Shun-ichi Amari, D. Eng. The president of Suken Foundation
	Director RIKEN Brain Science Institute Professor Emeritus, Tokyo University
Upon my installation as a Suken president Mathematics is fun and allows you to forget yourself. Do you feel this way about mathematics? I do. Mathematics was created in ancient times. In Greece, China, Arabic countries and India, mathematics was born and grew up. In Japan, native mathematics developed in the Edo period reached a considerable level. Mathematics is achieved by the brain. People’s brains were developed to think of things in a mathematical way since before we know. The mathematical way of thinking was created to be the same as having a command of languages, creating conceptual ideas, and examining relationships. People developed this ability as part of their social lives. Communications are necessary for people to work cooperatively. You must know your own intention and understand the intentions of others. The mind, consciousness, languages, mathematics and more are all products of the same brain. Mathematics has developed in civilized societies as a system of knowledge. It is fun to think of things in a mathematical way. However there are many people who dislike mathematics. Why is this happening? Study assignments were set each year and settled (standardized) as part of the educational curriculum. Things became the subjects of examination. This may be necessary as part of the social system. However, this took away the joy of mathematics and thinking slowly. Techniques evolved to rapidly solve problems by memorizing solutions. The brain does not like such memorization. Brains like to think. Mathematics became a subject for people whose occupation is purely mathematics. Other people tolerate mathematics as an examination subject. The rumor spread that mathematics is a good and efficient subject for earning high scores. Thus, there are celebrities who criticize mathematics, saying mathematics is not necessary to learn how to solve quadratic equations, or that mathematics is never useful in daily life. Is the mathematics only for the sake of examinations? No, never! Mathematics provides a joy of thinking, a logical way of organized thought, estimating and solving problems that are all foundation as humans. Mathematics is not just for the mathematicians or people studying science or engineering. Mathematics is also for people studying literature as they need to understand the basics of mathematics and it would benefit their studies. This is the culture human beings developed. Suken Foundation was the first to put the theory of mathematics as fun into practice and promoted these ideas. We started from the concept of our chairman, Tashiyoshi Takada. Our superior concept and organizational skills, combined with the fabulous people who supported our ideas and gave the unflagging support all contributed to developing our goal. We realized a dream that no one ever thought possible. I am the third chair to be recommended, following the first president Sin Hitotumatu,Ph.D and the second president Jin Akiyama,Ph.D. It is a very responsible position but I am honored to be offered this job. I would like to share the joy of mathematics with you and spread this joy to more people.