 It's now time, everyone, so we will now open this symposium here at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology. Thank you all for your participation in this event. My name is Iwai. I will service today's moderator. I'm the Executive Director of Keisai Doyukai. Now to open the symposium, I invite from Keisai Doyukai, Representative Director Mr Takashi Ninami. Mr Ninami, the floor is yours. He's over there. Please, over there. Hello, everybody. I'm so sorry. My voice is so weird. We've got the hay fever. It should be gone sooner or later because Okinawa doesn't have hay, so which is good. And I wonder, I'm back. And I love Okinawa. I love nature. I love ocean. Thank you. Thank you. I don't know which language is better, but because of Karen and her team, I switch to English. So again, Iwai-san, thank you so much. I'm Tak Ninami, Chairman of Keisai Doyukai and CEO of Santuri Holdings. I'd like to express my thankfulness to Karen. We met more than three months ago, right, in Tokyo. And we agreed that we would have this symposium with the Keisai Doyukai and Okinawa Keisai Doyukai. At the time, I hadn't told the Tsubasa and Kawakami-san to hold this symposium, but thanks to the leaders of Okinawa Keisai Doyukai who agreed to be here today. Thank you so much. And again, of course, Karen and her team, we had a great discussion. And I'm very much hopeful that OIST will have another journey after Peter, but we have a great leader from Sweden. So I'm sure OIST will be again thriving, resolving lots of issues with the central government. I have to support as a matter of fact. So I have to stay with this draft as a matter of fact. So, well, I'm sure everybody here is thrilled to engage with the OIST. As you know pretty much about its success, it's one of the best-known and the really successful institutions in the world. It's amazing. And how we can leverage it, and plus, how we can grow this journey in success, successful journey for the sake of Okinawa, Japan, and the world. I had the great honor to be here last time to celebrate the 10th anniversary. And I spoke about a lot of potential as well as a lot of successes of the R&D of OIST. And every time, I'm so excited to meet up with the people here, very talented researchers with their very diverse faculty. And that means a lot to our education in this country, Japan. I think we are learning a lot and hope the learning will be realized. So, and I think the journey between the academia of OIST and the business like us, Okinawa-Do-Yukai and Kese-Do-Yukai in Tokyo will be, I would say, a never-ending journey. We have to keep working together and we'll find more opportunities to engage with each other. So this is the day we will restart this journey under the current leadership. Now, for the continued development of OIST and Japan-Okinawa, we must ensure not only the growth of our economy, but also the acquisition of strategic indispensability from a geopolitical perspective. We can't avoid it. I think we'll be surrounded by more geopolitical and geoeconomical issues. But we have to work together to support R&D led by OIST. So that, eventually, that basic R&D will bring a safe world, stability of the order in this region as well as the world. And I'd like to stress the importance of quantum, AI, robotics, bio, healthcare, energy. Energy is so important. And we have to be more focused on those areas. We can't get things scattered. For these areas, strengthening basic R&D is indispensable. For generating new innovation, Japan working together with OIST and Okinawa must invest more in science and innovation. And train up the next generation of world-class problem solvers and the scientific talent, both homegrown and from all over the world. And again, we have to keep more diverse. Tashiro-san always talks to me. Where's Tashiro-san? Oh, right there. Oh, okay. Thank you, anyway. So we got the unleash of potential, which means we have to learn from OIST in terms of the value, virgin of diversity and from these beautiful Okinawa islands. And of course, OIST is playing a critical role in this initiative. Diversity of faculty and students and OIST focus on the results have already contributed to its historical success. As I mentioned earlier, companies like us have a crucial role as well. In creating innovation today, I hope we'll be able to have lively discussions between academia and companies. And we'll have the shared vision, shared hopes throughout the much brighter future. I want to talk about the current Japanese economy. I think we are now hitting a tipping point from a 30-year, 30-years-long deflation to the moderate inflation. All the members here from business pledged to increase at least 5% of wage increases. I don't know. But I hope if you haven't pledged, please do it so that we can make use of the money to basically run it. By the way, per capita R&D expense shows the growth of the GDP toward the future. And we got to increase basic R&D. That is the future of the country, of the region, of the world. So OIST will be in the center to make use of the investment from the corporates and the government. I said the corporates first. And with Santoria, for example, have been working with the OIST in many areas. And we have a strong hope that those results of the joint work with OIST will create a very ambitious future of both OIST and Santoria. So that means we corporates have to play a critical role, too. So today is the first day for some of the companies to have their engagement with OIST. But I'm sure you'll have a big surprise during the discussions. And please, please, come visit after this one and have a serious talk with OIST and support OIST working together. So to conclude, the key thing is how these kind of activities will support the Okinawa economy as well. Don't forget that Okinawa is such a great island prefecture. And working with the OIST, working with the Okinawa, working with the Okinawa business leaders, definitely Okinawa is the center. And we will work together between Tokyo Kezai-Do-Yukai and Okinawa Kezai-Do-Yukai to boost the economy of Okinawa. And I hope OIST will be a part of it to pick up Okinawa's economy for the sake of Okinawa people's, I think, quality of life. I'm not talking about only economy, the purpose of life, the purpose of a corporate. I think definitely Okinawa is so important. And personally speaking, I love Okinawa, that's why I'm saying that. So today, let's work together, and through this symposium, we all gain a deeper understanding of OIST and have a lively discussion on how we can drive innovation through industry-academia collaboration and promotion of Okinawa. Don't forget about that. Thank you so much. Thank you very much, Ninami-san. Now I'd like to call upon Dr. Karin Marquires, the president of OIST, to give us a talk. And that will be followed by Associate Professor Keiko Kono and Professor Kae Nemoto to present their research projects. Professor Marquires, please start. Thank you very much. Thank you all, and especially thanks for this kind start of this symposium and with a lot of ambitions that we have together and for both corporate organizations to bring them together here at OIST. This is fantastic. And we are going to respond and do the best we can to make this to be very successful going forward. Let me tell you a little bit maybe about myself. My name is Karin Marquires, and this is, I don't know where the world map ended up. It's supposed to be a world map over there, but you can see maybe that if you recognize the Swedish, this is Stockholm University. There is where I started, and I just want to tell you a little bit my journey quickly here to see, so you can see a little bit who I am. Okay, so imagine there is a world map over there and its points at Sweden. Okay, so here it's natural science and resilience. No, no, it's supposed to be first. Okay, so natural science and resilience is something that I learned there very much and sustainability. And then I actually moved on into Utah and Brigham Young University. And there I learned long-term mission and how to really work with startups and transdisciplinarity. And then after that I moved over to Uppsala University, as you can see there. And there I became professor and worked a lot with industry collaboration in Sweden and global networking. And so after that I actually worked sometime at Stanford University and there I learned a lot about system thinking and design thinking. And so I started to add on to a lot of interest for universities, the role of universities. And I ended up in becoming a president over Chalmers University of Technology, where I had an opportunity to test a lot of these things that I learned in test beds, open centers, and transformation together with society. And after that I took a job together with California and Armenia and there I worked a lot in a post-Soviet type of collaboration in a country where they needed to develop global local role and outreach. And after that I actually became chairman of the Danish Technical University in Denmark where they merged a research university with seven research institutes and now have become the strongest technical university in Europe because of that. And of course after that only OIST could top all that, of course. And I'm so happy to be here to really work with Curiosity Drive exploration in the intersection between knowledge, between also different players in society and to make universities a role model. Also here you can see the map. So here I just wanted to shortly say that what type of things I have done outside of the particular university setting. So first to educate change makers in different kinds of laboratories and then with different networks of universities in Europe. And I was a leader of CESAR, a network of technical universities in Europe and around the Black Sea also in another network. I also worked at the Swedish Agency of Innovation and different research institutes and innovation centers in Sweden. Now you start to see how old I am. Don't count this up, please. But I also worked a lot with setting up new types of science centers and four of them actually in the Gothenburg area. And that was a very, very interesting journey actually. And I'm also a member of several academies and one of them are selecting the Nobel Prize in chemistry, which also is a fun thing to do. And also I have been actually working on the boards of two big chemical company Perstorp and a small startup agile company in Einreich that is actually a startup in autonomous goods transportation. So then you can see that also sustainability. This is a very good connection to Todai. I worked very much together with Komi Yama and at Todai when he was leader there. And we worked very much in the Alliance for Global Sustainability with the industries all over the world and MIT and Imperial College and Etihad and universities like that. And also, of course, other type of networks for sustainable development. So I would like to then from there go on and tell a little bit about how this connects then to Japan and how I see this in Japan. So first, of course, you can see how I believe really that we can unlock some of the potential of Japan as a global leader in innovation by really look at the science that are coming. Now I come from Europe and I can see that in Europe everybody talks about Japan. Everybody talks about now it's time to really connect to Japan. We have to have a really strong alliance with Asia and Japan is the natural choice. So we have to, so now when I'm here and I'm in the university, they really encourage me to work more and to really connect more. So I get a lot of support and I think we shouldn't be afraid of that support. I think we actually should invite that connection because we need to consider the global solutions. And also what I hear is also here in Sweden from the corresponding organization like you are in Sweden, they talk about that basic research is really what they need to connect to from the corporate side. So we need to find new possibilities, close connections with the, between basic research and corporate. And we can, I will show you a little later how we can work with that. And so then the challenge is that, that of course are in the air like digitalization and of course to really make sure that we are see the PhD as an agile resource for leadership and system thinking. We need to really utilize the system thinking and circular thinking to really get into competitive solutions where we actually have also sustainable and resilient solutions. And trust based collaborations. Of course, trust is a really important word and you know that trust comes before money. So we just have to remember that. And of course here is very something that you have seen million of times I guess but really to see that the research in can be of course connected to both to the basic to the applied but also to the combined use inspired basic research. And up there in the Pasteur quadrant that's very much where we can find the new breakthrough to new solutions. And so there is of course also where the nations can win the most. If they treat their universities to be free and to be able to work with the corporate then the nation will be the winner. So we all know that and that was actually published remember 200 years ago. So we should really take on that I think at this point. So here I just show a little bit also that universities are more and more a natural connection to most parts of society and really not isolated with their basic research. It's more and more we are finding ways how we could work as a natural host for public private university partnership with new knowledge integrated knowledge disruptive knowledge trust based knowledge and transformative leadership. Remember that we are not only providing knowledge new knowledge and combined we are also providing the next leaders. So universities have a lot of untapped potential of course and exploring intersection of disciplines. This is something that we are seeing now what we can do more of here where we have really strong researchers that are actually really broad and they can go curiosity wise in any direction. Still there are intersections between their knowledge and others knowledge. And there we if we can put incentives and we can collaborate with corporate in those intersections. There we get where we can find really the next competitive edge. And transformative collaboration is of course something that we have to base it on trust and we have to base it on continuous dialogue in between both the strategic level and the operational level. And diversity release releases creativity we all know that but we have to do it with inclusion and we have to really make sure that this really is coming out in a positive exercise. So yeah, so now to Ois. Ois has a mission that is actually quite fantastic. It covers really more or less where we are today in the first sentence here where we have research and education and curiosity drive and very strong. So we need to keep that of course and that is a challenge by itself because if we start to look in different directions we have to make sure that we don't lose the edge that we have and the uniqueness. Entrepreneurial environment and outreach is something that we do have a really good start on strengths but here of course we have lots to do to connect better to the real local public sector and individuals. And also we have to connect the startups with their basic researchers. So we are working on that. I'm sorry, I was just gonna say also that sustainable solutions in the last sentence here to really connect the global and the local attractions that we can be a destination for people to come in those areas that will be strong and when also really work very much in reality labs together with the actors here on the island and we can make that visible also to make even more attraction and solutions to come about here in Okinawa. Yeah, so yes, we are actually and this slide is to show a little bit that we are very proud of the strength that has been built up here. We have a very high competition both when students come here. So 55 enrolled from 825 applicants. Also we have high competition if you want to become a professor here at OIST. We had I think 1,452 applicants for five positions. So it's really, you really need to be really good to be able to come in here. And of course we try then to