Kiyoshi Kurokawa's blog （en）

'SURVIVAL', a new TV series on global health by BBC

The British Embassy hosted a panel session and reception to introduce BBC program 'SURVIVAL'  focusing on global health.  This is a set of eight (8) one hour documentaries on eight major global health issues, which include malaria, maternal health, child survival, HIV/tuberculosis, sleeping sickness.  The program will be on air in October thru November.  It is planned to produce a 50 minutes program edited from the set of these 8 series, which will become open to public access (guide to downloading and embeding documentary series).  The objective is to raise the public awareness on global health.  This is a collaborative project with Imperial College, Rockhopper and BBC supported by the Gates Foundation.

The evening began with a welcome opening speech by Ambassador Warren followed by 10-15 min each of 4 films.  I participated the panel moderated by Ms. Doden of NHK, a well known TV caster, with 3 women, each representing corporate (Ms. Chino of Itochu), NGO (Ms. Aoki of SHARE) and university (Prof. Ohnishi of Nagasaki University), and two 'senior' men (Mr. Tadashi Yamamoto of JCIE and myself) as panelists, seemingly an unusual 4:2 gender balance in Japan.  I enjoyed the film show and the panel very much.
(See photos of the event)

In the reception, two remarkable young man and woman showed up and told their own stories on Africa.  Power of Bicycle!

A man is Kohei Yamada, worked in Mali, Africa, as a member of JICA; he wrote a song 'Love You' in a local language a message to his friend who died of AIDS, which became number one hit in the chart.  In the reception he sang this song in local language with an African percussionist.  He continues his work on HIV/AIDS and Africa.  Visit his web site.

A woman is Mio Yamazaki, told her story with her slides of bicycling sub-Saharan Africa; while in College, she bicycled 6,000km around Japan, another 5,000km Africa.  What's a girl she is!  She published a book on her African bicycle tour, organized NGO 'Cow-Way' for 'social change by cycling'.

The youth power!  That's what we need much more in Japan for CHANGE!

The evening was full of enthusiasm with a recognition of and sense of engagement to global health.  Thank you all for joining the evening and for the Ambassador Warren and the British Embassy to host this event.

Medical students from Asia: Cheers for young people and 3 speeches

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There is a gathering of medical students from Asia known as AMSC (Asian Medical Students Conference).  This conference is held annually, and I was invited for the last 3 years.  I enjoy this event every time.  I like to be a part of such conference of youth organizations since they are pillars of the future human resource.  This was the 29th year and the conference was held at Tokyo.  I talked in the closing ceremony.  I heared that about 400 students have participated.  The point of my speech was the tremendous change that had occurred in these 29 years and about the globalization era.  I also talked about on "3 speeches."

The 3 speeches were, the speech given by Steve Jobs at commencement ceremony of Stanford University in the year 2005 (I told the students that "I hope and look forward that this 1 week conference become a "dot" of your career."),  speech given by Bill Gates at commencement ceremony of Harvard University in 2007 (It was about recognition of and consciousness for "Inequality" in the world and society.) and the "Last Lecture" of Randy Pausch at Carnegie Mellon University (About the childhood "Dream."  Even if you face many problems, do not forget that you all had a "Dream" to become doctors.  Refer 1, 2 ).

You can have a look at these speeches on YouTube.  Each one of them is a wonderful speech.  The "Last Lecture" of Professor Pausch became a book and Japanese translation was published just a few days ago.

It must have been a lot of work for staff students who organized this conference.  It was really a wonderful conference.

MBA students in pharma-business from Philadelphia

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Philadelphia is my American home-town where I started my professional career in US at the University of Pennsylvania.

The University of Science in Philadelphia is unique and it offers various programs focusing on pharmaceutical and pharmacy sciences and businesses: it also offers courses for MBA program in this area.  The MBA program offers students a summer course to visit Japan and this year it includes a visit to GRIPS where I am a member of faculty.  I hosted a seminar taking an interactive dialogue style posing a wide range of subjects relevant to these future professionals in healthcare and global health issues.

