Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Science, Tokyo Metropolitan University
Director, Science Groove Inc.
Mr. Yuya Tachiki

D. in 2013 from the Graduate School of Systems Life Science, Kyushu University. D. (Science). After working as a JSPS Research Fellow and a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Virus and Regenerative Medicine, Kyoto University, he has been an Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Science, Tokyo Metropolitan University since April 2018. He is a founding member of Science Groove Inc. (September 2024 at the time of interview)

Tokyo Metropolitan University, which changed its name from Tokyo Metropolitan University in April 2020, is a public university designed with the future of the city in mind. It is also a university with 7 graduate schools, 11 majors, and 17 academic departments, and has campuses in various locations in Tokyo, where many students attend and study. The university also has a curriculum that allows students to learn about entrepreneurship. Mr. Tachiki is one of the members of this curriculum. We spoke with Mr. Tachiki about the purpose and implementation of the program at TMU.

Encourage spontaneous activities by venturing abroad
Tokyo Metropolitan University has been offering an overseas training program for graduate students for the past 17 years. About a dozen students, mostly in the master's program and up to the doctoral program, apply for the program from several graduate schools, including the Faculty of Science and the Graduate School of Science and Engineering. Many students apply by word-of-mouth after hearing about the program from their seniors. In this training program, students actually go abroad to the U.S., Singapore, Malaysia, and other countries to present their own ideas, including business proposals as solutions to social issues based on their research and the science and technology they would like to work on. The presentations are developed and practiced through advance training, and students are required to make appointments with people they wish to meet before traveling to the destination, which requires good communication skills.
Mr. Tachiki says of the students who participate in the program, "Many students are serious yet conservative, but those who take the plunge into overseas training seem to be a little out of this. They may have a strong desire to challenge themselves," he says. Nevertheless, the students' experience is limited. While some students do not have passports, they all work together to arrange their tickets. They could not even speak English well, but they had to put their thoughts together and make a presentation. The first presentation is really bad," Tachiki recalls, "but they all end up making something that works. Through the training, the students seem to understand, albeit non-verbally, that language skills and presentation skills are two different things.

Inspire student activism
In order to discuss with overseas researchers, it is necessary to prepare a presentation on your research theme and its "purpose" in advance of the training. What do I want to do? For better or worse, the training program starts with such a vague theme. What is the purpose of your daily research? You know that your research is necessary for the world, but you begin to reconsider who it is specifically for and who it will please. We need to be specific and have a clear idea of who we need to communicate to. There is much to learn in this process of brushing up one's own ideas, which can be valuable in terms of entering a doctoral program or charting the best career path. In fact, many students have seen a clear "change" through the training. One student went on to do research in the field of applied chemistry, but ultimately found a job with a trading company. This was because he wanted to be active in the world at large, rather than pursuing a narrow and deep field of study. There are many other students who voluntarily embark on social activities. This training program is also valuable in that it helps students to acquire the ability to create their own path based on their own priorities and value criteria, rather than choosing from a given list of potential career paths. In fact, Tokyo Metropolitan University has been implementing this training program with the aim of increasing the number of students who go on to doctoral programs. D. program and to encourage students to consider careers after obtaining a doctoral degree.

A "university that is not all about research
While implementing a curriculum that seems progressive, there does not seem to be any major change in the structure and underlying curriculum of Tokyo Metropolitan University. Tachiki himself points out the importance of the conventional curriculum, saying that he wants students to improve their basic academic skills and pursue science to the fullest. On the other hand, he also said that today's students are diverse, and that just because they went into science does not necessarily mean they like biology. He said that he has the impression that more and more students are showing interest in venture companies or are willing to do internships at companies. The spread of smartphones and social networking services has made it easier for students to obtain information and make connections with society. And often, these students visit Mr. Tachiki. In fact, Mr. Tachiki has another face in addition to being a scientific researcher. He is also a director of a venture company. When asked why, Mr. Tachiki said, "There are reasons for each phase of my life. When I was young, I was not sure if it was a good idea to only work in academia. In the first place, I had the impression that basic research did not easily reach out to society, and in fact, venture companies originating from the Faculty of Science were hard to come by, so I decided to start my own. Now, I am developing my business while thinking about how to connect the basic science research I am engaged in to society. He believes that if he can generate profits from his business, he will have a budget other than the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research that he can spend freely. Mr. Tachiki pushes the students who visit him, telling them to "try anything. And to those students who ask for referrals, he tells them, "I'll do the research for you, but you have to go on your own. Many of the students who have completed graduate school at TMU are now exploring their own career paths and leaving for various fields, such as academia and business, of their own volition. This seems to be due not only to the development of new programs such as overseas training, but also to changes in the environment. This is not simply due to the spread of smartphones and other devices. There are entrepreneurial researchers on campus who are starting their own businesses, and one can see one of their career models close at hand. Mr. Tachiki himself may be one of those who create such an environment.
(Text by Takuro Sano)