History of Electrical Engineering (HEE)

Chairperson:	Kunihiko Hidaka (The University of Tokyo)
Secretaries:	Toshiyuki Sawa (Hitachi, Ltd.)
	Satoshi Marushima (Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutoins Corporation)
Assistant Secretaries:	Satoshi Osumi (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)

The Technical Committee on History of Electrical Engineering (HEE) belongs to the Fundamentals and Materials Society (FMS) of the IEE of Japan (IEEJ). The main objective of HEE is to examine the direction in which electrical engineering should move in the years ahead by studying the past. Electrical engineering history constitutes the basis of technologies that we should develop. It is the starting point from which we should approach the future. Currently, two investigation committees are organized in the HEE and are running actively for survey of the subjects listed in Table 1. The aim of the investigation committee for nuclear generation in Japan is to study the development history of nuclear generation technology in Japan. The investigation committer for oral history is one of the continuing activities on oral history which will be explained later. We would like to explain three topics of recent HEE activities. The first is the “Web Database of Noteworthy Japanese Contributions to Electrical Engineering Technologies (DB-JET)”. This database archives outstanding research results made by researchers and disseminates them both within the Japanese and wider international academic community. Its objective is to widen an understanding of both process for advancing science and technology and of the importance of scientific research in supporting science and technology advancement. The DB-JET was developed through the close cooperation of National Institute of Informatics (NII) and five institutes including IEEJ. The first phase of the DB-JET Project ran from 2003 to 2008. It finished with the opening of the database in March 2008. The second phase began immediately afterwards. (http://dbnst.nii.ac.jp/) The HEE has been conducting oral histories since the late 1990s. On the basis of this, seven electricity-related institutes including the IEEJ are now cooperating to promote oral histories. The term ‘oral history’ which was first used by Columbia University historian, is the recording of memories of people who have unique experiences and is obtained by interviews. To date, 55 people have been interviewed. The HEE created a document comprised of a biography, a summary by the interviewer, and the full text of an interview. This is done for each interview. Then, the document is distributed to universities with science and technology departments and national colleges of technology all over Japan. We are now considering additional means of utilization. In 2008, IEEJ organized the Commemoration Committee and has begun to reward the past important contributions to the electrical technology innovations, such as Persons, Materials, Locations, etc. The HEE nicknamed this commemoration “One Step on Electro-Technology -Back to the Future-”. As of 2012, thirty contributions were commemorated. Such kind of award enshrines the hidden stories of electric technology to the public. Public information activities are running by HEE. One of these activities is the publication of a newsletter. Inaugurated in 1994, the newsletter reached its 58th issue this year. The 4 or 6 page publication features technological history-related articles, records of visits to museums and book reviews. Another important public information activity is the web site. This web site was opened in 2001 and it announces workshops, publishes the summaries of research papers presented at the meetings, and publicize the committee’s activities as we have mentioned in connection with the activities. The newsletters and the web site are in Japanese only but the web site in English will be soon.

Investigation Committees in HEE
Research Subject	Chair Person
Power system technology in the 21st century	Fumio Arakawa(Global Engineering Institute)
Oral history of electrical engineering in Japan	Masazumi Yamamoto (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation)