Background: Taking the Long View

The history of artifacts reflects that of humankind. In Japan the history of production stretches back more than ten thousand years. During that time the Japanese people imbibed various influences from China, Korea, and the other countries even as they nourished their own ways of production. Their efforts have resulted in highly developed skills and technologies.

At the same time, it must be acknowledged that not all the products of such a long history of human creation have contributed to peaceful cohabitation. Some, in fact, have done just the opposite. Additionally, we now recognize the threat to the survival of life on earth that resulted from the habit of carelessly producing and discarding anything that may be momentarily useful.

Our immediate future therefore requires specialists who can go beyond the application of scientific knowledge and technological skills to production. Humanity needs people who are also fully skilled in economics, management, and ethics, and who are able to go beyond mere utility in making sound and just decisions Such individuals, to whom we entrust our future production, shall be called technologists.

In the city of Gyoda, in Saitama Prefecture, not far from Japan’s capital city of Tokyo, an institute has been operating since 2001 for the purpose of educating and training such technologists. It is known as the Monotsukuri Institute of Technologists.* The Institute endeavors to guide students toward a new age of production.

*

“Institute of Technologists” is the official English descriptor bestowed on this institution by Prof. Peter F. Drucker, social ecologist and renowned professor at Claremont Graduate School in California.