I Miss the Old Japan

choi

Leo Lewis, Japan's Innovators Seek Their Lost Mojo; Once a world leader in new technology, the country has become an R&D laggard. Financial Times, Mar 8, 2021,
https://www.ft.com/content/bd51a6b8-e084-42fe-8b9a-4dd9361ac33b

Note:
(a) "the government revealed last month that it would establish the world’s largest university endowment fund in March 2022."
(i) Yuko Takeo and Emi Urabe, Japan to Start $96 Billion University Fund by March 2022. Bloomberg, Jan18, 2021
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/a ... -fund-by-march-2022
("to * * * bridge the funding gap between the country’s universities and those elsewhere. * * * Keio University, Japan’s most well-funded private school, manages a 73 billion yen endowment, a fraction [less than 2% of] of Harvard University's roughly 4.5 trillion yen")
(A) The surnames Urabe is 浦辺 or 浦部.
(B) Harvard's endowment was $41.9 billion in 2020.
(ii) In a sense, the FT report of today expands on the one-month old news.
(iii) I have no idea what has ailed Japan. Three "lost decades" and counting.

(b) "Kazuto Ataka, a * * * neuroscientist, artificial intelligence evangelist and chief strategist [official title: Chief Strategy Officer (CSO)] at Yahoo Japan"
(i) Kazuto ATAKA 安宅 和人 (1968- ; bachelor's from where, he omits; master's in biochemistry, University of Tokyo; 4 1/2 years in McKinsey; PhD in neuroscience  Yale イェール 2001 (finished in 3 years and 9 months); after half a year as postdoc in US (where he did not say), he returned Japan and rejoined McKinsey briefly; presently 慶應義塾大学 環境情報学部教授)
(A) For the sake of English speakers, his Twitter handle is "Kaz Ataka" (though his tweets are in Japanese)
https://twitter.com/kaz_ataka
("脳神経科学、マーケティング [marketing]、デー×AIの間に棲息。マッキンゼーを経て現 慶應義塾SFC教授/ヤフーCSO。 公職多数。著書に『イシューからはじめよ』http://amzn.to/32bIOgL『シン・ニホン』http://amzn.to/2SJoi3K。@ツイートや質問への対応はできません。あくまで個人の見解です")
(B) Japanese-English dictionary:
* データ  data
* seisoku 生息(P); 栖息; 棲息 【せいそく】 (n,v) "inhabiting; living  <シーラカンスは深海に生息する。 The coelacanth inhabits the deep sea.>"
* マッキンゼー・アンド・カンパニー - McKinsey & Company  (アンド -- pronounce: ando -- is "and.")
* ヤフー  Yahoo
* Chief Strategy Officer: EITHER 最高戦略責任者 OR チーフストラテジーオフィサー (the latter is just katakana of English sounds of "Chief Strategy Officer.")
* akumade あくまで 《飽くまで; 飽く迄》 (adv): "(1) * * * consistently; to the utmost [thoroughly]; (2) * * * it must be remembered"
*tori-ireru 取り入れる(P); 採り入れる 【とりいれる】 (v1,vt) (1) to harvest; to reap; (v1,vt) (2) to take in; to gather in; (v1,vt) (3) to adopt (e.g. idea); to accept (e.g. advice); to introduce; to borro(C) 環境情報学部  environmental informatics
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/環境情報学部
("環境と情報の学問の研究・教授を目的とする大学の学部である。 * * * 主に自然環境学または社会環境学に、情報技術の思考を取り入れるような、一般的な情報技術に他の思考を取り入れる事によって、幅広い知識（情報技術、バイオテクノロジー、政策学）を持った学生を輩出しようと指向されている。")

my translation for "主に自然環境学または社会環境学に、情報技術の思考を取り入れるような":
Mainly applying / co-opting information technology to 社会環境学

(D) One of his book: イシューからはじめよ; 知的生産の「シンプルな本質」 . Tokyo: Eiji Press Inc 英治出版, 2010.
The 2010 book was written in Japanese, whose cover include Japanese title, subtitle AND English words (ISSUE DRIVEN; all upper case)

シンプル in subtitle was katakana for "simple."
(E) Another book of his: シン・ニホン; AI×データ時代における日本の再生と人材育成. NewsPicks ニューズピックス, Feb 20, 2020 (no English translation).

The title シン・ニホン means "New Japan."  
(ii) A, taka, kazu and to (for 安, 宅, 和 and 人 respectively) are neither Japanese nor Chinese pronunciations; rather these pairs all appear in names only (of persona, place etc).

(c) "crackingly told narratives of existential threat have occasionally captivated broad Japanese audiences"
(i) cracking (adj): "[attributive] British informal  excellent" (brackets original)
https://www.lexico.com/definition/cracking
(ii) The verb of this sentence is "have * * * captivated.'