity of the International Conference Center (Kyoto Kokusai Kaikan), where His Majesty the Emperor of Japan on October 5th, 2025, had just opened the 22nd Science and Technology Forum (STS Forum), and Kyoto Seika University as well as Kyoto Sangyo University.

The RIHN, having been founded in 2001, was united with five other Japanese state research facilities for the humanities in the year 2004 under the umbrella organization National Institutes for the Humanities (NIHU), to which the National Museum of Japanese History belongs, where the Club had the pleasure to celebrate its 20th anniversary with a symposium in 2015.

Prof. Taniguchi gave a detailed overview of the ongoing research projects, which are detailed in a brochure called RIHN Prospectus 2024-2025. It became clear that there is only one research cooperation with the German-speaking area, namely with Austria. Another Deputy General Director in charge of planning and coordination, Prof. Dr. Ichiro Tayasu then explained the facilities of the institute in Kyoto, being followed by a guided tour through the laboratories where research about the origins of the Japanese ethnicity is going on, not analyzing DNA, but bones that tell what the predecessors of the current Japanese ate and where the kind of food can be traced.

 

Club Presentation at the 2025 EXPO Osaka Kansai

by Heinrich Menkhaus, Chairman and Country Representative Japan

Picture: Speakers of the Club at the EXPO (courtesy of JSPS Bonn Office).

The dates of the events for the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Club in Japan were set partly in respect to the 2025 EXPO Osaka Kansai, because the Club saw a chance for a presentation of Japanese-German scientific collaboration on the stage of the German Pavilion inside the EXPO premises. This presentation took place in the afternoon on October 7th. According to the schedule attached to this report, we had one hour in which we wanted to show the scientific collaboration in as many disciplines as possible. The audience consisted mainly of Japanese EXPO visitors who had either come to the stage because the program had been published by the pavilion in advance or persons waiting in line to get access to the German pavilion and, again, others waiting in line in front of the German pavilion shop. The technical team of the German pavilion took a video of our presentation. This will soon be available on the website of the Club.

After the presentation, we were shown the German pavilion, whose exhibition was very much in line with the topic of the EXPO “Designing Future Society for Our Lives,” in concentrating mainly on aspects of circular economy. Every visitor got a mascot named Circular, which enabled the visitor to hear explanations of the exhibitions if the mascot was pointed at a desirable language button at the entrance to each room and then held to the ear. The mascot actually won the first prize of the several mascots presented by the different pavilions and could be bought in the shop attached to the German pavilion.

Being a group of scientists, the Club members joining the Kansai events, of course, were very interested in seeing the Japanese pavilion at the EXPO as well, and because there was not the time to line up with the regular visitors, we tried to get a guided tour well in advance of the date of presentation. This, however, turned out to be very difficult, because we could not find the responsible person on the Japanese side. As the event was coming closer, we were told to get in touch with the protocol of the German pavilion. They, however, answered that the Japanese pavilion would only accept high-ranking visitors. We, however, did not give up, because the Club received a recommendation for excellent Japanese-German collaboration in the area of science from the Japanese Foreign Ministry in 2012. If the protocol of the German pavilion indeed applied for a guided tour through the Japanese pavilion on our behalf is not known, but we were told one day before our presentation that we could enter the Japanese pavilion as a regular visitor only, of which neither of us could make use, because of the limited time available inside the EXPO premises.

 

Visit of the Palace Site of the Old Capital Heijokyo

by Heinrich Menkhaus, Chairman and Country Representative Japan

Picture: JSPS Club members at the palace site (courtesy of Lisa Do)

The final event of the 30th anniversary celebrations of the Club brought the members back in time, namely to the site where the palace grounds (Heijokyu) of the old capital Heijokyo (capital with interruptions from 710 to 794), nowadays called Nara, were located. This site close to the Saidaiji station of the Kintetsu Nara Line is not tourist infested and easily accessible from the named station.

Japanese public bodies started to buy the land decades ago in order to reconstruct the ancient palace site at least partly. Unfortunately, the Kintetsu Nara Line is still crossing this area, which is otherwise unpopulated. The current status shows the rebuilding of the first main hall for state business of the Tenno (dai ichiji daigokuden), housing a replica of the throne, which is still used in this form for the crowning ceremony. In front of it is a building that was only completed in late 2022, being the main entrance to the premises of the first main hall (daigokumon or dai ichiji daigokudenin minami mon). Next to it, a new building is under construction.

After taking a look at some rebuilt housing being used by the administration of the Tenno (nowadays kunai cho), the group proceeded to a rebuilt recreation area for the Tenno and the aristocratic families, the east pleasure garden (toin teien), where the building is partly standing in a lake and featuring a large terrace allowing the royals and the aristocrats to look at the mythical bird called phoenix (hoo) and to play the ancient game of messaging with small wooden boats from the upper stream to the persons sitting at the lower stream at an artificial waterway. A volunteer explained the premises and said that the government is spending more money on new constructions than on the maintenance of the already erected buildings, showing the lake, which is covered with algae because the pump for the renewal of the water is defective.

The final stop of the sightseeing program was the outer entrance to the palace grounds (suzaku­mon), where the photograph was taken.

 

NEWS FROM THE CLUB

Changes in the Board

by Heinrich Menkhaus, Chairman and Country Representative Japan

The board of the JSPS Club has changed. We are in the process of juvenilizing. Only two members of the board are left from the generation of the founders: Arnulf Jäger-Waldau as Treasurer and Heinrich Menkhaus as Chairman. The Chairman wants to step down since turning 65 years of age and recently, a solution has emerged. Now that the chairman is close to 70, the time has come to step down.

In the membership assemblies, taking place every year after the common symposium with the JSPS Bonn Office, the board has constantly asked for volunteers from the young generation but has only been partly successful. Usually, the board asked members who show an interest to join the monthly board meetings to get used to the tasks of the board and take over certain assignments. After almost two years of guest participation, Daniela Winkler and Niklas Kolbe volunteered as members of the board and were elected by the general assembly this year.

As all board members have certain responsibilities, the board decided to entrust Daniela Winkler, who is already heading the regional group North Germany, with a public relations function that the board already had for a certain period of time without being successful. She will from now on keep in touch with the press, in particular the scientific press, to ensure press representatives visit our symposia and write about them. Niklas Kolbe, already in charge of the regional group Rhine-Ruhr, will take care of the German-speaking members of the Club, as the members will notice soon, because he is going to mail out a questionnaire. The board has to know more details about the members´ scientific endeavors to be introduced to the media when they are looking for a certain specialist to be interviewed or recommend speakers for symposia organized by third parties.

