Invited Paper
Why I was Involved in the Establishment of JASAG in 1999? Politics, Value, Model-building, Peace Research, Computer, and Professor Hiroharu SEKI
2019 Volume 28 Issue 2 Pages 80-89
Details
2019 Volume 28 Issue 2 Pages 80-89
When Japan Association of Simulation and Gaming （JASAG） was established in 1999, I was a charter member of the association. In this short essay, I described the reason why a young scholar who read at Oxford in the 1960’s the manuscripts of John Locke, English philosopher of 17th century, became an expert of quantitative analysis of politics and a founding member of academic association of simulation & gaming studies. At the same time I discussed in this essay the conflict between simulation approach and gaming approach, the difference between data-oriented people and model-oriented people, the problems in time-series analysis in social studies, and the issue how we should deal with the ‘value’ in model-building in simulation & gaming researches. I also look back on the initiatives and important roles taken by late Professor Hiroharu SEKI at the time of the establishment of JASAG.
