Introductory/Series :TRIZ: Creative Problem Solving Methodology for Innovation: Part 1: What is TRIZ? FAQ (Toru Nakagawa)
(Jan. 13, 2006)
A series of introductory articles published in the monthly journal "InterLab" in Japanese, starting in Jan. 2006 and finishing in Nov. 2007 (Part 22). Part 1 is an Introduction to TRIZ for novices: What is TRIZ?, Information sources and textbooks, Basic approach, Thinking way for innovation, Penetration situations, Penetration in Japan, New generation of TRIZ. (Only in Japanese.)
Paper/Introduction: Problem Solving Methodology for Innovation: TRIZ/USIT. Its Philosophy, Methods, Knowledge Bases, and Software Tools (Toru Nakagawa) (Mar. 3, 2004) 
(Aug. 26, 2004) (Nov. 30, 2005)
First presented at First Symposium on Knowledge Creation Support Systems, held on Feb. 27-28, 2004 at JAIST near Kanazawa, and later published in "the Journal of Japan Creativity Society", Vol. 8 (2004), pp. 49-66. I introduced the whole aspects of TRIZ in a top-down manner on the basis of up-to-date understanding of the methodology. I explained TRIZ/USIT and its usage in the "Steady Strategy" of introduction.
Keynote Lecture: A Simple Theory Underlying Structured Problem-Solving Methodologies －ASIT, TRIZ, USIT (and others) (Ed Sickafus) (Jun. 24, 2007)
Ed Sickafus is the original developer of USIT, and gave this Keynote lecture at 2nd Japan TRIZ Symposium 2006. Excerpt of his abstract is: ”Structured problem-solving methodologies, such as ASIT, TRIZ, USIT and others, are made easier to learn and practice through a simple theory. Such methods have a common basis in creative thinking but engage various forms of structure to achieve their goals. ... This talk is a theoretical discussion of how we think as we progress along the path from problem definition to innovative solution concepts. It will be seen that our two brain hemispheres provide near instantaneous insights that are both logical and intuitive. By understanding their fortes we can best use our cognitive resources. Some surprising insights are presented. ..." The lecture was excellent but 'unusual', and gave us a shock in our standard way of thinking. Please read his paper 
and his slides .
Introductory article: What is TRIZ -- Its Basic Concepts and Principal Tools (Manabu Sawaguchi) (Mar. 22, 2013)
Published as 2nd article in the TRIZ Special Issue of the JSA's monthly journal "Standardization and Quality Control", Vol. 66, No. 2 (2013). The author introduces basic concepts of TRIZ and principal tools, in the scope of classical TRIZ (and some of its revised forms). He shows a lot of small examples for illustrating the concepts.
Paper: Creativity Tool and methods: Introduction to Visual Thinking Software 'Fuda-Yose Tool' and Its Web site 'Thinking School I' (Akihiro Katahira) (Jan. 18, 2015)
A handy software tool for drawing and handling labels smoothly on Excel sheets for supporting 'Visual Thinking'. Information in Excel cells can be converted with a click into labels, and such labels, connecting lines, and enclosures may be moved around smoothly on the sheet. The use of the software stimulates users' thoughts in idea generation, document composition, discussions in a group, etc. The author has also built a Web site describing various methods for generating thoughts in a systematic manner.
Methodology of Creative Problem Solving: TRIZ and Its Extension ~ Scientific Methods for Innovation ~ (Toru Nakagawa) (Apr. 12, 2015)
The 57 slides given in a lecture for 90 minutes as an overview. I first describe that the basic Four-Box Scheme of Abstraction which is generally assumed in the current science and technology has a limitation and that many conventional 'Creativity methods' address with different partial aspects without having a sound overall view. As new scientific approaches to inventive thinking, I explain TRIZ first and then USIT. On the basis of them, the Six-Box Scheme was newly formulated as the paradigm for 'General Methodology of Creative Problem Solving' (CrePS).
USIT/CrePS paper: Subconscious Problem Solving Using Hazy Heuristics (Ed Sickafus) (Aug. 25, 2015) ; (Jul. 29, 2015);
The standard methods of problem solving we learn are structured and logical. However, while we are studying them, we often get frustrated with the tediousness of the process interfering with our inventive thinking, he points out. Such a difficulty gradually disappears when we master the method fully and we find ourselves using some shortchts. And "The 'Ah-ha!' ideas always come out of the subconscious. Invention is not done by the conscious, but done by the subconscious", Sickafus says. Since the shortcuts are apparently based on the activities of our sub conscious, we should evaluate them positively. For enhancing the subconsciou activities in our brain, we should choose the form of information to be handed on to the subconscious; instead of specific and logical information, generalized (or purposefully-vague) keywords and images are more suitable as metaphores, he says. -- This paper looks quite unusual at first, but it corresponds to the old saying "Enter the Form, and Leave the Form".
Forum: A New Discussion: Do We Have Any Methodology of Creative Research in Academia ? Can CrePS (or the Six-box Scheme) Contribute to It ? (Aug. 6, 2016) 
The issue is raised by a prominent professor: Academia has been carrying out a huge number of advanced researches. But there is no common understanding of ‘How to achieve Creative Research’ in the Academia, and such achievements have been obtained without any relation to the methods like TRIZ. Thus the methodologies like TRIZ and CrePS seem to have very little relevance/significance with the methods for promoting academic researches.
--- Nakagawa responded: It is a pity that the methodology like TRIZ/CrePS has rarely penetrated into the academia. It seems quite strange to me that the academia has not obtained a common and general understanding about ‘How to do Creative Research’. We should first consider for what types of purposes we need such a method. :
(a) To think over the future grand directions for research themes in the scope covering various research fields.
(b) In a research field, to think over on what research theme to work.
(c) For a research theme, to think over what should be really revealed and solved.
(d) For a research theme, to think what is the barrier making the revealing/solving difficult and how to break it through.
(e) For individual tasks in a research theme, to think of the methods of research, experiments, and equipment design, etc.
(f) For problems and tasks in further detail, to think how to solve them one by one.
I think that the representation of the Six-box Scheme of CrePS fits well for the purposes of (d), (e), and (f) and should be applicable with some adaptation to the purposes in (a), (b), and (c).
(E) Are there textbooks, articles, lecture notes, etc. on Mehtods of Creative Problem Solving?
TRIZ/USIT Lecture Notes: Methodologies of Creative Problem Solving
(A Series of 14 Lectures Given to the Class at Osaka Gakuin University) (Toru Nakagawa) 
(Jan. 22, 2012)
Lectures given to the Sophomore Students of Faculty of Informatics, OGU at the "Scientific Information Methodologies" Class, from October 2010 to January 2011. Using TRIZ and USIT as the backbone, I am teaching methodologies of creative problem solving in a wider scope. Lecture Notes (in Japanese) of the 14 lectures are posted in PDF. (You may read in English a little more detail of the class in my ETRIA TFC2007 paper .)
(1) An easy introduction: Flexible thinking necessary for innovation 
(2) Three principal approaches of studying and applying science and technology: Starting from observations, from principles, and from problems
(3) Finding the problem, focusing on it, and collecting information
(4) How come up with ideas? Trial-and-error, enlightenment, and creativity
(5) What are 'Systems': Components and their relations, hierarchy, and technical systems
(6) Analyzing the problem (1) Finding root causes of the problem/difficulty
(7) Extra: How to construct and write a report/paper
(8) Analyzing the problem (2) Analyzing functions and attributes of the technical system (Supplement of (7) ）
(9) Analyzing the problem (3) Analyzing space and time characteristics; Making an image of the ideal solution （supplement of (8) ）
(10) Generating solutions (1) Fully utilizing knowledge bases
(11) Generating solutions (2) How to break through the barriers
(12) Generating solutions (3) A system of solution generation methods (USIT Operators)
(13) Case studies of everyday-life problem solving; Summary of creative problem solving methodologies (1) USIT
(14) Summary of creative problem solving methodologies (2) TRIZ; Conclusion of the class
Introduction Series of USIT: "Introduction to USIT: A Simple Method for Creative Problem Solving (Toru Nakagawa) (Jul. 22, 2007)
A series of 5 articles publishedn in the monthly journal "Machine Design", Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun, from August to December 2007 issues. In my previous TRIZ articles, USIT has been mentioned part by part in different contexts. In the preent series, USIT is explained in its entire form with minimum mentioning to TRIZ. Brief summaries are written in English.
Part 1: What is USIT? FAQ 
(Jul. 22, 2007)
Overall view of USIT is given in the Q&A style with a novice. (1) Introduction; (2) What is USIT? Its History of Development; (3) Information Sources and Textbooks of USIT; (4) Motive and Features of USIT; (5) Process of Problem Solving with USIT; (6) Practices in USIT; (7) Penetration Status and Significance of USIT. Short summary in English .
Part 2: Simple Case Studies of USIT (Aug. 17, 2007)
Two case studies taken from the thesis works of my students at OGU are demonstrated: (1) Overall structure of problem solving with USIT. (2) Case study: 'How to prevent the staple from being crashed'. (3) Case study: 'How to fix a string shorter than the needle'.
Part 3: Problem Definition and Analysis with USIT (Oct. 15, 2007)
The first half part of USIT procedure is explained by using the prvious two case studies. (1) Overview of the Problem Definition and Problem Analysis; (2) How to Define the Problem; (3) Problem Analysis: Understanding the Present System; (4) Problem Analysis: Understanding the Ideal System.
Part 4: Creative Solution Generation with USIT (Nov. 1, 2007)
The latter half of USIT procedure is explained. (1) Outline of the Solution Generation Stages in the Six-Box Scheme in USIT; (2) The USIT Operators; (3) Guided thinking in the Solution Generation Phases.
Part 5: Practices of USIT (Dec. 9, 2007)
Practices of learning, applying, and mastering USIT are explained. (1) For what purposes can we use USIT?; (2) How can we learn it?; (3) Trainings of USIT; (4) Key points for mastering USIT; (5) Practices and promotion of USIT; (6) Case studies of promoting TRIZ/USIT; (7) Concluding remarks.
Introduction & Research Note: Essence of TRIZ in 50 Words (Toru Nakagawa) (May 22, 2001)
An answer to the question "What is the essence of TRIZ?". Originally written as a slide presented in TRIZCON2001 in a statement of 50 words, and then explained here in 2 pages as a section of my paper to be presented in ETRIA TFC 2001. It says: "Essence of TRIZ: Recognition that technical systems evolve towards the increase of ideality by overcoming contradictions mostly with minimal introduction of resources. Thus, for creative problem solving, TRIZ provides a dialectic way of thinking, i.e., to understand the problem as a system, to image the ideal solution first, and to solve contradictions. "
TRIZ/USIT Introduction: Lecture: TRIZ: Problem-Solving Methodology for Innovation (Toru Nakagawa) (Jan. 9, 2012)
Invited Lecture at Faculty Development Seminar of NAIST (Nara Advanced Institute of Science and Technology). To about 80 faculty members I talked about TRIZ/USIT in a compact way for 50 minutes. "A methodology for creative problem solving has been established in the form of TRIZ/USIT and penetrating in the world; it can be applied to real problems in R&D in industries and in graduate schools, and can be incorporated into education in universities and graduate schools to empower for innovations."
TRIZ/USIT/CrePS Talk: General Method of Creative Problem Solving: 'Six-Box Scheme' (Toru Nakagawa) (Jan. 8; Apr. 12, 2015)
A talk presented for 60 minutes to a dozen of highschool students. A general view of how to think and solve problems creatively is given in the demonstration of a case study 'How to make a knot with short string at the end of sewing'. A concise and nice class material of 20 slides. Slides in English translation are posted (Apr. 12, 2015)
TRIZ Forum: Letters from Readers: Introduction to A New Publication: "TRIZ 40 Principles" by Yoshinori Takagi (Yoshinori Takagi; Toru Nakagawa) (Jan. 8, 2015)
"TRIZ 40 Principles" is an excellent new book in Japanese authored by Y. Takagi and published by Discover 21, Inc., Tokyo. The book is very well organized and written, and has been accepted popularly as one of the best sellers in the Engineering/Patents & Invention genre in Amazon.co.jp. Congratulations!! Unfortunately, however, in the belt and in the Preface of the book, the descriptions look too much journalistic/sensational, used to be typical in late 1990s in Japan, and contain several misleading catch copies in relation to the TRIZ history in the former USSR. Nakagawa sent a comment on them to Mr. Takagi for the purpose of preventing them from being spread to readers new to TRIZ.
CrePS/TRIZ/USIT Documents: USIT Process Documents (Index): USIT: A Concise Process of Creative Problem Solving in the 'Six-Box Scheme' (Toru Nakagawa) (May 25, 2015) (Jun. 26, 2015)
The index page of the documents related to USIT, conaining the indexes of the following 4 items:.
(A) USIT Manual,
(B) USIT Case Studies,
(C) USIT Operators,
(D) USIT References
USIT Manual (Toru Nakagawa) (May 25, 2015) (Jun. 26, 2015)
Manual of the USIT process has been described
in the form of 31 slides along its steps. The USIT process is now fully described by use of the consistent demonstration of a case study and instructions and remarks on the USIT concepts and its thinking process. Examples of USIT usage in the 'Collection of USIT Case Studies' are described along the steps of the 'USIT Manual' so that you can understand USIT fully in its variety of usage. The Manual is posted both in HTML (with images) and in PDF .
CrePS Introductory: Fuda-Yose Tool and Visual Thinking: Development, Operations, and Usage of the Fuda-Yose Tool and Practices of Visual Thinking with It. (Akihiro Katahira and Toru Nakagawa) (Jul. 31, 2016) (Aug. 6, 2016)
A series of introductory articles on the Fuda-Yose Tool and its usage jointly authored by Katahira and Nakagawa.
Part 1: Development, Operations, and Usage of the Fuda-Yose Tool. (Akihiro Katahira) (Jul. 31, 2016) (Aug. 6, 2016)
The Fuda-Yose Tool is a software tool for drawing diagrams, using the Microsoft Excel worksheets as the platform, for the purpose of supporting/enhancing user’s Visual Thinking. It was developed by Akihiro Katahira and has been improved recently. The up-to-date version of the Fuda-Yose Tool (in English) (currently version 5.00e) may be downloaded without charge at Katahira’s ‘site 
. It was designed with emphasis on handy and quick responses instead of rich and advanced functionality.
The diagrams are composed of three basic components; i.e., ‘Labels’ (= rectangles holding descriptions of keywords and sentences), ‘Enclosures’ (= round-cornered rectangles with header keywords/sentences for enclosing several Labels), and ‘Lines/Arrows’ (for connecting Labels/Enclosures for showing some relationships). Also the ‘Cells’ (= the original tabular units of Excel worksheets) may be used for containing data. Labels/Enclosures and Cells are interchangeable with a click of a command. Various original Excel functions may be used in the Fuda-Yose Tool and all the diagram elements drawn by the Fuda-Yose Tool can be handled in Excel as usual. Basic ways of using the Tool are explained with illustrations.
Part 2: Practices of Using the Fuda-Yose Tool: Practices by Katahira (Akihiro Katahira) (Jul. 31, 2016) (Aug. 6, 2016)
Once users understand the basic operation of Fuda-Yose Tool, they can arrange and move around the visual components on the diagram, and may get triggers of various ideas which may help them stimulate, enhance, and deepen their thoughts. Users may use the tool freely in various ways so as to match their own purposes and situations. Such flexible ways of supporting user’s thinking are called here the ‘Fuda-Yose Method’.
Katahira mostly uses the Tool in two types of situations.
(1) In personal situations, for getting triggers of ideas and organizing own thoughts. The process is explained, with particular attention to possible multiple viewpoints in arranging/moving Labels in the diagrams. Two examples of diagrams are shown. The second diagram is to think over ‘what is the Fuda-Yose Method’ repeatedly from time to time.
(2) In a meeting situation, any opinions and comments are recorded in Labels and the Fuda-Yose diagrams are projected on a screen for sharing the discussions among the members. This helps people much to share communication and form common understandings. Four real case studies are shown for (a) forming common understanding, (b) revealing the causes, (c) promoting the understanding, and (d) idea generation for improving the instructions.
Business TRIZ Introductory: Breakthrough Thinking with TRIZ for Business and Management: An Overview (Valeri Souchkov; Japanese translation: Toru Nakagawa) (Nov. 23, 2016)
Japanese translation of an introductory article by Valeri Souchkov 
is posted in . This article introduces TRIZ and its use for business and
management to the ordinary business people in plain words without any prerequisite. He puts stress on the way of thinking rather than tools. His way of using TRIZ for business and management has been proven to be easy to learn and effective to apply.
CrePS Research Note: Six-Box Scheme Representation of Published Papers (1) 18 Papers by Toru Nakagawa (2000 - 2016) (Toru Nakagawa) (Dec. 27, 2016)
The Six-Box Scheme is a new paradigm of creative problem solving, which I found in 2004 in my study of TRIZ and USIT and I have been promoting activiely in a much more general context since 2012.
For the purpose of demonstrating the Six-Box Scheme, I have been trying till recently to make new case studies where various types of problems are solved along the Six-Box Scheme with some methods like USIT.
The demonstration has been proceeding only slowly with a limited number of case studies. I now realize, however, that almost all serious intellectual activities and their results can be described properly in the Six-Box Scheme. Thus, I have described my 18 papers, which I published at international/domestic conferences every year since 2000, in the overview format of the Six-Box Scheme. They are shown here together with their Abstracts. The Six-Box Scheme representation plays the role of a template for describing intellectual activities/works, just like the standard format for filing patents. You may understand, I hope, the concept of the Six-Box Scheme, ways of representing works in the Six-Box Scheme overview, and also a history of my work for developing them.
(F) Are there application case studies and results documents achieved by students?
Introductory/Series : TRIZ: Creative Problem Solving Methodology for Innovation (Toru Nakagawa) (Jan. 13, 2006)
A series of 22 introductory articles published in a monthly journal "InterLab", Optronics Ltd., started in Jan. 2006 and finished (abruptly) in Nov. 2007. The journal aims at promoting/supporting the collaborations among academia, public institutions, and industries, with about 12,000 subscriptions.
Part 5: Everyday-life Case Studies of TRIZ/USIT (1) How to Fix the String Found Shorter Than the Needle (Toru Nakagawa) (May 9, 2006)
A case study of applying TRIZ/USIT to an everyday-life problem is shown, in reference to Tsubasa Shimoda's Bachellor Thesis, OGU. How to learn TRIZ case studies; Problem definition; Problem analysis (space and time characteristics, objects-attributes-functions, imagine an ideal solution); Solution generation(various known solutions, introducing extra things, modifying needles and strings, noble small tools, how the solution ideas were generated); lessons of this case study.
Part 6: Everyday-life Case Studies of TRIZ/USIT (2) How to Prevent from Shoplifting in Bookstores (Toru Nakagawa) (Jun. 6, 2006)
A case study of applying TRIZ/USIT is shown with reference to Naoya Hayashi's Bachellor Thesis, OGU. The problem is based on his experiences while working for a small bookstore in a suburban shopping center. Problem definition; Problem analysis (Process of shoplifting, Relevant objects, Attributes of the objects, Space and Time characteristics, Core difficulty (or contradiction) of the problem); Solution generation (Reviewing conventional methods, New solution ideas).