Photos  Group photo and the session at GRIPS

As I did for Harvard students of School of Public Health, I began asking them how many know and watched on the web of the commencement speeches of Steve Jobs at Stanford in 2005 and of Bill Gates at Harvard in 2006.  The background of about 10 students was quite diverse, which made the session a very interesting and rich.  I enjoyed very much the exchange.

Seattle, USA

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I am now in Seattle, participating in Pacific Health Summit which is held annually in June since last 4 years.  I have attended the first conference four years ago, but could not make it to the 2nd and 3rd conference due to some other schedule.

This year's theme was "Nutrition" and I participated in a panel on "Soaring Food Prices, MDG (Millennium Development Goals)."  The host was Peter Singer from Toronto University, one of my old friends.  The problem of nutrition and food is a global challenge.  As the FAO conference held in Rome 2 weeks ago was not so successful, it may not be easy, but the topic is expected to be in the agenda of Toyako Summit to be held in July.

Photo 1  Dr. Kondo of HPI and Dr. Sunil Chacko

Photo 2 At the panel with Dr. Peter Singer on my right, Dr. Marc Van Ameringen, Director General of GAIN on my left(we were together in the Conference held in February.)

Recently, I am immersed in TICAD as well as G8 Summit, greenhouse, energy, poverty, development and issues in Africa, etc.   It's nice, I see same people (refer 1 and 2 ) on one hand and also get acquainted with new people on the other hand.  The world is "flat" now and issues have become global.  I feel that challenges that Japan and each one of us will face in the future will be very big.  I also met Dr. Margeret Chan, Director General of WHO whom I haven't seen since last year.  She is also exercising great leadership skills.

Seattle is a very beautiful city with beautiful waterfronts and woods.  The weather was fine and I enjoyed my stay very much.  I even went to see the game of Mariners using my free time.  This year their condition was not so good.  Audience was small (almost 1/4th of the capacity of stadium), and Ichiro had 2 strikeouts.  It was a boring match since the team lacked the "winning" spirit.  But applause for Ichiro was greatest in his home ground and I think he will appear in the "All Star Game" this year too (last year he was the MVP).  What a pity that Jojima was not a part of starting member!  As expected, the replacement of the manager was announced on the next day.

Photo 3  Mariner's Game

Photo 4  Ichiro at bat

TICAD4 Yokohama and Asahi newspaper chief editor Bono

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A large number of achievements were released from Japan at TICAD4, held in Yokohama, I can say.  Having heads from 40 countries in Africa to the conference, the Prime Minister Fukuda met and talked personally with them almost every day.  In addition, he talked with Dr. Bono as well as Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, UN Secretary-general Adviser.  Japanese Government certainly worked hard and did a good job. I feel that the Prime Minister strengthened his recognition of the importance of the activities of NGO.

Photo 1  From left, with my staff members Hara kun and Ms. Sugiyama, Dr. Pablos-Mendes at the TICAD Conference

I also attended the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize ceremony and lectures of the prizewinners at the United Nations University on the next day, participated in the panel of "Action Wave" organizer Mr. Koji Omi, with the President of Rwanda and Professor Juma of Harvard University.  Since I had just received the photograph of a lecture by Mr. Ito Ken of Tokyo University in Rwanda, I was inspired to start this panel with his story.  Here also, many Japanese young people are working hard.

Photo 2  Dr. Ito teaching at Rwanda

In the excellent project of "one day chief editor" of Asahi Newspaper, Dr. Bono edited the newspaper of May 31, and discussed various topics such as Africa and TICAD and it was sparklingly different from regular newspaper.  In addition, he wrote about Africa support program budget of Japan that was announced at TICAD.

Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize

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The inaugural ceremony of "Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize" was held in the evening of May 28th, the first day of TICAD 4, in the presence of Emperor and Empress.

