Project Leader
Kai Hiraishi, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto University

Collaborative Research Affiliate
Koki Ikeda, M.A., Researcher, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo (Neurophysiology)

Many questions about kokoro (the mind and consciousness) such as “how does kokoro work,” “how do individuals' kokoro differ,” “can we understand other people’s kokoro” and “where does kokoro lie” have been asked for thousands of years. Today, too, many researchers of kokoro, psychologists as well as neuroscientists, artificial intelligence researchers, ethnologists, religious scholars, philosophers, and ethicists are studying questions related to kokoro. As kokoro is a theme common to all humans, much of this research should be understandable to non-specialists, presented with some background knowledge, and can stimulate intellectual curiosity. This project introduces articles on published kokoro-related research on the Web, in order to convey the achievements of scientific research on kokoro to the public. Disseminating accurate information about what is known and unknown about kokoro is expected to lay the foundations for people to understand their current status and to think about the future of society and kokoro.

The blog is here (in Japanese only, though).