Part 13: Everyday-life Case Studies of TRIZ/USIT (3) How to Prevent the Staples from Being Crashed (Toru Nakagawa) (Jan. 7, 2007)
Using a simple everyday-life problem, the whole procedure of problem solving with TRIZ/USIT is demonstrated. (1) Difficulty of binding over 30 sheets of papers with a stapler [Initial setting of the problem; Observing and speculating root causes; Analyzing the lateral play of the stapler arm], (2) Discovery of an unexpected root cause [Observing an unexpected fact; Examining the mechanism to find the root cause; A desirable solution blocked by a contradiction], (3) Solution ideas generated with TRIZ/USIT [Altshuller's Smart Little People (SLP) Modeling; Smart Little People supporting the staple from the inner sides; Interpreting the SLP's ideas in terms of technology], (4) Constructing the solution concepts [Construct the basic mechanism; Design new systems with proactive use of the new idea].
TRIZ/USIT Case Study: Applying TRIZ/USIT to A Social & Technical Problem: Auto-locking Door System of Apartment Building (Toru Nakagawa and Arata Fujita) (Sept. 13, 2007) (Mar. 2, 2009)
(Earlier version presented at Japan TRIZ Symposium 2007) and Revised version presented at ETRIA TFC 2008, as an extension of Fujita's Bachellor Thesis at OGU. It is a well-known security problem that unauthorized persons can enter the auto-locking entrance door of apartment buildings just by following the preceding residents. Students' discussions were facilitated with TRIZ/USIT to tackle this problem. We found three root causes: the door is closed slowly for safety reasons, residents allow unauthorized persons to enter, and there is no effective social rule to follow when two parties happen to meet at the entrance door. Solution ideas were generated step by step by discussions. A concept of an IT-based logical door system was built to monitor the number of persons who were authorized and also the number who entered. Any group leader has to authenticate himself and to declare the number of accompanied persons whenever the door is open or not. With the new design choice in technology, all the associated psychological and social problems have been solved, hopefully.
TRIZ/USIT Case Study: How to Prevent Cords and Cables from Getting Entangled: A Study of Systematic Classification of Various Solutions (Toru Nakagawa, Tomoyuki Itoh, and Masanobu Tsukamoto) (Nov. 23, 2009)
Presented at Japan TRIZ Symposium 2009 and ETRIA TFC 2009, as an extension of my students' thesis works. Cords and cables often cause troubles by getting complex and entangled. Instead of trying to find some specific solutions to this common widely-spread problem, we thought it worthwhile to collect many known solutions and to systematize them. We collected various solution examples and then tried to classify them in terms of their functions. A system of solutions was achieved by a bottom-up classification; however, it was not found convincing, so we needed a more systematic approach. Introduction and extension of the scope of system was found useful. The scopes of (A) a single cord/cable, (B) multiple cords/cables, (C) connecting parts between cords/cables and devices, and (D) the whole system with cords/cables and devices were considered step by step. This approach has provided a consistent system of known solutions, and has given us some clews to think further ahead.
Student's case study: Concept Design of a Child-Seat by TRIZ Style Problem Identification (Masao Ishihama and Minami Hamada) (Sept. 23, 2010)
Minami Hamada, a first year MC student at Kanagawa Institute of Technology, gave an excellent presentation at Japan TRIZ Symposium 2009. Japanese slides were much revised from the English slides. Initially when the authors started to try to improve the child seat fro motor vehicles, they found themselves not so clear what is the problem. After analyzing the functions of the seat, they found that they should improve easy loading of a child and riding comfort compatible with the collision safety. They identified several contradictions and explored resources. From these preliminary analyses, several inventive principles and concrete design ideas were drawn. For instance, “segmentation” and “dynamicity” lead to an idea of 90 degree horizontal seat turn. “Spheroidality”, “counter-weight” and “self-service” gave an idea of a swinging motion realized by spherical hollow surface for a seat pad. “Universality” combined these two ideas into one physical design.
A Large Variety of Writing Instruments: Studying the Evolution of Technologies in Familiar Items (Kurumi Nakatani and Toru Nakagawa) (Nov. 12, 2010)
Presented at Japan TRIZ Symposium 2010 by Nakatani and at ETRIA TFC 2010 by Nakagawa. This work was achieved by 10-membered seminar class of 2nd year students at OGU. The class was designed to study basic TRIZ concepts without using TRIZ terms nor TRIZ tools. Nakagawa gave no lectures but questions and tasks to the students, and the students answered them, made exercises and a report together. The studentss surveyed a large variety of writing instruments and classified them with respect to their writing mechanisms. They also listed up various needs/usages of them and evaluated different writing mechanisms with respect to their usages. These examples demonstrates how technical things evolve towards better and better in various aspects. This way of learning would be applicable to even younger students (of age over 10).
TRIZ Case Study: Problem Solving in Everyday Life: On Methods and Tools for Weeding (or Removing Weeds) (Takahisa Miyake, Toru Nakagawa) (Nov. 18, 2011)
Presented at Japan TRIZ Symposium 2011 and at ETRIA TFC 2011, on the basis Miyake's Bachellor Thesis at OGU. 'Removing weeds' has been a much labor work since ancient days. It appears to be a simple problem at first sight, but actually is a complex problem containing a diversity of requirements. Thus in the present study we have considered to reveal the problem in various aspects, such as purposes, goals of finishing, problem situations (e.g., ground, sorts of weeds, distributions of crops and weeds, etc.) and have thought of a variety of methods in the aspects of their intentions, tools, mechanisms, etc. and have evaluated the methods. The paper stresses that before trying to solve a specific problem, we need to understand the structure of the problem from such a variety of aspects, regardless of using TRIZ or not.
Students' Web site: "TRIZ Home Page for Students by Students": Understanding TRIZ/USIT by Solving Everyday-Life Problems (Masayuki Hida, Tsubasa Shimoda, Naoya Hayashi, Mizuo Omori, and Toru Nakagawa) (Jan. 7, 2007)
Presented at Japan TRIZ Symposium 2006. The four students of Nakagawa's Seminar Class graduated in March 2007 and gave this presentation with the assistance by myself as a coauthor. In their thesis work they each solved everyday-life problems by using TRIZ/USIT and also jointly built a Web site on TRIZ for students and beginners. The record of students' discussion, just before their graduation, on "What have we learned through TRIZ/USIT ?" is interesting.
Students' Web site:: "TRIZ Home Page by Students for Students"(Masayuki Hida, Tsubasa Shimoda, Naoya Hayashi, and Mizuo Omori) 
(Mar. 17, 2006)
Built by the four students who were just going to graduate OGU; and introduction to the site by Nakagawa . The students frankly discussed on 'What have we learned in this class?' in early February and made a vivid record on their thoughts just before the graduation. They also describe the activities in the seminar, group practices of problem solving, and their thesis works. The site was initially planned to introduce TRIZ/USIT to students more or less formally, but was now built to describe much more frankly what the students learned and thought about. The students pages are published in the present site "TRIZ Home Page in Japan", but separately in the editorship.
(G) What are higher level examples of applying and carrying out Creative Problem Solving?
Case Study: Practical Case Study of Resolving the Physical Contradiction in TRIZ; Super Water-Saving Toilet System Using Flexible Tube (Hong Suk Lee and Kyeong-Won Lee (Korea)) (Jan. 8, 2004)
Originally posted in the TRIZ Jouranl, Nov. 2003 ; and we posted its Japanese translation. The needs of saving water in the ordinary water-washing toilet systems have been well known world wide for over 100 years. The authors derived a Physical Contradiction with the analysis of user needs, and solved it with the Principle of Separation in time. This is an excellent case study of applying TRIZ where the thinking process of solving a Pysical Contradiction is clearly described. The present problem has been widely known for many years without solution, and yet once it is formulated properly and guided with TRIZ even school children can reach the right answer! -- Nakagawa has been using this case study in teaching about Physical Contradicitons.
How to Introduce, Apply, and Promote TRIZ/USIT (2) Case Studies Recently Published (Toru Nakagawa) (Nov. 18, 2007)
This article is the last part (Part 22) of a long introductory series "TRIZ: Creative Problem Solving Methodology for Innovation" published in the "InterLab" journal; the journal decided to cease its publication. In the final Part, I introduced 8 real case studies to help readers understand the current active usage of TRIZ/USIT around the world. (1) International conferences in TRIZ; (2) Case Studies in Technologies [Stainless Steel Frameworks of joint structure without weldering; Corrosion protection in ship building; Novel 'motors' invented by V. Perna; Preventing static electric discharge in semiconductor devices; Insulated wire-bonding technology]; (3) Case Studies in IT/Software field [A big shift in IT: 'On Demand'; Mishra's new book "TRIZ Principles for IT/Software"; Auto-locking door system in apartment buildings].
Case study: USIT Case Study: A Mom’s Bicycle for Safely Carrying Two Children (Hiroshi Sakata, Tetsuya Sudo, Toru Nakagawa, et al.) (May 7, 2009)
Presented at Japan TRIZ Symposium 2008 by Sudo et al. and at Sakata et al. at TRIZCON2009. This case study was obtained at the USIT 2-Day Training Seminar held in March 2008 under the instruction by Nakagawa with multi-company participation of engineers. Carrying two young children on a bicycle is currently prohibited by Road Traffic Law in Japan. In response to strong requests from mothers, however, National Police Agency has recently shown an intention of permitting it if some safe bicycles are developed. Hearing the news we tried this case study by using USIT. USIT was applied in the 2-day group practice and the results were further refined later through email discussions. A new conceptual solution was obtained: a child seat in front of the parent is fixed to the bicycle body (i.e., free from being moved by the steering) and yet the parent's leg space t is kept wide by separating the steering shaft from the front-wheel fork shaft with a linkage.