see how we can support and give incentives to the ones that are here. We have a Nobel Prize coming from my home university in Uppsala in Sweden. I'm very proud of that. And of course we have a good scientist and good performance of the scientists in the world. Yeah, that is of course something that you all have heard of in the Nature Index. It's not only that OIST has made a fantastic fast move in it coming up among the best in the world. Of course considering the size in that normalized data. But still I mean it's really fantastic but the trend is also fantastic that we're trending high good in publication and activities in this way. So this is something that we really need to keep and continue. And so here are some reminders then. So what do we, we are actually 12 years old or young. And that means that we are getting into as I say the teenage years. So of course that means that we are going to find how is OIST gonna be mature? What is it when we become mature? And so that we have to, there's certain things we have to consider. And I'm not saying that we don't have it but we have to really make sure that we have a different strategy on the global attraction and national networks and local change maker. I mean this kind of words that guides us to how we should move forward. And we can really build on this and making different kinds of meeting places for our development. So here I just showed three different types of meeting places that are, that we are exploring and developing here and that I also have some experience from before as you saw. So mature universities have many different laboratories. We can have a virtual open centers which means that these are exploring intersections, the visibility and attraction in the world, overlap perspectives between different open environments and they are self-organized according to the professors that have worked in them and drive them forward. And they are also very good for attraction, for donations and support. So we also have in the middle here testing test beds and reality labs. And then we are very, very happy that we are now signed with Okidan and to that we should start to build this, the test bed on sustainable energy here. And this, I hope that most of you, of course because sustainable energy can attract most all companies in different ways. So I hope that most of you will be, take part in this going forward. And the public-private university partnership could be more of a modern type of science center that we could or science laboratory that where we could meet between different actors around strengths that we can see in the different municipalities. On that note, I talk to the mayors now to see what they would like to be strengthened in their region and we could help each other to build on that when it fits our research that we have. Okay, so just to show you, just so you can see that virtual open centers, we are talking about how we are going to move forward and really in line with what the researchers here are interested in and want to do. But just to look at the ocean around us here, you can see that up from the quantum on the upper corner down to the environmental down here in the bottom and all in between, we have so many different type of research that connects with different types of overlaps in the marine area. And of course, we can see also that in the quantum and in marine science and sustainable energy systems and environmental questions, all these could actually be gain on, have the focus and also have overlaps that can be work in the intersection in between. And here, just to see what the testbed for sustainable energy can include a lot of different things all the way from capturing energy and storage energy and then also the removal of energy, smart grids and be more effective in biocombustion and understand the weather forecast. Yeah, it's a lot of smart grid. There's a lot of things that could be included there. And Justin, you might wonder, do we have the researchers? Yes, we do have quite a lot of researchers. You can have time to read all this here, but you can see that we have research in most of these areas already, although they are not really working together, but with incentives and nice, interesting projects, this could really be, they really could, if they have interest, be connected to this. And one of the areas that I point out here to capture carbon dioxide from the seaweed farms is something that was quite interesting that this is a very unique research supported by NOAA, unique that they never support something out of the United States, what they told me at Scripps University, who is running this here outside of in this, I think this is in NOAA actually, in the harbor, yeah. So really looking at a lot of the chemistry and the streams of all the different kinds of conditions that you have around these seaweed farms that you can see here. And I really understand how this connects to also stability for the farms, but also for the corals and the fish and also how we can, how really this environment can capture carbon dioxide. And why do United States actually NOAA support this research here? Because they told me that Okinawa is the world experts on seaweed farming. And so they said that that's why they go outside because this is going to be a very important business in the whole world. So, yeah, so I told you earlier about that we are working with a corporate in maybe a different way that this I have actually worked in Swedish companies and it really works very well. So I hope that we can really build and develop this way of working. So it's really, you can see here that it really connects with a handshake between the strategic leaders of the CEO level and then it is multi-coupled. And it's also, of course, based on the very, the research with the PI with good research in the university and in the industry and then research projects coming about here, putting in here as you can see in a table that we follow the different projects on a six month basis. And really see how we can suggest and the role of the leaders here is to really say to the researchers that we need to, you need to do things that you cannot do yourself and that you can really build, take risk and take new possibilities together. So this and also to visualize and develop this collaboration according to a portfolio of projects. This is, and also you could put in some projects in here that are setting new standards and working in new ways. So I think this is actually a way that I hope that we could work more together and we already have one example of this I could say. So I think that we are more or less in the collaboration that we have with Centauri that we are actually following this way of working. So very happy to see that we now also with a new collaboration we set up the other day with Okidan that we can continue to develop it in the similar way. So I would like to also, there are many things happening at OIST and we are very much looking forward now to see that a mature university has a lot of collaboration. Collaboration is something that in both internal and external and as I said before on all geographic levels but we need to meet when we have collaborations. And so now we are actually, we do have quite a lot of possibilities and for instance in projects like this one here, the CUI Next that we have a real collaboration with between the research and industry in projects and we do have also now the new JPEGs that we can mature the university to support really the all the activities that we're doing internally and get skill sets to come up and also help and support our infrastructure. And of course talking about infrastructure we have one incubator now in a year from now we will have number two and number three and we have also C-nexus and land nexus buildings for unique type of meeting places. And of course we are also the seaside house here will be developed in the future and we already are planning this for to be the destination for visitors, visiting scientists from the whole world. And so this is happening right now and I hope that next time you come in here that you will see more of this in action. So thank you very much for this and I'm also looking very much forward to the discussion and active and ambitious discussion that we will have here today. Thank you. President Malkidis, thank you very much. Thank you very much. No, I'd like to. Now I'd like to ask Professor Kono to give us a presentation. I am Kono from OIST. Thank you for this opportunity. Very nice to meet you. So I am associate professor of the membrane research unit. I am the senior researcher there. And this year is the seventh year for me. I came here in December 2017 and my research group consists of 10 researchers coming from around seven countries so it's quite diverse. So those researchers have different background. And then we are doing research on aging or senescence and the latest result has been published in Nature Aging. This is one of the top journals in the area of senescence and then on the cover of this month's edition we have our research being introduced which I would like to talk about today. So our bodies are made up of approximately 37 trillion cells and then those cells have different shapes, different functions. And then all of these cells are surrounded by cell membrane and then the green ones are cell membrane and the red one is the chromosome or DNA carrying genetic information and the green is cell membrane and then the cell environment that is changing from such changing environment the cell membrane is protecting what's inside the cells. So cell membranes are very important but cell membranes are very, very thin. And then this is the normal cell, human cells looking at that with AM that is being cultured and then this is really magnified. So the actual size of the cell is like this and it's really very much magnified. And then this black line which is five nanometers or which is like drawn by a pencil. This is the cell membrane and this is really, really thin. It's only one-twentieth of the soap bubble. So this membrane is often damaged and repaired and that is being repeated every day, every hour, every minute, every second. Cell membranes are being damaged and repaired and then we breathe and then on the surface of the lung, nanoscale really small holes are being made and then they are repaired in a space of only several seconds. You may do some exercise or work out like swimming or running and then there's much burden on your muscles and then on the surface of the muscles there's a nanoscale, small holes are being made and then they are repaired within some seconds and that way we can maintain our state of the body. But then if there's no repair and then if this repair mechanism is somewhat damaged, muscle, muscular dystrophy can occur. Eventually you lose the muscle tone completely and so the repair system or mechanism of cell membranes are very, very important for our bodies and for our health. So the damage on the cell membranes and the repair of the cell membranes, this research area has a history of over 50 years and then those cell membranes, when they are damaged, what happens to the cell inside? There are two fates. One is a wound heal and then the cell gets repaired and recover and then starts to division again. So the holes that are being made, they are repaired and then the other fate is a wound cannot be healed and then cell kind of explode. That's the cell death. And then, however, the third fate of the cell, senescence, that is something that we identified for the first time in the world. So what is cell senescence? You may have heard of this already, but let me just review this once again. So these are the cells, human cells, normal cells that are being cultured in the lab, not cancerous cells. On the left is the normal cells, on the right hand side is aged cells and then cancer cells divide forever, but the normal cells, they divide 50 or 60 times and then the proliferation or the expansion gets arrested forever. They don't die, but then they don't divide any longer. So they don't expand any longer. So that is what happens to aged cells or senescent cells. And then this is just one normal young cell and then we have fibroblasts that are under the skin and then you see this thin shape and then it has some of the thickness and it's kind of fuzzy, but then this huge cell is really, really big. This is a senescent cell and it's very much flat. It doesn't have any height and then proteins and enzymes that are being released different and then we use the reagent to stain the senescent cell in blue. So this is the senescent cell. So those are senescent cells. They are there in our bodies. And just a little bit of a good thing is done by senescent cells, but a lot of bad things are being done at the same time. So they are not expanding any longer, but how come they do what is good or what is bad? What is called sasp that is a protein that is soluble in water and then that is being produced outside of the cell and it's not a hormone, but it's kind of like a hormone. You can take it that way because it's easier to understand and then it's soluble in water and it's produced in a big amount and then in the bloodstream it goes to different sides of the body to improve the immune function or to accelerate the repair of the damage or as a bad function it may cause cancer or it may also cause senescence across the body. So senescent cells have bad functions as well as good function and those senescent cells they are drawing a lot of attention across the world among researchers because those senescent cells, this is actually caused aging in our bodies. This is one of the reasons and these are the rats but it's the same in our body. So those in our aged bodies there is an accumulation of senescent cells and this is what is called senolytics. Senolytics is a kind of a drug. There are many different types and senolytics when it's administered our body can get rejuvenated. You may think this is like science fiction world but actually researchers across the world are working on this theme in earnest. Let me show you one example and it's not my research but then as you can see at the glance this is a research result from the United States. This is an aged rat so you see the loss of hair and then the grain of the hair but then if you use the senolytics kind of a treatment that's done then you see a lot of hair is growing. So no more loss of hair and no more gray hair any longer. So hair is not an area of my research but then a variety of organs inside the body can actually recover their functions with the suicide of the senescent cells. So this is what's been reported. So going back to my own research so our cell membranes when they are damaged cell senescence occurs. So why is it important? Because the senescent cells how are they being produced within our body? We never had an answer to that question in the past so in the lab DNA change like if you smoke or if you drink alcohol your DNA can be damaged and when DNA is damaged the cells can be aged and cell senescence may be caused. So that's something that is happening in our body we thought because that's the observation we had in the lab but then even without the damage of DNA senescent cells can accumulate within our body. Why? So why is it that those senescent cells appear in our body? So it was a kind of a question we had. And then cell membrane when there is a damage on the cell membrane cell senescence may be caused. And then what about the genetic gene expression patterns in the senescent cells? We actually identified those genetic mutations that are occurring in those cells in the lab and that is exactly what is happening within our body meaning that senescent cell is being produced because of the damage being done on the cell membrane. So if the cell membrane damage is stopped we can probably stop the cell senescence all together within our body. So that's our research result. So this is an illustration that was created by a illustrator to express our research and the motif here is a kin-tsugi that is a traditional culture of Japan a broken pottery is being repaired with the lacquer mixed with gold. That is a traditional Japanese culture of repairing the pottery. As an analogy to our research so cell membrane being damaged and the damage can be repaired but then the pottery does not go back to the previous state but then the nature is completely changed in an irreversible manner but then in a completely different shape. And a cat's age, a dog's age and humans we also age. So everything that has life can age that's what you may think but actually there are certain organisms and animals that do not age. There are many of them like jellyfish and some kind of sea animals. And this one is a naked mole rat you may be familiar with this some kind of sharks may not age either. And this is from Africa naked mole rat. This is a living underground and usually rats die within two to three years but then naked mole rat they can live for 30 years 10 times. And then until just before they die they have child bearing function and then they keep their bodily function until right before they die and they don't develop cancer. So from them we can probably learn something and suppress aging in our body in humans. So synolytics has come to the clinical phase two stage already many of them. It's not been commercialized yet but then within five years or seven years I'm sure that some of them will get commercialized. So the strategy is not to kill the senescent cells but to prevent the damage on the cell membrane. And thanks to Ninami-san thanks to Sun Tree we are now trying to develop such supplement and with that aim we are pursuing basic research and we have to rush we have to accelerate the research. So I'd like to continue to have your support. Thank you very much for your kind attention. Thank you. Thank you very much. Assistant Professor Kona we hope that this will become practically applied any day soon. I think we're all hoping for that. So next Professor Nemota you would like to give your presentation please. Yes, welcome everyone to OIST. This is the second topic that we're covering and that is to do with quantum science information. So a very different area now than I'm presenting on to what you just heard. I am from the Quantum Information Science and Technology Unit. I'm the leader and I'm the head of the OIST Center for Quantum Technologies. Hello everyone. So I think you've often heard about this. This is from the cabinet office. This came out a number of years ago the vision of quantum future society. So quantum technology will have an impact in our high information and advanced society. It'll become much more few so that we have a much more efficient platform for our technologies going forward. Often quantum computing is what's talked about and it's a lot of focus on speedy computing and calculations but across the whole of ICT areas for computing, sensing, data gathering as well as security communications. It is a very broad ICT-wide technology that quantum will begin to be fused into, emerge into why all of us and are we hearing about quantum? I'm sure many of you will find that surprising or you ask that question. Well, our technology platform is more precise, more efficient. We are heading toward that and we are evolving toward that and as part of that, electronic have become quantum. We are shifting in those ways. It's a very natural progression of technologies and this world of quantum by being able to manipulate it, we can have even more precise, even more efficient technologies which can be brought about from that. So it's not just for IT technologies, this is for transportation, bio, energy. This macro range of technologies is something that we also believe that quantum technology will have a great impact on going forward. So how do we support that? Well, there is a national engagement in terms of these quantum innovation hubs. There are 11 hubs right now around the country, OIST is one of those. OIST is here as an international quantum link site. To support this, we have the Center for Quantum Technologies which was established in OIST from 2022. So the kind of things that we are engaging in right now as I mentioned earlier, there is a real wide variety of topics. It is across all areas of technology that quantum will have an impact. We begin from the principles of those technologies and that's how we create an impact on algorithms, computer hardware, IOQT, which is IOT, but the things becomes quantum things. And you have connection between those quantum things to create the IOQT to create new functions as well as looking at how do we merge with encryption technologies. So looking at these topics, looking in the future, we're trying to identify those areas that will be important and key critical areas going forward, particularly for OIST. We have some excellent researchers gathering around these particular areas, but we are still a very small scale university here. So these critical areas, these key areas is what we're focusing in on rather than being too broad. So this is my own personal research unit in terms of the areas that we're researching and where we're looking ahead to the future for our research. So these are the areas that we research right now. The lines show the connections between those different areas. It does become rather busy with all these lines, but looking in this way, it's computers that might chime in with quantum machine learning or device. They're often treated as different things, but within the research area, there's still so much connectivity as shown here and also looking at peripheral areas of research, particular focus areas are things like neurosciences as well as bio applications or edge computing and big data science. These are those sorts of things that we think will apply. From here, I wanted to pick out just three things that I wanted to cover in more detail. The first is with regard to new functionalities. Well, what would be new functionalities? Our technologies are extremely precise. They are already able to do that right now. However, when you look in the world of nature, in the natural world, there are even more amazing phenomena out there. For example, photosynthesis, taking light, harvesting and capturing light and using that harvested and captured light when it's used. It's almost 100% efficiency that the light is used. That kind of transportation phenomena is something that we, with our silicon hardware, we really don't reach those levels. So we're looking particularly those as clues and suggestions for us to try and find ways of leveraging quantum defined lose control models using environmental systems. Often, environments are our enemy, but in this case, we're using an environmental-based systems to do controls. For example, using quantum self-control. This might become possible in the future is something we're thinking about. Another area I wanted to mention, when we talk about quantum, quantum is about connections to be able to exert greater power. One thing I wanted to mention and suggest to you as an example is here. What's often said is, this is the kind of question that's often asked. So right now, our information society that we live in, computers are so important and there's a bad influences of that too, but sorry, there's a variety of different uses. But if, for example, we didn't have computers, it would be terrible, wouldn't it? If we didn't have internet, it would be very inconvenient. So quantum computing, even if there were quantum computers, if there's no quantum internet, how would we connect the quantum computers? Would that be by the postal network? That would be very inconvenient. So we want to be able to find ways to connect that information, quantum information to be able to maximize the power that the technology has. Looking at our current development, this is where we're at right now. Accelerator, whether that's the right word or not, we're looking at this partially merged area where you have some quantum power, but we're also helping out what the cloud is doing. Or we have quantum sensing. Things that could not be measured up to now is being measured or can be measured in a more efficient way. So for example, in the UK, there is the Mission 3 National Quantum Strategy. So this is health system, medical systems which are part of that mission to leverage the data that is being collected for being able to have healthier, longer lives through early diagnosis and treatment. For example, and as interfaces become established, then we see true connection between quantum and it starts to really exert and express its power. And ultimately, this would be quantum ICT technology, the age of its maturation. You would have a quantum internet and you would have quantum computers which merge into the classical environment. So there is still a great deal of research, basic research that is ongoing for this in terms of interfaces, quantum sensing, how to combine those together and how we create that merged technology going forward. That's very much what we research. And finally, I wanted to mention quantum computing and algorithm development. There's two things to this. First of all, fault tolerant computers, large scale computers. What do we need to do to get there? The other thing is looking at the existing computers, looking at processes that right now, what can we do with those? We're doing that too. So looking at the ultra conductivity, we have a quantum computer. Back in 2016, IBM came up with a quantum bit machine and it became available, released over the internet to be used. And from there, there's been progress. So now we're about here. So back in 2022, IBM had 433 qubit Osprey machine that it released. And of course, Google, China, and various other organizations and institutions have made releases of 50 qubits or a few hundreds of qubit, not just ultra conductive, but also ion trap and other methods, or Prokipsy gates to come up with a variety of quantum gates. However, to get to a quantum computer, there is still a lot to do before we get to a true quantum computer in terms of the problems that we haven't fixed yet, like connecting quantum, which I mentioned earlier, but also looking at the basic research that needs to happen in this area. And also, we think that architecture is highly critical in this field. And looking at the architecture, you have the architecture, and then finally, you can have a large scale computer that can be developed. Hence, as quickly as possible, we have to create the technical layers and we need to thoroughly analyze these so that we have an architecture that each technical layer can be put together to be able to make a feasible quantum computer. We have to do that theoretically and scientifically, and that's what we've been working on. The other thing that we've been working on is how do we use what we have right now? This is also a big challenge that we're facing right now. 50, the 50 qubits until a few years ago, when Google released this back in 2019, up until then, 50 qubits was just a dream. We were barely getting to double figures. So, 50 was a huge thing back then in 2019. What is amazing with 50 qubits is that it's possible to be able to calculate, but although that's amazing, what you can do, we still don't know what it can fully do with the current processing, but when we think again about what's amazing about this level, is that virtually having a 50 qubit processor, the network that that creates, it creates a network almost as big as a human brain's number of neurons. Of course, it's virtual, which means that you cannot freely manipulate all of those, but it has that potential. How much of that potential can we extract? That research is what is ongoing right now. And this is one new example that I wanted to show you. Up to now, things that hadn't been going so well, how can we make those work better? This is a specific example I wanted to cite. So, quantum computers are solving simple problems here. As time passes, quantum computers are able to produce answers and solutions. In this way, individually, quantum is being introduced, and we have classical, simple classical systems by merging those two things together for the first time. We have this example, a usable, practically effective example. This is just 11 quantum bits to give a solution level of 97%. So, the fashion MNIST is more difficult. A human can only get a correct rate of 83.5%, but it's about 90% or just there or there, so. So, you're able to achieve a level of solution correctness that is similar to deep learning. So, this is the power of quantum. I think that we can see from this example. And when you look at quantum computing, how is it impositioned? Back in 2018, the quantum computer was said to be around here. So, we kind of overcome the hype, and we thought that it would be about five to 10 years before it became mainstream, but after that, five years passes, and here we are. In other words, that although we said five years ago, take five to 10 years now, 2023, we're saying it's gonna take 10 years or more. So, the view on quantum computing has changed, because the elements, the unknown elements are still a lot. The application research, the basic research, there are many areas where those are working hand in hand, and this is where quantum learning, machine learning is also an impactful area. There is still a lot of, it's still said to be the dawn of this age, because in the five years, what's moved on is the hardware technology. In other words, when you look at quantum machine learning, if you have an idea, then we have this big technology readiness level, TRL level jump, and then you go from here to here, and then the scale of the time that changed here, the progress that's made here, really shifts, and quantum computers. If you watch those here, the key things, it's necessary to make sure that we really cover these thoroughly. So, our research is very much focused upon this. So, hardware and software, there's non-obvious connection between the two. This is where we have this new potential by doing a lot of that. In the future, we should be able to grow the mainstream. And finally, you should just have in front of you this document. I've just distributed that to all of you. So, this is the SIP education program. We also are looking at this program that's been offered, and this is in collaboration between industry and academia. So, these two, the course and program, this year's course is about an introductory course, the Quantum Technology. This will be a Tokyo Yaesu exit, and this will be held at the Tokyo Academy Commons. The press release is expected to be released at the end of this month. So, this is just a step ahead that you're getting this information ahead of everyone else. So, on April 18th, there will be a presentation at the Yaesu exit of Tokyo on April 18th next month. So, we're targeting generalists, people within companies and businesses who want to be able to understand the basics of quantum technology to help them see the future. It's a program for developing those kinds of resources. We also have a research technology program. This is spending six months at OIST in a research program. This again, we will be seeking participants from April, and we're going to be starting the program in June. So, I truly hope that you can keep your eyes peeled for more information about this. That's it for me. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. This was also a technology full of possibilities and dreams. So, now we'd like to have all three together to take up some questions and comments. If you can please raise your hand, I will appoint a speaker. Please state your name and affiliation, and also indicate who your question is for before stating your questions. Yes, please, the person with the hand up. Suzuki-san, please wait for the microphone. Thank you very much for that. I have a question to President Marquises at OIST. What are the areas or domains that will be researched, or what kind of researchers would you like to recruit further? And how systematically are you determining these factors? That's my question. Thank you for this question. Yes, of course, we have a broad knowledge basically over the small university. So, at this time, we were recruiting five new professors, as I said before, and we had an open search. That's why we got so many and so broad, of course, a pool of applicants. But we did that actually really to make sure that we would get also quite a diverse group of applicants, and not the least females. And so we're very happy to see that in the short-listed ones, now on 22, we actually have 50% females. So that was by itself a success, but at the same time, we were not looking at other things than just quality of the applicants. So, of course, as we grow and become more mature, and we can also show more of the research fields like Kajena Mountain just showed. And of course, if we show this to the world, we will attract more researchers that would like to be here in these environments. So, more and more, by really showing what we are doing, we can attract researchers that would like to come and add and feel secure that they will have an environment that would be interesting and make them also be to contribute even more. So I think this is a balance between how, when we are building our critical mass, and that we want a diversity, and also that we really want to hire on the highest quality, and the size of the university. So all of these things, balance, we have to adjust to this when we are recruiting. So the areas that we are really seeing coming up, of course, neuroscience was very early on, and that is still very strong, and it connects more and more to other parts of knowledge and both in the digital side, of course, and the quantum side, but also to genomics and other functions in the body and how that develops and are influenced. So that genomics is a very strong area, and as I said before, these energy is kind of connecting and coming along very strong, and might be a really move very fast, I would assume. Of course, we have the marine side, marine biology is one area. Of course, also the rest of the chemistry and the whole balance in the ocean with the connecting to both energy and the corals and farming on land, also biodiversity, are both in the in-sea and on land, are very strong areas, and that all these areas that I mentioned are, of course, very important for where we are in society today and going to be influencing the next competitive edge of many areas. So they are examples also of disruptive knowledge that will really connect to many different application areas. For instance, the biodiversity and the blue zone of Okinawa, of course, is something that we could really influence personalized medicine and the food area of the, both everything from food to pharma, if you want. And of course, in the medicine area and medical area, also to understand also the importance of our surroundings, how we are going to develop and be healthy in our life. So yes, we are a small university, but as I said, we have enormous breadth. And what we're trying to do now is to really, in addition to that we try to balance how we recruit, we also try to really make sure that we are in a destination for visitors. So we try to develop even more the visiting ability of, and of course, Okinawa is a nice place to come. We should be able to attract, and with a combined with the island and also the research, then we can get a dynamic inflow of people that would come here from the whole world and contribute. And that should really be very important for the innovation area here and also for the island, as such as to be a test bed for solutions. So yeah, I hope that was an answer. Thank you, Karin. Well, actually, in addition to that, my question is that whether you have the strong kind of organization to judge or to decide which areas you are aiming for or... It's up to the ones that are applying too. We want to get the best of the pool of applicants that want to come here. So what we can do is to show ourself in a way that we would attract. And that's the only way we can influence. We don't really want to choose who areas we want to choose the best scientists that they should come here. Thank you very much. Then Yamaguchi-san, please. I hope you can hear me. Yes, hello, this is Yamaguchi speaking. Thank you so much. So my question was for Assistant Professor Koda. You were talking about cell membrane research. That was the question that I had. So looking at cell membranes and the harm or the damage to them, you were trying to do research to prevent such harm or damage to the cell membrane. On the other hand, partway through, you're talking about damage cells which die off. And you were talking about this muscular disease and illness that can result from cell death. So when the cell membrane dies, are you doing any research to regenerate that kind of cell membrane or is that being done somewhere else? The reason that I asked the question is the muscular dystrophy that you mentioned. We actually have people, employees in our company with muscular dystrophy. And every day it does progress. And when you see that, I want to see that being resolved as quickly as possible. So that was the reason for my question. And also a similar question, preventing that kind of damage of course and regenerating any cells that have died is of course great. But in terms of working with medical institutions, how are you doing that? Particularly, do you have something to accelerate your research working together with industry? For example, leveraging quantum computing or is there anything like that that would be really useful to you? Please tell me if there is any search topic. And finally, I also have one more question. I'm sure everybody wants to know about this, but with Centauri, this joint research, that supplement, when is that going to be released? Well, I really want to know about that. I'd be interested in the roadmap for that development. If you don't mind, it would be great if you could answer those questions. Yes, thank you. Yes, thank you. This is Kona speaking. Thank you very much for the question. My apologies for that. This is Kona speaking. Thank you for the question. So with regard to muscular dystrophy and people who suffer from that, right now, it's very difficult to cure muscular dystrophy as the quick answer. In terms of methodology, to make it harder to damage or harm cell membranes, there is this extra cell collagen and other protection ways to protect the cell membrane is one method. The other way is to look at repairing the cell membrane. There is a protein called escort. So this actually quickly repairs harm on damage to cell membranes. So by having that, it's possible to certainly within laboratory environments to increase the speed of recovery. So looking at muscular dystrophy patients, it's possible to slow down the progress of symptoms possibly going forward in the future. And then in terms of a true cure method or treatment method, so muscular dystrophy is actually a DNA or genetic inherited condition that people have. So recently with CRISPR kidney, for example, it's possible to do gene changing or editing to be able to fundamentally correct or cure that situation. But there's still basic research is going on. I think in terms of our journey, there's still a long way ahead that we're facing. On your second question, would you mind just saying that for me again? Yes, so it's the same as the third question, I guess. But in terms of your collaboration with medical institutions or in terms of working with industry, in terms of making progress in your research, is that something that you're looking for? Maybe you want to be able to freely use quantum computers. I'm sure there's a variety of dependencies that you might face. And if you have such, if you could tell me about those. Thank you for clarifying. So Centauri for the supplement, the sesame and other supplement development. They have a lot of experience on that. So we are joined by Centauri researchers. One researcher actually from April this year, they're going to be sending somebody into here to be based here in OIST. So really, it's that basic research first to have that really trustworthy, trustable mechanism for research. And then beyond that, we can move into the development of the supplement itself. So it's about from now to 10 years ahead, we're working together on that kind of basis, that kind of timeline. And then finally, you were talking about when the supplement is going to be released. Well, I'm working really hard on it. So maybe hopefully in 10 years time it'll be around. Great, thank you very much. Thank you very much. Are there any other questions? Thank you. Okay, Ishimura-san, if you have a question. Yes, thank you very much. So this is a question for Professor Nemoto, if I may. Let me see which page you wrote. I think it was on page three. You were talking about the quantum innovation hubs. You had a diagram on that. So in Japan, there's clearly a lot of these quantum innovation hubs. But from a researcher's perspective, because I'm at AIST, so I'm at top left. That's where I would be located on this diagram. But there are so many of these quantum innovation hubs. And the development of quantum computers. Really, do we think it's going to be very efficient? Is this an efficient way of doing it? Having it spread so much? That was my question. Yes, so the quantum innovation hubs, are they all involved in quantum computing? No, that's not the case. So each of these hubs. So for example, if we talk about Tokyo University, Tokyo University here, is looking at the way quantum computers can be worked, used in certain ways, but they're not limited to that. They're involved in a variety of different ways to using that. One of the representative ways would be just selected as the name of the particular hub. So it's just one representative name that's being used here. So in terms of the quantum international collaboration that's been described here, it's not the case that AIST is doing just that. We are also here on the quantum frontier to look at quantum computing, security, a variety of other things that we're engaged in, not just international collaboration. But when there's a lot here, if you look very closely, there's actually only five universities involved in these hubs. And also, there are other national institutes which are here. The national institutes are more mission-based institutes. For example, if it's AIST, for example, it might be about making supply chains more robust or strong, that would be their initiative. So large-scale quantum computing, there's a whole variety of elements that go into that, but to be able to create something really large is what we're trying to do. So in line with that, we have a system to support that, and we need that. So when you think about the latest advanced quantum computing research, all 11 hubs are not doing that. That would be the way I would answer the question. Thank you very much. Thank you. In case I'd like to take just one last question. Master-san, please. Thank you very much. I have a question to the Malkires. And, well, the question is related with Suzuki-san. So do you pay to the professor more than the average of the university professor in Japan? So because I know that we do see the competition with other universities around the world. And then, obviously, the salary of Japanese professor is lower than other foreign professors in other countries. So do you have any idea of the strategy for those kinds of pay? Thank you very much for this question. I'm sure that many believe that it's only salary that matters, but in fact, it's also something that attracts very much to OIST. It's the high-trust funding mechanism. And what does that mean? It means that we are attracting researchers that really are driven by curiosity. And in most, I don't think that the systems in the world have really thought through this, that they would make researchers to limit their curiosity. But in fact, that is what happens when you have funding agencies that are outside of the universities. And all the time you want to focus, you want to be able to measure the results, you want to, over the years, it has been more and more controlling the researchers. You put them in boxes and as a researcher, you stay there to get the money. So there are so many researchers that have their curiosity and that they should do. We should have more of that. And here we are actually finding a way to do this by hiring the researchers and let them really get resources that they can build up their own group, they can get their equipment. Some, the big equipment, we more or less, we open it up for everybody. But you can say it's free for some time. And then we really evaluate international every five years. So we evaluate after, but they don't have to really, for the basic funding, they don't have to write proposals. Of course, when they get up in speed, they can write proposals. They can add that to a lot of other resources on top of what they do have in the basic. But I think that is really what is attracting most here. And to be honest, all universities should work like that really, but it's almost impossible when they're big ones. But we should be careful and keep this. And by having it here at OIST and collaborating with other universities in Japan, we can actually, everybody can benefit from that we have this here. Thank you very much. I'm sure that there are a lot of other questions you may want to ask, but then we have gone past the time. So I'd like to conclude this part of the session. So President Marquis is Associate Professor Kono, Professor Nemoto, thank you very much. Please give him a big round of applause, if you will. So now, we are going to go into the panel discussion. And the panelists, please come to the front. We will get ready, and it will take around five minutes for us to get ready, and we'll get started with the panel discussion. Thank you. Okay, so I think we are ready. So let's start the panel discussion. So from here, the moderator is Mr. Toshikazu Nambu from Doyukai, and he is the Chairperson of Committee on Studying Advanced Science and Technology Strategy. So please take the floor, Mr. Nambu. So I am as Co-Chair of Committee on Studying Advanced Science and Technology Strategy. I am Nambu. I have come here to Okinawa for the first time in 30 years, and Dr. Tazawa, who is also the Co-Chair, was one of the founding members of OIST, and he was very much looking forward to it. And then we have really wonderful three panelists to have the panel discussion. Thank you for your taking part. So we have two broadly speaking two themes during this panel discussion. One is innovation through industry-academia collaboration, and the other one is Okinawa promotion, as pointed out by Ninami-san. So first, I would like to ask three panelists to have brief opening comments. First, from the left, from your side, from the right, Motonaga-san. He is from Okinawa Electric Power Company. So please introduce yourself briefly. He is President and the Representative Director of Okinawa Electric Power. So Okinawa Kei-Dai Do-Yukai, I am also the Vice Chairperson of Okinawa Do-Yukai. Many of you are from Tokyo, so I'd like to talk about some characteristics of the power industry or business in Okinawa. So as you know, Okinawa, we do not have interconnected network grid with the main island of Japan, and we are very small and we have a lot of remote islands. And then in terms of the natural environment, the sunlight hours, it's quite short. It's on the national average, and then we have typhoons coming every year, and then high temperature, high moist, humidity, and then we have a lot of the salinity, salt problem. And then in terms of the electricity, we have complete liberalization. Like in the main island, we have 20 or so businesses who are supplying power. But then we have a lot of the remote islands. Therefore, in terms of the power distribution transmission, we have a kind of the dominant presence. So there are certain similarities and differences to the main land. And towards the carbon neutrality, we have to overcome a variety of challenges. We have to take on those challenges, and that is the environment we work in. And from this perspective, I'd like to give you my presentation later on. And we will be hearing your presentation later on. So next, Mr. Gil Gramnott-Mayer, Vice President of OIST in charge of innovation. And from Tel Aviv University, you have an MBA, you have studied law, and also you have been in the law area, but also you have experienced at the Weizmann Institute, and you were the CEO of the company that was supporting the Weizmann Institute. So therefore, I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you. Thank you for the kind of introduction. So from my perspective, I see great potential here in Okinawa and very strong similarities to what happened in Israel. So I see young population, I see great potential in human capital that can grow in, and the need to be thinking global. So with that and what attracted