That Guy, the Magic Man!

Fuji Nagami launched Science Agora and laid the foundations of science communication in Japan. We spoke with him to find out where this PR professional, whose life’s work is to tell others about why research is interesting, ended up after the earthquake.

Becoming a science communications professional

It was you who gave life to the large-scale JST (The Japan Science and Technology Agency) project, Science Agora. These days you can be found in the PR strategy team at Tohoku University’s Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization, but can you tell us how you ended up becoming a science communicator?

I attended graduate school at Tohoku University until the end of the program but left without graduating. I had joined graduate school thinking that I would become an academic, but when I was exploring new themes, I discovered that I was much better at discussing and hosting meetings to discuss research than actually conducting it. I thought that maybe my path could be to inform others why research is interesting, so I joined the Miraikan Museum which had then just opened. At the time I was just doing something I loved. I wasn’t even aware of the term “science communication.” At some point, people started telling me that what I was doing was science communication in Japan. I led Science Agora for just under two years after its launch. Just when I was getting to a stage where I wanted to do something new, I was approached by Noriko Osumi of Tohoku University, who asked if I wanted to be part of the PR team for a new neuroscience project at the university’s School of Medicine.

Witnessing the earthquake

Do you think that the earthquake has had a big impact on your life and work?

After the earthquake hit in March 2011, we were able to post from Tohoku University School of Medicine’s Twitter account the next day. I think we were the fastest academic institution to post. When earthquakes happen, everything, from websites to emails, stops working. But Twitter functions even in times of a disaster. Once things had calmed down and it became necessary to start thinking about recovery, we gathered ideas from the professors and associate professors and it was out of this process that the vision for the Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization developed, and I became involved in its launch.

When you consider how recovery can be achieved and the role of the university in recovery, you will know that things take time because universities are places of human development and research. When we launched the “Cohort Study” project to help with the recovery, I knew that it would take five to ten years or even longer, and I thought it was an initiative worth spending time on. I think this is linked to being in the shoes of someone who happened to be at Tohoku University and witnessed the earthquake.

After moving from JST to Tohoku University, have you found any difference in the nature of your work as a science communicator?

Almost everybody living in Tohoku knows about Tohoku University. This means that PR work at a national university isn’t so much about increasing recognition as it is about branding. My job is to think about getting the university’s research presence into the local community and the local media and what sort of a branding image to create.

One way in which it is different from typical science communication is that the Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization has the specific goal of getting local citizens to be part of the cohort.

That’s right. The way PR is done at Tohoku University as well as in the School of Medicine or the Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization is different in other ways as well. After the earthquake, I was put in charge of PR for the Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization and the way I approached science communication changed. A major part of my work until that point had been using a wide platform to share why research is interesting and important; however, once I got involved with the large-scale cohort study research project, I started focusing on getting messages across to, as well as consulting with, large numbers of the public, including groups who opposed what we were doing. This made the meaning of the work more specific and pressing. Now, my work is more about communication and has a clearly understood target with visible results, which has made it a more challenging job for me.

What goes into university PR

I get the impression that the Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization is quite unique in its PR work but could you briefly explain what a PR specialist does?

When I came to Tohoku University and was working on PR for the neuroscience project, one day Professor Osumi asked me what I thought about an idea for an event whose title was a wordplay on the Noh theater and nō, the Japanese word for “brain.”

It might seem as if there is not much in common between neuroscience and Noh theater, but I had been given a job to do, so I had to make the event work. My job began with a search for neuroscientists and noh players who would be willing to get onboard with this bizarre concept. There has always been an element of “anything goes” from the beginning, but the goal at the Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization, where I hold my current PR position, was to create a cohort of 150,000 people. This meant that everyone—from the 150,000 participants to their family and friends in the prefecture—would-be stakeholders. For PR to reach everyone in the prefecture, you’re going to need to use all channels available.

For example, when Pokémon GO caught everyone’s attention, some universities went so far as to get rid of any PokéSpots on their campuses, whereas we immediately decided to build a signboard in the organization building for all the PokéSpots. This is the way we think in PR. We also collaborated with people from the Vegalta Sendai soccer team to hold child-friendly events on campus grounds and we also held a lottery at the playgrounds.

