Disclaimer: machine translated by DeepL which may contain errors.
After completing my Master's degree in the Department of Earth and Planetary Science at the University in 2019, I joined the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK), where I work as a television program director.
I was taken to a "dinosaur exhibition" when I was a child, and the fact that the forms of creatures from hundreds of millions of years ago remain in fossil form and that humans are trying to solve the mysteries of evolution by facing fossils made me romanticize the idea of one day becoming a paleontologist and making amazing discoveries myself. In graduate school, I conducted research describing Paleogene crocodilian fossils found in Vietnam.
Although it was interesting to work on fossils, I began to think that I might not be suited to the job of "making new discoveries and being the first to report them," in other words, to be a researcher. On the other hand, I had always liked talking with people, and I realized that I could make better use of my strengths in a job where I could "learn about new discoveries made by researchers and communicate them to others.
My participation in the Science and Technology Interpreter Training Program (a university-wide graduate school Department minor) was one of the reasons I wanted to work in the media industry. Science communication is not just about disseminating and educating knowledge; it is also about receiving the questions and opinions that society has about science and technology, and raising issues about the impact of science and technology on society. This is a mindset that researchers also need to have, but it is not realistic for researchers to transmit everything themselves, so I wanted to play a role in the field of journalism to support researchers.
Filming in the Faculty of Science Building No. 1. I tell the cameraman and sound man what the program is about and how I want it to be filmed.
Since joining NHK, I have produced programs in various genres such as education and welfare, and I am currently producing a science program called "Science ZERO" on the theme of paleontology with the cooperation of NHK faculty members. The best part of my job as a director is that I get to work directly from my thoughts, "This story is interesting, and I want to tell someone about it. Even if you are a young person, your independence is respected, and you are allowed to explore your own interests, meet and talk to various people, and express what you have interviewed on film. The programs are broadcast on the public airwaves, and at least tens of thousands of viewers watch them. Although this may be a rather indirect part of the job of "connecting science and society" (I can't always make science programs), I think it allows me to reach a wider range of people.
Like research, reporting is driven by the desire to "know and find out" about a certain phenomenon. No matter what kind of program it is, it is necessary to obtain multifaceted information from a variety of sources and then look at it from a bird's eye view to get the big picture or find a new perspective. I feel that my experience of devoting myself to research in graduate school has definitely come in handy (both indirectly and directly). I would be happy if I can be of some help to you, the readers, in thinking about your career and how you can make use of your "love of science" outside of academia.