Koji Yamada¶
Hi, there. Greetings from Nagaoka, Japan.
My name is Koji Yamada, Fab Academy 2024 graduate at FabLab Kannai, Yokohama.
1. Past and Present Job Experience¶
I served for international development for more than 31 years as a staff of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), international development agency under the auspices of the government of Japan. JICA implemented the bilateral development cooperation programs for many developing countries on behalf of the Government of Japan. Although I am proud of my engagement, recently I opted for an early retirement and left the agency in March 2024 so that I could spend most of my time working on the assignments, group works and my personal project at Fab Academy.
For more than 30 years, I have worked as a specialist on international development. Here is the list of the places I was stationed for more than a year:
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Kathmandu, Nepal (1995-98),
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Washington, DC. (2000-03),
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New Delhi, India (2007-10),
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Thimphu, Bhutan (2016-19, 2021-22),
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Phuentsholing, Bhutan (2022-23).
2. Experience with FabLabs in Bhutan¶
The most exciting foregin service of mine was those in Bhutan. My first assignment was as the Chief Representative at the JICA Bhutan Office. Since I had already been aware of FabLabs since 2013, my dream was to bring the first FabLab to Bhutan. Although the FabLab had nothing to do with the JICA programs for Bhutan, I personally helped those who endeavored to establish FabLab Bhutan in July 2017. I had very good time working with the Bhutanese youths at FabLab Bhutan.
That led to my second assignment in Bhutan. While I was being engaged in the other programs at the JICA Research Institute in Tokyo in 2019, JICA decided to support for the establishment of another FabLab in Bhutan, at the College of Science and Technology (CST) in the southern border town of Phuentsholing. Fortunately I was appointed as the Chief Advisor for the CST-JICA FabLab Project (2020-23) and had a chance to work with my old friends in Bhutan. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit most severely the southern belt facing the Indian border, the inauguration of the FabLab CST was delayed until August 2022 and it ended up being the sixth FabLab in Bhutan.
My project sent four candidates to Fab Academy 2022. All successfully graduated and brought great insights and human networks to FabLab CST. I had a really wonderful time directly working with Ms. Karma Kelzang Eudon (manager), and Tenzin Dorji (lab technician and Fab Academy 2022 graduate) Also, I have seen a few more Bhutanese youths complete all their assignments and contribute to the capacity development of the other FabLabs in Bhutan. During the project implementation, I spent most of my time making the project ended with a success meeting all the KPIs by December 2023. Now that I left the project, I thought now it’s my turn to think about my own capacity development.
3. Academic Background¶
My academic background is economic development. I like history and anthropology as well. I jumped into the FabLab community with zero knowledge in engineering and design but with the help of my friends and mentors in India, Nepal, the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan of course, I am learning little by little. During my second assignment in Bhutan, the FabLab CST and the College of Science and Technology have been getting recognized as a center of excellence in assistive technology in the country through their performance in the Fab Bhutan Challenge and their post-challenge activities. Hopefully I would like to have my future work aligned to their activities while working very closely with the need-knowers in Japan.
4. Monthly Updates (April - June 2024)¶
While I was still a Fab Academy student, there were a few life events. The biggest one was my early retirement from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in March as planned a few years back. Here in the description of my profile as a Fab Academy student, I added a few more events that occurred in the next few months.
As for my whereabouts and activities after graduation, I will write updates in the “Post-Academy Activities” page periodically.
April 2024¶
After hosting a few awareness building programs to sensitize the JICA HQ staff to 3D-modeling, I left JICA. The programs I hosted include: machine familiarization workshops with 3D printers, inclusive makeathon to prototype a few assistive tools and make our office a better place for our colleague of visually impaired (see the photos below), submitting an issue paper for the JICA Research Institute.
Our prototyping, together with the final products deployed in the JICA HQs, is documented in the 視覚障害があっても働きやすい職場をつくる（チーム１）. (My apologies for writing only in Japanese language.)
May 2024¶
I joined in the Nagaoka Institute of Design, in Nagaoka City, Niigata prefecture in May, to work as a lab technician for the NID Prototyping Room. NID has three departments for undergraduate program (Design, Art and Craft, Architecture and Environmental Design) and five master’s programs (Product Design, Visual Design, Art and Craft, Architecture and Environmental Design, Innovation Design). The Prototyping Room offers the enabling environment for the NID students and faculty members to bring your ideas into reality as quickly as possible. It was founded by the initiative of a 2017 Fab Academy graduate, Kohei Morimoto, who is an NID faculty member.
Based here, I am going to learn more about the lab management in the next 12 months.
June 2024¶
On June 15, I participated in the Bi-Annual Conference of the Japan Society for International Development (JASID) and made a presentation with the title, “Digital Accelerates Decentralized Production,” to the JASID member participants. On this occasion, I introduced my Final Project as the example of the prototypes made in the Fab Academy.
5. Aspirations for Future¶
For the few months after the retirement, I am thinking of spending most of my time catching up with the progress of the Fab Academy. Then after that, I would like to work for international development and have my future work aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Why I became enthusiastic about FabLabs? It is because the global network of FabLabs has a great potential to address the small and fragmented needs of the people on the ground and it could contribute to ensuring “no one left behind”.
My dream is to bring all the beneficiaries of the development programs of Japan, no matter if they are public or private programs, to be connected to the local FabLabs in their project sites. For this, I am thinking about doing the following after my retirement:
- To sensitize with digital fabrication the invitees from developing countries for training and other HRD programs in Japan, especially in the area of assistive technology, so that they could approach the local FabLab near them after going back to their home country;
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To open a small lab in the place near the JICA training institute, so that all the Japanese volunteers for international development could have hands-on experience in digital fabrication before they are dispatched to their assignment in the developing countries. It could also work as a place for the invitees from developing countries to get hands-on experience; and
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To offer consulting services to the universities and non-profits for writing the project/program proposals to work on prototyping solutions in the developing countries, in collaboration with the FabLab near their project sites.
Otherwise, I will spend my leisure time in shaping my retirement life more sustainable with my fabrication skills.
6. About FabLab Kannai¶
FabLab Kannai, located in the central district of Yokohama City, offers an enabling environment for the design offices located in the same building. If you are a baseball fan, there is one franchise stadium of the Yokohama DeNA Baystars nearby. Besides the Yokohama Stadium, the Kannai area is characterised as a heavy accumulation of fabbers in the urban setting. Yokohama was the host of the FAB9 in August 2013. I heard about FabLab a few months after FAB9.
I visited the FabLab Kannai in 2014-25, besides the visit to the other three FabLabs around the Yokohama Stadium: Kitanaka Brick Lab, Keio University-SFC and FabLabβ Bashamichi. Even now, FabLab Minatomirai is located in just two stations away from Kannai, on the first floor of the Kanagawa University Minato-Mirai Campus building.
Besides hosting the Fab Academy local node, FabLab Kannai is open on Sundays for registered members. And it offers STEAM education programs for local children. Since it’s near from Tokyo, FabLab Kannai could receive the visiting fabbers from around the world.
7. Contact¶
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/koji-yamada-aa422039/