Case study: USIT Approach for Compact Umbrella (Kouichi Nakamura, Yuji Mihara, et al.) (May 7, 2009)
Presented at Japan TRIZ Symposium 2008 by a 7membered working group of MPUF （Microsoft Project Users Forum） USIT／TRIZ Study Group. The working group, composed of voluntary engineers coming from different companies, worked to apply USIT to a real problem by about 20 times off-line meetings. The problem is 'how to fold the wet compact umbrella easily'. By virtue of rich backgrounds of members, they applied USIT and other methods, including QFD and TOC, together to the problem and also generated a lot of ideas stimulated with various products and techniques. They have demonstrated several interesting prototype models of novel 'compact umbrella' at the Poster Session, attracting much attention by the participants. -- Their solutions tend to be unique and not practical to be adapted in the current system, in Nakagawa's feeling.
TRIZ Paper: Industrial application: How to Lead Beginners to TRIZ at the Place of Practices (Shigeru Hisanaga) (Mar. 27, 2015)
A crucial key to the success of TRIZ practice is to adopt the approach and tools which fit well with the needs and intentions of the TRIZ users, especially TRIZ beginners. The author reviewed their 250 projects carried out in DENSO and characterized them with 3 types of needs (i.e., Want many ideas, Want a good solution, and Want to reconsider from the root) and with 2 types of intentions (i.e., Out of vs. Within the present constraints).
For each category of 3x2, the authors examined the TRIZ tools applied, and have summarized the TRIZ tools recommendable in each of the 3x2 categories of beginners' needs and intentions.
A Collection of USIT Case Studies (Toru Nakagawa) (Jun. 26, 2015)
Case studies published so far in different places are collected here, and are shown in a table. Individual case studies are described in full extent in a consistent format according to the USIT Manual . Each case study is shown individually in an HTML page containing four slides (3 introduction slides and 1 overview summary slide in the 'Six-Box Scheme') and in a PDF file of the whole set of slides.
| No. |
Theme |
Features |
|
Case Study described by: |
1.
Sewing |
How to fix a string shorter than the needle |
Whole USIT Process is well illustrated for a familiar problem |
 |
Toru Nakagawa
(May 25, 2015)
(Jun. 26, 2015) |
2.
Stapler |
How to prevent a staple from being crashed |
A familiar problem was solved by finding the real root cause and by using the SLP method |
 |
Toru Nakagawa
(May 25, 2015)
(Jun. 26, 2015) |
3.
Toilet |
Saving Water for a Toilet System |
Example of catching big problem in daily life as physical contradiction, and solution |
 |
Toru Nakagawa
(May 25, 2015)
(Jun. 26, 2015) |
4.
Picture |
Picture Hanging Kit Problem |
A standard USIT Case Study on a familiar problem, easy to understand for everybody and yet deep in thoughts |
 |
Toru Nakagawa
(May 25, 2015)
(Jun. 26, 2015) |
5.
Porous |
Increase the Foam Ratio of Porous Polymer Sheet |
A real problem in the field of chemical engineering is solved with the Particles Method |
 |
Toru Nakagawa
(May 25, 2015)
(Jun. 26, 2015) |
(H) How the methods of Creative Problem Solving are penetrating to solve problems in our society?
Articles in this section intend to be directed more to the general public rather than to students.
TRIZ Case Study: Challenge to Increase TRIZ Users: Original Tool Development at Miyagi TRIZ Society "Wisdom Cards" (Rikie Ishii and Toshinori Ito) (Feb. 8, 2008)
Presented at Japan TRIZ Symposium 2007. The two authors are working to penetrate TRIZ in the SMEs and in students in Sendai City and Miyagi Prefecture. They made a set of Playing Cards of TRIZ 40 Principles for idea generation, with the design to be attractive for young engineers. Thier poster presentation attracted and stimulated a large number of visitors.
Introductory articles: Solving Problems and Achieving Tasks with TRIZ!! Perspectives and Applications of TRIZ (Toshihiro Hayashi, Manabu Sawaguchi, Toru Nakagawa, Setsuo Arita, Kazushi Tsuwako, Keiji Inoue, Kimihiko Hasegawa, and Teruyuki Kamimura) (Feb. 20; Mar. 22; May 19, 2013)
Published in "Standardization and Quality Control" (JSA), Vol. 66, No. 2 (2013.
The Japanese Standards Association (JSA) published its monthly magazine as a Special Issue on TRIZ, containing 8 TRIZ papers in 53 pages. JSA is a semi-official organization for promoting standardization, e.g. ISO and JIS (Japanese Industrial Standards), and QC. On the request by JSA, the Board Members of Japan TRIZ Society wrote down a set of introductory papers. Under the permission by JSA, all the 8 papers were posted in this site. Two of them are shown below.
Introductory article: The Role of TRIZ -- Techniques of Problem-Solving and Task-Achieving in the Design and Development Processes (Toshihiro Hayashi) (Feb. 20, 2013)
The first article in the TRIZ Special Issue. Hayashi describes the position and roles of TRIZ: In the processes of designing and developing products and services in technology, we should use not only methods and knowledge in the subject fields but also various techniques commonly useful in any field. TRIZ is one of such universal 'Design & development process engineering techniques', especially for solving problems and achieving tasks in technological fields.
Introductory article: TRIZ -- Recent Approaches and Activities in Japan and in the World (Toru Nakagawa) 
(Mar. 22, 2013)
The 3rd article in the TRIZ Special Issue. The present paper describes my perspective views on different approaches and activities of TRIZ in Japan and in the world since 1990s, i.e. after TRIZ was introduced into the western world. Evolution of TRIZ in its methodological contents is described first from the global viewpoints. Then I explain various activities of penetrating TRIZ in different countries in the world and in Japan.
TRIZ Forum: Current Situations and Information Sources of TRIZ (Toru Nakagawa) (Aug. 22, 2011. 8.22)
Originally written for Postscript of the Japanese Edition of Umakant Mishra's Book: "A Collection of Problem Solving Ideas in IT and Software Technologies" and posted in this site. I wrote this article is for people coming new to TRIZ, with the assumption they already read the basics of TRIZ concepts in the Introduction by Umakant Mishra. I introduce the current situations of TRIZ in the World and in Japan, and show information sources in TRIZ, especially several excellent papers of application and promotion case studies presented at Japan TRIZ Symposia.
TRIZ paper: TRIZ Activities in Iran: Transfer to a new nationwide paradigm by TRIZ application and promotion (Mahmoud Karimi and Sara Salimi) (Sept. 19, 2011)
Keynote Lecture presented at Japan TRIZ Symposium 2010 by Mahmoud Karimi (Iranian Institute of Innovation & Technological Studies (IIITS), Iran). Mr. Karimi got interested in TRIZ around 1999. In 2004 he started publishing a column on TRIZ and creativity every week in a newspaper and also in a weekly magazine. IIITS made a TV lecture series of 5 volumes (35 min. each) and broadcast them several times. Furthermore, since 2007, he has broadcast live TV Talk Shows more than 160 times (30 min. each) on a few TV channels. It is really amazing that TRIZ is now widely known among intellectual people in Iran!! Thus he talks about 'transfer to a new nationwide paradigm by TRIZ application and promotion'.
Invited Lecture: TRIZ for Managers -- Approach and Management Using Scientific Methods -- (Kazuya Yamaguchi) (Dec. 30, 2010)
Invited lecture presented at Jpana TRIZ Symposium 2010. During 2001-2007 at Panasonic Communications Co.,, the Author promoted the company-wide introduction and application of 'scientific methods' for product development. He recommends four methods, i.e., QFD, TRIZ, Taguchi Method, and CAE/CAD/CAM, together instead of TRIZ alone, saying "Application of TRIZ is effective because we apply it to the right targets and right problems revealed by QFD at the preceding stage; and we are safe in generating new and creative solution concepts because we have Taguchi Method and CAE, etc. at the subsequent stage." He says these scientific methods are tools for gaining profit, business operation itself, and management itself!. -- This lecture gives us very clear and powerful messages on the basis of his clear understandoing of the methodologies.
TRIZ Paper: A Practical-type Approach Applying TRIZ to the Mind Field - Toward the Establishment of a TRIZ Mind Training - (Hideto Sanjou, Yukie Hanaoka) (Sept. 25, 2011)
Presented at Japan TRIZ SYmposium 2010. The Authors working for 'Mind Training', e.g., employee training in companies, eliminating individual’s worries, etc., have met TRIZ and incorporated it well. They have rephrased TRIZ 40 Inventive Principles into Mind Principles, and applied them to the training of people to overcome their psychological inertia. Further interesting extension of this work was presented in a Poster Session by Y. Hanaoka and H. Sanjou .
TRIZ Introduction Paper: "Hierarchical TRIZ Algorithms" and Its Further Development (Larry Ball) (Jun. 30, 2014)
A 7-page Preface newly written down by the author for the Japanese Edition of his book "Hierarchical TRIZ Algorithms". He has decomposed all the TRIZ tools together with various other methods related to product development and market development, and has reorganized them into an integrated process with the aim at clarifying the input/output information of processes and constructing a logically integrated process. The Hierarchical TRIZ Algorithms advises us to turn from 'selling what we can make' to 'making what we can sell'.
TRIZ Forum: Letters from Readers (Discussions) : Research focus is on problem finding and solution execution rather than problem solving (Darrel Mann)/ Thinking methods for problem solving are the basis we should establish now (Toru Nakagawa) (Dec. 23, 2013)
Darrell Mann's commnet on my CrePS methodology approach, and Nakagawa's reply via email. Mann says: "Difficulties in the innovation are to identify a 'right' problem and to execute the ideas generated. Problem solving itself is rather easy." I responded, from my viewpoint of the Six-box Scheme of CrePS, saying: "The two difficulties raised by Darrell need to be considered in the 'Real World'. Whereas the main part of problem solving should be carried out in the 'Thinking World'. The methodologies of problem solving, including TRIZ, have not found a good framework (i.e., scheme or paradigm) and hence have been confusing. Introducing the framework of the Six-box Scheme and establishing CrePS, the problem solving methodology in the 'Thinking World' will become clearer and systematic. It will certainly give the basis for innovations and contribute to much wider areas of application." -- This is an important discussion on our research focus, or research foci.
