Top > What's up around the Prime Minister > April, 2006

Prime Minister Observes the Science Museum Thursday, April 20, 2006 JAPANESE Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi observed the Science Museum in Chiyoda Ward and participated in the experiments conducted by Dr. Denjiro Yonemura, a science producer. The experiments, held as part of the events for the Science and Technology Week, were also participated by Mr. Iwao Matsuda, the Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy, Mr. Kenji Kosaka, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and Dr. Ryoji Noyori, a Nobel-Prize laureate in Chemistry and the President of Riken. The participants enjoyed the interesting and educational experiments with the cheerful fifth-graders of Atsugi Second Elementary School, who visited the museum on a school trip. Clad in a white coat, Prime Minister Koizumi stood on the platform with Dr. Yonemura, known as "Denjiro-Sensei," who is popular among children with his scientific experiments using everyday-tools. Prime Minister Koizumi demonstrated the "air-gun experiment" designed to learn about the friction of the air using a gun made of a cardboard box which shoots smoke into a distance. He also demonstrated the "floating soap bubble experiment" to learn about static electricity by freely handling a negatively charged soap bubble with a positively charged plastic stick and a negatively charged long and slim rubber balloon. As he conducted experiments while talking amiably with the children, Prime Minister Koizumi expressed his impressions, such as, "This is magic," "Training in science is more difficult than training in politics," and "I have been able to learn a great deal." View Video (Available only in Japanese) Real(Narrowband) / Real(Broadband) Windows Media(Narrowband) / Windows Media(Broadband)