Tokyo Symposium Discusses Value of Learning from Print Materials, Libraries in Age of Generative AI

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:16 JST, February 21, 2025

The value of continuing to learn from print textbooks in the digital age was discussed at a symposium on education and library utilization in Tokyo on Thursday.

The symposium was attended by former Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, who is now president of the Diet members’ caucus for print culture. “Libraries and bookstores are ‘planetariums of knowledge’ that provide vitality and inspiration,” she said. “It is important to convey their appeal to the public.”

Kamikawa said that scientific evidence must be gathered regarding the expansion of the use of digital devices as textbooks, which the education ministry is considering. “Print textbooks should be used as the basis, and digital devices as supplementary material,” she said.

Professor Emeritus Manabu Sato of the University of Tokyo presented a survey showing that Japanese children read less than children in other countries. “It is important to find ways for the culture of reading books to be established in this country,” he said.

Toshikazu Yamaguchi, president of The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings and the chairman of the Characters Culture Promotion Organization, touched on the rapid development of generative AI at the symposium. “What is needed in these changing times is the ability to learn and think for oneself, and the way we learn from print materials is important in acquiring this ability,” he said.