Currently, at the age of 87, I have stepped away from all public positions and established a small general incorporated association called VALS LUDUS.

 

Although it is an ambitious theme, I am privately hosting Zoom seminars focused on the United Nations framework of “STI for SDGs,” as well as the relationships between “Science and Society” and “Science and Culture.”

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I am delighted that Mr. Kenji Saito has joined us as a fellow, and I look forward to what lies ahead.

With this in mind, I have written this letter to share the ideas and cooperation I hope for from you. I believe there is profound significance in reconsidering the music of Isao Tomita not merely as part of “the history of electronic music,” but within the context of the United Nations initiative known as “STI for SDGs.”

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This is because I believe Professor Tomita’s work has reached a stage where it should be reevaluated as a “methodology of integrated knowledge,” one that unifies Science, Technology, Arts and Sensibility, and Innovation as Social Imagination.

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1. Why “TOMITA METHOD” Matters Today

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Professor Tomita was not simply an “electronic musician.”
He was a “transformer of perception.”

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The true significance of Tomita’s challenge was not merely his use of synthesizers. More importantly, he reorganized human sensibility and cosmology through technology as a medium.

For example, works such as Snowflakes Are Dancing, The Planets, and Phoenix integrate sound, space, nature, the cosmos, and life itself into unified sensory experiences.

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I believe this resonates strongly with contemporary systems thinking, complexity science, knowledge integration, STEAM education, and transdisciplinary research.

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2. The Connection Between “STI for SDGs” and TOMITA METHOD

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I believe the greatest weakness of “STI for SDGs” is that, while science and technology continue to advance, the transformation of human sensibility and worldview has not kept pace.

Science and SocietyScience and Culture

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AI                  Empathy

Data             Aesthetics

Technology    Narrative

Science         Wonder

Policy           Imagination

 

In other words, while efforts toward implementing “Science and Society” continue, the perspective of “Science and Culture,” emphasized by citizen science theorist Alan Irwin, remains comparatively weak.

For this reason, I believe there is much to learn from TOMITA METHOD as a concrete reference model.

 

3. The Core of TOMITA METHOD

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① “Audibilization”

Tomita’s music made the invisible perceptible through sound.

This directly connects to contemporary data sonification, AI-based acoustic analysis, the musicalization of cosmic data, and environmental data sonification.

In other words, it is an engineering approach that transforms SDGs-related data from mere “understanding” into “embodied experience.”

 

② The Integration of “Science and Culture”

Since the modern era, Science and Art have become increasingly separated.

However, Tomita’s music brought together Debussy, Holst, Toru Takemitsu, space engineering, and acoustic engineering into a unified body of knowledge.

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To me, this represents a concrete model of what I have long been interested in:

• The “Transdisciplinary Federation of Science and Technology”

• A new theory of interdisciplinary knowledge (“Vision-to-Structure Framework”)

• “Mode 2 Science”

• And the “Transdisciplinary Approach”

 

③ The Restoration of Wonder

SDGs education often tends to become overly institutionalized or obligation-driven.

Yet Tomita’s music contains:

• awe

• wonder

• cosmic imagination

Could this not be considered a model of knowledge that unifies UNESCO’s ideals of education, science, and culture?

Sustainability, after all, also requires the sustainability of human sensibility.

 

4. What “STI” Means for TOMITA METHOD

I interpret this as an STI dedicated to the flowering of human nature and humanity itself.

 

5. Closing Remarks

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To the musicians who studied under Professor Isao Tomita at the Graduate School of Shobi University, I sincerely hope they will inherit the spirit and methodology of TOMITA METHOD, while continuing to incorporate ever-evolving Science and Technology and challenge the innovation embodied by TOMITA METHOD every day.

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That is also the reason I invited Mr. Kenji Saito to participate in VALS LUDUS as a fellow.

I greatly look forward to seeing him fulfill the expectations of Professor Tomita and continue his future achievements.

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Yoshiyuki Matsuda
Educational Scholar
Second President of Shobi University
Advisor to the General Incorporated Association VALS LUDUS

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