TRIZ Paper: Social application: Applying the Business Management Related Evolution Trends (Hisataka Izawa, Ikuo Yoshizawa, et al.) (Mar. 27, 2015)
The 6-membered B&M Study Group of JTS reported last year how to generate 'hit products/services' and found the tool of 'Trends of evolution (TE)' effective. So they tried to make it more useful:
(1) They have made a booklet in Japanese for introducing the Trends of evolution in Darrell Mann's book ("HOSI for B&M").
(2) They have clarified the relationships of TE with several other methods often used in the B&M fields: e.g., Nonaka's SECI model, 4 viewpoints in the Balance-score cards, and SWOT.
(3) They made a case study of applying TE:
'To transfer the technologies of some abandoned business for starting a new business model of servicing the technologies.'
Fundamental Theory: A Note on a Method and Granularity in the Structure of the World (Toshio Takahara) (Apr. 12, 2015)
This 8-page paper intends "To understand the world in a consistent manner, to realize the real basis of our human ways of living, and to establish a general and logical methodology for such a study." As the basis of his logic, the author builds the concepts of 'existing things' and their relationships, and also the ways of describing the whole world, which contains technologies, institutions, and persons. For such a description, he finds the necessity of 'radical enumerative thinking' (i.e., a clearer extension of 'systematic thinking') and expressions of contradictions (i.e., a clear extension of 'problems'). He also extends the logics of dialectics in a much wider meaning. Then he considers the basis of person's recognitions and actions and derives how the person decides them, with a range of consideration (i.e. granularity) and with a logic for solution (i.e., a thinking method). He discusses further basis of the person, i.e., the person's attitudes. (English translation is not ready.)
Forum: Visual Thinking with 'Fuda-Yose' (1) - Example of Burning Suicide in Shinkansen Case (Akihiro Katahira, Toru Nakagawa) (Jul. 7, 2015; Jul. 8; Jul. 19, 2015)
Visual Thinking method and its tool 'Fuda-Yose' were developed by Akihoro Katahira . For showing its usefulness, I asked him to show examples of usage on various themes. The shocking case that a 71 yrs-old man commited suicide by burning himself on a Shinkansen train on Jun. 30, 2015 was used as an example. The old man's mental and social situations are described with the hope of reflecting the problems in the society in Japan.
Forum: Visual Thinking with 'Fuda-Yose' (2) - Converting a (short) document into labels and make 'Fuda-Yose' diagrams for Visual Thinking (Toru Nakagawa, Akihiro Katahira) (Jul. 29, 2015)
I asked Katahira to show how to convert a (short) document into labels automatically and make 'Fuda-Yose diagrams. Katahira demonstrated the method step by step by using Nakagawa's request message. The final 'Fuda-Yose' diagram clearly shows the intentions of Nakagawa's request and corresponding answers by Katahira.
Forum: Visual Thinking with 'Fuda-Yose' (3) - Visualizing the logic of Sickafus' Paper 'Subconscious Problem Solving Using Hazy Heuristics', (Akihiro Katahira, Toru Nakagawa) (Aug. 25, 2015)
Katahira has demonstrated to visualize the logic of Ed Sickafus' recent paper (in the Japanese version) with his Fuda-Yose method. All the sentences of the whole paper are made into labels and their logical relationships are shown in 'Fuda-Yose' diagrams section by section. While reviewing them, I thought that for clarifying the logic of a compact document like the Abstract we should decompose some sentences further into their logical units. So I applied the Fuda-Yose method to the Abstract in 4 steps and the diagrams are posted. The essence of Sickafus' paper is shown clearly in the visualized diagram.
Basic theory: Radical Enumerative Thinking and Contradiction of Unity for World View, the Way of Life and the Future of Human Being (Toshio Takahara) (Oct. 19, 2016)
Most significant here is the concept of Contradictions, especially "Contradiction of Unity". Examples are: purpose and means; recognition and action; emotion and logic; contents and form; unity and diversity; “centralize” and “spread”; “spread” and “deepen”; analysis and synthesis; “think” and “learn”; modesty and criticism; love and liberty. -- Every pair is a big theme worthy of a PhD thesis, or more.
TRIZ Paper: The potential of OTSM-TRIZ as a frameworking method for modern regional, integrated energy planning and modeling (Atom Mirakyan, Nikolai Khomenko, Laurent Lelait, Igor Kaikov) (posted: Jun. 9, 2010)
Presented at Japan TRIZ Symposium 2009 by a research team of European Institute for Energy Research, Karlsruhe, Germany. As the goal of a regional (i.e. sub-national) integrated energy planning, the project states that the plan must be "environmentally friendly, technically reliable, institutionally sound, socially acceptable, cost-effective, and supporting long-term regional sustainable development". The project must manage a complex and large-scale task which involves not only technical issues but also social, economic, and many other issues. The present paper has introduced the OTSM-TRIZ methodology as the framework of planning.
The authors represent, in the form of a network flow diagram, the routes from the reality to most desirable solutions, and reveal the barriers/contradictions which are solved with TRIZ. They have a practical overall process model for preparing, analyzing, prioritizing & decision-making, and implementing & monitoring, to be carried out in cooperation with other groups of people including decision makers. -- This paper is an nice introduction to the OTSM-TRIZ in its practical and advanced form.
Forum: From the Editor: Global Network of Public Web Sites in TRIZ: A Proposal for Building A Global TRIZ Community (3) (Toru Nakagawa) (Oct. 27, 2010)
A poster proposal at ETRIA TFC 2010. This is a vision and proposal for building a Global TRIZ Community effectively. My proposal is: (1) Let's build many Public Web sites in different TRIZ communities, and (2) set both outward-looking and inward-looking windows on them for overcoming the language barriers, and (3) form an autonomous global network of them in the Internet. This vision was obtained through my 12 years of operation of this Web site "TRIZ Home Page in Japan", and advocating it since 2007.
Generalized structure of social revolutions (Tetsutarou Yasuhira) (Feb. 10, 2015)
The author describes the processes of big social changes, or revolutions, in a general and conceptual way. Since TRIZ tries to identify and solve contradictions to proceed for ideality, we know that we can apply TRIZ not only to technological problems but also non-technological, human, and social problems.
TRIZ Paper: Social application: Proposal for a New Life Style of the Elderly People (Part 1) (Kimihiko Hasegawa, et al.) (Mar. 27, 2015)
The 8 engineers of IP Creation Study Group discussed freely about what they should work on next. And they decided 'The aged and their relevant people live a happy life' as the top purpose (or vision) and 'The aged people solve the problems of their own and others' as the target (or goal).
In more concrete words, they recognize the problem 'The researchers and engineers around their retirement age want to live a life with some good motivation', and wish to have solutions towards 'For achieving their own visions, the aged people solve their own problems as well as others' problems'. The present paper is their first report.
Social Application: Visual Thinking with 'Fuda-Yose' (4) -- Thinking over the poverty in the Japanese Society: Elderly, Middle aged, Young, and Child Generations (Toru Nakagawa) (Sept. 17, 2015) (Nov. 27, 2015)
This is the Index page of a series of coming articles on the very big, complex, and important problem. My intentions are:
(1) To try to extend the usage of our TRIZ/CrePS methodology to non-technical fields.
(2) To visualize the problems from full perspectives by use of the Fuda-Yose tool for Visual Thinking
(3) I chose this social problem because of its importance in the Real World.
(4) The increasing poverty in different generations, including elderly, middle aged, young, and child generations, is going to give serious effects on the Japanese society in future.
(5) We ourselves need to think over the complex problems logically and to speak out and act for making the future of Japan much better.
Social Application: Visual Thinking with 'Fuda-Yose' (5)-(12) -- Thinking over the poverty in the Japanese Society: [A] Increasing poverty among the elderly (0) Introduction AND Index Page of (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7) Completed (Toru Nakagawa) (Sept. 17, 2015; Jan. 9, 2016) (Nov. 27, 2015; Jan. 9, 2016)
Source reference: "Karyuu Roujin - Ichi-oku sou rougo houkai-no shougeki" (The low-living elderly - Coming impacts by the decay of peaceful elderly lives for all the 100 millions in Japan), by Takanori Fujita, Asahi Pocket Book 520, Asahi Shimbun Press, Jun. 30, 2015, pp. 222
This article visulaizes the texts of the newly published book for understanding the complex problem more clearly. 'Fuda-Yose Tool' developed by Akinori Katahira was effectively used by Nakagawa for making diagrams for visualization.
The author says: "Today in Japan the low-living elderly are produced in a large number and we have a serious risk of facing with a situation where peaceful elderly lives are lost for almost all the 100 millions of Japanese population. In this book, 'Karyuu roujin' (or 'the low-living elderly') are defined as the elderly people living at/below the national minimum welfare level. The real situations and their backgrounds are surprisingly unknown. Describing the real problem situations in the full perspectives, we wish to think over solutions together with you, many readers."
(1) What is 'the low-living elderly' (Sept. 17, 2015)
'The low-living elderly' have the following three characteristcs:
(1) The income is remarkably low; i.e., at or below the national welfare minimum (about 130,000 yen/month for a single elder person living in the metropolitan area. The level is almost the same as the 'relative poverty' criteria used internationally.
(2)
Insufficient or no savings.
(3)
No person to ask for a help (i.e., social isolation). Due to the trend towards nuclear families, people often have no family members/relatives around.
It is estimated that there exist about 6 to 7 millions of the low-living elderly at present in Japan.
(2) Actual living of 'the low-living elderly': Cases and backgrounds (Sept. 30, 2015)
The Author describes 4 actual cases where ordinary people have 'unexpectedly' fallen into the status of 'the low-living elderly'.