Unfortunately, Shiori Mochimaru, who held the important position of keeping contact with the Japanese personal and institutional members and with the organizations formed by Japanese scientists working in Europe, stepped down. We were lucky to be able to co-opt Jan Mikuni, this year’s winner of the JACA Prize, to step in.

As the old members of the board are supposed to step down, let me renew the call for young successors. If you are interested, please contact a member of the board or the office. We try to be diverse as to the academic disciplines represented in the board, and we also try to balance males and females.

 

Upcoming Member Survey

by Niklas Kolbe, board member of the JSPS Club

A digital member survey will be launched next year in February to capture the professional expertise and research interests of our members.

The primary goal of the survey is to enable the Board to obtain a comprehensive overview of members’ activities, their Japan related projects and specialist competencies. All information gathered will be used exclusively to enhance the club’s operations and to provide targeted support to its members. Applications include the identification of appropriate experts in response to media inquiries, the facilitation of networking among members sharing similar research interests, and the election process for disciplinary mentoring of students and young scientists. 

Members are kindly requested to reserve a moment in early February to complete the questionnaire, which will be distributed by email. The participation will take only a few minutes and will contribute substantially to the continued development of the Club’s activities.

 

New Scientific Attaché at the Embassy of Japan

by Prof. Dr. Roza Maria Kamp, member of the JSPS Club and head of the regional group Berlin-Brandenburg

Picture 1: Attaché Suzuno on the left, Attaché Suzuki on the right

Picture 2: Members of the regional group Berlin-Brandenburg

Picture 3: R. Kamp presents Attaché Suzuki with a Buddy Bear (standing in the back) (all pictures courtesy of JSPS Club member R. Kamp)

On Wednesday, July 9th, 2025, Satoshi Suzuki invited the Berlin-Brandenburg regional group to the "Ishin" restaurant in Berlin to say goodbye after three years as Scientific Attaché in the Embassy of Japan in Berlin. He is now Deputy Director in the Department of Environmental and Energy Policy at MEXT in Tokyo. The new Scientific Attaché, Dr. Mitsushi Suzuno, also attended the meeting. He is a nanotechnologist, studied at Tsukuba University, and worked as a postdoc in the United States and at MEXT.

On behalf of the entire JSPS Club, I thanked Satoshi Suzuki for his excellent work and presented him with a Buddy Bear to remind him of his wonderful and successful time in Berlin.

We hope that we can continue our close cooperation with the Embassy of Japan with Dr. Suzuno.

 

Meeting of the Regional Group (East-)Westphalia

by Katja Kölkebeck, member of the board of the JSPS Club

Picture: Scientific meeting in Bielefeld (courtesy of K. Kölkebeck)

On the 15th of September 2025, a meeting of the regional group (East-) Westphalia took place in Bielefeld at the inclusive restaurant “Neue Schmiede”. Scientists interested in Japan-related research and members of the JSPS Club took part in this 2nd meeting, where also the Head of the International Office of the University of Bielefeld, Markus Symmank, was present, introducing the university’s internationalization perspective and existing activities with Japan, mainly with Osaka University due to a longer-standing research memorandum with the Department of Chemistry as well as activities in Biology. Moreover, a guest researcher at the Medical Faculty OWL and the Protestant Hospital of the Bethel Foundation took part in the meeting, where diverse topics on Japan-related research and future Japan-related activities were discussed lively.

 

REPORTS OF BRIDGE-FELLOWSHIPS

BRIDGE Report by JSPS Club member and former board member Prof. Dr. Katja Schmidtpott (Ruhr-Universität Bochum)
Aufenthalt an der Hitotsubashi-Universität (Tokyo) mit dem Bridge-Programm, März 2025

Foto 1: Mit meinem Kollegen und Gastgeber Prof. Mori Takahito und der JSPS-Mitarbeiterin Frau Kajihara Yuri, die uns gemeinsam mit einer Kollegin, Frau Abe Mayumi, zwecks einer Befragung zum BRIDGE-Programm aufsuchte (mit Genehmigung von K. Schmidtpott)

Foto 2: Studierende des „global leaders“-Programms der Hitotsubashi-Universität gemeinsam mit Studierenden aus Bochum und Duisburg, Februar 2025 (mit Genehmigung von K. Schmidtpott)

Foto 3: Abschlussfeier (sotsugyōshiki) der Hitotsubashi-Universität, März 2025 (mit Genehmigung von K. Schmidtpott)

Foto 4: Auf dem Campus der Tokyo Kagaku Daigaku (Institute of Science Tokyo) in Suzukakedai bei Yokohama. Im 7. Stock befindet sich das Archiv der Universität (mit Genehmigung von K. Schmidtpott)

Das JSPS-Bridge-Programm ermöglichte mir im März 2025 einen sehr ertragreichen Aufenthalt bei meinem Kollegen Mori Takahito, Professor für europäische Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte an der Hitotsubashi-Universität in Tokyo. Uns verbindet eine Zusammenarbeit im Bereich der modernen europäisch-japanischen Stadtgeschichte, die im Jahr 2019 mit einem Workshop an der Humboldt-Universität in Berlin begann, durch ein gemeinsames Panel auf der Konferenz der European Association of Urban History in Antwerpen (2022) vertieft wurde und aus der im Jahr 2023 schließlich der Sammelband „The Making of the 20th Century City: Towards a Transnational Urban History of Japan and Europe“ hervorging, den wir gemeinsam mit Rainer Liedtke (Universität Regensburg) herausgegeben haben.

Zuletzt hatte ich mich 2023 bei Prof. Mori aufgehalten, der seinerseits regelmäßig jedes Jahr im Sommer die Forschungsstelle für Zeitgeschichte in Hamburg besucht. Mein Aufenthalt in diesem Jahr sollte neben der Vertiefung der Kooperation auch meiner Wiedereingliederung in die Forschung nach vier Jahren Dekanat dienen. Beides ist in vollem Umfang gelungen, letzteres durch Zufall sogar besser als erhofft.

Mit Prof. Mori, Prof. Matthew Noellert (Wirtschaftsgeschichte Chinas) und der Nachwuchswissenschaftlerin Frau Dr. Erika Igarashi (Bevölkerungsgeschichte Japans) besprach ich zunächst unser gemeinsames Panel zum Thema „People on the Move Between the First and Second Globalizations: Perspectives from Europe and East Asia“, das wir im Juli 2025 auf der World Economic History Conference in Lund (Schweden) bestreiten wollten. Und auch für die detaillierte Besprechung eines gemeinsamen Artikels zur organisierten Freizeitgestaltung durch die Kōsei Undō, eine Organisation, die in den 1930er Jahren der deutschen KdF (Kraft durch Freude) nachgebildet wurde, war der Aufenthalt bei Prof. Mori äußerst hilfreich.

