Dr. Osamu Sakura is the Professor and Dean of Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies at the University of Tokyo in Japan. His research centers on the general and theoretical aspects of science communication. His main interests are neuroethics and social aspects of AI and robotics. He has also been engaged in the relation between experts and local people in the Fukushima disaster area. After attaining a PhD in primatology, focusing on behavioral ecological research of wild chimpanzees, he has moved into the field of science studies, including the history of the theory of evolution in Japan. He still maintains an interest in evolutionary biology, which informs his evolutionary psychological approach to understanding human attitudes to robots and AI. He taught in Yokohama National University (1993-2000) and worked as visiting scholar on the University of Freiburg (1995-96) before moving to current position. He published over a hundred journal papers and several books, including: How “Convenience” Makes People Unhappy: Modern Technology and Its Social Value (2013, in Japanese), “A view from the Far East: neuroethics in Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea” (East Asian Science, Technology and Society, vol. 6, 2012), “Launching a Two-front war against anti-intellectualism and expert paternalism: lessons from the Fukushima nuclear disaster” (5: Designing Media Ecology, vol. 3, 2015).
Osamu Sakura
