Mikami, Koichi

写真a

Affiliation

Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Foreign Languages and Liberal Arts (Hiyoshi)

Position

Associate Professor

External Links
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Career 【 Display / hide 】

  • 2010.04
    -
    2013.12

    Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Center for the Promotion of Integrated Sciences, Assistant Professor

  • 2014.01
    -
    2017.03

    University of Edinburgh, Science, Technology and Innovation Studies (STIS), Research Fellow

  • 2017.04
    -
    2019.03

    University of Tokyo, Komaba Organization for Educational Excellence (KOMEX), Project Assistant Professor

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Academic Background 【 Display / hide 】

  • 2000.04
    -
    2004.03

    Waseda University, School of Political Sciences and Economics, 経済学科

    University, Graduated

  • 2004.10
    -
    2005.09

    University of Oxford, Said Business School

    United Kingdom, Graduate School, Completed, Master's course

  • 2005.10
    -
    2006.09

    London School of Economics and Political Sciences, Department of Sociology

    United Kingdom, Graduate School, Completed, Master's course

  • 2006.10
    -
    2010.03

    University of Oxford, Said Business School

    United Kingdom, Graduate School, Completed, Doctoral course

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Academic Degrees 【 Display / hide 】

  • MSc in Sociology, London School of Economics and Political Sciences, Coursework, 2006.11

  • MSc in Management Research, University of Oxford, Coursework, 2007.05

  • D.Phil. (Oxon) in Management Studies, University of Oxford, Coursework, 2011.07

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Research Areas 【 Display / hide 】

  • Humanities & Social Sciences / Sociology of science, history of science and technology (Science and Technology Studies)

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Books 【 Display / hide 】

  • 入門 科学技術と社会

    Ryuma Shineha, Koichi Mikami, Nakanishiya Shuppan, 2024.04

  • よくわかる現代科学技術史・STS

    見上　公一, ミネルヴァ書房, 2022.02

    Scope: ゲノム編集,  Contact page： 124-125

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Papers 【 Display / hide 】

  • 遺伝医学の発展と希少疾患の関係

    見上　公一

    BIO Clinica 38 ( 13 ) 82 - 86 2023

    Research paper (scientific journal), Single Work

  • A historical analysis of the policy on intractable diseases in Japan and its peculiarity

    Koichi Mikami

    Dynamis 42 ( 2 ) 397 - 421 2022

    Research paper (scientific journal), Single Work, Lead author, Corresponding author, Accepted,  ISSN  02119536

    　View Summary

    This article examines the history of the policy concerning a class of diseases called intractable diseases in Japan with a particular focus on the roles of patient support groups in firstly legitimizing the grouping of such diseases and then shaping the nature of the support that the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare provided to the patients and their families affected by them. The Ministry started its policy on intractable diseases in 1972, predating the enactment of the 1983 Orphan Drug Act in the United States, which is known to be one of the most important events for the international rare diseases community. This policy decision was triggered by the emergence of subacute myelo-optic neuropathy (SMON) as a social problem in the country in the late 1960s. The Ministry first made its support available to patients with this particular disease and, as a result of a series of actions from patient support groups and their medical and political supporters, the same support was made available to those considered to be in similarly difficult circumstances. The way in which the support was arranged, however, turned out to be structurally divisive, inviting the patient groups to negotiate with the national and local governments separately depending on subject matters, and for about three decades since the start of the policy, they struggled to present their unified voice in the country. The governmental support for intractable diseases was finally revised in the mid-2000s, but as this article demonstrates, that became possible only after the patient groups came to realize the need of presenting a unified voice in their effort to improve the lives of those affected.

  • 科学技術への人文・社会科学の関与の意味について：期待の社会学の視点から

    見上　公一

    慶應義塾大学日吉紀要 社会科学 32   51 - 65 2022

    Research paper (bulletin of university, research institution), Single Work, Lead author, Corresponding author

  • How Extraordinary Was It?: What Development of an Orphan Drug Meant for Patients, Their Families, and Their Community

    Koichi Mikami

    Historia Scientiarum 31 ( 2 ) 94 - 107 2022

    Research paper (scientific journal), Single Work, Lead author, Corresponding author, Accepted,  ISSN  02854821

    　View Summary

    In various areas of science and technology, active involvement of non-scientists in their practices is increasingly considered valuable, and medicine is a notable example of such areas. Patients and their families used to be perceived as passive beneficiaries of medical advancement, but today they are encouraged to become active collaborators of medical professionals. Attempts have been made to characterize this trend, and sociological concepts like biological citizenship have been introduced. While increased attention to the new role of patients and their families in medical research may promote die trend, it can also trivialize the struggles that they - not only as individuals but also as members of their disease-based community - might have to face in trying to assume the role. This problem is particularly noticeable where a history of non-scientists' successful involvement in medicine is reduced to a heroic story focusing on a single individual. By examining the case of orphan drug development for a rare genetic disease called Pompe disease and presenting its complexity that is left out in its simplified accounts, I demonstrate that studies on contemporary history of science and technology can play an important role in documenting such complexity and counterbalancing the power of simplified accounts.

  • ELSI is Our Next Battlefield

    Mikami K., Ema A., Minari J., Yoshizawa G.

    East Asian Science, Technology and Society 15 ( 1 ) 86 - 96 2021

    Research paper (scientific journal), Joint Work, Lead author, Corresponding author,  ISSN  18752160

    　View Summary

    ELSI refers to “ethical, legal, and social issues/implications” of science and technology (S&T). The term has been gaining currency in Japan over the last 15 years in the context of its national S&T policy. In this essay, we argue that ELSI will become a pivotal concept characterizing the relationship between S&T and social sciences and humanities (SSH) in the country, due particularly to the first-ever amendment to the S&T Basic Law scheduled in April 2021. And because ELSI is recognized as an area of work that STS scholarship should play a major part in, how the local STS community is going to respond to the change this leads to will have a decisive impact on the way in which the relationship becomes characterized. The government’s persistent use of the term despite the criticism it has received reveals an assumption underpinning its S&T policy about the way in which the work of SSH contributes to S&T and helps to foster innovation. It is therefore important for the community to challenge such an assumption and reframe the role of SSH, if it believes in the societal value of its scholarship and the critical sensibilities that its research offers.

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Papers, etc., Registered in KOARA 【 Display / hide 】

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Research Projects of Competitive Funds, etc. 【 Display / hide 】

  • Collaboration and (in)flexible environment: the history of Guthrie Test in Japan

    2018.04
    -
    2022.03

    MEXT,JSPS, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C), Principal investigator

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Courses Taught 【 Display / hide 】

  • LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES SEMINAR 1

    2024

  • JAPANESE CULTURE AND SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY

    2024

  • HISTORY OF IDEAS, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

    2024

  • HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENTIFIC THOUGHTS2

    2024

  • HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENTIFIC THOUGHTS1

    2024

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Memberships in Academic Societies 【 Display / hide 】

  • European Association for Studies of Science and Technology, 

    2014
    -
    Present

  • The Sociology of Science Society of Japan, 

    2012
    -
    Present

  • The Japan Sociological Society, 

    2010
    -
    Present

  • Japanese Society for Science and Technology Studies, 

    2009
    -
    Present

  • Society for Social Studies of Science, 

    2008
    -
    Present
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Committee Experiences 【 Display / hide 】

  • 2019.04
    -
    Present

    理事, 科学技術社会論学会

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