Aus der Kooperation mit Prof. Mori ist ebenso eine informelle Partnerschaft in der Lehre hervorgegangen. Die Hitotsubashi ist bekanntermaßen eine führende Universität in den Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, viele Absolventinnen und Absolventen streben Karrieren in internationalen Handelsunternehmen oder in der Finanzbranche an. Internationalisierung wird daher im Studium großgeschrieben. Seit einigen Jahren belegt eine Gruppe besonders ausgewählter Studierender im sog. „global leaders“-Programm eine festgelegte Anzahl von Kursen in englischer Sprache, was bei erfolgreichem Studienabschluss mit einer zusätzlichen Urkunde belohnt wird. Teil dieses Programms ist eine Exkursion nach Europa, schwerpunktmäßig Frankreich, um dort Unternehmen und Organisationen zu besuchen und auf diese Weise mögliche künftige Arbeitsumfelder kennenzulernen, aber auch, um sich mit französischen Studierenden auszutauschen. Seit zwei Jahren besucht die Gruppe aufgrund des Kontakts zwischen Prof. Mori und mir nun auch das Ruhrgebiet, wo sie mit Studierenden der Ruhr-Universität Bochum und der Universität Duisburg-Essen, mit der die Bochumer Ostasienwissenschaften eine Forschungskooperation unterhalten (AREA Ruhr), über ein vorher festgelegtes Thema auf Englisch diskutieren. In diesem Jahr lautete dieses Thema „Migration“.

Unter der Leitung von Frau Dr. Hashizume Kasumi besuchte die Gruppe nach einer gemeinsamen Seminarsitzung in der Universität Duisburg-Essen die Grundschule des superdiversen, durch Migration stark geprägten, Duisburger Stadtteils Hochfeld sowie das Amt für Integration der Stadt Duisburg, um dort jeweils Interviews zum Thema zu führen. Dabei wurden wir begleitet von Frau Prof. Dr. Uta Hohn, Geographisches Institut der Ruhr-Universität Bochum und ihrem Mitarbeiter Roman Fritz, der ebenso wie Uta Hohn zu Japan forscht. Die Exkursion der Studierenden aus Japan nach Hochfeld wurde durch Kontakte von Uta Hohn ermöglicht. Wie ich später erfuhr, hatte der Tag in Hochfeld einen nachhaltigen Eindruck bei den jungen Leuten aus Japan hinterlassen. Im März endet bekanntlich das akademische Jahr in Japan und am Tag der feierlichen Zeugnisübergabe an die glücklichen Absolventinnen und Absolventen war es mir eine besondere Freude, bei der Verleihung der Urkunden an die Absolventen und Absolventinnen dieses Programms im Dekanat der Wirtschaftswissenschaften an der Hitotsubashi-Universität dabei sein zu dürfen.

Eine weitere Gelegenheit zum Austausch mit fortgeschrittenen Studierenden bot sich im Rahmen meines Vortrags im Seminar von Prof. Mori. Ich sprach über einen japanischen Architekten und Bauingenieur, der sich um das katastrophensichere Bauen in Japan verdient gemacht hat, im Wesentlichen, indem er Beton als Baumaterial nicht nur erforscht, sondern auch öffentlichkeitswirksam propagiert und mithilfe der Entwicklung vorgefertigter Bauelemente (pre-cast concrete, purekon) in die Baupraxis eingebracht hat. Die Rede ist von Heigaku Tanabe (1898-1954). Der Zufall wollte es, dass kürzlich sein Nachlass ins Archiv der Tokyo Kagaku Daigaku (Institute of Science Tokyo, ehemals Tokyo Kōgyō Daigaku bzw. Tokyo Institute of Technology) gegeben wurde, wo die Katalogisierung durch den Vizedirektor des Universitätsmuseums der Tokyo Kagaku Daigaku, den Architekturhistoriker Prof. Taisuke Yamazaki, sowie den Architekturhistoriker Prof. Kōsei Hatsuda (Kōgakuin Daigaku) und seine Studierenden bereits begonnen hatte. Glücklicherweise wurde mir freier Zugang zu diesem für mich sehr wertvollen Material gewährt. Daher bestand mein Aufenthalt schon bald aus täglichen Besuchen im Archiv, wo ich die für mein Forschungsvorhaben zu transnationalen Einflüssen in der Entwicklung der Luftschutzarchitektur in den 1930er/40er Jahren relevanten Dokumente fotografieren durfte. Mit zunächst rund 10.000 Fotos bin ich nach Deutschland zurückgekehrt, die nun der Bearbeitung harren. Für die weitere Arbeit an den Tanabe-Materialien ist ein weiterer, etwas längerer Aufenthalt im nächsten Jahr bereits in Planung.

 

BRIDGE Report by JSPS Club Member and Board Member Dr. Daniela E. Winkler (Bonn University)

Picture 1: The Kubo lab at The University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, Department of Natural Environmental Studies. Head of the lab M. Kubo (centre, white top) next to BRIDGE Fellow D. Winkler (back row, red top) (courtesy of D. Winkler)

Picture 2: Working on deer dentitions at the Hyogo Prefecture Wildlife Research Center (courtesy of D. Winkler)

Picture 3: Enjoying a traditional dinner in the ryokan (courtesy of D. Winkler)

Picture 4: D. Winkler in the booth during the Open Campus Event (courtesy of D. Winkler)

Picture 5: The Kubo lab team after two days of Open campus event (courtesy of D. Winkler)

In October 2024 (stay period: 02.10.-27.10.2024), I had the opportunity to return to Japan for a one-month research stay at the University of Tokyo, funded by the JSPS BRIDGE Fellowship. Hosted by Prof. Mugino Kubo and her team (Picture 1), this stay allowed me to resume and expand upon the work we began during my previous JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2020–2022. Since that initial stay, Prof. Kubo and I have continued our collaboration, and I was excited to be back in person. Our current project focuses on the occurrence and potential causes of dental anomalies in Sika deer (Cervus nippon), with particular attention to regional differences and environmental factors.

We continued our study of specimens from the Boso Peninsula in Chiba Prefecture, where abnormal tooth wear patterns have been noted in a local deer population. I spent the first two weeks of my fellowship analyzing dental wear patterns of the Boso deer with dental anomalies, using a method called dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA). This method can be used to reconstruct diet preferences, and we will compare the anomalous deer with healthy specimens in order to find out if they foraged more selectively – for example for easy to comminute plants. During my JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship, I pioneered the application of DMTA to dinosaurs and invertebrates in collaboration with Prof. Kubo.

