Parviz Karami

We and Japan have thought think about developing almost in the same period of time. And if the criteria of Daro Olfonoon establishing was a mimic from Polytechnic Academy of French we started new  and Western engineering and medicine a while earlier. But then Japanese not only went ahead of us but also in technology left West behind. Martyr Morteza Avini during the editorial of "Soore" according to Japans development wrote an article that mentioned some similarities between our culture and theirs. According to some similarities we can compare ourselves with them through time. But science Japanese progressed much faster than us and others we changed our pattern and coordinated ourselves with Korean, Chinese, Malay and recently with Turkey style.

Japan is not without problem and has big challenges; it has concerns about future and take them serious and do not cover and ignore them with contention and keeping up appearance. Maybe our difference with Japanese are this that they continue until getting results but we do not take problems serious and wait to do the work tomorrow. Iranian effort is remarkable nut not in every aspect for example in case of development and progress we have lack of permanence. I am not trying to look for reasons that why we are not permanent in developing pathway but in brief report of my travel to Japan I want to mention some points that can be exemplary in pathway of science and development but if only we look at it with consciousness and credit. But before that I suggest you to read the article of Avini about Japan.

This article is still looks new and fresh after two decades and mentions some points that they still apply for Iran and Japan. Specially his punctiliousness in comparing of Shinto religion with Shia religion is considerable. In the company of the doctor SATARI deputy of science and technology for a meeting of s t s (World Conference of Science and Technology) we went to Kyoto by invitation of Minister of Science and Technology, Policy and the Economy and Trade and Industry of Japan. This meeting is known as Davos of science and technology, and for eleven years Japanese follow-up holding the meeting. In addition to this meeting there was another one in Tokyo that we were invited: the meeting of cool earth and use of science and technology to prevent it from warming. The meeting discussions and doctor Sattaris speech are outside of the scope of this note but Japan has many things to see in walking in clean streets of the city can teach you some things; Japanese people behavior is such that make every stranger to think. These very clean streets by this much traffic makes any passenger to feel good especially when you understand that this clarity is not because of governmental budget and work of  cleaners, the stranger will think that is it possible to have same experience in other places? I don’t know Tehran municipality budget for keeping the streets clean but it would be enough if we look at the number of trucks that at night take the trash out of city to understand the extend of mechanized removal of trash. Surely this should have considerable cost that if we save it, we can spend it on serious problems of the city.

Japanese are clean in nature and clean their living and working environment without cost and do not leave the university and school and office for municipal workers to clean, but by regarding simple and reasonable rules clean any kind of contamination. It is interesting that in Islam cleaning is one of necessities of faith but if in Tehran or any other Islamic city cleaners do not come to work just for two days contamination will take the whole city it would be impossible to breathe. The appearance of this issue is social but when we focus we see that it is associated with development. In fact from one aspect the key to Japanese success is this social responsibility. It is not possible to think about development and be inattentive to social responsibilities. Our shop owners clean in front of their shops but keep the share of cleaners and do not care about other places. We do not vanish the trash we just move them out of our sight or cover them and bury them out of city in places 10 times larger than football field. If we add costs of risk elimination of burying with mentioned costs the result will be a very large amount of money. There is discipline in Japan that without it the development is not possible. Maybe the reason for our failure is lack of this discipline in our offices and science and society. Discipline and patience is the command of Imam Ali (AS) in his will but it is obvious that most of Muslims do not understand the importance of this issue and limited patience just to ethnics and believes and understood the discipline in its lowest level. It means that they only have discipline in office and it is not flexible and it prevents innovation and creativity, while the original meaning of discipline is in contrary with these inflexible bureaucratic rules. We should talk about this in its right place but the thing that attracts any visitor in Japan is that at least in appearance by Maintaining traditions and national identities, such as cultural heritage and customs and unique architecture think development and scientific progress. This caring for identity, not only shows itself in management of the country but also as a program and document will be manifested in the future of their country. Perhaps the conditions of the world are so changed Japanese is no more our development model but we can learn from Japanese experiences and use them to reach the desirable educational and scientific conditions. The Japanese have continuity, regulation, they do not forget about their identity in confrontation with the West, do not discount the problems, they are committed to programs and most of all, they appreciate science and scientist and they know development without wisdom will go nowhere. Japan is not the pattern but it has valuable experiences that we can use them in development pathways of the country. 

Media Advisor of vice-president of Science and Technology