me to come here to Okinawa was OIST, and OIST has a growing power in the academia and leading university in the world. And I see this as a great potential to really create a change here in Okinawa. And we're going to talk about it later, but I'm very optimistic. Thank you very much for that. Well, I also visited Israel several times, and it's a very unique country, it's a very unique region, and later on I hope that we can hear about that as well. And thirdly is we have Mr. Naoki Mashita from WeCube. So he's a CEO. So visual communication in the area of visual communication in order to resolve social issues, I believe that's the main theme that you are taking up. So one word, please. Yes, thank you very much. I was hoping everybody would be in Kariyushi. Oh yes, there are people wearing Kariyushi. I think this is the formal wear for Okinawa, but thank you very much. As well as introduced, I'm from a company called WeCube. I'm the CEO, it's a startup, and also I'm the founder of the company. It's a startup, however. It was started up at a university 25 years ago. Back then it wasn't called a startup, it was called a venture. It's a university-launched venture. I'm from Keio University. Keio University also invested in the company, and this company has grown. And in 2012 in Singapore, we moved there. So one third is Singapore, one third Japan, one third United States, and we are taking up all kinds of different businesses, and therefore I'm hoping that I can make comments from that perspective. Thank you. Well, thank you very much. So 25 years ago, a startup back then. But there were many companies that were made, but I think you have this mindset as a startup company and also as a company manager. So now, let's take up the first thing, which is the industry-academia collaboration. I believe we will have two presentations. First from Gil-san, and then after that from Mr. Nottanaga-san. So Mr. Gil-san, please. So I just want to share with you some of our perspectives on how do we try to progress the collaboration. And here you can see that very similar to President Merkid's view of connecting the university with different stakeholders. We actually look to collaborate with the local, with the national, the international community to build additional ways to collaborate with industry. And this is really to create several things. First and foremost, product and services to support the humanity. And coming from academia, I've seen a lot of products that many of you do not realize that were really created from basic research. So basic research, as Ninami-san mentioned, is fundamental for our existence and to tackle the big challenges that we face. So I'm going to give you some examples of these sprouts of products and services coming out of OIST. And we do that with several tools. First and foremost, as you see, the great research that you've heard about. But also we want to leverage that and to help transform basic science into technologies, we have to have these tools. And these tools include startups. And we're going to talk about the importance of startups as a tool to bridge between basic research and the market. Some of them grow to be big companies, some of them can be acquired by your companies. And I think Japan should do more in that direction of leveraging startups. We need to provide funding for this early stage and we need to attract talent. So I'll jump now to some case studies, very short case studies. And you should bear in mind that we are very young, but still I'm amazed that OIST has managed to do so much in such a quick short time. And these examples show the potential. So if we go now to the first two examples, these are graduates of our acceleration program. Both of them are people that either graduated from OIST or worked at OIST. And they enjoyed our support and without our support it wouldn't have happened. So you can see her life lab tackling women health issues and menopause and just launch a service here, web service here in Okinawa called Vival. And this is a very important issue for all your half of the population and many of us really don't know about it and many of us do not know how to tackle that. Reps Japan is really producing some protein and these protein pills are being sold now on the island in Family Mart. So you see, we already have some products out that impact us. Another graduate from our startup acceleration program and here we, these are people that we bring outside. So we open for innovation globally and we, as President Marquita said, we recruit scientists globally but we also recruit talent and innovation globally. So EF Polymer came from India and they had no knowledge about business, very limited capabilities in language, in English and also had no ability to operate in Japan. And with our help here in Okinawa they set a base. They employ many people now. They support 12,000 farmers. What they produce is a polymer produced from agriculture waste. This is really transforming circular economy, taking waste, transforming it to something useful and helping reduce irrigation. Not just saving water but also reducing work labor and we face growing aging population of farmers. They supported and how we do it from the world to Okinawa and from Okinawa to the world. This company's now donated five tons of that with the help of local companies to Ukraine of the product. So the product is really supporting Ukraine people. We have two new startups in analytics of chemicals and biomarkers. They're just started off. Metabol is working directly with Suntory. ACI Research got the funding and is operating. Moving to the future project. So one of them is the Chura Otome. This is a rice that was developed here, a strain of rice by Professor Sase. And this is actually starch resistant which means that this product can really help people with pre-diabetic condition. And we're actively seeking now partners to grow this and to develop products. This could go into beverages. So we had a pilot beer created with that but it could go into other products and really support health. And that comes from Okinawa back to the world. We caught some nice attention about our ability to cultivate squid. And we're gonna have a startup very soon that will do that and develop the technology from the lab to the market. Going to the funding, so just I'm very happy to say that we've created together with Lifetime Venture a fund in 2022. And this is a five billion yen fund aiming to mainly invest in deep tech. One of the general partners reside here on campus and this is a unique example of very close ties between them and us. They've done almost half of their investment in companies related to OIST, either founders from OIST, research from OIST or programs that graduated from our activities. They deployed already 800 million yen and they got very interesting investors including Sanctuary Holding, Okinawa Development Finance Corporation and the Development Bank of Japan. By the way, all of the three of them have special relationship with OIST and special collaborations with OIST. And you can see the synergy of how can university work with industry in multiple levels and create an impact. And last but not least, we are open to communication and please visit our website and see our activities. And I wanna highlight that next month we're gonna have here with OIST Lifetime Venture an event that is really matching startup entrepreneurs and investors and all of you are welcome to look at this event. And many other activities we have multiple channels of communication and I'll be happy to take any further questions later on. Thank you so much. Thank you so much Gil. So actually with regard to industry, academia, collaboration, we had some great questions but you talked a lot about employment, risk capital, you talked about the impact on communities. So thank you very much for the comments that you provided. So we were gonna do some Q and A here but before we do that, let's go to Motonaga-san's presentation because I think there's gonna be a lot of resonates between the two. So let's begin with that and then let's pick up on common questions between the two presentations. I hope that's okay for everyone. Thank you so much Motonaga-san if you'd like to continue. You did briefly touch upon some of this but if you could, yes. Thank you very much. If I may just briefly I would like to explain my presentation on the screen as it's shown just three days ago, we signed on March 21st between Okinawa Electric Power and OIST. We aiming toward a decarbonized and sustainable society we signed a memorandum of understanding for Okinawa Electric Power with this collaboration we're working towards decarbonization and carbon neutrality. We want to accelerate our engagement on this and also we want to look at the specific and unique challenges that we have in our region. And later on I'll talk to you a little bit more about the meaning behind the MOU and also early I briefly touched upon the situation that our company faces as well as our engagement in carbon neutrality. I'll go through those in some more detail. So first of all what's shown on this page is the area that we supply power to in the Okinawa area. It's a vast area that we supply. So east to west it's about 1,000 kilometers, north to south it's about 400 kilometers and there's about 160 islands scattered over that vast area of which 38 islands are inhabited. So to those 38 inhabited islands we provide power to all of those locations. As I mentioned at the beginning we do not have any interconnectivity with other power companies hence to these islands. Each of these islands has its own power generation facility. There are 11 power stations and from there we supply with undersea cables power to the whole area. And we charge the same rates for electricity anywhere in this region. Looking at our composition of power supply as you've already heard in Okinawa we don't have any nuclear power, we don't have any hydro power. What that means is that we are very much reliant upon fossil fuels in our composition of power supply. So about 60% is about coal, sorry, oil is about 13%, 21% LNG. So renewables are about 7% right now. Those are the most recent numbers. So our 2030 goals is we want to take coal to 50% or lower. We also want oil to be around 10%. What we want to increase here is LNG which has lower CO2 emissions taking that up to about 30%. And we also want to introduce further introduced renewables to take that to 10% or higher of our composition. So looking now at Okinawa's CO2 emissions transition as well as our power generation history. So the CO2 emissions peaked out in Okinawa in 2008. Up until then we've been focused on coal based thermal power generation and with that we had very cheap prices for electricity. But in 2012, 2013, over in Yoshinora we introduced an LNG power plant. Since then our CO2 emissions has vastly reduced and in 2022 compared to that peak level we were approximately 20% lower in terms of our CO2 emissions. Further in 2030 we're working towards, as I mentioned a moment ago, we want to increase our LNG make up. So compared to 2005 our start point we are looking at a 30% reduction in our CO2 emissions. So what is Okinawa electric power doing toward our 2050 CO2 net zero emissions? This is our roadmap. We're looking at expanding renewable energies. We also want to reduce CO2 emissions from our thermal power plants. These are our two main pillars of activity. Additionally though, we're the producer of electricity but we're also looking at the demand. The users of electricity is important that we have that kind of demand. We work therefore with local municipalities, universities, as well as OIST as I mentioned earlier. We want to deepen those ties and promote electrification to ensure that there is good demand for our product. On this page we're talking about how we want to make renewable energy as our main power source. There's a number of examples that I've cited here on this slide. Surprisingly, Okinawa in terms of renewable energy there's a lot of challenges that we face. So solar power, there's only limited land area so it's hard to have a mega solar facility. So we're leveraging rooftops. We're using our customer's rooftops. We're borrowing those to be able to expand our solar activities. For wind power, as I mentioned earlier, we get typhoons every year here in Okinawa. So on the main island of Okinawa, we're not in a position to be able to create a large-scale wind power facility. And at the bottom, we're talking about our remote islands in terms of the kind of renewable efforts that we're doing. So Kurimejima and also Hatiruma Island, these are two islands that I've cited here as examples. For both, we have been able to have 100% power supply with renewable technology. We're doing some testing right now to verify and validate that. Particularly on Hatiruma Island, we have a tilting type wind power. On remote islands, to be able to avoid the impact of typhoons, we're taking these tiltable wind turbines, which can be folded down in the case of typhoon. We're also using diesel hybrid type energy so that in for 10 days, it was possible to be able to meet Hatiruma Island's energy demand with just these methods alone. So looking outside overseas and outside the region of Okinawa in terms of what businesses that we do, we have a lot of remote islands. We're introducing renewable energy. So we're trying to leverage that knowledge, that knowledge that we've accumulated for more than 30 years now. We're trying to leverage that in other areas of the world, island nations, where they face the same challenges that we do. So the photograph on the bottom, this was back in December in Dubai. There was the COP28. So there, we had the ministry invited us to explain what we do in our region. So I gave a presentation. On the other hand, if we look at reducing CO2 emissions from thermal power plants, as I mentioned earlier, first and foremost, we want to shift to increase the use of LNG. The next thing to do is looking at hydrogen, ammonia, those kind of fuels, which are CO2-free. We have to introduce those types of fuels, but there are big challenges associated with that. There are technical verification and validation needed. There's also supply chains that need to be established. Because we're facing those challenges that go ahead into the future, but for the immediate future, we've looked at the Yoshinohara multi-gas turbine power plant, and we're doing some testing of co-firing with hydrogen fuel. We're looking at around 30% of being able to co-fire, which around the country is still a very high level that we are achieving. So with all of that, what we have done this time is between OIST and Okinawa electric power, having this memorandum of understanding is taking us toward carbon neutrality. We want to leverage this OIST world-class level of wisdom as well as its research capabilities by combining that with our knowledge and know-how. We want to combine those to make it to something really much, much better. And we're also interested in startups with the same kind of technology we want to be able to support them to. Thank you. Thank you very much, Motonaga-san. So it kind of almost takes us to our conclusions, it's very specific, and it really tells us about the challenges that you face and how we overcome those hurdles and you want to work together to do that. So thank you very much. Let's try and deep dive on some of that. Let me begin, first of all, as moderator, I wanted to ask about OIST. I want to understand better about the presence of OIST. What does OIST mean? So I'd like to ask the question of Gil, if you don't mind. So as President Markidis mentioned earlier, in 12 years, you've already produced a Nobel Prize winner in the field of healthcare. And also, if you look at the papers which are published by OIST, you exceed all the other Japanese universities. You are actually at ninth in the world of all the universities. So in 12 years, that's amazing outcomes that you've produced. So from the OIST perspective, what is the big factors that has enabled that? How is it that you've been able to create those results and situation? Or perhaps as President Markidis mentioned, I mean, I don't know who's right to answer this. Well, certainly it's the question for the President, but I can do my best. I think OIST has a secret source that not many universities has. And this