A key part of this visit included a field trip to the Hyogo Prefecture Wildlife Research Center. I was greeted with great hospitability and enjoyed the amenities of a very traditional rural ryokan with centuries of history. At the Wildlife Research Center, I examined a second deer population also exhibiting unusual dental wear. The visit not only provided valuable comparative material but also helped us initiate a new collaboration with Prof. Yokoyama from Hyogo University. We are now beginning to explore whether environmental influences—possibly even pollution—may be playing a role in the development of these anomalies.

Back in Tokyo, I focused on analyzing the newly collected data. Initial results from the Hyogo specimens were both intriguing and puzzling. Although the deer's dietary preferences appear consistent with those of healthy populations, dental anomalies have become markedly more frequent since around 2017. This sudden onset raises new questions about potential shifts in habitat, land use, or other environmental pressures in the region.

In the final week of the fellowship, I participated in the University of Tokyo’s Open Campus event. This public outreach activity gave me the chance to present our research to a broad audience, including many schoolchildren and families. Conducting these sessions in Japanese was a challenge after not speaking much Japanese for almost two years. But I really enjoyed the practice and interaction and had a great experience.

Overall, the fellowship provided not only a chance to deepen ongoing research but also to build new collaborations and gain fresh perspectives. I am grateful to JSPS for supporting this stay and to my host Prof. Kubo for her continuous support. The outcomes from this visit will inform the next steps of our project, and we look forward to continuing this fruitful international collaboration.

 

REVIEW OF A LIFE AS A SCIENTIST

Persönliche und wissenschaftsmotivierte Begegnungen mit Japan von Hans-Joachim Kornadt und Gisela Trommsdorff

von Clubmitglied Gisela Trommsdorff

Foto 1: Erste Tagung der GJSSS an der Keio Universität Tokyo nach ihrer Gründung 1989 (mit freundlicher Genehmigung von G. Trommsdorff)

Anfänge und erste Begegnungen mit Japan

Meinen ersten Besuch in Japan verdanke ich – gerade an der Universität Mannheim promoviert – der Einladung zu einem Vortrag auf dem International Congress of Psychology (ICP) in Tokyo im Jahr1972. Seitdem bin ich auf vielfache Weise mit Japan verbunden. Hier habe ich meinen späteren Ehemann Hans-Joachim Kornadt, Professor an der Universität des Saarlandes, kennengelernt. Wie ich selbst war auch er von dieser ersten Begegnung mit Japan fasziniert. Beide hatten wir den starken Wunsch, genauere Kenntnisse über die japanische Kultur und ihre Menschen zu erwerben. Japan erschien uns als eine besondere kulturelle Welt mit neuen Dimensionen und Facetten, die aus den uns bekannten westlichen Kulturen bisher nicht zugänglich waren.

Durch in Tokyo gewonnene Kontakte wurde ich bereits für das folgende Jahr zu der Tagung der International Society for the Study of Time nach Japan eingeladen, wo das Thema „Zeit“ unter kultureller Perspektive im Zusammenhang mit kulturellem Wandel diskutiert wurde – eine für mich wichtige Perspektive auf Fragen zum Wertewandel in modernen Gesellschaften wie Japan. Ich lernte dort japanische Kollegen kennen, die sich für kulturelle Werte, deren Vermittlung und deren Handlungswirkung interessierten – ein Thema, das auch für Hans-Joachim Kornadt aufgrund seiner langjährigen kulturinformierten Forschung unter motivationstheoretischer Perspektive relevant war.

Wir beide haben Einladungen zu Vorträgen in Japan genutzt, um uns intensiver mit Japan zu beschäftigen. Einladungen zu Forschungsaufenthalten ergaben sich durch Kontakte zu japanischen Kollegen während des Kongresses der ICP auch im Zusammenhang mit der Gründung der International Association of Cross Cultural Psychology (IACCP). Kornadt hatte bereits früher an deren vorbereitenden Tagungen mit Vorträgen zum Aggressionsmotiv teilgenommen. Die IACCP dient dem Ziel, eine Forschungslücke im mainstream der eurozentrisch geprägten Psychologie durch Einbeziehung kultureller Kontexte zu schließen. Dieses Ziel haben wir durch eigene Arbeiten in Forschung und Lehre verfolgt, zunächst mit Fokus auf Japan.
 

Forschungsaufenthalte

Foto 2: Studiengruppen-Treffen Modernes Japan in der Werner Reimers Stiftung Bad Homburg 2019 (mit freundlicher Genehmigung von G. Trommsdorf)

Der frühere Präsident der International Society of Sociology, Prof. Shogo Koyano, der später für unser kulturvergleichendes Forschungsprojekt eine wichtige Rolle spielte, machte mich in Japan mit Prof. Chikiko Hayashi, dem Direktor des Institute for Statistical Mathematics (ISM) in Tokyo bekannt. Dieser leitete das Research Committee on the Study of the National Japanese Character, das die japanischen Regierung bereits 1944 eingerichtet hatten, um regelmäßig alle fünf Jahre repräsentative Umfragen zu Werten und Einstellungen in Japan, um mögliche Stabilitäten und Wandel von Werten zu erfassen. In den 70er Jahren stellte sich zudem die Aufgabe, systematische Vergleiche mit Daten aus einer kulturell anderen aber modernisierungstheoretisch ähnlichen Gesellschaft durchzuführen. Dazu wurde ich zu einem mehrmonatigen Forschungsaufenthalt in das Institut eingeladen und habe Ergebnisse unserer vergleichenden Analysen unter Verwendung von ALLBUS-Daten zu Werthaltungen in Japan und Deutschland zusammen mit Prof. Hayashi und seinen Kollegen veröffentlicht.
 

Forschungsprojekte

Foto 3: H. J. Kornadt und G. Trommsdorff mit ehemaligem Doktoranden Kobayashi (mit freundlicher Genehmigung von G. Trommsdorff)

Diese Kontakte und Arbeiten ergänzten die Vorarbeiten und Überlegungen von Hans-Joachim Kornadt zu einem kulturvergleichend angelegten Forschungsvorhaben. Fragen dazu ergaben sich u.a. aus unseren wiederholten Beobachtungen von Alltagssituationen in Japan, wo japanische Kinder und Jugendliche kaum Ärger-Emotionen und aggressives Verhalten zeigten, und Mutter-Kind-Interaktionen auch bei anfänglichem Konflikt friedlich verliefen. Allmählich entstand daraus der Vorsatz, die auf Spielplätzen und in Kindergärten beobachteten Phänomene systematisch und inhaltlich genauer zu erfassen sowie unter Berücksichtigung kultureller Bedingungen auch theoretisch zu erklären. Das Forschungsziel war, durch empirische Vergleichsstudien kulturelle Bedingungen der Sozialisation von Werten, Motiven und Sozialverhalten, insbesondere für die Entwicklung von Aggression in sich verändernden Kontexten in Japan und Deutschland zu klären.

