Activities & News

Here, we introduce the recent activities and updates of the Kenji Tanaka Laboratory along with various photographs in a monthly news format!

[Notice]

The Kyushu University Chikushi Campus Open Campus will be held on Saturday, May 23, 2026. Please drop by our booth!
The video of our press release on June 10, 2024, titled "Discovery of a New Turbulence Transition in Fusion Plasma - Establishing an Innovative Operation Scenario for Fusion Reactors -" is available on YouTube here. Please check it out!

[April 2026]

Mr. Koki Sumida joined our laboratory as a Master's program student.

[March 2026]

Mr. Yoshihara successfully completed his Master's program degree.

We hosted a farewell party for Mr. Yoshihara. We wish him all the best and great success in his new career!

Mr. Okuwada (M1) presented a poster at the 28th Plasma Workshop for Young Scientists.
Mr. Jin (D1) gave an oral presentation at the 73rd Japan Society of Applied Physics (JSAP) Spring Meeting.

[February 2026]

Mr. Yoshihara (M2) successfully presented his research at the Master's thesis defense.

Mr. Yoshihara during his Master's thesis presentation.

[January 2026]

Prof. Tanaka gave an oral presentation at the Laser Society of Japan Annual Meeting.
Mr. Okuwada (M1) presented a poster at the Confinement and Transport Task Force Workshop.

[December 2025]

On December 25, the Large Helical Device (LHD) experimental program concluded its final plasma operation. For approximately 28 years since March 31, 1998, the LHD successfully conducted cutting-edge plasma operations. The Tanaka Laboratory mainly took charge of operating and maintaining the high-power $\text{CO}_2$ laser diagnostic systems throughout this long history. Moving forward, we will focus extensively on analyzing the massive amounts of accumulated experimental data and dedicate our efforts to developing next-generation diagnostics for future devices.

The very last pre-experimental morning meeting. (Prof. Tanaka served as the experimental leader on this final day.)

The control room right after the final plasma discharge was concluded.

Mr. Yoshihara (M2) presented a poster at the Japan Society of Plasma Science and Nuclear Fusion Research (JSPF) Annual Meeting.

[October 2025]

Prof. Tanaka and Dr. Toshiki Kinoshita (Assistant Professor at Kyushu University) presented their latest achievements at the 30th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference (FEC2025). Prof. Tanaka delivered an Overview talk titled "RECENT ADVANCES IN PLASMA CONTROL AND PHYSICS RESEARCH IN THE LARGE HELICAL DEVICE," and Dr. Kinoshita gave an oral presentation titled "DIRECT CONTROL OF TURBULENCE FOR IMPROVED PLASMA CONFINEMENT."

Prof. Tanaka and Dr. Kinoshita at the IAEA FEC.

[September 2025]

The LHD 26th experimental cycle has officially commenced.

[April 2025]

Mr. Hikaru Okuwada joined our laboratory as a Master's program student.

[February 2025]

Mr. Sakai (D3) successfully presented his research at his Ph.D. dissertation defense hearing.

Mr. Sakai during his Ph.D. defense presentation.

Mr. Yokomizo (M2) successfully presented his research at the Master's thesis defense.

Mr. Yokomizo during his Master's thesis presentation.

[January 2025]

Mr. Sakai (D3) won the Best Poster Award at the Kyushu University Energy Week 2025!

He won 1st place out of approximately 50 elite presenters.

[December 2024]

Prof. Tanaka gave an invited lecture titled "Development of Laser Phase Contrast Imaging for High-Temperature Plasma Turbulence Diagnostics" at the JSPF Kyushu-Okinawa-Yamaguchi Chapter Annual Meeting.
Mr. Yokomizo (M2) gave an oral presentation at the same chapter annual meeting.

[November 2024]

Prof. Tanaka visited Germany to participate in plasma experiments on the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) stellarator.

Dinner with W7-X researchers the night before the experimental campaign.

[September 2024]

Prof. Tanaka gave an oral presentation at the 24th Coordinated Working Group Meeting.
Prof. Tanaka gave an oral presentation at the 24th International Stellarator Heliotron Workshop (ISHW).

Enjoying sightseeing in Miyajima with fellow stellarator workshop participants.

[August 2024]

Prof. Tanaka visited the University of Wisconsin-Madison to facilitate the formal signing of a research collaboration agreement between NIFS and UW-Madison.