is the high trust funding which President Markidis touched upon, which allows great minds to be free and to do what they really are passionate about. So this is curiosity-driven research. And the question that we had in the previous session was how do you direct? What fields do you choose? And this is really the model that the Weizmann Institute and other universities actually do. They select the best people. And if you source globally, it's a better pool. So you get really very good people. And you give them the freedom and you choose them also young and promising. And you combine also more mature and young, but the young talented people, if they get the freedom to do whatever they are passionate about and pursue big questions and challenging questions, it is very much a success by itself. Now you have to have the ability to translate that also to the real world. And OIST from the very beginning had OIST innovation as part of its activities. So, and we're very grateful for the founding fathers that really thought about it from the beginning. So we created a tech transfer office, but we're also having now incubation, as President Merkides mentioned, growing incubation space, starting to work with startups. And looking into how can we impact also Okinawa. So I think these are the key factors. And we have to really realize that this is a strategic asset for Japan, for Okinawa and Japan. And how we can really transform it into be as resilient as possible and as a role model for other universities. Thank you. Thank you very much. It's a very clear cut answer. Thank you very much. So universities in Japan or the number of PhDs not growing in Japan. And it's because of the job stability issue or not being able to pass the research they want to pass or a silo type of organization problems. There are many problems. So any suggestions to alleviate those problems or any opportunities for collaboration? Well, I think I'm not familiar enough with the problem in Japan. I was struck to learn that having a PhD is not a clear advantage because where I come from, it is an advantage wherever you go in business and industry or in academia. So I come from the collaboration with industry. So I immediately, I would say the solution would be to let the industry work closely with the academia in a way which does not change academia and does not change industry but learn what's the benefit of having such huge knowledge. And President McKinney also mentioned that it's not just excellent research but also leadership. So we need to maybe also to adjust our planning, what do we teach our students in a way that they're also growing to be leaders in the industry or wherever they go in government and academia or industry. So I hope I answered your question. But thank you very much. Thank you very much. Yes, there are many different tips and hints that we can learn from you. As a two-part list, if you have any comments on this topic, it's your time. Yes. Companies and universities, how can they get connected? I think that is a very important question. Looking at the world of research and development, 3.5% is what they count within GDP. So we are number three in Japan and the United States are 3% and Singapore 1.8%. So we spend quite a lot of money for R&D but then 73% comes from the private sector and the United States are 63%, Singapore 60%. Meaning that quite a lot of money comes from the private sector for R&D. So this R&D, so to what extent that is being pursued in universities? From the university perspective, the research money proportion from the private side is 3.1%. In the United States, 5.4%, which is close to double, meaning that the company money is not really coming to the university so much. And then PhDs, not very much appreciated. That can be a problem. And also companies and universities, they are not coming together. I think that is also another challenge. When I talk about these challenges, even if you go to university, there's nothing to be invested. So it's like egg first or the chicken first problem. Because there aren't attractive projects we don't invest and that's what companies say. But then if there are good projects attractive to companies, then companies spend money for that. That will accelerate research further and that can attract talents more from around the world. So this is going to be a virtuous cycle and we'll be talking about startups later on. So connecting with the companies but not just companies but also including startups. I think this will create a very interesting environment going forward. Yeah, thank you very much. That's very important. So we need to change the relationship with the private sector. That's something we have to do. And then R&D, R-part and D-part. And then these are the challenges. We have to work together. We are starting to do that. But then which technologies are most effective? We have to scan the horizon. And then find a good research to have social implementation later on. So are we focusing on R-part of that? Or basic research is there already. What about how to apply that? That D-part development part is also important. And we have to strike a good balance between R-part and the D-part. Any comments on that? Yes, research institutions and companies. I don't think there is a need matching between the two. So that is a challenge that needs to be addressed. So OIST research results, they are stellar. In the world, everyone recognizes the great outcome of research in OIST. And as Okinawa economic community, how can we tap into those research results and commercialize them to make business? And this has to lead to the promotion of Okinawa. So that's what we have to do. And for that purpose, companies as well as the OIST companies need to incorporate the seeds that are available in OIST to commercialize and have application of these seeds in the real world. That has to be done on the company's side. And for that purpose, we need to have close collaboration between the two parties and have great discussions and then lead those seeds to the business. Yeah, for that purpose, we have to really identify the needs or the challenges. Is that right? Yes. Just to add to that, I think we have to realize that there's a big gap between what universities produce and what the industry really wants to take immediately. And if you realize that there's the gap, you also build the bridges to support this gap. So it has to go from the university side but also from the industry side. So the university side, very much more openness, much more business understanding. And tools to develop our technologies. And that is really important. Not many universities do that and to the extent OIST can serve as a model, I think it could be a model. And then looking at the industry side, first understanding that industry does not come to buy results, they come to generate knowledge with the university partnership, equal partnership and that is going to grow into something and also realize that there is a big risk in that doing so. But if you don't do that, you cannot be competitive on a global scale. So from industry side, I think this is really crucial for industries to do. And then you also do some steps to participate in incubation, participate in acceleration, collaborate with universities, send people to the universities to work closely with them. It is putting resources, not just money but also attention. It's very important. Thank you very much, Gilson. So I think both are on the same ground, I guess. And if that is the case, OIST research, so for instance, basic research, what is the end of the universe? What about creating a drug for immortality? I think Ninami-san wants to say that. So it takes 10 years or 20 years. But this is very important for the researchers and low-hanging fruit to be harvested. That is what the industry wants. And there is a gap in between the two. How can we address this gap? So there is an idea, there is a reality. Motomoron-san, you have a certain specific challenge, but what do you think? How can we narrow this gap? Well, it depends on how far you are looking into things. For example, deep tech, you might think that this takes a long term, especially around deep tech, the country, and venture capitals. There are fundings over a longer term, five years, 10 years. I believe there is a possibility of doing that. And we do see some examples of that happening. And Kail's Tsuroka campus fiber is another example. It's something that you can't think about achieving something over the shorter term. Companies couldn't come in, but with deep tech startups, this is now happening right now. From the industry side, yes, you do need to see some low-hanging fruits. If everything is far from reach, it may be difficult. So I think you need to have a good combination of the two. Well, yes, it seems that for major companies, they seem to have a shorter-term perspective. Sometimes the leaders might say, how long do you think you're taking? But you have to have dreams, but also you need to have some real fruits that you can get along the way. So you want to support that? Yes, I think there's a combination, not just going to the United States, but also trying to put in money here in Japan as well. Well, thank you very much for that. Don't just go out to the United States. Invest some here in Japan as well. So maybe, as Okinawa has an access, if we can have an ecosystem, that may become a good example, a good model. So for Zoyukai, how funding should be or how CVC should be, how do we collaborate in terms of technology? That's something that we need to look at. So one last thing for this session. Before I started this, I didn't know about OIST at all. I thought that, well, OIST is a fancy name, and as I made my research, I found out that it was a very unique university. It's very difficult to benchmark. It has a 12-year history, and we just heard that presentation. But can you, well, Niinami-san found OIST very early on, but maybe promoting OIST or presenting OIST so that the industry can really understand? Maybe I'm different from others. But how, in order to build relationships, Gil-san? Well, I think the fact that all of you made this afternoon available for us and came to visit us is a very reassuring start. And we would like to have more business leaders like you understanding the importance of OIST and appreciating that. We also need your advice. So sometimes we are not clear where we should go. And we need your support with the government. I think OIST needs to find additional sources of funding. We are working hard to do that, competing globally, competing locally for funding, but also looking for philanthropic funding. And beyond that, industry, academic collaboration. And in the future, I'm positive we'll have also income from commercialization. Having said all that, I think from a national standoff point of view, we are generously supported by the Okinawan promotion budget. But we need additional sources. So we seek you as our supporters to find the next way. And if I may, another way to really support us and to understand where we are is to come and have presence here. So the new incubator is a start. We plan to invite companies to join near that and maybe create an R&D center, joint R&D center. It could be a combination of several companies. So this is the long-term vision. Well, thank you very much. So for the Doi Yukai, I think that's a homework for my committee, for CBC, R&D, how can we really promote OIST and Okinawa. So that's something that we will take back as our homework. And also, Suntory. Well, if Suntory can come up with a supplement so that we don't age, I believe that would be the best way to go maybe to promote OIST as well for the promotion of OIST. And yes, Suntory, you can make the investment. So it's not just Suntory making money, but we all can make money. Well, let's talk about money later. Now, so there were several other questions for this session, but Mr. Suzuki actually covered some of the points. So through his question, so I'd like to move on. Can we move on to the next part of this discussion? Yes. So that was about industry-academia collaboration. Next, I'd like to focus on contribution to Okinawa promotion. And this part also, I'd like to ask Gil-san to make a short presentation, which will be followed by this Q&A discussion. Well, I actually touched it on my presentation. So yeah, I showed our activities in startups. And I can answer any question in that respect, but no presentation. Well, excuse me. Yes, the presentation covered everything. And based on that, we'd like to move on to the Q&A. So then if I may start. So Okinawa, it's a wonderful place. And I saw this presentation, and I thought that this was a gateway to Asia. But why is it that OIST is placed in Okinawa? Why Okinawa? So if you can please explain that. Well, first I think historically, and probably all of you know that the late Kojiomi had this vision of transforming Okinawa and building the best of the best research institute as kind of a dual mission and use one to support the other, which is a brilliant idea. And Okinawa is a beautiful place. And as you've seen, just having lunch in this beautiful cafeteria is so attractive, so beautiful, so inspiring for researchers. And the Japanese government did a very courageous and very smart move to invest in OIST in such a way that created this beautiful facility. And you're going to have a tour later on in this facility and to attract these talents that you already heard some of them and you'll hear more. So the answer is that Okinawa has a great potential. I don't think OIST could have been created elsewhere, certainly not in Tokyo area. Because then we will be competing with others and we will be kind of impacted by the surrounding. So I think it is a special experiment here. And if you look at the ecology environment, so it's really also very interesting from the ecology side. Nature-wise, we get a lot of interest in that respect. And we're in the middle of the Asian Peninsula, very close to a lot of areas. So it does make a lot of sense. It has its challenges. But nonetheless, I think it has a lot of power. And last but not least, I want to mention the fact that we have extremely supportive community here in Okinawa that is really making this possible. Because it's extremely difficult, as you may know, for non-Japanese to embed into an environment. And the Okinawan are very, very open, supportive of our activities. Well, thank you very much. Let's take that a step further. So Gil-san, you were from Israel, from Weitzman Institute. You were trying to grow the Institute. And as a result, I believe that the researchers became the center of the ecosystem in that town. And that became the hub in Israel. So if you look at Okinawa from that perspective, so starting from OIST, do you think we can create a similar pattern like that here in Okinawa? Do you have that kind of image? So maybe I'd like to ask Dr. Karin as well about this question. But starting with Gil-san. Yeah, I have this vision. I think this is the vision that we're following with collaborations with national universities around in the local and the national stage. I think we have to collaborate with a lot of other partners. But you're right. This is first creating the, I would say, intellectual magnet to bring talent and the power. And then to create a hub of companies, startups, and entrepreneurs that work with all of Okinawa that are really attracted to work with OIST. But I'm happy to also share my time with President Marquides. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yes, definitely that we are comparing and collaborating naturally with all universities that our researchers are connecting to. That's one thing. And that is a lot of possibilities there. But also, since we have a different model with Curiosity Drive, there are some universities in the world that do have that as well. And Weisman is one of them. East China is another one. And Caltech might be one or was one. That wasn't so nice to say. But they have actually, I talked to them recently, and they are giving us a lot of hints what we have to think about so that we don't lose the way that we are running this university. And I think we have a lot of interest in the community of academia in the world, really, to be successful. And so that because this is a strong awareness that universities need to take up another role for the challenges that the world has. And also, including to know how to collaborate and build trust and be able to change mindset. So I do think that there are even more university environments that would like to connect with us on that, not only on the science, but also on the role of the universities. And we see a lot of interest to really help to do that together. So I just, while I have the word here, maybe I can say that in addition to what Gil said about the location for OIST here, I think we should not forget that actually being on this southern tip of Japan, but also being part of Asia Pacific Island all the way from India maybe to Hawaii and beyond. I think that's also very important. I don't know if it was part of the planning, but I see now that I get a lot of interest from the Asia Pacific because of a long time history that Okinawa used to be a hub for portrayed and a place where everybody felt welcome. And we can benefit from that today as well. And Japan can. Thank you very much. That's very clear. The background, I think, to why you all came to Okinawa is included in that. I think that's a really important perspective. So I'd like to hear a little bit from Mashita-san. And also we can hear a little bit more from our local Motonaga-san. And Mashita-san, you've worked in a lot of countries. So what are your thoughts about Okinawa? Thank you very much. So I think really thinking about the startup ecosystem, can that be created here in Okinawa? How do we connect from that ecosystem is what I wanted to talk about. So if I could take a few minutes, that would be OK. Yes, that's OK by me. Thank you. I'll try to be as quick as possible. So to create a startup ecosystem, what's really important is talent, money, market, and also the regulatory environment. Now there are other things, of course, but I think those are the critical areas. So thinking about the talent perspective and thinking about Singapore, there's this general image that Singapore has lots of startups, but they're almost all non-native startups. So there's not a lot of Singaporeans who do a lot of startup activity. It's all foreigners to Singapore. But for example, thinking about the taxation system, being able to do everything in English, having a great education system, means to attracting talents to Singapore. So this is something that Singapore government has changed its policy on, it improved its education system. It's trying to encourage Singaporeans to become more entrepreneurial. But that also is the question of how you can bring more people in from outside. So the question is, how far can Okinawa make a success in that aspect? That's one key thing. So from that perspective, it was talked about earlier, just putting money to one side. Having lots of different attractive aspects is great, but if you're thinking about being here in the long term, the question of what you do with family, what you do with education, what you do about your day-to-day lives becomes a question actually. So right now, there's only a university here. There's no elementary school. There's no junior high school. So you come here and you want to research, but where do you send your kids to for school? So perhaps an international school, having that established here, that's something that should be seriously considered in order to really truly formulate an ecosystem is one thought that I've had and also you're in Okinawa. So this should be something for the government to look at, but looking at taxation, looking at tax means, I think it's very tough. There's not a great deal that could possibly done, but if something could be done, this could be a real financial hub actually, if something could be changed, or it could become a real startup ecosystem. I do believe that strongly. And going back to that money aspect right now, startups are attracting a lot of money compared to 10 years ago, 15 years ago, I think it's changed. It's still said that it's lower than the U.S., but the market's smaller than the U.S., so in a sense that's kind of obvious. But from a Japanese corporation perspective, I think there's a sense that a lot of money is being attracted to startups. The world generally is shifting toward a wealthier level, but I think Japan is in a really great stage warming up toward that. And I think there's still room and purse strings at businesses to be able to do that kind of spending. So to be able to put that money in startups is really important. And just on the market that I mentioned, I think this is possibly the trickiest thing, looking at large global business. Should that be what you aim for? Becoming a massive unicorn, if you want to do that, there's certain things you have to think about, but talent is the key to that. To start a business here in Japan, then that talent trap is something that you can fall into. Very unfortunately, the good news is that Japan is a big market. The bad news is that it's big enough. There's not a lot of merit to go outside to Japan. If, for example, you have a few tens of billions, maybe you can create a company of that size, and rather than doing it outside, it's probably better to do it here domestically in Japan. There's greater efficiencies doing it here domestically. But if you want to try and gather global talent here in Japan, as we were talking earlier, when you look at the world of startups, there's money challenges, there's a variety of different hurdles that have to be overcome in order to be able to attract the necessary talent. And frankly speaking, and I'd be interested in my other panelists' opinions, when you think about OIST, what about creating an OIST sub-campus in America? And if you have a sub-campus in America, that creates a place where you can begin companies. You have seeds here at OIST, then you have Japanese capital that can start up in the U.S., and you get funding in the U.S. That might be an interesting model to pursue. That might be global, deep tech. An opportunity to spread that is that a direction that would be interesting to pursue is something I've thought about. And also, Do-yukai, Keisai Do-yukai right now, is looking at increasing its membership of startups. And you have once per year a round table, the Keisai Do-yukai, where you have large corporations, their executives and startup executives having an opportunity to connect. They often don't have a moment to interact and interface, and they often speak different languages, but creating those connections, Keisai Do-yukai becoming that platform is something that we're starting to see. And that, I think, within the Japan context, could be quite useful. And finally, on the regulatory context, I'm also on the committee for that, but Japan is the department store of regulations. We have them all over the place. For example, Okinawa, we have to use the positioning of Okinawa. It's really important in national policy. I think there's lots of ways to be able to leverage that position. TESped is something that's been talked about today, but when you think about TESped, there are probably ways to further change or experiment with the regulations and rules that we have. I think that would be a great area for activity. For example, in Singapore, the government is quite flexible, and there's lots of things that move and change with the government. But in Japan, thinking about Okinawa, if Okinawa prefecture can work harder with OIST, I think there's a lot of potential there. So I'd be interested in hearing more about that direction, too. Thank you. I did take quite a lot of the time, but no, thank you very much. So to be able to try and develop, looking from a startup business perspective, with market people, money, they might come together. But regulations, if you can't do it here, you go somewhere else or you match it somewhere else. So thinking about that very broad approach to be able to create an ecosystem based here, I guess that's what we're talking about. So there's quite a few questions there. Gil, did you want to take any of those or Motonaga-san? Yes, if I may, first of all. So first of all, Master-san mentioned why was... Sorry, the only question I had to why OIST was established here in Okinawa, I wanted to add a little bit more to that. The reason that OIST was established here in Okinawa is that Okinawa, it was part of our promotion strategies here. When you think about Okinawa and trying to support Okinawa, there's tourism and other ways of supporting Okinawa. They're kind of obvious ways of doing it. But when you look at it from a different perspective, a different position, Okinawa doesn't have a lot of manufacturing industry. So starting from an academic position, looking at those very advanced and latest engineering to find a way for that to take roots was something that would be felt to be good. And we wanted to have a world-top class graduate new school university. We should create that here in Okinawa. That was what was talked about. And we wanted to realize that. And because of that, OIST was established. It's my understanding. And we wanted to make that robust. And there was a big question about who was going to be president. That was a big topic back in the day. So we see Sidney Brenner. Mr. Sidney Brenner, a Nobel Prize winner, was invited to become president. And President Brenner created the meaning and the purpose of OIST. And Mascha-san mentioned a moment ago about that long-term view. Families, from the very early days, has been a challenge that OIST has faced because we want families to be able to come to Okinawa, to be a livable place for the entire family. And there was initially AMICS, an international school which was established and local businesses provided a lot of support for that as well. And now, here, the faculty that are working here, there are children there that go to that school. And local Okinawans also go to that school. So that's also a forum for exchanging connection. And also, when you think about OIST, when you look at the research results that come out of OIST, that leads to economic development of Okinawa. That was another big thing for establishing OIST here. So to be able to create that growth and development, whether it's startups as we've been talking about, that developing is the ideal picture that I think we could pursue. So I think that from our perspective, OIST-centered industrial cluster, for example, has that been established? We haven't reached that yet. And we would very much like to see us reaching that stage so that that can then connect to the promotion of Okinawa. Thank you very much for that. Starting from the foundation of OIST and creating cluster or ecosystem here, we still need to go through future paths. And there are still some challenges. Master-son, you talked about the sub-campus in the United States and working with that sub-campus outside of Japan connecting to the world to improve the value of OIST. Any comments on that proposal? Gil? I think we should bring the United States here, not go to the United States. Good answer. But it's a challenging thought. So yeah, so it's good for as an exercise. First, I want to say that science education is another way we can really support Okinawa. And I see us as an important player here and serving as a role model for kids to grow and to practice science. And this is a long-term investment. So it takes a long time to get that. But this is really important. And Master-son, your comment on test beds and regulatory need and tax incentives and all that is extremely important. And infrastructure on the island, transportation, visa, foreigners visa, all that is really very, very important for the government to think through and for the local government to support to the extent that we could have a small-scale pilot here in Okinawa. The beauty of Okinawa is that it's small and it's not in the middle of the country. So you can do some more, I would say, progressive experiments here. And this is the selling point. I would try to sell it to the government. And let's release some things here that could be really experimental in some sense but would really show a lot of power and attract. You're right to attract. We are very successful because we put a lot of resources and on a smaller scale we can do it. But if we want to grow the startup activity here, attract more talent and retain the talent here, all the things you describe are very important including developing the school, the high school, all that is really most important. And all that need to be done in a way that will benefit the community around us in Okinawa. So this is an invitation from leaders to promote that. Thank you. Thank you very much for that. Motonaga-san, the idea of Mashita-san, would you like to say a few comments on that? Yes, it's a very interesting idea to have sub-campus outside of Japan. But then, of course, we have to start from here, from OIST. And I think Gil already talked about this. But startup companies from OIST, EF Polymer, I think this is very interesting to me personally. And EF Polymer, this can work as part of the contribution to the promotion of Okinawa. And I think this is going to be a very good role model from OIST. And research results of OIST, and this organic polymer technology that's blown out of OIST, this can be used across the world. And as you have pointed out, in Ukraine, this polymer can make contribution in Ukraine. So this is a technology blown out of Okinawa and talking about the market. It can be used in Asia or overseas. And there is a huge market out there. Therefore, we should be able to let know of such technology. And it's very important to nurture a startup company here so that they can become bigger, including EF Polymer. And there are collaborative initiatives there with us, Okinawa, our electric power as well. And those initiatives can be globalized going forward. Thank you very much. So, Master-san, what you are talking about is, yes, it's about the size. So in terms of valuation, trillion scale. If we want to become such a big university, so if we are limited in Japan, you can't expect global investment. And it's very difficult to change that. Therefore, in order to become global, like in the area of deep depth, for instance, it's not as if we go to the US and then we disappear in here. But then it's like a startup system as a basis of the startup. But we will deploy the global operation there in the United States. However, the research core stays here in Okinawa. And the cost of research is cheaper in Japan, so we should benefit from that. So I think we need to have a separate thinking that way. So if we would like to create big businesses and the central government would like to promote that, but then if you think about Japan and only think about Japan, we can't really go global. So I think we need to have a separate idea from being here in Okinawa. So of course, being here in Okinawa is also important. So yes, so yes, we would like to become bigger in scale and we can use the budget of OIST. Yes, in terms of the capital also, we use the capital from Japanese companies. So this is Japan capital. But where are we going to be registered? It doesn't have to be simply limited to Okinawa. Yes, I agree with that. I also agree with that, by the way. I also think that we should, and OIST is doing that, think global always. So taking your idea, keeping the campus here, but reaching out to globally to, not just by the way US, but Europe is important, Asia is important. So globally reaching out, actively doing that, academically and from the business side, I think this is very, very good and really, this is our strategy. Thank you very much. Yeah, I agree with that. So listening to what's been discussed, I think as an initiative that's very important. And in terms of nurturing human resources, developing talents, including locals in Okinawa, I think we need to have international exchange as an opportunity and this can lead to a variety of innovation. Therefore, to have a kind of a startup hub in the United States if we can network there, then of course, we can expect a more like broadened horizon. So I all agree with that. Yes, I think it's been a great discussion. Thank you very much for that. So let's change gears to address different topics. So OIST is really wonderful. It even cannot be benchmarked. But we need to have budget, enough budget, right? And as Motonaga-san said, the budget is born out of the promotion