Case (A) A man took care of his father and then his mother at his age from 40 to 55 without a job. Retiring at 65, his pension was not enough (90,000 yen per month) and he spent all his savings till the age of 75 and became a homeless. ...
Reading the description, I have drawn a graph of 'Personal history of Quality of life (especially stability)' for each person.
(3) Anybody has the risk of falling down to the low-living (Oct. 18, 2015)
Five typical patterns of an elderly person falling down to the low-living:
(1) Because of high medical expenses due to diseases or accidents;
(2) Because of being not accepted by care houses due to the shortage of care houses
(3) Because of their children being dependent to them due to low income, social withdrawal, etc.
(4) Due to divorce of middle-aged or elderly couples.
(5) Having become demented but no near-by family support.
The Author writes that the current working generation have much higher risks of falling down to the low-living in their elderly years.
-- I fully agree with these Author's views.
(4) Issues of recognition and understanding (Nov. 27, 2015)
The Author raises a question: "Despite the present situation of increasing number of the low-living elderly, why no serious measures have been implemented so far in Japan?"
We Japanese generally have the sound moral of 'to live without depending on others' help'. As a result, when we see any people who become unable to live self-dependently, we often think "Their efforts are insufficient. They themselves are responsible for their failure." Such thoughts evaluate poorly the low-living elderly and push them towards the margins of society.
However, viewing the issue in the whole scale of our society, we realize that it is inevitable to have the poor people besides the rich in our competitive society. As a prt of Basic human rights, Constitution of Japan guarantees the people the right to maintain the minimum standards of healthy and cultural living. Therefore, it is not 'overreliance' but 'rights' for the poor and needy people get a support from the country. Recognition, or rather change in thoughts, in this direction is necessary for us all.
(5) Examining the system and the policy (Dec. 19, 2015)
The author examines the present system and policy related to the social welfare. He discusses in the following 8 aspects: (1) Income, (2) Saving, (3) Medical care, (4) Elderly care insurance, (5) Housing, (6) Human relationships, (7) Welfar, (8) Working conditions, (x) The 'free/cheap lodging houses
He remarks the conclusion of this chapter very clearly, saying:
(a) The low-living elderly are produced by the present social system, and not by the lack of ability or idleness of the individuals. (b) The present social system and policy of 'excessive priority in business and discarding the social weak' should be corrected; otherwise the problems of the low-living elderly and the poverty in the Japanese society will not be solved. (c) Furthermore, we should correct our own recognition and feelings that have been tamed by alienation of humans and neglect of human rights.
(6) How to protect yourself -- Measures before and in a low-living elderly situation (Jan. 9, 2016)
The Author advises first to the low-living elderly what they should learn and what they should do. Firstly, he explains the current social welfare system, e.g., how to apply for the social welfare, what are the requirements for receiving the welfare, and items and amounts of the welfare. He also explains how to receive the medical care free of charge or at low cost, and advises about the recognition and attitudes.
Secondly he advises how to prevent from falling into the situation of the low-living elderly. "Savings are important", he says first of course, but he adds that human relationships in the elderly days are more important than money. People who come early for asking assistance and who are of positive thinking can be helped smoothly. Holding good and rich human relationships and occasions/places of mutual assistance is helpful. He concludes: "There are many elderly people who live happily even in their poverty. They commonly have rich communications and connections with other people."
(7) Proposals of policy (Jan. 9, 2016)
The Author, Takanori Fujita, proposes as follows in the last chapter of the book:
(1) First of all, the government should realize that the poverty exists widely and growing further in the people and should address the issue of correcting the income disparity and take measures to fight against poverty.
(2) Under the principles of fundamental human rights, Fundamental Law of Fighting against Poverty should be enacted, and the measures for preventing people from getting poor and for saving people from the poverty should be made as the important strategy of Japan.
(3) The government and all the municipal governments should inform that the poor and needy people (including the low-living elderly) can be saved by the social welfare and should guide them to apply for the welfare.
(4) The current system of social welfare should be decomposed into their support categories, so that the supports can be received more smoothly. By supporting the people for some partial categories in the current welfare, the people can make their own living before entirely losing their properties.
(5) Support the people for their housing rent (partially). This releases the low-living people (including the elderly and the young) from the rather heavy burden of rent and builds a better condition for the young to have their home, thus becomes effective as the measures for increasing children.
(6) The current reduction measures of the national pension premium should be informed, so that the low-living young people apply for the reduction instead of no payment in silence.
(7) In place of the current national pension system, a new system should be built in order to guarantee all the people for their living in their elderly days at the minimum level of healthy and cultural living which is guaranteed in the Constitution.
(8) After all, it corresponds to the living support in the social welfare system. Then the current national pension system should rather be quitted and integrated as the living support in the new social welfare system, as described in (4).
(9) For building a society where people can live happily, all the people in Japan should consider and choose proper systems including the taxation system for redistributing the wealth, and should proceed for its realization.
(I-2) Social Problems
Social Problem: Introduction to "The Low-living Elderly" book by Takanori Fujita (2015) (Toru Nakagawa) (Mar. 30, 2016)
The best seller book, written by Takanori Fujita, a young social worker, is introduced. The description of the book is explained chapter by chapter in English. This is the reference book of my work with the Visual Thinking method. The Author points out as follows:
"The low-living elderly are defined here as the aged people who live at or lower than the social welfare level. It is estimated that there exist about 6 to 7 million of them in Japan at moment. Recent increase in the number of non-regular employments and decrease in the average income in Japan, the poverty is spreading widely among the young and middle-aged people. Thus there is a high risk that in the near future the lives in the aged days may become miserable for most of the Japanese people."
Social Problem :Executive summary with visualization of Takanori Fujita's "The Low-living Elderly" Book (Toru Nakagawa) (Jan. 28; Mar. 6; Mar. 30, 2016)
This is a summary page of my series of work: Thinking over the Poverty in the Japanese Society with Visualization: [A] Increasing poverty among the elderly.
The document visualizing Fujita's book has been completed, and is now posted in the PDF version of a pamphlet of 24 pages Such diagrams are very helpful for understanding the problem personally and for discussing in a group.
The method of Visual Thinking and its tool 'Fuda-Yose' Tool are explained briefly referring to relevant pages. English edition of 'Fuda-Yose' Tool may be downloaded without charge at Akihiro Katahira's Web site:
Social Problem: A Customer Review of Takanori Fujita's "The Low-living Elderly" and A Discussion of the 82 Customer Reviews of the Book in the Amazon Site (Toru Nakagawa) (Mar. 30, 2016) (Apr. 29, 2016)
To the Amazon.co.jp site, 82 Customer Reviews on Fujita's Book have been contributed. It is remarkable that many evaluate it highly while many others evaluate it very poorly. Typical criticisms are: "The people who became poor because of their selfish and idle lives are not blamed for their deed, but the society is blamed instead. The book recommends people to scrounge off the social welfare, and then our country will fail financially. Welfare must take into account of people not only with good will but also with ill will. The solutions suggested by the author deny the market economy and democracy, hence they are unrealistic." I studied them carefully and wrote my own Customer Review and also Discussions on the 82 Customer Reviews
. Social Problems: Liberty vs. Love: The Principal Contradiction Inherent in the Human Culture: Deep Bases of Thoughts Underlying the Arguments by People on the "Low-living Elderly" Book (Toru Nakagawa) .(Apr. 21, 2016) (Apr. 29, 2016)
Reading 82 Customer Reviews, I recognized that underlying deeply in the people's arguments there is a very basic issue related to social philosophy and social ethics. Considering the issue, I have written down this paper. My new recognition of two principles of our human culture is:
(1) The Human Culture takes Liberty as its First Principle and pursues for extending it. Liberty is for every person to decide, to act, and to live for oneself. Liberty aims at Winning various, natural or social, Competitions. Liberty of a person necessarily collides (Contradicts) with Liberty of another person.
(2) The Human Culture takes Love as its Second Principle and pursues for spreading it widely. Love is for every person to help and protect one's children and one's family. Love aims at Self-controlling one's Liberty and at eliminating collisions among Liberty in one's Family. Love, for helping and protecting the Family (or Insiders), tries to counter the (attacking) actions from Outsiders. Considering the Family (or Insiders) as a social Activity Unit, Love generates Liberty and Competition at a higher social level.
(3) The Human Culture has been extending the two Principal Principles, i.e., Liberty and Love, and has been asking how to use these two often-contradicting Principles in compatible and appropriate ways. Liberty vs. Love is named the Principal Contradiction of Human Culture, in the present paper.
(4) As the guidelines for containing and motivating both Liberty and Love and coordinating them, the Human Culture has been acquiring Ethics, i.e., Moral, Conscience, in plain words. The core part of Ethics is supposedly installed already in our DNA; and for the same reason it is too obvious and difficult to write it down clearly. The concept of Fundamental Human Rights is a part of Ethics stated clearly.
(5) Throughout the history of Human Culture, Humans have been trying to extend the two Principal Principles, Liberty and Love, and to resolve the Principal Contradictions between them, i.e., Liberty vs. Love. Human Culture has developed to build various Social Systems. The issue of Resolving the Principal Contradiction, however, has become more and more complex and difficult.
(6) The first reason for causing such difficulties is that the Social Systems have been built so many, so multi-layered, so large in scale, and so complexly connected, and hence the reality and ideals (or Guidelines) of Liberty, Love, and Ethics for various Social Systems have not been made clear yet and understood commonly in the world. The second reason for difficulties is the actual situations where even though the Guidelines of Liberty, Love, and (social) Ethics were made clear, many individuals and social organizations insist on their own interests (i.e., Liberty) and take actions not in accordance with Ethics, and actually become Social Winners. And such actions and organizations, from very small to very large in the scale, exist everywhere in the World and have their own histories accumulated in many layers.