Dieses Projektvorhaben wurde durch Austausch mit japanischen Sozialwissenschaftlern und Psychologen zunehmend konkreter und schließlich durch eine längerfristige, wissenschaftlich fruchtbare und menschlich angenehme Kooperation realisierbar. Zusammen mit Prof. T. Hayashi (Kyoto Universität) und seinem Team japanischer Professoren, Doktoranden und Studierender bearbeiteten wir Fragestellungen und Methoden für die Durchführung des Projektes zur Sozialisation und Entwicklung des Aggressionsmotivs in Japan und Deutschland. Nachdem die Datenaufnahmen und -analysen abgeschlossen waren, wurden gemeinsam mit dem japanischen Team die Ergebnisse interpretiert, diskutiert und auf Tagungen präsentiert.

Für die Durchführung des Projektes hatten die Volkswagen Stiftung und die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) die von Kornadt beantragten Mittel bewilligt (zunächst für deutsche und japanische Mütter und deren Kinder; später auch für entsprechende Stichproben aus der Schweiz und Indonesien). Weitere finanzielle Unterstützung verdanken wir der Universität des Saarlandes, der RWTH Aachen und der Universität Konstanz (nach Wechsel von Mannheim auf eine Professur). Einladungen zu Kongressen, Forschungs- und Vortragsreisen und zu mehrmonatigen Gastprofessuren an japanische Universitäten (Keio Universität; Nagoya Universität, Kansei Universität) sowohl an Kornadt und an mich wurden teilweise finanziert von der Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung (AvH) und der Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), dem DAAD, der DFG und den einladenden japanischen Universitäten.

Dieses Forschungsprojekt regte Kornadt und mich zu weiteren kulturinformierten japanbezogenen Studien an, die wir auch zusammen mit Diplomanden und Doktoranden an unseren jeweiligen Universitäten durchführten. Kornadt untersuchte in Kooperation mit kulturangehörigen Psychologen kulturspezifische Entwicklungsbedingungen des Aggressionsmotivs in Japan und Indonesien. Mit meiner Gruppe und ausländischen Kooperationspartnern untersuchten wir in einem DFG-finanzierten Projekt zu „Value of Children“ (VOC) Kulturbesonderheiten von Sozialisation, intergenerationalen Beziehungen und der Entwicklung von pro- und antisozialem Verhalten, Empathie und Selbstregulation in mehreren westlichen und asiatischen Ländern, u.a. auch in Japan.

Die Arbeiten von Kornadt und mir zu kulturspezifischen Sozialisationsbedingungen und -wirkungen in Japan sind in gemeinsamen und in jeweils eigenen Publikationen zur kulturinformierten Psychologie dokumentiert (u.a. Handbuchartikel, Artikel in Fachzeitschriften, Herausgabe der dreibändigen Enzyklopädie zur Kulturvergleichenden Psychologie, Literaturliste 190 KB). Die den Publikationen zugrunde liegenden Arbeiten zu Japan erfolgten in verschiedenen informellen und institutionellen Kontexten.
 

Interdisziplinärer informeller Gesprächskreis

In der Zeit der 80er Jahre bestand in Deutschland ein zunehmend öffentliches Interesse an Japan und seinem wirtschaftlichen Aufstieg. Dies veranlasste die Werner Reimers Stiftung den Vorschlag ihres wissenschaftlichen Beirates (dem ich angehörte) anzunehmen, wissenschaftliche Kolloquien zu einem interdisziplinären, einschlägigen, auf Japan bezogenen Thema gemäß dem Stiftungszweck des Stifters, dem Unternehmer Werner Reimers (1888–1965), einzurichten.

Aufgrund seiner vergleichenden Forschung in Japan und seiner Kenntnis interdisziplinär ausgewiesener japanischer Professoren wurde Kornadt gebeten, gemäß dem Stiftungszweck eine Kolloquiums-Reihe zusammen zu stellen. Er wählte dazu ein Thema aus, mit dem er während eines längeren Forschungsaufenthaltes (u.a. an der Doshisha Universität) im Rahmen eines durch die Deutsche Botschaft vermittelten Gesprächskreises japanischer Philosophen und Germanisten beschäftigt war. Dort wurden Fragen kultureller Sozialisationsbedingungen aus deutscher und japanischer Sicht diskutiert. Die Stiftung ermöglichte von 1983–1988 eine Kolloquiumsreihe zum Thema „Sozialisation in Japan und Deutschland“ regelmäßige Kolloquien mit einer Gruppe deutscher und japanischer Wissenschaftler, die sich abwechselnd in Deutschland und Japan trafen. Als die Förderung durch die Reimers-Stiftung auslief, bemühte sich diese Gruppe um eine dauerhafte Fortsetzung der erfolgreichen Diskussionen unter Beteiligung weiterer Wissenschaftler in einer formellen Vereinigung. Kornadt war inzwischen 1988 mit dem Deutsch-Japanischen Forschungspreis von der AvH und der JSPS ausgezeichnet worden.
 

Vereinsgründung: DJGS / GJSSS

Mit einer kleinen Gruppe japanischer und deutscher Professoren, die an einem deutsch-japanischen Austausch und der gegenseitigen Anregung interessiert waren, gründeten wir 1989 in Tokyo die Deutsch-Japanische Gesellschaft für Sozialwissenschaften (DJGS) (German-Japanese Society for Social Sciences, GJSSS). Gründungsmitglieder waren die Psychologen Taketoshi Takuma und Hiroshi Namiki aus Japan sowie Theo Hermann, Hans-Joachim Kornadt und Gisela Trommsdorff aus Deutschland; die japanischen Kulturwissenschaftler Kenichi Mishima und Tadashi Suzuki, der Sprachwissenschaftler Hikaru Tsuji und der japanische Soziologe Kenichi Tominaga. Satzungsgemäß besteht der Vorstand zu gleichen Teilen aus japanischen und deutschen Wissenschaftlern. Seit dem Gründungsdatum 1989 finden weiterhin (inzwischen nach mehr als 35 Jahren) regelmäßig, alle zwei bis drei Jahre, Tagungen statt, abwechselnd in Japan und Deutschland, mit wachsender Teilnehmerzahl aus verschiedenen Disziplinen. Die Mitgliederzahl und das fachliche Spektrum der Gesellschaft erweiterten sich u.a. um Soziologen, Politologen, Ökonomen und Juristen. Inzwischen ist ein Vorstand deutscher und japanischer Mitglieder in der 4. Generation tätig. Die Mitglieder der GJSSS sind etwa zu gleichen Teilen japanische und deutsche Sozialwissenschaftler, die sich sowohl mit Themen zu Japan als auch zu Deutschland (wenn möglich auch vergleichend) befassen. Dies unterscheidet die GJSSS von der zur etwa gleichen Zeit von sozialwissenschaftlich orientierten Japanologen gegründeten „Gesellschaft für sozialwissenschaftliche Japanforschung (VSJF)“.