Dr. Greenwood and Dr. Were, the winners of the award, are great people who have embodied the spirit of Hideyo Noguchi.  They are both very modest and friendly.  Such a great work performed by husbands and wives, supporting and helping each other in Africa for a period of more than 30 years is very respectable.  As a selection committee chairman, I am happy from the bottom of my heart that we are able to present to the world with great pride this excellent selection result.

Photograph 1

The head of states and chief of government of more than 40 countries from Africa have participated in this celemony and it was really a refreshing and pleasant reception that reflected the personality of both of them.

Photograph 2

Photograph 3

Photograph 4

Photograph 5

Photograph 6

Former Prime Minister Mr. Koizumi, as a founder of this award, greeted everyone and said, "It seems that, today the spirit of Dr. Noguchi has come down over all the people in this assembly hall."  We came to know afterwards that this was an improvisation and was not in the original draft.  It's a good expression, isn't it?  There really was that sort of an atmosphere in the entire assembly hall.

Next day in the afternoon, Dr. Greenwood and Dr. Were both gave speech at the United Nations University at Aoyama.  Ms. Doden of NHK led panel of three (myself and the two) which was also good.  After that, they went to visit Inawashiro, the birthplace of Hideyo Noguchi.  There was a grand welcome in Inawashiro.  Details are written in the Blog of Mr. Kanke, Mayor of Aizu Wakamatsu city (29th May, 30th May).  I imagine that they learned something new about Hideyo Noguchi at the actual place of his upbringing.  The winners and their family enjoyed the visit, I hear.  For a moment, I felt much closer to Africa again.

Our Article in Nikkei Shinbun on Global Health Summit

We organized in February, "Global Health Summit; TICAD, G8 and beyond" with World Bank and other leading agencies on Global Health.  The program could be seen through our website.  To disseminate our core messages, we published them as an article in Nikkei Shinbun, leading press widely read by business sector of Japan.

I hope you will enjoy and support our messages.  Now appears in English.

　Japan Should Demonstrate Leadership in Global Health
　（JAPAN ECHO.　June 2008 pp51-53.）

Meeting with Mr. Bill Gates

I flew to Jakarta in the morning of May 7th to participate “The Government Leaders Forum –Asia” organized by Microsoft, and delivered Keynote speech in the panel ‘IT and Healthcare.’  Perhaps there are some 20 Japanese participants who included Vice President of Keio University, one of IT-gurus of Japan, Prof. Jun Murai, and Mayor of Hiroshima City, Mr. Akiba.

This series of Conference began in USA, in Europe, and now the forth year in Asia.  Plenary speakers were included Indonesian Minister, Dr. Surin (we met three times in the last 2 months), Director General of ASEAN and two senior executives of Microsoft. Then followed by three panels in Day 1.  In Day 2, speeches of President of Indonesia and Mr. Bill Gates will be delivered, but I had to leave Jakarta in the evening of Day 1, so that I will miss the program of Day 2.  Thus, I was out of Japan for only 44 hours.

After my panel session, I had a private meeting with Mr. Gates for about 30 minutes discussing several issues of our common interest that included Global Health Summit we hosted this February, G8 Summits and other global issues and IT in education and healthcare (photo: his staff and assistants were understandably very nervous).  He is very smart and sharp and quietly looking into documents I handed out to him.  Mr. Oigawa, senior executive of Microsoft Japan told me that he has not seen Mr. Gates so relaxed and pleased in a meeting.

To Singapore, Paris and Cassis

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Departed for Singapore on 24th afternoon.  Checked-in at the hotel around midnight.  On 25th, there was a board of directors meeting of A*STAR.  We moved crisply with the busy proceedings and discussions as usual, and visited newly established immunity laboratory in the evening.  As Japan is strong in this field, I think that it is a good place for a young researcher to become independent.  Also, I had a talk on the phone with Prof. Ito from Kyoto University virus laboratory who is working here.