From the Editor: A Summary of My Recent Research: From the Methodology for Creative Problem Solving in the Field of Science and Technology, Getting Insights on the Roots of Social Problems: (A thought before the election of the Upper House in Japan) (Toru Nakagawa) (Jun. 28; Jul. 31, 2016) (Aug. 6, 2016)
Just before the election of the House of Councilors, I made a summary of my recent research, and sent it via post to about 250 people and posted it here.
(1) I have clarified the structure of ‘General Methodology of Creative Problem Solving (CrePS)’. (ref. TRIZCON2016 Presentation.)
(2) For applying CrePS to social problems, I visualized the logic of Fujita’s Book “The Low-living Elderly” in diagrams. (ref. A pamphlet of 24 pages of visualized LLE diagrams.)
(3) I critically reviewed the 82 customer reviews of the LLE book posted at the Amazon.co.jp site, and found in people a serious lack of understanding of social thoughts and social ethics. Considering its roots, I have recognized that ‘Liberty vs. Love’ is ‘the Principal Contradiction in the Human Culture’. Human Culture has been trying to solve the Principal Contradiction, but the contradiction has become even more complex and difficult to solve in many aspects. As we learned in TRIZ, we should recognize/understand the contradiction first and then working to solve the contradiction. (ref. ‘Liberty vs. Love’: The Principal Contradiction Inherent in the Human Culture. )
Forum: From Life-saving/Life-sustaining Medical Care to Palliative Medical Care (Munehiro Shimada (Salvation Army Kiyose Hospital)) (Jul. 31, 2016)
This is a message addressed at a Memorial Prayer Meeting by Director of a hospice. He says: We should avoid from relying too much on modern science and technology for life-saving/life-sustaining medical care and should turn to palliative care which respects the life and existence of the patient as a human and faces with the death calmly. We should follow the patient’s living will first. If it is not ready, we should better prepare for a care plan together with the patient, the family, and the medical team. It is helpful for keeping high quality of life (QOL) and high quality of death (QOD) of the patient.
TRIZ/CrePS Approach to the Social Problems of Poverty: Underlying the Arguments by Ordinary People, 'Liberty vs. Love' Is Found the Principal Contradiction of the Human Culture (Toru Nakagawa) (Sept. 9, 2016)
(1) Trying to apply TRIZ/CrePS methodology to social problems, I have chosen the poverty problem in the Japanese society (especially among the elderly) as the theme.
(2) I chose Takanori Fujita's book "The Low-living Elderly" as the source reference, and visualized the logics of the book by using Fuda-Yose Tool.
(3) By critically reviewng the 82 Customer reviews on the book, I recognized an unsolved big problem underlying the people's arguments about the 'Win or Lose' and Mutual aid in the coompetitive society.
(4) Digging down to their essence, I recognized the conflits between Liberty and Love. Liberty (i.e., to dicide and act for oneself, and to Live) is the First Principle, while Love (i.e., to love one's child, one's family, and one's neighbors, and to Help and Protect them) is the Second Principle of Human Culture. Nevertheless, Liberty vs. Love has been the Principal Contradiction inherent through the Human Culture.
(5) Even though Human Culture has been trying to solve, the Principal Contradictions still exist everywhere, arise newly everywhere, and are getting even more difficult to solve, I realized. I have recognized four main reasons of difficulties.
(6) Considering
these four reasons one by one, we should understand the mechnisms of the Principal Contradiction and think over the solution directions.
The present study is guided by the TRIZ concept of contradiction and the CrePS process of creative problem solving.
Introductory: 'Liberty vs. Love': The Principal Contradiction Inherent throughout the Human Culture (Toru Nakagawa) (Jan. 13, 2017)
I explain how I have been working as a researcher, initially in physical chemistry and later in informatics, to understand and develope 'Methodology of creative problem solving' (namely, methodology of research and development). I found the Six-Box Scheme as a new paradigm in science and technology. For extending its application to social problems, I chose to work on the problems of poverty in the Japanese society. Underlying people's arguments whether to help the poor, I found the conflict between the emphasis on Liberty and that of Love.
Then I realized that Liberty vs. Love is much more basic, and actually is the Principal Contradiction unsolved throughout the history of Human Culture.
I have shown here a hypothesis of the Liberty vs. Love Contradiction in its skeletal form.
The idea that there exists a basic conflict (or contradiction) between Liberty and Love is not difficult to understand in itself. You can easily show such examples in our everyday life, in our society, and in the international politics, etc.
We have been taught simply, however, "Liberty and Love are both important. So you should respect both of them. They should be compatible." Nobody dared to say clearly "Between Liberty and Love there exists an intrinsic conflict. That is the most basic, Principal Contradiction of Human Culture." The present approach is based the spirit/philosophy of TRIZ, i.e., "Understanding contradictions clearly is the basic way for us to solve the contradictions (or make them compatible)". To understand the real situations and desirable directions concerning to this Principal Contradiction in the fields of humans, organizations, societies, and the world is a huge task for us to work from now on.
Social problem: 'Liberty vs. Love': The Principal Contradiction of Human Culture (2) The 'Liberty vs. Love' Contradiction and 'Ethics' at the Personal Level (Toru Nakagawa) (Sept. 28, 2017; Jun. 25, 2018)
The Basic Hypothesis obtained in this study can be summarized as follows:
(1)
Ethics (and its deepening) is the 0th Principle of Human Culture. Deep inside the human heart, Ethics serves as the guideline to direct internal desires from Bad Will toward Good Will.
The Contents of Ethics, i.e. 'What is Good, and What is Bad', are acquired later in life through the society, and hence are different depending on history and on society.
However, 'the internal ability to distinguish Good from Bad deep inside the human heart', which I call Conscience, is supposed to be intrinsic for humankind and hence serves as the fundamental basis for the Human Culture. The concepts of 'Essential Equality of every person as a human' and 'Fundamental Human Rights' have become clearer through the Human history. Essence of the 0th Principle is the principle that Every person has the rights for pursuing Happiness.
(2)
The First Principle, Liberty, is 'To decide and act for oneself and to live', and it aims at Winning in Competitions.
It brings with Reformation and Creation on one side, while Ruling and Conservation by the Winners on the other side.
Essence of the First Principle is 'To pursue My (or Our) own Happiness and Interests'.
(3) The Second Principle, Love, is 'To love one's own children, family, and neighbors and to help and protect them', and aims at self-controlling one's Liberty and at serving and coordinating with others. For protecting one's Family (in a wider sense), Love is apt to generate conflicts with the Outsiders. Essence of the Second Principle is 'To pursue the Happiness and Interests of All the members'. Here, the range of people expressed as 'All the members' is an issue, which should be widened universally as a goal of Human Culture.
(4)
There exist various Conflicts/Contradictions inside Liberty, inside Love, and between Liberty and Love. Types of such Contradictions are listed.
(5) When the understanding of Ethics is poor, i.e., when one is motivated by Bad Will (or selfish mind), Liberty as well as Love are greatly spoiled in their spirits and actions and the 'Liberty vs Love' Contradictions emerge severely. Therefore, the installation of Ethics in the minds and actions at the personal level and in the actions and social rules at various social organizational levels is the important keys to reduce and resolve the Principal 'Liberty vs. Love' Contradiction of Human Culture. The core of the Ethics is the spirit of 'Essential Equality of every person as a human'.
(6) In short, Liberty (for pursuing My (or Our) own Happiness) and Love (for pursuing Happiness of All the members) are both motivated and hence can be coordinated by the Ethics (i.e., the 0th Principle that Every person has the rights to pursue one's Happiness) so as to reduce/resolve the Principal Contradiction 'Liberty vs. Love' of Human Culture.
Social problem: 'Liberty vs. Love': The Principal Contradiction of Human Culture (2) The 'Liberty vs. Love' Contradiction and 'Ethics' at the Personal Level (D) （Toru Nakagawa) (Jun. 25, 2018) (Jun. 25; Aug. 14, 2018)
Extended paper (D) published in "TRIZ Home Page in Japan", in Japanese and then in English. Its Discussion section has following sub-sections:
6.1 Contributions of the Creative Problem Solving Methodology (TRIZ/CrePS); 6.2 Verifications of problem situations, relevant references, and hypothesis setting; 6.3 Structure and significance of the Basic Hypotheses; 6.4 Possibility of Common Basis of Ethics in Human Culture; 6.5 Significance and influences of the First Principle Liberty: Reformism and conservatism; 6.6 Significance, influences, and limitations of the Second Guiding Principle Love: Reformism and conservatism; 6.7 Social roles of the 0th Guiding Principle Ethics; 6.8 Factors which make the Principal Contradiction of Human Culture 'Liberty vs Love' even more difficult to solve.
Social problem: ‘Liberty vs Love’ and Ethics: Principal Contradiction of Human Culture and Solution Directions (Toru Nakagawa) (ICCI2018, Osaka) (Aug. 14; Nov. 11, 2018)
Full paper and Slides. This paper (after describing the Basic Hypotheses) discusses on 'Implications of the present Hypotheses in Comparison with the conventional/standard theories of Ethics and Philosophy'. The subsections are: 7.1 What is the real root of the directions of Ethics ?; 7.2 Nature of Ethical Principles/Rules; 7.3 Comments on modern Ethics, especially on Utilitarianism; 7.4 Liberty vs Love Contradiction in place of Sidgwick’s Dualism of Practical Reasoning; 7.5 Discussion on Rawls’ “Principle of Justice”; 7.6 Liberty, Equity, and Fraternity; 7.7 Concepts of Good and Happiness in the Present Study. Having studied several books in Ethics closely in Japanese, I now have confirmed my understanding that the Basic Hypotheses postulated in the present study are quite different from vaious preceeding works in reference and provide with new aspects and theory of significant importance.
