Research Vision: Improving mankind's health and well-being through brain research
 
It is said that the 21st century is the century of the mind. However, even though our industry and technology have reached a high level of development so far, we probably can’t say the same about people’s mind and hearts. In fact, in our society, the levels of psychological stress are growing rapidly, and it is becoming harder to feel happy and fulfilled in our present reality.
 
With over 30 thousand suicide cases in Japan, our current situation has started to take a turn for the worse. Furthermore, in an aging society like ours, the cases of elderly people suffering from dementia are now over 2 million, and from the social welfare’s point of view, this is starting to become a rather serious problem.
 
With that in mind, we must find a method of increasing people’s mental and emotional health, and I believe brain research is the way.
 
Until very recently, it was believed the brain was an immutable organ, which did not change after adult age. Moreover, it was believed that it only gets weaker with age. However, according to the results obtained through our extensive research with brain cells, we can now say, without error, that the brain is “an organ that changes all the time”.
 
In order to increase the health of the brain, I believe we should do the possible to keep the brain cells working in an optimum condition. But if we are to discover which condition is the most appropriate for the different kinds of cells in our brains, there is no better way than extensive physiological research at a cellular level.
 
We are conducting research on how brain cells respond to external stimuli, differences in daily habits, and the aging of the body as a whole. And I believe that through this research, we’ll be contributing to the development of a new “health neuroscience”, which aims to increase the health of the brain.