RIKEN Center for Advanced Intelligence Project Science, Technology and Society Team

Team Leader: Osamu Sakura (D.Sc.)

Japanese Page

Research Summary

Our research focuses on the public image of AI/robots in Japan and other East Asian countries. More specific targets are its historical transitions and its representations in fictional materials including sci-fi. Also planned is comparative research of the public images among East Asian, or Buddhist, countries. It is expected that the public images may be somewhat different from those in the Western countries which put their base of cultural norm on Judeo-Christianity. The discontinuity has been emphasized between humans and animals in Christian thinking, while from the Buddhist view human beings are placed in part of the nature. We are tackling to propose rather unique perspectives on human-AI relation from the East Asian viewpoint.

Main Research Fields

Multidisciplinary

Related Research Fields

Social Sciences & General
Environment & Ecology

Research Subjects

Relation of science knowledge and human values
How the developments of science and technology has been changing humans and society
Biological and cultural evolution of human beings

Selected Publications

Papers with an asterisk(*) are based on research conducted outside of RIKEN.

1.*Sakura, O. and Nishigaki, T.
"Interview: Artificial Intelligence"
Discuss Japan: Japan Foreign Policy Forum 36, http://www.japanpolicyforum.jp/archives/discussions/pt20161226201615.html (2016)
2.*Sakura, O.
"Launching a two-front war against anti-intellectualism and expert paternalism: Lessons from the Fukushima nuclear disaster"
5: Designing Media Ecology 3, 24-43 (2015)
3.*Yang, A. and Sakura, O.
"Talking around the Anthropocene"
5: Designing Media Ecology 6, 22-35 (2016)
4.*Sakura, O.
"A view from the Far East: neuroethics in Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea"
East Asian Science, Technology and Society 6, 297-301 (2012)
5.Sakura O.
"Umesao Tadao and 3/11"
Discuss Japan: Japan Foreign Policy Forum 7, http://www.japanpolicyforum.jp/archives/culture/pt20110930121050.html (2011)

Publications

Lab Members

Principal investigator

Osamu Sakura: Team Leader

Core members

Shin-ichi Fukuzumi: Deputy Team Leader
Yukiko Tanikawa: Visiting Scientist
Yoko Fujishima: Visiting Scientist
Yueh-Hsuan Weng: Visiting Scientist
Hikaru Asano: Research Part-time Worker II

Contact Information

The University of Tokyo,
7-3-1 Hongo,
Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo,
113-0033, Japan
Email: osamu.sakura [at] riken.jp