“Tokyo University of the Arts: Staff Indifference to Life-and-Death Issues”
Ep.63 – “Tokyo University of the Arts Staff Indifference: Are Voices About Life and Death ‘Outside Your Expertise’?”
Published: June 30, 2025, 17:17
Updated: June 30, 2025, 17:34
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Preface
This essay begins with a question I posed to a Tokyo University of the Arts administrative staff member, Mr. T (pseudonym: Mr. Toda).
The research topic I attempted to submit was: “The Relationship Between Vibrato, Depression, Brain Function, and Suicide Risk” — a subject directly connected to human life.
But the only responses I received were these three statements:
“If no music faculty are involved, I’m not interested.”
“I don’t know anyone who became depressed because of music.”
“I’ve never heard of anyone dying because of music.”
If this attitude goes unchallenged, no one will ever reach research that concerns life and death.
That is why, with anger, I picked up my pen.
Please read the following in order:
① Public Letter of Inquiry → ② Background of the Issue → ③ Full Paper → ④ Conclusion.
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Why it’s ethically and strategically acceptable to publish the paper
•If a paper contains no personal names or private information, it is fine to publish.
•If it has been outright rejected or dismissed without review by an academic society or university, there is no copyright issue.
•If its contents are in the public interest and carry social significance (especially concerning life), it should be made available.
In short —
Panda’s paper is not something to “expose,” but something that needs to be delivered.
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Public Letter to Tokyo University of the Arts
— “I’m not interested” as a dismissal of voices about life —
Tokyo University of the Arts administrative staff member Mr. Toda (pseudonym) said this to me when I brought him my paper:
“If no music faculty are involved, I’m not interested.”
“I don’t know anyone who became depressed because of music.”
“I’ve never heard of anyone dying because of it.”
— Is that really acceptable?
Is it because you work in administration? Because it’s “outside your field”?
But you were the first person to receive a matter concerning human life.
The moment you rejected it, my paper — and the people whose lives it concerned — lost any place to go.
Have you never studied statistics?
Or do you simply turn away from reality?
With a single remark, you erased the existence of people in pain.
When an art university staff member dismisses a life-and-death appeal as “outside their field” —
is that the Tokyo University of the Arts’ idea of artistic values?
If it’s outside your field, then who will listen to voices about life?
I’m not here to condemn you personally.
The problem is that such words came from a place that is supposed to be a “fortress of knowledge.”
Can Tokyo University of the Arts truly be proud of this stance?
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Vibrato and Depression — The Research That Was Shut Out
The theme of the paper I tried to submit was:
“The Effects of Heavy Vibrato Use on the Nervous System and Its Relationship to Depression and Suicide Risk.”
Outline of the hypothesis:
1.Songs with vibrato produce a brief, intense euphoria.
2.About 3–6 hours later, some people experience a rebound of extreme fatigue, emptiness, and depressive symptoms.
3.This may be explained by a cycle of rapid release and depletion of dopamine and other pleasure-related neurotransmitters.
Current music neuroscience focuses mostly on brain activity during listening, but I proposed that the hours after listening deserve special attention.
Key observation points include:
•Changes in blood flow to the prefrontal cortex
•Dopamine and serotonin activity
•Fluctuations in the autonomic nervous system (heart rate, temperature, sweating, etc.)
I also included an observation that aerobic exercise seems to ease this rebound effect.
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The Responsibility of Art and Education
In the fine arts field as well, Tokyo University of the Arts has — I’ve been told — a tendency to admire works by students suffering from depression.
But forcing someone to keep creating in a broken mental state is not education — it’s abandonment.
“Negative emotions and positive emotions both spread.”
If you mix poison with “beauty” and scatter it, it will infect the viewers as well.
What’s needed first is treatment and care; skill refinement should come afterward.
Those who teach art must not lose sight of that.
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Conclusion — If You Refuse to Know, No One Can Be Saved
I warned them ten times.
Even so, the reply remained: “It’s outside my field.” “I don’t want to know.”
Indifference is violence.
If you speak of art, you must also take responsibility for keeping people alive.
Tokyo University of the Arts — shame on you.
And Mr. Toda — I ask you to imagine that your indifference could cost someone their life.
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Note: The research hypothesis in this paper has been refused formal peer review by all academic societies to date. However, as it is judged to be of high public interest, I hereby publish it in full. Anyone may cite or verify it — but do not forget to credit Panda as a co-researcher.
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Afterword
If art does not save people, then it should take down its signboard as “art.”
Here, I record the voices that have been sealed away with “I don’t know” and “I don’t want to know.”
If you work in music, I ask you to turn this question on yourself:
“Does your sound sustain someone’s life — or take it away?”