The findings in the present study is summarized in a slide as:
Obtained Basic hypotheses of Principal Contradiction (Liberty vs Love) and its solution directions (Ethics):
･ The 1st Guiding Principle 'Liberty' is to decide and act for oneself and aims at winning in competitions. It brings in creativity and innovation in culture and society, but also ruling and conservatism by the winners.
･ The 2nd Guiding Principle 'Love' is to love people, serve for them, and aims at happiness of the members. It brings in reformation, but also control and conservatism for protecting all the members.
･ The 0th Guiding Principle 'Ethics' is most basic, and inside human heart shows the directions towards Good. Fundamental Human Rights, saying 'everybody has the rights to pursue happiness', forms the core of Ethics.
･ 'Liberty vs Love' is the Principal Contradiction of Human Culture, which has never been solved yet throughout the human history.
･ Keys to solve the Contradiction are Ethics, capable to motivate and coordinate both Liberty and Love.
・ The origin of Ethics is the inherent (i.e., DNA built-in) capability of heart to judge what is Good ('Conscience').
Confirmed the significance of present hypotheses in comparison with Ethics references:
・ Hypothesis (a) Principal Contradiction = Liberty vs. Love : Novel? (yes (?)), Valid? (yes), Effective? (yes)
・ Hypothesis (b) Keys to solving the Contradiction = Ethics : Novel? (yes (?)), Valid? (yes), Effective? (yes)
・ Hypothesis (c) Origin of Ethics = Inherent capability 'Conscience' : Novel? (yes (?)), Valid? (yes), Effective? (yes)
・ Hypothesis (d) Good = Guidance of Liberty, Love, and Ethics, together : Novel? (yes), Valid? (yes), Effective? (yes)
Introduction/Summary (Social Problems): Principal Contradiction of Human Culture and Solution Directions : ‘Liberty vs Love’ and Ethics (Toru Nakagawa) (Dec. 13, 2018)
This article summarizes my present understandings on the (extremely big) theme shown above, briefly in a page of A4. PDF Please refer the details to the following articles/papers:
[1] Univ. Tokyo YMCA Bulletin (2016) , [2] Paper published in TRIZ Home Page in Japan (2018) , [3] Paper presented at ICCI2018
Forum: Fukushima nuclear accident: FUKUSHIMA Report (1)(2): The actual reason why this accident could not have been avoided (Eiichi Yamaguchi) (Sept. 20, 2013) (Oct. 3, 2013)
Published/presented by Prof. Eiichi Yamaguchi (Doshisha Univ.) (1) at News Release, in "Bulletin of YMCA, Univ. of Tokyo", and (2) at ISIS 2010 (3rd International Symposium on Innovation Strategy). On the Fukushima
nuclear plant disaster in March 2011, reports were published by four major mutually-independent investigation committees ('Jikocho'); they were 'Minkan (i.e., voluntary)', 'TEPCO', 'Diet organized', and 'Government'. Since there are so many different aspects to discuss and various facts are not disclosed well yet, the four major Jikochos have different views of the problem. The 'FUKUSHIMA Project' is the fifth, so-to-speak 'Grass-root' Jikocho and published their report in January 2012.
It says: "The final cooling system, RCIC and HPCI of No.3 and RCIC of No.2 Nuclear Reactor were correctly operated (for 35 hours for No.3, and for 70 hours for No.2) even without AC power after Tsunami had destroyed the emergency power system. Therefore, if TEPCO opened the vent and injected the sea water during the controllable periods, the reactors would never be out of control. However, in reality, the management of TEPCO kept refusing the sea water injection. Thus, the root cause of this accident is NOT the technology BUT the technology management of the TEPCO management."
Forum: Earthquake Prediction Research: Introduction to the Research of Short-term (or Just-before) Prediction of Earthquakes by Use of Electromagnetic Phenomena: Especially Works by Professor Takumi Yoshioka (Hokkaido Univ. of Science) (Editor: Toru Nakagawa) (Mar. 7; Mar. 9, 2015)
My intentions of starting this Forum are:
(a) Short-term (or just-before) prediction of earthquakes is eagerly desired.
(b) Seismological Society of Japan (SSJ), however, regards it (almost) impossible. SSJ says so on the basis of using mechanical aspects (e.g., position, displacement, stress, vibration, etc.) as the keys. If so, we should better try to use different types of signals, especially electromagnetic signals, as TRIZ suggests.
(c) The electromagnetic phenomena of earthquakes are not yet well known, and researches in such directions are often criticized premature. Then, we should make efforts in multiple aspects in parallel, e.g., discoveries of new phenomena, inventions of methods for detecting and observing them, revealing the mechanisms of them, inventions of extracting and utilizing useful information from them, etc., so as to stimulate one another.
(d) Earthquake Prediction Society of Japan (EPSJ) was established last year for promoting research in such directions.
(e) I recently learned Prof. Takumi Yoshioka's work where some electromagnetic signals are detected with online monitoring system of electric power generators; and I wish to support the promotion of its examination and further development.
(f) This page will show indexes of articles posted in the present site, references, discussions, etc.
TRIZ Forum: Paper: A Review of Japanese References on Scientists’ Responsibility (Kana Okawa) (Aug. 4, 2013)
Presented at 3rd Forum on Knowledge Co-Creation (on March 2-3, 2013) and Published in "Forum on Knowledge Co-Creation" in Jul. 2013. Miss Okawa was a PhD student at JAIST (Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technologylocated near Kanzawa) and started this research after the March 11 Disaster in Japan due to the M9.0 earthquake, tsunami, and the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident. She wanted to reconsider "What scientists, and myself, should do?". She collected books and papers (written in Japanese) which contain the keywords such as 'scientists', 'responsibility', 'ethics', etc. in their titles or abstracts. Reading over 140 such references she wrote this review paper. -- Attending at her presentation I was much impressed with her intensive work and her serious attitude.
Forum: Toru Nakagawa's Mission Statement (Toru Nakagawa) (Jan. 3, 2010)
Last December 2009 I wrote my own 'Mission Statement' for the first time, during my Seminar Class with 1st-year students, and I showed it to the students in the "Collection of Students' Seminar Reports with Comments". The statement has 5 items: (1) Be sincere and serious. (2) Move the ego out of the way, and have the open, warm heart. (3) Take care of the health and have a positive mind. (4) Think flexibly and creatively. (5) Serve for people and society. Further description is written only in Japanese.
Lecture Notes: How to Prepare and Write Reports: Preparation of the Contents, Building the Structure, and then Writing Sentences (Toru Nakagawa) (Oct. 10, 2010)
Published in "Communications of Osaka Gakuin University", Vol. 41, No. 7 (2010). In Feb. 2002, I posted a lecture note "How to Write a Report", as a part of my class of "Creative Problem Solving Methodologies". It describes how to prepare for and write a report, in a top-down manner. A manager of a prefectural nurse association happened to hit this article and invited me to give a full 2-day training seminar on this topic to 50 nurse managers. It was a new experience for me. I wrote "Practical guidelines for writing documents", describing advices at different levels of words/phrases, sentence, sentence connection, paragraph, section/chapter, and the whole document. In addition I made a one-page summary in a illustrative manner as a sample preferably used in industries. All these parts are published in a University magazine and then posted in this site.
Essay: Train Yourself to Write in English (Toru Nakagawa) (Sept. 27, 1999)
Originally written in May 1997 at Fujutsu Labs. for an internal Web site. An essay for Japanese readers.
TRIZ Forum: Interview to Ayano Sato: First-time Experience of Participating and Presenting in English at International Conference, ETRIA TFC 2011, Ireland (Ayano Sato / Toru Nakagawa) (Dec. 5, 2011)
Ms. Ayano Sato (2nd year Graduate Student, Shibaura Inst. Tech.) attended at ETRIA TFC 2011 and gave a very nice presentation. So Nakagawa interviewed her just after her presentation and also communicated with her via emails later. She says: She used to be very shy and did not like studying English language, but at her 2nd year of high school her parents arranged her to go and study at an English language school in USA for 2 weeks. During the stay she realized the necessity of communicating in English, and started to learn English for herself. This year she desired (without being pushed) to give the presentation. She met much difficulty to pass the review process of TFC. The keyword 'Kando' in Japanese was especially difficult for her to present to the reviewer and to the audience. ('Kando' is a very deep and strong impression which moves the person later even for years.) When a number of audience said 'Nice talk!' to her, she felt much relieved and delighted. She found people at TFC talked about TRIZ much positively and widely than she learned so far in Japan.
Forum: Visiting Mr. Yasuyuki Takaguchi, ex-Chief Priest, of Isshinji Temple in Osaka (Yasuyuki Takaguchi, Toru Nakagawa) (Oct. 19, 2018)
Mr. Yasuyuki Takaguchi is one of my best friends studying together at Koyo Gakuin, Junior and Senior High School. He studied Architecture at Kyoto University, and later happened to become Chief Priest of Isshinji Temple (Jodo Shu in Budhism), and worked as Professor at Nara Women University and operated an office as the owner Architect, all at the same time. I visited him last September and re-realized his personality and great achievements. So I asked him to contribute a series of articles on his thoughts, activities, and achievements. The present article shows a photo of the inside of a hall 'Sanzen-Butsu-Do', designed and built by Rev. Takaguchi in 2002. He writes: "This Hall is built just outside of the traditional Isshinji campus, facing to a public street and is open everyday from 9:00 to 16:00 for everybody freely, symbolizing an Open Temple. You may encounter with (or be embraced by) Amida Butsu (in the center) and Kannon Bosatsu and Seshi Bosatsu, who have come to save you over the peaks of Himalayas. I wanted to build a Budhist Hall with a brilliant chancel and with sky lights coming down through a high ceiling window. For designing such a Hall, I visited Budhist halls in India, Islamic halls in Turkey, and Byzantine style Christian church in Venice, etc. and extracted the atmosphere common to them." When I stepped in, I gasped in wonder, and while sitting quietly alone, I felt myself being purified.
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