of Okinawa, quite a big budget, but then it has to be sustainable, right? So for such a budget, what kind of budgeting mechanism should be there? It's a kind of a tricky, sensitive question, but I'd like to start with Gil, followed by Motonaga-san and Mashita-san. So obviously, you very rightfully described the challenge. And I think OIST has been focusing in the last few years on diversifying funding of sources. And we're looking into both looking abroad, also from the academic side, attracting competitive grants, and also in philanthropy. And we're going to strengthen that in a way that will impact not only Japan, but also in the United States and elsewhere to attract. Because good science and this type of activity is really unique. And I believe that we can, in the right framing, we can really attract a lot of investors and potential donors. And in terms of the industry, academia collaboration, here I think there is an opportunity for the industry to chip in, either through the fund that we created and the second fund that maybe followed that as a business opportunity, but also in collaborative activities or in joining on ground here on Inokinawa. As I said, we are open and we want to create within the university an area which is very closely interfacing with the industry. And I think this is a great model and a good opportunity for companies to come here. And in 10 years maybe we'll have Hitachi, Santori, Mitsubishi, all of them together. And I just named few just out of my head. No particular discussion at the moment. But this could be a great opportunity for companies to enjoy both worlds, really, to stay within their comfort zone, but collaborate and to be open to cutting edge science. And beyond that, I think what we will need is tap into a different source of funding from the government, central government, not associated with the budget for Okinawa. This is really essential for OIST existence. And you're better educated than me to say which are the sources available. And we will have to hear your advice on that. And we should build the power to impact the decision makers to do that and to build this. Because OIST has to be to grow and OIST has to be successful, to continue to be successful for Okinawa and for Japan. And I'd be happy to join any one of you anywhere to preach for that. Thank you very much. And we have members from the Udo Yukai. I think that was a message to the business leaders. And I believe that's another thing that we at the community should think about. Oh, right now, the government money is being used. And OIST is achieving a lot of things. And of course, you make that private money that may be turned into an endowment. And right now, globally, especially US universities, could be a model that OIST might want to follow. So for a while, the Okinawa promotion budget will be utilized. But as you just said, adding more funding so that they can turn into endowments, I believe that's the scheme that should be followed. Of course, investment into startups and IPO of the startups, you might get some gains. And that also could be added to that endowment fund. And one thing that is related right now to the government is trying to create a global startup campus in Tokyo, in Ebisu, where the defense agency used to stand about 50 billion yen, 60 billion yen is going to be invested. And of course, it also has to be self-reliant in the future. I believe OIST can be a model for that. Thank you very much. Motonaga-san, please, after hearing the opinions. Well, yes, OIST, maintaining its current functions. Yes, the Okinawa promotion fund or other government funding will be necessary going forward. That's what I think. Because basic research and innovative science, when you want to pursue that, the private sector's power alone is not going to lead to social implementation. It may be very difficult at the outset. So once, until that is established, I believe you need to have a systematic support from the central government. But then after you have the foundation established, then you might switch to gathering more funding from the private sector. And of course, companies that grew out of OIST will also be effective in this. The government, I think, is just rushing to gain a lot of results and achievements. So maybe we should have a little longer-term perspective and OIST as well as local Okinawan companies as well as other companies from around Japan should support the effort. Well, thank you very much. Well, yes, because of the OIST nature, yes, for a while, government funding is necessary. But then after that, you might shift a little bit towards private funding. And of course, you have to have an idea about the timing and time scale. Just to give a vision of a potential future, and again relating back to the example of the Weizmann Institute, which has the very similar characteristics of OIST. Weizmann has 270 principal investigators. So this is the size. It has been operating over 70 years and was able, after 50 years, to create an endowment through these all activities, but mainly commercial success from commercialization, which is bigger compared to size than Harvard. I mean, compared to normal size. And this is really sustainable. So 75% of the Weizmann budget comes from the endowment plus competitive ground. So government is only supporting 25. I cannot promise OIST would reach that, OK? This is not a promise. This is not. But I do want to mention this as a role model, as a role model, as a model that can really work. And it's based on fundamental research in a smart way, which OIST is really following. So again, I said I'm optimistic. That's why I'm optimistic. Well, thank you very much for that. So we'll tentatively end funds. And there's a lot of examples. But basic research, social implementation, the balance between the two, that's also a part of the homework, I believe, that we have to look at. And now I am aware of the time. I think I'm supposed to wrap up here. So starting from Motonaga-san, if I can ask each and every one of you to give a message to the U.K. people here, your wish list about what we should see. What are the things that should change organizationally? Or what is it that you expect more? So if I can go around, starting from Motonaga-san. I think the first speaker has the toughest job. Well, expectations, well, as we've heard in the discussion, OIST, the industry academia collaboration should be closer. I think that's what we've heard. And so we should have more opportunities like this. And as was mentioned earlier, OIST also should appeal to companies about what research themes you are taking up and what is happening at OIST. Because the companies also might be able to match their issues with what OIST has. And that would lead to industry academia collaboration, which would lead to resolving issues out there in society. I believe that's what we need going forward. Thank you. And thank you for bravely taking up the first speaker's job. So Gil-san, please. Yeah, I've been asking so many things during the session. So I would like to thank you for a lot of the things you've already done and the fact that you're here. So we touched upon many things. And all of them are very important. I think the top goal would be to have this additional funding source. And second goal would be to find ways to collaborate closely with all of you. Thank you. Thank you. Well, there are three things, as I said earlier. So utilizing the special zone strategy of the government, maybe you should find what's unique to Okinawa and focus on that. Regulations don't change easily. But things are starting to change bit by bit because of the needs. Rideshare, which is what's thought to be impossible in Japan, that's also changing here in Japan. So I think Okinawa should raise its voice and seek these changes. And also the sub incubation center in the US, which I proposed. Maybe it's a Japanese capital-funded thing, but it's global. If OIST can lead the way, money will be returned to Japan. And that money could be utilized to create the next industry. So I'm hoping that we can create a cycle like that. And lastly, the most important one is to have these connections with a major company. So a collaboration with Keisai Douyukai to make new things. And Douyukai people also. We hope that member companies here can buy these startups and buy with a high price. So if you can acquire a company that has been launched from OIST would be best. Well, thank you very much. And I think I'm one minute over my allocated time. I'm very sorry for the poor time management. But thank you very much for your cooperation. Thank you very much. And yes, I have asked myself to keep the time. But thank you very much for the wonderful moderation. And also talking about the funding part as well. Thank you very much. And once again, I'd like to ask the audience to give a big round of applause to all four. Thank you. Thank you very much. So we want to close up. We would like to begin, first of all, with President Karen Marquides and Mr. Takeshi Minami, representative director. Three hours has flown by so quickly. But I would like to ask for just some final closing remarks from those two. First, I'd like to invite President Marquides. The floor is yours. Thank you so much for this inspiration. I think we all feel it. And we definitely are ready, all of us, to take the next step. We heard so many interesting things here that we can move on. And I am so pleased that all these things that were said and that all of you are here. And we are all, I guess, in agreement about this. To meet closer with the corporations, and both here now that we have the organization here from Okinawa and also from Japan, this makes it extra special. And we are, of course, as I also mentioned, as a university, we are in the space of both the local, the national, and the international. And we should utilize that. Because definitely companies are also in the global space. And we should really make sure that we take advantage of this, that we can actually bring to our local settings and not to our national needs. So when we meet closer, I also heard a lot which I like very much that we should meet in the pre-competitive space. Because if we do so, we can actually be the ones that set the new standards, the new competitiveness in the world. And if we include also our PhD students in this, we will make them into change makers, so leaders that can actually really take these new adventures to really prosperous solutions. I also think that one thing, when we collaborate closer, to something that worked very well in Sweden was that we get spin-out, spin-in possibilities. Because there are many things I know in your companies that doesn't really fit to move on. But if we build trust and we build collaboration and you put these ideas into Gil's hands and we work together and you can actually spin-in after if you have interest. So that could be a very good motor in innovation as well. I also think that about this, to have some activities outside of Japan, yes, my approach is really that I feel that mirror labs or collaborations that are also including mobility is the best way. Because by the end of the day, we want to build trust also in the places where we are collaborating in other parts of the world. And we have to also recognize that there are public-private university partnerships there as it is here. And if we can get the trust between that, then we will really be able to prepare and to build interest and trust for also buying the products all over the world. I come from a country where we have to think export from daycare center. Sweden is always depending on export. I think I believe in that. I believe that we have to find solutions that would work in the whole world. So I think this is also for a big country that, like Japan, I think it's a winning concept. So building trust is something that came several times here. And of course, this is something that we really need to. It sounds easy, but it takes some skills and it takes some time and thinking proactive. And I'm very much interested to work more on that. One other thing to think about the whole family is the whole that we have here. And it is actually true, even though there are some schools and some high schools around, we are one of our highest risks here at OIST is if we cannot get an IB high school on the island that is close enough to us that we could work on. Because we know we have made some surveys and we know that we will have some problems coming up if we don't get that. Because we will lose a lot of our really strong people when their children are growing up to that age. So please, if we could think about it, because of course, there are more business. If more business brings in here and not the least in the tourist area, we need to have also these type of skills built up. So I'm sure that if we think together, we can get enough critical mass of young people to really build some high school of that level. So there was, oh, yeah, the money, of course. And the budget, it was also good that you touch upon. Because that is something that I agree with everything said. And of course, I want to push a little bit more for these solutions that are actually successful in the United States Universities, the BLT model, Build Lease Transfer model that we could do together. And we could be winners on both sides. And we could move fast. And I think some of these ideas that we have and some of these research that were presented here today could actually move fast. So please work with us on that. And I think also when we are working together, we should make sure that we make it visible on both locally, nationally, and internationally. Thank you so very much. And I'm so inspired. Thank you. Thank you very much for that. So lastly, but not least, Mr. Inami, please. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. I was wondering what I should talk. First and foremost, we have to set up an ecosystem here in OIST to bring more resources, including not only the funding but also talented people from the world. It's been a great success, but we need more. And as current talked about, we need the infrastructure, like school, like lots of things to attract the talent from the world. My son talked about the Silicon Valley, but we need to challenge the competition in the world. But the key thing is how to retain, how to recruit good talent from the world. To expedite the lots of research is quantum and supplement. And I think we found the searing future that is we can live more than 100 years with the kicking alive, which means not because of some story, but OIST is an effort. And I'd like to solicit more funding to the research so that we can live healthy for 200 years. So I think I'm not talking about kind of wishes, and I'm not talking about just the desire. That will be coming soon. It's a real. And how to make that happen, it's up to us. So today, we learned a tip of iceberg of the research is being done here and how we can expedite, how we can make things happen for the sake of the better society. So better society means better Okinawa, better Japan, after all, better the world. So today, we gathered here, sharing the vision and will to support OIST. And working together with the Okinawa Kizado Yukai. Again, thank you so much for your attendance of the Karen, Miguel, and a big support from Okinawa Kizado Yukai. And I want to propose that we will have this event to convene here, perhaps annually. And we should have the lively panel, which happened just led by the Nambu-san, who is the vice chairman of Simitomo Corporation, will be hopefully. And so I think we will have this kind of engage so that we can get to know each other. Karen mentioned trust-wideness. Trust is before funding, but the fund is needed. So let's work together. And I think we can make that happen. So maybe next year here, we'll have the more interesting findings from the researchers of OIST. Thank you so much. Thank you very much, Ninami. I think this is the first step, the very start. And you mentioned about next year, but we do hope that we can see you again next year like this. And thank you very much for setting up the stage like this to all the people at OIST and also the Okinawa Kizado Yukai for your support. We are very happy to see you. And with this, we would like to end this symposium. And thank you very much for the three hours. Thank you.