At the University of Wisconsin-Madison for the research collaboration agreement.

[July 2024]

Mr. Sakai (D3) presented a poster at the European Physical Society Conference on Plasma Physics (EPS 2024) in Salamanca, Spain.

This year's EPS was hosted in Spain. Four students rented an apartment together and enjoyed an excellent dinner with Associate Prof. Nakata from Komazawa University and Dr. Nakayama from QST. At the 1st Informal EPS Ranking Check, both seniors were lightheartedly certified as "Third-Rate Researchers" (vowing to redeem themselves next year!).

[May 2024]

Prof. Tanaka delivered an oral report at the NIFS Research Unit Achievements Meeting.

At the report meeting, the discovery of the turbulence transition in the LHD was highlighted as one of the most prominent achievements of the Visualizing Sensing Unit.

Our laboratory organized an interactive exhibition booth at the Kyushu University Chikushi Campus Open Campus event.

[April 2024]

Mr. Naoya Yoshihara joined our laboratory as a Master's program student.
Prof. Tanaka delivered an invited lecture at the 13th Advanced Lasers and Photon Sources (ALPS 2024) international conference.

[March 2024]

Mr. Sakai (D2) delivered both an oral and a poster presentation at the 26th Plasma Workshop for Young Scientists.

[January 2024]

Mr. Sakai (D2) won the prestigious Best Presentation Award for Young Scientists (Student Session, Fusion Plasma Regime) at the 40th JSPF Annual Meeting!

His presentation topic was "Development of a Sweeping Detector System for Two-Dimensional Phase Contrast Imaging." His highly innovative methodology—combining a 1ch fixed detector with a 1D 16ch sweeping detector to achieve diagnostic performance equivalent to a full 2D-PCI grid—received outstanding evaluation. This technique has also been deployed on the W7-X PCI system in Germany and is already capturing data, opening exciting avenues for detailed structural comparisons of turbulence between the LHD and W7-X.

Mr. Sakai (D2) presented a poster at the Kyushu University Energy Week 2024 and won the Outstanding Poster Award!

His presentation title was "Uncovering Turbulence-Driven Transport Physics in Hydrogen Isotope Plasmas Through Advanced Diagnostic Development." This project was funded through the "Jun-ichi Miyamoto Hydrogen Research Incentive Award," an elite support system at Kyushu University that covers half of the tuition fees for Master's students and full tuition exemptions for Ph.D. candidates until graduation.

[December 2023]

A peer-reviewed paper authored by Mr. Sakai (D2), titled "Development of sweeping detector phase contrast imaging in Large Helical Device," was formally published in the journal JINST.
Mr. Sakai (D2) gave an oral presentation at the JSPF Kyushu-Okinawa-Yamaguchi Chapter 29th Annual Meeting.
Prof. Tanaka and Mr. Sakai (D2) gave oral presentations at the Confinement and Transport Task Force Workshop.
Members of the Tanaka Lab participated in the annual year-end (Bonenkai) party of the NIFS Visualizing Sensing Unit.

This marked our first post-pandemic year-end party, bringing together research staff, administrative personnel, and students. Since we forgot to take a group photo during the main party, this snapshot captures the members who stayed for the after-party. Cheers to a great upcoming year!

[November 2023]

Prof. Tanaka and Mr. Sakai (D2) delivered oral presentations at the 40th JSPF Annual Meeting. Prof. Tanaka also contributed a poster session presentation.

[October 2023]

Mr. Yokomizo (M1) relocated to Gifu and formally launched his research life at the NIFS facility.
Prof. Tanaka contributed a poster presentation at the 29th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference (FEC 2023) in London, UK.
Dr. Toshiki Kinoshita (Kyushu University Assistant Professor and Tanaka Lab alumnus) won the prestigious Excellent Poster Award at the 29th IAEA FEC!

The formal award ceremony took place during the closing session on October 21. This competitive award was newly introduced at this conference to honor the top 3 early-career researchers within 8 years of receiving their degrees. The award recognized the breakthrough research Dr. Kinoshita conducted during his Ph.D. studies titled "Turbulence transition and its role in isotope effects in LHD." Featuring "LHD" and "isotope effects" prominently in his title, his victory powerfully highlighted the major achievements of the LHD deuterium experimental campaigns to the global community.