Das übergreifende Thema der Tagungen der GJSSS umfasst seit Beginn und bis heute vor allem Probleme sich wandelnder Gesellschaften am Beispiel von Japan und Deutschland. Aktuell werden politische, ökonomische, demographische, ökologische, soziale und psychologische Aspekte von Innovation, Wandel, Künstlicher Intelligenz und Resilienz im kulturellen Kontext thematisiert. Die Tagungen der GJSSS zu Wandlungsprozessen in beiden Ländern wurden durch verschiedene deutsche und japanische Institutionen gefördert und haben mehrere (meist englischsprachige und rezensierte) Publikationen japanischer und deutscher Autoren hervorgebracht. Die Einrichtung der GJSSS wurde unterstützt von der Deutschen Botschaft Tokyo; die Tagungen wurden gefördert von dem DAAD Tokyo, der JSPS, der Japan Foundation Tokyo mit dem Japanischen Kulturinstitut Köln, dem International House of Japan (I-House, Kokusai Bunka Kaikan). Zudem ist die GJSSS verbunden mit dem Deutschen Institut für Japanstudien (DIJ), mit dem Japanisch-Deutschen Zentrum Berlin (JDZB), mit der Werner Reimers Stiftung und u.a. mit der VSJF und der European Japan Experts Association (EJEA).
 

Studium und Lehre

Foto 4: H. J. Kornadt und G. Trommsdorff bei einer Teezeremonie (mit freundlicher Genehmigung von G. Trommsdorff)

Durch die Verbindung von japanbezogener Forschung und Lehre habe ich eine japanbezogene kulturinformierte Sozialwissenschaft an der Universität Konstanz einführen können. Mit Annahme des Rufes nach Konstanz 1988 wurde die thematische Ausrichtung meines Lehrstuhls als „Kulturvergleichende Entwicklungspsychologie“ festgelegt. Ziel war, Studierenden in ihrer wissenschaftlichen Arbeit einen Blick auf andere Kulturen zu öffnen. Um am Beispiel Japan kulturpsychologische Phänomene zu behandeln, habe ich mehrfach japanische Gastprofessoren eingeladen und Studierende, Diplomanden und Doktoranden – auch aus Japan – betreut und unsere japanbezogenen Forschungsarbeiten in die Lehre eingebunden.

Zudem habe ich 1992 ein sozialwissenschaftliches, interdisziplinäres Studienprogramm „Modernes Japan“ eingerichtet, das mit einem Austauschprogramm für Studierende der Universität Konstanz und der Tokyo International University (TIU) verbunden war. Ermöglicht wurde das Programm durch die Mitwirkung interessierter und teilweise mit Japan verbundener Kollegen der Universität Konstanz und der Universität Zürich, sowie ergänzt durch Sondervorträge deutscher und japanischer Gastdozenten. Neben dem Sprachunterricht durch eine japanische Lektorin umfasste das Studienangebot in deutscher Sprache historische, soziologische, politologische und psychologische Themen. Kulturpsychologische Fragen sprachlicher Besonderheiten wurden von meinem Doktoranden Makoto Kobayashi (inzwischen Professor in Japan) behandelt, der auch an der Vermittlung unserer aktuellen japanbezogenen Studien und besonders an der Interpretation der japanischen Interviews mitwirkte. Regelmäßige Teilnahme und Studienleistungen wurden zertifiziert und erleichterten den Zugang für das Austauschprogramm, das von der Universität Konstanz und dem DAAD finanziell unterstützt wurde. Das Studienprogramm „Modernes Japan“ war über ein Jahrzehnt aktiv. Einige ehemalige Teilnehmer, mit denen bis heute noch persönliche und berufliche Beziehungen bestehen, sind inzwischen in leitender Position und verschiedenen Bereichen deutsch-japanischer Beziehungen tätig.

Das Deutsche Institut für Japanstudien (DIJ) wurde 1988 als eine Forschungseinrichtung mit Sitz in Tokyo gegründet und hat für Kornadt und mich für unsere japanbezogenen Arbeiten eine besondere Rolle gespielt. In der Gründungsphase des Institutes hatte Kornadt als Mitglied des Wissenschaftsrates eigene Vorschläge vorgelegt und dann als Mitglied des Wissenschaftlichen Beirates (1988–1995) die Entwicklung des Institutes mit begleitet. Als ich später in den Wissenschaftlichen Beirat berufen wurde (2006–2014), erfolgte eine Transformation der wissenschaftlichen Ausrichtung des Institutes. Der zunächst primär geisteswissenschaftlich-japanologische Fokus wurde durch eine wirtschafts- und sozialwissenschaftliche Ausrichtung erweitert, die sich als großer Gewinn für das Institut und darüber hinaus für multidisziplinäres wissenschaftliches Arbeiten zu Japan erwies. Kornadt und ich haben durch das DIJ viel Unterstützung und viele wertvolle Anregungen für unsere Forschungsarbeiten gewonnen: durch den offenen Austausch im DIJ, durch Einladungen zu Veranstaltungen, durch Unterstützung bei Kontakten mit japanischen Kollegen und Institutionen, bei Tagungen der GJSSS sowie vor allem auch durch persönliche Begegnungen.
 

Deutsch-Japanische Studiengruppe

Nachdem sich die von Kornadt 1983 initiierte und von der Werner Reimers Stiftung geförderte deutsch-japanische Kolloquiums-Reihe als fruchtbar erwiesen hatte, lag es nahe, die Einrichtung einer Diskussionsgruppe anzuregen, die die aktuellen Entwicklungen in Japan thematisiert und in einem geeigneten Kontext diskutiert. Der Wissenschaftliche Beirat der Werner Reimers Stiftung hat diesen Vorschlag aufgegriffen und unter möglicher Mitwirkung des Deutschen Institutes für Japanstudien (DIJ) im Sinne des Stifters Werner Reimers eine interdisziplinär zusammengesetzte Deutsch-Japanische Studiengruppe gefördert. Diese Studiengruppe traf sich mehrfach zwischen 2016 und 2018 zu vereinbarten Themen, zu denen jeweils Ausarbeitungen der Mitglieder diskutiert wurden. Es ging dabei um einen wissenschaftlichen Austausch zu aktuellen Problemen der japanischen Gesellschaft, Kultur, Politik und Wirtschaft sowie auch zu japanischer Tradition in Kunst und Kultur (u.a. am Beispiel der Asiatika-Sammlung von Werner Reimers).

