‘Fortunately, my family are all fine,’ Tagawa said. ‘My sister who lives in Tokyo, however, has moved with her baby to Western Japan where my parents live. She is worried about the health of her baby because some foods have been exposed to radioactivity.’
Watching the news of the disaster was difficult for Tagawa as he has a national qualification to help others during such an event. ‘In fact, in 2007 when Niigata-prefecture in Japan was hit by an earthquake of a magnitude 6.6, I went to help for one week.’
This time, Tagawa stayed in touch with family and friends and continued working on his numerous research projects. For one of these, he is using the 8m-high Twente Water Tunnel on campus to study the distribution of particles transported by turbulent flows. ‘We are interested in how smaller particles interact in a larger turbulent system. Our findings are valuable in diverse fields, from how plankton moves in the oceans to pollution dispersion in the atmosphere.’
Another project that he finds exciting is searching for a way to create needle-free injections. He has developed a method to shoot a laser-induced bubble at the speed of a supersonic jet (up to 600 meters/second) which can then potentially inject medicine into the patient’s skin without using a needle. Currently, he is trying to control the speed of the jet along with the volume of the injection.
Tagawa and his wife Kaoru plan to stay until April 2013. Comparing the University of Tokyo, where he earned all his degrees in Mechanical Engineering, Tagawa finds life at the UT is more social and open-minded.
Still there were some cultural hurtles that Tagawa had to overcome. ‘Scientific discussions in Japan are calmer. We wait until people finish talking before we speak. Here you can interrupt, even the head of the department. But in Japan this is considered rude. Also, in Japan we don’t say ‘no’ directly, and we can never use the familiar je to a professor or supervisor.’
His concept of work has also changed since arriving in the Netherlands. In Japan, he would often work 12-hour days. Now he is spending more time with his wife. ‘Here the family life is richer and stronger. For the first time, Kaoru and I can chat for an hour after dinner,’ he said. ‘I found a new face in my wife!’
As an expert in water dynamics, the 29-year-old spoke about the tsunami. ‘In Japan, there is a large research group using world-class equipment, such as high-sensitive vibration detectors and super-computers to simulate earthquakes. What we saw recently, I believe, is a result of the political decisions that must balance safety with costs and risks.’
‘For example, the politicians decided to prepare for a 7m-high tsunami near the Fukushima nuclear reactor, even though researchers had predicted an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 and more than a 10m-high tsunami. In fact, the tsunami that hit the nuclear plant was 15m-high.’
‘As a Japanese scientist,’ he continued, ‘I understand the two opinions about building nuclear power plants. On one hand, nuclear power poses many risks, while, on the other hand, it is an efficient way to generate electricity, which is necessary for modern life. So far, we do not have an efficient alternative. I personally think that we need to invest in securing our existing nuclear plants and, at the same time, seriously research alternatives to generating electricity.’
Tagawa looks through the Twente Water Tunnel. ‘I wanted to work abroad and knew that Professor Detlef Lohse, the chair of our department, was a first-class scientist.’ (Photo: Gijs van Ouwerkerk)