[September 2023]

A peer-reviewed paper authored by Mr. Sakai (D2), titled "Observation of Interaction between Fast Ions and Turbulence in Large Helical Device," was published in the journal PFR.
Mr. Sakai (D2) presented a poster at the 20th International Symposium on Laser-Aided Plasma Diagnostics (LAPD20) in Kyoto, Japan.

(Top) The symposium was hosted in Kyoto, with Prof. Tanaka serving as the chairperson of the local organizing committee. Marking our first face-to-face gathering after the pandemic, the event drew a historic turnout of over 110 international experts.

(Middle Left) The symposium featured an innovative "pre-poster" session requiring presenters to deliver a rapid 2-minute oral summary of their work prior to the main poster session; Mr. Sakai successfully delivered his brief.

(Middle Right) Our alumnus Dr. Kinoshita also gave a presentation.

(Bottom Left) Following the formal banquet, an enthusiastic group headed out for late-night karaoke! Totaling 16 participants, the musical energy in the room reached extreme levels...

(Bottom Right) Mr. Sakai singing "Piano Man" arm-in-arm with Professor Tony Donné, the CEO of EUROfusion! "The next time I cross paths with Tony, we are definitely singing together again (Sakai)."

[August 2023]

A peer-reviewed paper authored by Mr. Sakai (D2), titled "Application of Digital Phase Analysis to Far-Infrared Laser Interferometer for the Large Helical Device," was published in the journal PFR.
We hosted an intensive laboratory course at Kyushu University. This hands-on curriculum placed heavy emphasis on experimental training, requiring students to work in teams to achieve the precise alignment of homodyne and heterodyne laser interferometer grids.

(Left) The heterodyne interferometer grid built by Mr. Sakai, who served as the course Teaching Assistant. His assembly speed is getting faster every year!

(Right) The pristine interference fringes captured from a homodyne alignment. Every student group successfully unlocked clean fringe patterns.

[May 2023]

Our laboratory set up an interactive booth at the Kyushu University Chikushi Campus Open Campus event.

(Left) A portable plasma ball proved highly popular at the QUEST exhibit booth, with visitors fascinated by how the plasma paths reacted to their touch.

(Right) Mr. Yokomizo explaining scientific concepts to visitors. He proactively engaged with prospective graduate students visiting our booth.

[April 2023]

Mr. Koshi Yokomizo joined our laboratory as a Master's program student.

[March 2023]

・Prof. Tanaka and Mr. Sakai (D1) visited the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Greifswald, Germany, to conduct collaborative experimental campaigns and diagnostic development.

(Top Left) Prof. Tanaka arriving at the institute, which features beautifully modern architectural design. (Top Right) Prof. Tanaka engaging in intense scientific discussions with Dr. Adrian Stechow; their specialized English was blazing fast! (Sakai).
(Bottom Left) Prof. Tanaka kindly cooked an authentic fried rice for dinner—it was seasoned beautifully with soy sauce and tasted amazing! (Sakai). (Bottom Right) Mr. Sakai with members of the IPP PCI diagnostic group. He stayed in Germany completely on his own to manage the final week of operations.

・Prof. Tanaka visited the Joint European Torus (JET) facility in Culham, UK, to engage in joint experimental analysis and scientific modeling.

He spent a productive week at the JET facility, working in collaboration with a Finnish research team on evaluating particle transport and confinement physics across deuterium, tritium, and helium plasma discharges.

・Mr. Toshiki Kinoshita successfully completed his Doctoral program and received his Ph.D.!

Heartfelt congratulations on obtaining your Ph.D.! He stands as the very first Ph.D. graduate to emerge from the Tanaka Laboratory. Starting this April, he will take up a new post as an Assistant Professor in Prof. Ido's group at Kyushu University.

[February 2023]

・Mr. Kinoshita (D3) concluded his final day at the NIFS facility to move on to his next academic step.

He worked incredibly hard throughout his 5 years in our lab, delivering immense contributions across diagnostic engineering, hardware alignment, operational control, and data analysis.

・Mr. Kinoshita (D3) delivered a stellar performance at his Ph.D. dissertation defense public hearing.

He faced several sharp questions from the committee, but thanks to his meticulous preparation, he answered every question accurately and confidently. It was an excellent presentation.

[January 2023]

・Mr. Sakai (D1) presented a poster at the Kyushu University Energy Week 2023 (EW2023).

