The Japan Society of Kansei Engineering
The Japan Society of Kansei Engineering was established on October 9, 1998.
The Society goes beyond the conventional boundaries between the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences and fuses together a broad range of academic fields to launch and develop the new scientific technique called Kansei engineering (emotional engineering).
Kansei engineering is the scholarly field that aims to contribute to society by discovering and utilizing the value of emotions. Anyone with an interest in the science of emotions can participate in the Society.
The academic fields of current members of the Society range widely from humanities and social sciences fields such as philosophy, education, psychology, the arts, politics, economics, management, sociology, etc. to natural science fields such as medicine, physiology, chemistry, materials science, mechanics, information technology, computer systems and so on. The members are engaged in research activities on the theme of emotions and they approach the research from a diverse range of perspectives.
The major activities of the Society include publishing academic papers in Japanese, the society journal, and the Transactions of Japan Society of Kansei Engineering in English, and holding the Spring Conference, the Annual Conference and lecture meetings. The characteristic feature of these activities is that a large number of sub-committees are engaged in lecture meetings and a diverse range of other activities.
We ask all people who have an interest in the science of emotions to participate in the Annual Conference or any of the sub-committees, discover the area that suits you best, and then join the Japan Society of Kansei Engineering.
Furthermore, if you know anyone with an interest in the science of emotions by all means, please introduce them to this Society.
Background to the Establishment of the Society
Since the industrial revolution, modern scientific techniques have produced goods in large quantities and provided people with material abundance. However, as a result of that process a situation has been created in which uniform industrial products are created, and there is a danger that the lives of individual people will lose their individuality, regional cultures will be destroyed, and the creativity of people will be lost.
In order to escape from this chaotic situation and contribute to realize a peaceful and abundant society, we are challenging ourselves to develop the scientific technique of Kansei engineering which focuses on emotions, the fundamental ability of human beings.
We actively deal with research themes that are difficult to study in existing engineering or borderline areas. Current issues include the development of methodologies for the measurement and quantification of emotions. Our main focus in this area is the development of a philosophy of emotion, the provision of education that produces emotionally-rich people, and the creation of a beautiful emotional climate. We are also introducing new analytical methods such as fluctuation, fuzzy logic, fractals, and complex systems, and pursuing interdisciplinary research that traverses a wide range of fields, including information engineering, human engineering, cognitive science, psychology, and design studies. Moreover, we examine ways to commercialize and industrialize the results of our research.
Characteristics of the Operation of the Society
The Board of Directors plays the leading role in running the Society. The Board is comprised of directors who are selected based on the rules of the Society.
The policy of the Society is to go beyond conventional boundaries between academic fields; consequently the Society establishes sub-committees comprised of 30 or more members of the Society who are interested in a particular research theme, and the sub-committees select the directors, councilors, editorial committee members, etc. needed to run the Society.
Status of the Society
The Japan Society of Kansei Engineering was launched on October 9, 1998 when it held its inaugural general meeting in the Gakushikaikan hall. Furthermore, on Wednesday, December 16, 1998 a seminar to commemorate the launch of the Society was jointly held with the Science Council of Japan at the Chiba Institute of Technology, a kick-off symposium was held on Saturday, June 5, 1999 in the Japan Science Museum, and the 1st Conference was held on Saturday, November 20 and Sunday, November 21 at the Bunka Women’s University. The September 2011 Conference (Kogakuin University) will be the 13th conference held.
Regarding the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), the Kansei Engineering Sub-Committee of the Materials Engineering Research Liaison Committee in the Science Council of Japan took the lead in gaining approval for Kansei Engineering as a temporary sub-category of the MEXT Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from fiscal 1997.
Currently Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research are approved for the Interdisciplinary part of the Interdisciplinary and New area, Information Science, and Kansei Informatics.
Furthermore, we collaborate with the scientific bodies listed below and the Society is a member of the Transdisciplinary Federation of Science and Technology, a federation for these bodies.
- Japanese Society for the Science of Design
- Japan Society for Fuzzy Theory and Intelligent Informatics
- The Society of Fiber Science and Technology, Japan
- Japan Ergonomics Society
- Japanese Psychological Association
- The Japan Society for Precision Engineering
- Information Processing Society of Japan
- Architectural Institute of Japan
- Japan Society of Civil Engineers
- Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
- Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan, Inc.
- The Chemical Society of Japan
- The Society of Polymer Science, Japan
- Society of Instrument and Control Engineers
- The Behaviormetric Society of Japan
- The City Planning Institute of Japan
- The Ceramic Society of Japan
- The Japan Institute of Metals