Hiroshi Suzuki, Professor, Graduate School of Public Policy, The University of Tokyo

Bringing about educational reform and creating a new era together with young people

Professor, Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Tokyo　Kan Suzuki(Suzuki Kan)

■ Profile　

Professor at the Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Tokyo; Specially Appointed Professor at the Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University
Born in 1964, he graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Tokyo in 1986 and joined the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. While seconded to the Yamaguchi Prefectural Government, he attended Yoshida Shoin's Shoka Sonjuku school many times, where he realized the limitless potential of young people and became aware of the importance of human resource development. While working at the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, he established the Suzukan Seminar in 1995, bringing together university students and others, and has had over 1000 students. After serving as an assistant professor at Keio University SFC, he was first elected to the House of Councillors in 2001 (12).

The Suzukan Seminar has produced many young people who will lead the way for a new era, and is receiving a flood of applications from students from all over the country. Its director is Suzuki Hiroshi, affectionately known as Suzukan Sensei. We spoke to him about the knowledge he has cultivated through his extensive experience as a former member of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, a former Vice Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and a university professor, as well as the appeal of the Suzukan Seminar and his passion for the future of education and young people.

I have always been interested in politics and economics. When I was in elementary school, I read "The Story of Tanaka Kakuei" in Shonen Jump and was shocked by the story of how Tanaka Kakuei had risen to become Prime Minister despite only having graduated from elementary school. From that time on, I started to pay attention to news about Tanaka Kakuei and politics and economics, and I was involved in activities related to these topics in junior high and high school.
Since becoming a university student, I have been busy every day with seminars and extracurricular activities. I took seminars on international politics until my second year and labor law from my third year, while also serving as the musical director of a theater company, a director of the Tokyo Big Six Choral Association, and a member of a tennis club, leading a fun and fulfilling student life.
After graduating, I got a job at the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (now the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry). I discovered an unexpected commonality between the Diet and the theater company I was involved with as a student: in the sense that both are government officials who write scripts and direct productions. I was also able to get a position as assistant director of the Electronic Policy Division, a position I had dreamed of since my student days, and I was able to work on information policy, which was something I had always wanted to do.
At the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, staff are transferred to various departments every two years. While seconded to Yamaguchi Prefecture, he visited the Shoka Sonjuku Academy, which was run by Yoshida Shoin, who he had an interest in. He was deeply moved by the fact that unselected local children, gathered in a small space of about 10 tatami mats, were later produced as talented people who would change Japan and Asia, and felt that young people have limitless potential. Inspired by the Shoka Sonjuku Academy, he founded the Suzukan Seminar when he returned to Tokyo in 1995, which he continues to this day.

From bureaucrat to assistant professor, and then to member of the House of Councillors, to improve education in Japan

I decided to focus my activities on "education," which I learned at Shoka Sonjuku, and bring out the potential of young people, so I left the Ministry of International Trade and Industry and became an assistant professor at the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies at Keio University. I decided to combine my previous work in the field of information with the new field of education.
Later, I was invited by Yukio Hatoyama, a friend of Professor Kaneko, to become a member of the House of Councillors. My life's work was to provide the best possible education to all children and young people, regardless of the family they were born into or the region they grew up in. Therefore, I served as Vice Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology twice over the course of 12 years, and worked on education policy, tackling two issues that interested me at the time: improving scholarship systems and the community school movement. When I finished my term, I was approached by the University of Tokyo and Keio University, becoming the first person in Japan to hold a cross-appointment between a national and private university.

■ Dedicated to the growth of students

Being a professor is nothing but fun. For me, there is nothing I like more than watching over the potential of young people and occasionally helping them. Maybe it's because I went through a lot of hardships as a politician and civil servant (laughs).
I believe that there is always something good in everyone. I would like to find out what the good points are in each young person and help them develop their true worth in one way or another.
Young people do not grow by being taught from above, but by their own initiative. When there are strong peers, they will work hard together and go with the flow. I have witnessed this for 28 years. My role now is to devote myself to creating an environment where ambitious young people can meet. However, university students are in a very impressionable period. There are many times when they feel discouraged. I want this to be a place they can return to at any time at times like that.

■What we aim for from now on is "Graduating from the modern era"

For 28 years, I have been using the phrase "graduating from modern times." I also serve as vice-representative director of the Society for Well-Being, which is said to be the post-SDGs era, and I feel that the times are finally catching up. It has been an immense joy to see so many epoch-makers who will lead the future graduate from the Suzukan Seminar. I want to make this a community that can produce young people who will be active in a variety of fields in the new era. To that end, starting this year, the Suzukan Seminar has become a fully intercollegiate program. Students from any university and region can easily participate.
I myself would like to be an epoch-maker who creates an environment where people who aim to graduate from modern times can gather together. When I revised the curriculum guidelines as an advisor to the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, I included a time slot for "exploration" in high schools. This is because in the coming era, we will need to educate students so that they can explore their individual interests in depth. In the modern era, in order to develop people who could contribute to GDP, we trained people who could memorize manuals and reproduce them accurately and quickly, but now AI can do that too.
We have also created a textbook called "Public Affairs" for high school students, and we are extremely pleased that 80 high school students study public affairs every year.
I have undertaken various initiatives to create an era of "graduating from modern times," and I would like to continue working for education in Japan.

■Message to university students

One is that I want you to do what you want to do to your heart's content. It's better to regret doing something than regret not doing it. The other is that I want you to make more friends and comrades of the same generation. With the spread of social media, I think it's easy to make friends with acquaintances. If you spend the night talking, you become friends, and if you share the good times and the bad, you become comrades.
When you enter the workforce, you will be required to abide by contracts with your partners, but when you are a student, you are bound by far fewer things. This is the last time you are free from obligations. Enjoy your freedom in this last chance of your life.

Interviewed by Student Newspaper Online on July 12, 2023 by Keio University second-year student, Kokoro Kato