The poster sessions took place at the expansive Ito Campus in Fukuoka.

[December 2022]

・The LHD 24th experimental cycle has concluded, marking the final experimental campaign within the historical grand LHD project roadmap.

[November 2022]

・Mr. Sakai (D1) contributed poster presentations at both the 31st International Toki Conference (ITC31) and the 39th JSPF Annual Meeting.

[October 2022]

・The LHD 24th experimental cycle has officially commenced, launching the final experimental campaign of the LHD device.

[August 2022]

・We are performing intensive hardware maintenance and tuning on our diagnostic instruments ahead of the upcoming experimental cycle. This season requires extensive, hands-on field operations inside the main LHD torus hall.

(Left) Prof. Tanaka tracking vacuum data for the detector housings, (Center) Mr. Kinoshita performing fine alignment on an interferometer beam, (Right) Mr. Sakai filling a detector housing with liquid nitrogen.

[July 2022]

・Mr. Kinoshita (D3) delivered an oral presentation at the European Physical Society Conference on Plasma Physics (EPS 2022).

The conference was held remotely. Mr. Kinoshita was selected for a highly competitive oral slot from an international pool of candidates.

[June 2022]

・Prof. Tanaka delivered an invited lecture at the International Stellarator-Heliotron Workshop (ISHW 2022) in Warsaw, Poland.

The photo captures Prof. Tanaka engaging in a productive Q&A discussion with Professor Per Helander from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics.

[May 2022]

・We hosted an evening research discussion meeting with Professor Ido and Technical Staff Member Kawano-san from the Research Institute for Applied Mechanics, Kyushu University.

At a local Yakitori restaurant in Tajimi City. It was wonderful to host a lively evening discussion face-to-face after a long interval.

・Mr. Sakai (D1) won the prestigious Jun-ichi Miyamoto Hydrogen Research Incentive Award! This grand scholarship grants him a full tuition fee exemption for the entire 3 years of his Doctoral program.

・Our lab members introduced the Tanaka Lab and assisted with the QUEST device exhibition at the Kyushu University Chikushi Campus Open Campus event. We hope we inspired many visiting minds to explore plasma physics and look into NIFS and the Tanaka Lab!

[April 2022]

・Mr. Sakai (D1) was formally appointed as a NIFS Research Fellow.

[March 2022]

・Mr. Sakai (M2) successfully submitted his Master's thesis titled "Study on Diagnostic Development for Electronic Density Macroscopic Fluctuations and Turbulence in LHD" and won the prestigious Outstanding Department Award! He will continue his scientific career by advancing into our Doctoral program.

Mr. Sakai graduated 2nd in his entire class within the Department of Advanced Energy Engineering Science.

・Prof. Tanaka, alongside Associate Prof. Masahiro Kobayashi and Professor Katsumi Ida from NIFS, held a formal press conference titled "Shaking the Plasma Cage Lowers Thermal Load." This prominent physics breakthrough demonstrated for the first time that microscopic turbulence can be leveraged to reduce heat loads, utilizing the advanced turbulence diagnostics built by our laboratory.

[December 2021]

・Mr. Kinoshita (D2) gave an oral presentation titled "Impact of Turbulence Transition on Isotope Effects in LHD" at the JSPF Kyushu Chapter Annual Meeting.

・Mr. Sakai (M2) delivered an oral presentation titled "Introduction of a Digital Phase Analysis Methodology to the Far-Infrared Laser Interferometer on LHD" at the JSPF Kyushu Chapter Annual Meeting and won the prestigious Presentation Encouragement Award!

Mr. Sakai was presented with a beautiful certificate and an elegant commemorative plaque.

[November 2021]

・Prof. Tanaka, alongside Associate Prof. Numami from NIFS and Dr. Warmer from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, held a joint press conference titled "Crucial Impacts of Magnetic Configurations on Thermal Transport in Helical/Stellarator Systems." This prominent international comparative study between the LHD in Japan and the Wendelstein 7-X in Germany revealed for the first time that the helical configuration on the LHD is highly effective at suppressing micro-turbulence.

The press conference hall. We received a high volume of sharp questions from journalists, leading to a highly lively session. Dr. Warmer also joined the press conference remotely from Germany.