Zu den Themen „Aufbruch zur Moderne in Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft“ (2016) und „Tradition und Wandel im ostasiatischen Kontext“ (2018) liegen von der Werner Reimers Stiftung herausgegebene Reader vor. Eine Buchpublikation „Japan. Ein Land im Umbruch“ mit Beiträgen der Mitglieder der Studiengruppe wurde 2024 von Verena Blechinger-Talcott, David Chiavacci, und Wolfgang Schwentker herausgegeben.
 

Neuere informelle Begegnungen mit Japan

Schließlich will ich eine persönliche Geschichte der Begegnung mit Japan berichten, die über 200 Jahre zurückreicht, in die Zeit, als Japan fast vollständig während des Tokugawa-Shogunates von der Außenwelt abgeschlossen war (1633–1853) (sakoku). Das Shogunat übte zur Sicherung der inneren Ordnung eine zentralisierte Kontrolle über Handelsbeziehungen und Informationsaustausch aus. Ausnahmen gab es für bestimmte Häfen. Dazu gehörte die Insel Dejima bei Nagasaki. Hier wurden durch holländische Schiffe Informationen nach Japan für das begehrte „Holländische Lernen“ (Rangaku) importiert. Kontrolliert gefördert wurde praktisch anwendbares Wissen, besonders zur Medizin. Soweit der historische Kontext einer Geschichte, die vor vier Jahrzehnten als persönlich bedeutsam sichtbar wurde.

Eines Tages in den 80er Jahren begleitete uns Prof. Tsuji nach Nagasaki zu einer traditionellen Apotheke, wo uns der Eigentümer feierlich einige Folianten (aus der Jahrhundertwende und den Jahren 1804) mit handschriftlichen Übersetzungen vorlegte. Es handelte sich um medizinische Abhandlungen u.a. auf Grundlage von chemischen Analysen sowie um Berichte über die Herstellung pharmazeutischer und medizinischer Produkte. Der Autor, Prof. Bartholomäus Trommsdorff (JBT), ein Vorfahre von mir, hatte also vor mehr als 200 Jahren – nicht als Person – sondern durch seine wissenschaftlichen Bücher bereits Zugang in das eigentlich abgeschlossene Japan.

Diese Geschichte fand kürzlich während einer Tagung der GJSSS 2022 eine Fortsetzung. Zwei langjährige Mitglieder der GJSSS, Prof. Tokuyasu und Prof. Mori, hatten inzwischen entdeckt, dass diese und weitere Bände meines Vorfahren JBT zurück von Japan wieder nach Deutschland gekommen sind und u.a. in der Bibliothek der Waseda Universität und in München stehen. Zur Jubiläumsfeier anlässlich des 250. Geburtstages von JBT haben Kornadt und ich auf Einladung der Akademie für Wissenschaften Erfurt 2023 über JBT und dieses historische Beispiel zum Wissenstransfer zwischen Japan und Deutschland berichtet.
 

Ausblick

Aufgrund seines Einsatzes für Deutsch-Japanische akademische Beziehungen wurde Kornadt im Jahr 1988 mit dem Japanisch-Deutschen Forschungspreis (als Preisträgerstipendium) von der JSPS und der AvH ausgezeichnet. 2016 wurde mir durch die japanische Regierung die Verdienstauszeichnung des japanischen Außenministeriums verliehen.

Kornadt und ich haben jeweils in unseren eigenen Arbeitskontexten sowie auch gemeinsam in den über 50 Jahren unserer wissenschaftlichen und persönlichen Beschäftigung mit Japan unermesslich wertvolle Erfahrungen gewinnen können. Obwohl diese Erfahrungen in dem kurzen Rückblick nicht ausgeführt werden konnten, haben sie jedoch unsere Überzeugung verstärkt, wie wertvoll und fruchtbar ein deutsch-japanischer Wissenschaftsdialog ist und sich auch in Zukunft erweisen wird.

Wir berichteten im NvC 02/2023 in einem Nachruf über das Leben von Prof. Hans-Joachim Kornadt.

 

PRESENTATION OF NEW MEMBERS

Our New Club Member Dr. Jörg Fischer

Dr. Jörg Fischer is a chemist with a strong interest in materials science, catalysis, and the development of operando and in situ spectroscopy methodologies. He earned his M.Sc. from the University of Konstanz and completed his Ph.D. in 2025 in Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) at the Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, ETH Zürich. Since the beginning of his Ph.D., he has also served on the board of EquipSent, a small Swiss NGO that collects functional but unused scientific equipment from universities and companies and donates it to educational non-profit organizations worldwide.

During his doctoral studies, he met Prof. Toyao at an international conference in Switzerland. Following the completion of his Ph.D., he successfully applied for a JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship to join the laboratory of Prof. Toyao at the Institute for Catalysis, Hokkaido University, in the beautiful city of Sapporo. During his stay in Japan, he focuses on the utilization of carbon dioxide (CO2) as a feedstock for the chemical industry by studying the catalytic conversion of CO2 with heterogeneous thermocatalysis. The conversion of CO2 into valuable chemicals and fuels such as ethanol or methanol has become a key research topic in efforts to mitigate climate change. As the primary greenhouse gas emitted by human activities, CO2 represents both a major environmental challenge and a promising chemical feedstock for sustainable industrial processes.

After the completion of his stay at the end of October 2025, he will move to Utrecht University to continue his postdoctoral research. He plans to maintain close contact with his Japanese colleagues, and a collaborative research project on EPR imaging methodology, focusing on elucidating the formation of poisoning carbon deposits on catalytic surfaces, is already being planned with researchers from Hokkaido University.


Our New Club Member Dr. Mei-Chin Pang

Dr Mei-Chin Pang is a data scientist at BASF SE, Germany. Her specialization in data science includes statistical and AI methods, battery R&D and cloud computing. She is also interested in deploying AI methods into real-world systems with AI hardware (e.g., Machine Learning Operations (MLOps)) and GPU computing. She completed her PhD in Electrochemical Science and Engineering at Imperial College London. Before going to the United Kingdom, she studied Energy Engineering with a focus on renewable energy and energy storage at the University of Stuttgart.