Within 24 hours after arriving to Singapore, I left for Paris on 25th late at night.  After relaxing the whole day, in the evening, I had been invited along with Dr. Mario Tokoro, president of SONY Computer Science Laboratory  and Dr. Kitano from the French friends residing in Paris.  So we five had dinner at the exclusive members club situated between Japanese embassy and British embassy at St. Honore.  We talked on various lively topics and I was convinced that the people who are talking with, atmosphere, tradition and the environment of the place are very important.  Such things are not possible even if we spent money and tried to imitate it.

The weather in Paris was wonderful.  Atmosphere was pleasant and the trees were in beautiful greens.  This is the best season to stay Paris in the year.  The feeling was very good.  I stayed in Paris in this season last year too.  Sometimes, it is nice to spend time with relaxation in a foreign country.  However, it was well enough busy schedules.

On 26th, I left from Gare de Lyon to Marseille.  From there I went to Cassis.  It was a small conference with the theme "Sustainability," organized by SONY laboratory.  It was held at Camargue last year.

I visited UNESCO-L'Oreal in March, Minister Pecresse visited me and I was interviewed by French TV in April.  I feel like I am being immersed in France these days.

Photo1  Cassis port

Photo2  Hotel where I was staying.

Photo3　Cassis Coastline

Photos 1～3 are senery of Cassis.  This resort are surrounded by white cliff, it was like Zushi Japan. It is the place where airplane of Antoine de Saint Exupéry, famous for "The Little Prince," was hit and sunk down.

ACP Japan Chapter annual meeting

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As introduced number of times in this blog, American College of Physicians (ACP) has branch office in Japan and is supported by Japanese Society of Internal Medicine.  It is the first branch outside the American Continent, working on the mission to bring up proper physicians in the global era
Professor David Dale (University of Washington, Seattle), President from the headquarters visited to Japan with his wife this year also and we had a delightful dinner together on April 11th (Photograph 1).

Photograph 1
Dinner with Professor Dr. and Mrs. Dale.
From left Professor Dale with Mrs. Dale, Dr. Hiyama, Ms. Miyamoto (Secretary General) , Dr, Ueno and me.

In the annual meeting on April 12th, various ideas were put into in the program.  "Britain-U.S. style case discussion" was conducted for the medical students and residents, and there was a "female doctor's activity" research presentation and discussion by the medical students in the afternoon session.  This is a program of the committee being organized by female doctors.  The main topics of this year were problems of female doctors, leadership, mentor and there was a powerful lecture by Guest Dr. Heshiki (former professor of Saitama Medical College radiation department who also worked at Johns Hopkins etc.).

Moreover, "Ichimoku Ryozen: self-explanatory" by Professor Gremillion of Kamogawa Hospital in Chiba Prefecture which is well known for its good clinical training is becoming popular every year.  It is a presentation with the well-designed cases that feature examples that are characteristic in Japan also.  Please consider it as model.

Neary 100 members of the branch are doing activities of translating the articles of Journals such as "Annals of Internal Medicine", quickly loading it onto the web-site and informing about it via mail.  This year, they were awarded with the Evergreen prize from head office.  The credit goes to all who participated. I hear that it is utilized by lots of members and used at the actual sites of diagnosis, treatment and clinical education.  Requesting you all to become a member.

Professor Ide who is expanding the activity of "Psychiatry in Primary Care" won the Volunteer Award.

It is an activity also important from the perspective of current state of Japan especially where "depression" is increasing in these 10 years.  Congratulations and expecting increasing activities in the future.

In the end, a reception was held as usual and it was an enjoyable event with the participation of Dr. Hinohara and much more students and residents this year (photograph 2).  Afterward I received many thankful mails from students.  I would like you to experience the world widely and pursue a suitable career in the global era.  The future is for young people.

Photograph 2

With students at the reception. I enjoy this most.

(Photographs from Mr.Hirayama who had sent me a mail)

Announcement of Winner of Noguchi Hideyo Africa Prize

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Prime Minister Mr. Koizumi announced "Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize" during his visit to Africa in May 2006.  The prize is granted in 2 sections, the prize for the medical contribution for health problems of Africa and other one is contribution for health care, which attracts the attention of not only Africa but also the world.  The award ceremony is held in this end of May joining with TICAD.  On this occasion, 2 winners were decided and announced.  Although I had played a role of the chief of selection committee member, I was very glad for getting out the unanimous conclusion. 

