YOKOHAMA (Kyodo) Yokohama on Sunday inaugurated a new public high school dedicated to the teaching of advanced science and technology.
Haruo Sato, the principal of Yokohama Science Frontier High School, said the aim is to nurture scientists who will be active around the world.
To provide its students with "science literacy curricula" focusing on experiment-based science subjects, the school has tied up with universities, institutions and corporations so renowned academics and scientists can act as special advisers.
Students will study such fields as biological science, the environment, nanotechnology and information and communications, before specializing in an area of their choice.
They are expected to write up their study results in English, school officials said.
The city of Yokohama has provided the school with advanced equipment and facilities.
At the inauguration ceremony, Masatoshi Koshiba, winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in physics, gave a special lecture attended by 237 students as well as Yokohama Mayor Hiroshi Nakada.
"Basic science, my field of study, is not (directly) useful to society, but I take pleasure and satisfaction from it," Koshiba told the newly enrolled students.
The school is located in the Yokohama Science Frontier area, a research and development base on the city's waterfront.