・Prof. Tanaka delivered an invited lecture titled "Investigations of Magnetic Configuration Effects on Turbulence Driven Transport from LHD and W7-X Comparison Experiments" at the 30th International Toki Conference (ITC30).

・Mr. Kinoshita (D2) delivered an oral presentation titled "Observation of turbulence transition in LHD" at ITC30.

・Mr. Sakai (M2) delivered an oral presentation titled "Development of phase contrast imaging using 1.06um YAG laser for micro-turbulence measurements" at ITC30.

[September 2021]

・Prof. Tanaka contributed a poster presentation titled "Isotope effects on particle transport in TCV ohmic discharge" at the 25th Joint EU-US Transport Task Force Meeting.

[July 2021]

・Mr. Kinoshita (D2) gave an oral presentation titled "Hydrogen isotope effect on multi-scale turbulence and its role on transport in Large Helical Device" at the 5th Asia-Pacific Conference on Plasma Physics (AAPPS-DPP 2021).

[April 2021]

・The research proposal led by Prof. Tanaka, titled "New Horizons in Turbulence-Driven Transport Studies Using Advanced Laser Diagnostics Under Fusion Reactor-Equivalent Conditions," was successfully awarded a prestigious Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) (Kakenhi 基盤A)!

・Prof. Tanaka delivered a prominent keynote lecture titled "Isotope effects on transport in LHD" at the US Transport Task Force Meeting.

・Mr. Kinoshita (D2) was formally selected for the highly competitive JSPS Research Fellowship for Young Scientists (DC2).

[March 2021]

・Mr. Shun Adachi successfully completed his Master's program degree. He will launch his professional career at Hitachi, where he will be directly involved in engineering neutral beam injection (NBI) systems for fusion applications.

Celebrating Mr. Adachi's commencement and next professional step.

・Prof. Tanaka successfully returned to Japan after completing his tenure as a Visiting Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, where he led hydrogen isotope particle transport experiments on the TCV tokamak.

The TCV tokamak device alongside his prominent collaborator, Dr. Stefano Coda.

・Mr. Sakai (M1) delivered an oral presentation titled "Development of a Phase Contrast Imaging Diagnostic Methodology Utilizing a 1.06um YAG Laser for Micro-Turbulence Measurements" at the Physical Society of Japan (JPS) 76th Annual Meeting.

[September 2020]

・Prof. Tanaka traveled to Switzerland to take up his formal appointment as a Visiting Professor at EPFL.

[March 2020]

・Mr. Toshiki Kinoshita successfully completed his Master's program degree and won the prestigious Best Student Award! He will continue his research by advancing into our Doctoral program.

Mr. Kinoshita graduated 1st in his entire class within the Department of Advanced Energy Engineering Science.

[November 2019]

・Prof. Tanaka traveled to the UK to participate in specialized experimental campaigns at the Joint European Torus (JET) facility.

Inside the main JET control room, reuniting with Dr. Clive Michael and his family.

[September 2019]

・Dr. Clive Michael, who played an invaluable role in constructing our initial $\text{CO}_2$ laser diagnostic systems at NIFS from 2005 to 2008, visited the institute. He currently conducts advanced fusion research at UCLA and works extensively on the MAST-U device in the UK.

Dr. Clive Michael revisiting the LHD hall after a long interval.

[August 2019]

・The NIFS diagnostics project group hosted its traditional annual summer BBQ party.

This gathering took place right after Mr. Hikona Sakai, then an undergraduate senior, formally decided to join the Tanaka Lab for his graduate studies.

[July 2019]

・Prof. Tanaka delivered an invited lecture at the European Physical Society Conference on Plasma Physics (EPS 2019) in Milan, Italy.

[March 2019]

・Mr. Takumi Maki successfully completed his Master's program degree. He will launch his professional career at NTT Docomo, focusing on advanced telecommunication network architecture.

Celebrating Mr. Maki's graduation (right). Our alumnus Mr. Takeshida (left) also traveled back to join the celebration!

[February 2018]

・Professor Tony Donné, the Program Manager and leader of EUROfusion, visited the NIFS facility. Professor Donné is himself a world-renowned authority on laser diagnostics.

Guiding Professor Donné (center) inside the physical vacuum vessel chamber of the LHD.

[March 2017]

・Mr. Shota Takeshida successfully completed his Master's program degree.

Looking a bit nervous! Mr. Takeshida lent immense support to setting up and creating our very first laboratory web pages.

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