Mr. Greenwood from England was awarded in the medical field had played an active role in the medical field for 30 years in Africa as a doctor and contributed for the various measures against malaria and infective diseases.   

In the health care field, Dr. Were of Kenya was awarded.  Despite many objections, ｓhe also built the fundamental sanitation environment over 40 years keeping focus especially on females and children and continued it steadily.  She has great contribution in promoting the health in Kenya as well as in Africa.

This news was reported all over the world especially at Rockefeller University, WHO(which very much supported Dr. Noguchi as his centers of activities), UZIMA Foundation and World Bank(which are the center of activities of Dr. Were). 
I think this is a good opportunity to give momentum to Japan leadership towards TICAD in May and G8 summit in July though.

Following sites are the news reports and responses from various countries. Please refer it.

British Embassy in Japan
Ministry of Foreign Affairs

<international organization>
WHO
World Bank
Rockefeller University
Gates Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
Roll Back Malaria Partnership
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
PEPFAR
AMREF
Medicines for Malaria Venture
Association of School of Public Health
Global Health Council
USAIDS
Society for International Development
UN radio
University 500 news

<press coverage inside Japan> (English version. There were many articles in Japanese.)
Japan Today

<press coverage outside Japan>
Kenya Broadcasting Corporation
Breitbart
Capital FM
Africa Science News Service
Apanews
Africa News Source
Africa News
The Nations (Kenya)
Medical News Today
Medical Health Articles
Health Care Industry
a2 media group
Med Store News
Latin America News Agency
Kinhua PR Newswire
Institute of Medical Infomation/Medical Library in China
YNCDC in China
Korean Healthlog

However, still Japan's Overseas Aid has declined remarkably.  In the 1990's, it was world's No.1, having great contribution in revival of Asia and also in growth.  Now Japan, still the world's 2nd country in GDP, is
on the 5th place and it is assumed to be distanced by US, Germany, France and also by UK.  It is predicted to be distanced one after another by Holland, Spain etc.  Although it is the financial condition, it is regrettable.  It becomes a national reliance and trust problem.  Japan has difficulty in changing its policies.

Though the world has changed rapidly, Japan is too focused to domestic issues to change.  Isn’t it?  The leaders respectively from government, bureaucracy, industry and academia have to contribute definitely.  Anyone can give reasons for not doing something.  Responsibility is the behavior.

Welcoming Leaders-to-Be on Global Health

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One of my former associate at Health Policy Institute, Mr. Ban-no (see blog on Aug. 2007.～sorry, but this is in Japanese on my visit to New Delhi), who now studies at Harvard University School of Public Health.  He brought with him some 30 classmates to Japan and I was invited to give a welcome speech for their Day 1.  I began by asking them whether they read or listened to the 2007 Commencement speeches at Harvard by Bill Gates and another one at Stanford 2005, by Steven Jobs.  Surprisingly or not, a handful knew about these speeches, thus I strongly recommended them to read and view them on the web, benefits of our connected world.  Mr. Gates and Jobs both delivered quite passionate and moving messages to these selected small number of students what they could think of in their future career.

I discussed the issues on global health, MDGs, and related matters they would and should challenge.  It was a very enjoyable one hour for all and all students seemed enjoy our interaction.  One student from Iraq later sent me a moving email which reflects the status of his country and his career and I replied with encouragements toward our common goals.

photo1　Our group picture

They then will visit a couple of places over a week.  But when I was told that they will visit Hiroshima with a visit to A-Bomb memorial, I strongly suggested them to try to see Ms. Nassrine Azimi, Director of UNITAR in Hiroshima.  She is one of the most intelligent and most inspiring persons I met.  So I called her office, but she was out in Thai, then, but just back in time to greet them later in the week in Hiroshima.  I received an email from Mr. Ban-no to tell me how fortunate they felt they were to see her even for a short time to discuss various matters including A-Bomb and also a ‘thank you’ email from her, too.  Unexpected encounters are often a step for something new of significance and I am sure this could be such one for some of students.