You guys will really do and go anywhere for your PR work.

That’s right. We will go anywhere if we get the opportunity to explain what we are doing or to have our work seen by people who haven’t laid eyes on it before. Our PR project includes taking photos, creating boards or panels to be used on campus, publishing a PR magazine, making websites, television commercials, appearing on radio, advertising in newspapers, and distributing letters to each of the individuals participating in the cohort. I guess the work we do is similar to that of an advertising agency.

Have you had many groups come to observe what you are doing at the organization?

Each year we have at least 120 groups coming to tour the organization. Visits are our biggest PR activity. We invite groups who want to observe and learn about the organization, and most of the people who accept our hospitality become our supporters.

I see. But if more than 120 groups come to tour, then, by my calculations, that must mean you get at least two groups coming each week. Do you never get complaints from the PR team or the researchers at your organization about how these visits cut down on their research time?

No, never. Director Yamamoto has made it clear to the organization that any request to tour the organization should not be turned down. He explained that the building of the facility was funded by Japanese taxpayers, so it’s only fair for the organization to receive and politely respond to anyone interested in a tour. Likewise, it is imperative that this is understood from the onset as part of the organization’s mission. I, too, agree completely. Nobody complains because it’s part of our job.

The Tohoku spirit witnessed in the earthquake support given to Kumamoto University

When the earthquake hit Kumamoto and Kumamoto University was in a bad state, you asked me to work with the volunteers. We divided a message about the emergency situation at Kumamoto University for people at Tohoku University to translate so it could be sent out in English, and I proofread the English translation. Why was there such a rush to help the people at Tohoku University?

Whenever there’s an earthquake, there isn’t much time to create a multi-language response. So, I emailed the academics at the organization to ask them to translate the details pertaining to the damage in Kumamoto. Academics tend to be proficient in English, so I split the text into parts and sent it in the evening to at least ten people. The translated text quickly took shape as the night proceeded to the point where the next morning, the people who hadn’t checked their emails were annoyed because they weren’t able to help out (laughs).

That’s some quick work.

The people of Tohoku were helped out by many different people at the time of the earthquake, so I think they felt compelled to help when something was happening elsewhere. As far as I can tell, there is nobody at the organization who would say no when asked.

The future of PR at the Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization

The organization has met its target of recruiting 150,000 members of the community into the cohort. What will the next PR goal be?

Behind the 150,000 who joined the cohort are prefectural residents who didn’t. Although they may not have actually been a part of it, I think we were able to meet the target because of all the prefectural residents, and I would like to continue telling everyone how our work connects to their lives. Research PR usually begins when the paper comes out, but, in my opinion, we have a duty to send out regular messages about how everyone’s cooperation is bearing fruit, even if it does not result in a paper.

I feel that currently, great value is attached to putting out papers or at least a tendency against publicly releasing the findings of one’s own research before it has been published as a paper.

It might be a bit outside of common practice in the academic world, but we have to present and get the word out about our projects even if a paper won’t come out of it. Since we have reached the cohort target of 150,000 people and 4,000 members of the community have had an MRI scan, I want to convey our thanks to the people who participated. The media will only turn “the first,” “the newest,” or “the most” into news. But this news would need to be sent out even if the media wasn’t going to pick it up, and to get it across to a large number of people, we need to deliver it in a way that will result in an article. It’s a simple but important process.

FUJI NAGAMI

Fuji Nagami is a specially appointed professor (PR) at Tohoku University’s Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization and Group Leader of Public Relations. He worked at Miraikan Museum, the Japan Science and Technology Agency, and as a specially appointed associate professor at the Tohoku University Neuroscience Global COE before joining the Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization as an associate professor in 2012. He’s been a professor at Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization since 2013. He specializes in science communication and PR.

This article is a part of ScienceTalks Magazine issue The Tohoku Spirit: Endeavoring to Establish a Public Relations Team at the Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization.