NEWS

Special Public Lecture by Koichi Hamada Tuntex Emeritus Professor of Yale University and Special Advisor to the Cabinet

Update: June 17, 2019

On June 13 (Thurs.), ICU held a special public lecture by inviting Mr. Koichi Hamada, Tuntex Emeritus Professor of Yale University and Special Advisor to the Cabinet. It was a joint project led by Distinguished Professor Katsuhito Iwai (major: Business), Visiting Professor Jun Saito (major: Global Studies, Economics) and Senior Associate Professor Yushi Inaba (major: Development Studies, Economics) and hosted by the Economics and Business Department. Prof. Hamada is a world renowned economist and is involved in economic policy of the current Cabinet as a Special Advisor while actively expressing his opinions on topics such as creativity and education.

In the first session of the two-part event, Prof. Hamada delivered a lecture titled "Liberal Arts and Creativity." In the lecture, he looked back at his own experiences so far and said that the criteria for becoming a good researcher include not only the ability to incorporate the knowledge of other researchers but also to think it through in one's own mind. In order to become a creative person, Prof. Hamada said, it is important to have intellectual curiosity, dig deep into the matter and observe things from various dimensions as well as to produce output by writing papers, etc. Further, ideas do not result from continuous thinking, 24 hours a day for 365 days. On the other hand, it is necessary to rest your mind by devoting yourself to something, such as paintings, plays, philosophy or music.

190617_2_sub.jpg

In the second session, Prof. Inaba took the chair and Prof. Hamada, Prof. Iwai and Prof. Saito engaged in a three-man talk on the theme of "Economics, Creativity and Japan," and exchanged their opinions regarding what is necessary for generating creativity. In the talk session, the professors said that creativity required basic knowledge, and that learning broadly by combining fields that are seemingly entirely different and having dialogue with others by expressing your opinion and writing papers would lead to generation of creativity.

In the question and answer session, students asked questions such as what was necessary to improve creativity in Japan's education and what the professors' opinions were regarding the balance between creativity and knowledge to realize creativity without cramming, though input is a necessary factor. Prof. Hamada answered each question meticulously.

Page top