During her short-term research stay in Japan, she collaborated with Professor Saneyuki Ohno at Tohoku University in benchmarking different statistical and AI models for the battery research. She worked together with the graduate students at Tohoku University to create a new battery dataset for the data science community. Outside of her research, she also organized data science workshops and seminars for the professors, researchers and students at Tohoku University. The benchmarking study from the JSPS fellowship will be published as open-source models with publicly available database for the data science and scientific community.

She presented her JSPS research findings as a poster in an international battery conference with Professor Ohno in November 2024. She also participated in the public speaking coaching by Atsuko Kohata and gave a talk in the DAAD network on AI for battery applications in electric vehicles.

By joining the JSPS Club, she wishes to get to know like-minded people, who are also passionate about Data Analytics, AI methods, Automation, Cloud Computing and MLOps. She is interested in organizing data science workshops for the community from the JSPS Club, if anyone would like to learn more about data science for their own research questions and domains. You can contact her at meichinpang@posteo.de.

 

Representations of the Club on External Events until the Editorial Deadline 12.11.2025

  • 20.06.2025: Participation at Berthold Leibinger Innovation Award ceremony | Saskia Schimmel
     
  • 20.06.2025: Participation in the 28th Science in Japan Forum “Glimpse of Quantum Technology and Quantum Computer” organized by the JSPS Washington DC office | Matthias Hofmann
     
  • 30.06.2025: Talk with the newly appointed science attaché Suzuno Mitsushi and the education attaché of Watanabe Yohei of MEXT to the Japanese Embassy in Berlin at Meiji University | Heinrich Menkhaus
     
  • 18.07.2025: Reception at the EU Delegation for the winners of the EU program Young Scientists | Heinrich Menkhaus
     
  • 20.07.2025: Tobitate Japan mentoring at MEXT | Heinrich Menkhaus
     
  • 18.08.2025: Meeting with German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul in the Sasakawa Foundation Building | Heinrich Menkhaus
     
  • 10.-13.09.2025: Attending the EJEA (European Japan Experts Association) symposium at Shinshu University Campus in Nagano | Heinrich Menkhaus
     
  • 02.10.2025: Reception of the German Ambassador for the celebration of the German Reunification | Heinrich Menkhaus, Daniela Winkler, Katja Kölkebeck, Sakia Schimmel and Arnulf Jäger-Waldau
     
  • 03.10.2025: Visit of JAMSTEC campus in Yokosuka as part of the 30th anniversary events | Heinrich Menkhaus, Katja Kölkebeck, Saskia Schimmel, Arnulf Jäger-Waldau
     
  • 06.10.2025: Visit of RIHN (Research Institute for the Humanities and Nature) in Kyoto as part of the 30th anniversary events | Heinrich Menkhaus, Saskia Schimmel, Daniela Winkler, Arnulf Jäger-Waldau
     
  • 07.10.2025: Visit and Presentation at the German Pavilion at the EXPO Osaka Kansai | Heinrich Menkhaus, Saskia Schimmel, Daniela Winkler, Arnulf Jäger-Waldau
     
  • 15.10.2025: Koordinationskreis Wissenschaft at the German Embassy Tokyo | Heinrich Menkhaus
     
  • 08.11.2025: Junior Forum Bonn | Katja Kölkebeck
     
  • 12.11.2025: Participation at the AvH Networking Conference in Bayreuth | Saskia Schimmel
     
  • 14.11.2025: Virtual JSPS Fellow Meeting, JSPS Bonn Office, JSPS Club. Presentation to current/upcoming Standard or Short-Term Fellows | Matthias Hofmann
     

 

New Club Members until the Editorial Deadline 12.11.2025

  • Dr. Jonas Kiemel
    Osaka University 2025*
     
  • Benjamin Lau
    Universität Hamburg
     
  • Joshua Schulte
    The Cancer Institute of JFCR 2025*
     
  • Dr. Tim Bauer
    Helmholz-Zentrum Berlin f. Materialien u. Energie
    The University of Tokyo 2025*
     
  • Dr. Jörg Fischer
    Utrecht University
    Hokkaido University 2025*
     
  • Dr. Larie Charrieau
    MARUM
    JAMSTEC 2015 + 2018*
     
  • Vivien Platl
    TU Ilmenau
    Institute of Science Tokyo 2025*
     
  • Dr. Georgia Kikis
    Universität Duisburg-Essen
    Nagoya University 2025*
     

* research stay in Japan, founded by JSPS/STA

 

BRIDGE Program Announced

Since 2009, the BRIDGE Fellowship Program is provided exclusively for regular members of officially established JSPS alumni associations who have conducted research activities in Japan under the Postdoctoral Fellowships for Foreign Researchers or other JSPS programs. It gives them an opportunity to create, sustain and/or strengthen research collaborations with Japanese colleagues during another stay in Japan (from 14 up to 30 days). The objective is to build strong networks among researchers in Japan and other countries through a variety of activities and to expand the worldwide network of JSPS fellows.

In Germany, the selection procedure is jointly organized by the German JSPS Alumni Association and the JSPS Bonn Office.

The BRIDGE Program for 2026 was announced. The application deadline is January 5, 2026, at 8 a.m. (date of receipt). Application documents (form A, form B) must be sent via e-mail to the JSPS Bonn Office. Applications that arrive too late will not be considered.

Information about the BRIDGE Program and the application documents are on the JSPS Website. If you have any further inquiries, please contact our staff at the JSPS Bonn Office. The scholarship must be taken up between July 1st, 2026 and March 31, 2027. People who have already been in Japan with the BRIDGE program in the last five years (fiscal year 2021-2025) cannot apply.

 

Upcoming Events

  • 08./09.05.2026: Symposium in Jena
     
  • 06./07.11.2026: Mitglieder laden Mitglieder ein in Linz


If you would like to publish articles on events, publications, please contact us via e-mail. We are looking forward to your articles.

 

Impressum

Herausgeber:
Deutsche Gesellschaft der JSPS-Stipendiaten e.V.
Redaktion: Prof. Dr. Katja Kölkebeck
Mitarbeit: Dr. Meike Albers-Meindl
Verantwortlich:
Deutsche Gesellschaft der JSPS-Stipendiaten e.V.
c/o JSPS Bonn Office, Ahrstr. 58, 53175 Bonn
Tel.: 0228/375050, Fax: 0228/957777
E-Mail

Die in den Beiträgen geäußerten Ansichten geben nicht
unbedingt die Meinung des Herausgebers wieder.