Meeting with Mr. Blair and participating in “Blair Project”

From March 14 to 16, “G20 meeting of ministers of energy and environment” was held in Makuhari, Chiba prefecture.

In the morning of 13th, I met with Prof. Sachs and discussed about the latest Global Health Summit, as well as the announcement made by president Bush during his visit to Africa, on additional support for Africa on neglected infectious diseases other than HIV, Malaria, and tuberculosis.  We also discussed about various types of ODAs, supports that can produce visible outcomes, and how we could best fund them.  From late afternoon, a meeting organized by Columbia University was held in Shanghai, to which I was invited, but unfortunately had to be excused.

I then rushed to the 3rd meeting of GIES, “GIES2008.”  “GIES2007” held in June 2007, and there my talk on “Innovation25,” is available on webcast.

In the morning of March 14, I had breakfast with Honorable Malcolm Wicks, Minister of State of Energy of the United Kingdom, who participated in the “G20” meeting.  In the late morning of March 15, I with several others met with Mr. Tony Blair, prime minister of England until last year (Photo 1).  Mr. Blair delivered a keynote lecture early in the morning at G20 meeting. We discussed primarily on climate change and its policy of upcoming G8 Summit, China policy, issues on developing countries, and other related issues.  Mr. Blair highlighted the topic of climate change for the first time at his Gleneagles G8 summit in 2005, and since then he is sincerely working hard to follow up the theme.  He works closely Davos meeting, and co-presided a lecture given by prime minister, Mr. Fukuda, this year’s Davos meeting.  Mr Blair has continued his effort through various mechanisms to work on thi and other major global issues.  I have been invited to join his team and am looking forward to participate in this honorable endeavor.  Mr. Blair will head to next destination, Beijing and New Delhi, and I have already starting to correspond with his staffs by e-mail.  No time to waste!

Photo1　With Mr. Tony Blair

March 16, lunch at “Global warming symposium” organized by Ministry of Environment, Tokyo, and Nikkei (photo 2), followed by keynote lecture by Mr. Blair, and a panel by Mr. Kamoshita, Ishihara, etc (photo 3).  Excerpts will hopefully appear in Nikkei Shinbun sometime soon.

Photo2　Lunch with Mr. Blair. From left, myself, President Nishizawa of Tokyo Metropolitan University, Mr. Namiki, vice Minister of Environment, Mr. Graham Fry, British Ambassador to Japan, Mr. Blair, Mr. Ishihara



Photo3　 From left on the panel discussion, Mr. Kamoshita, Minister of Environment, Mr. Blair, Mr. Ishihara





Photo4　Before the lecture, myself with Mr Graham Fry, British Ambassador to Japan

Global Health part 2

In the morning of February 16th, our NPO Health Policy Institute (HPI) held the annual “Medical Policy Summit” with our directors, advisors and members. The half-day meeting includes four panels focused on various issues on Japan’s health system.

Based on our 3-year activity at HPI, it may be time to expand our scope to go global, thus this year, we held an international conference in the afternoon, “Global Health Summit: Advancing our promises for TICAD/G8 and Beyond”. The MC was NHK’s Ms. Doden.

Former Prime Minister, Mr. Jun-ichiro Koizumi addressed the key note speech about “Food and Environment”. As may be expected, his speech was vibrant and fully attracted the audience. He talked for exactly 30 minutes without a manuscript or memo. His speech covered from beriberi, change of eating habits, longevity in Japan, the Japanese word “HENJIN” meaning “extraordinary” and not “eccentric, crazy”, his knowledge about Anjin Miura (William Adams) and scurvy, his visit to Miyako Island 2 days ago to see the process of sugar cane being produced into bioethanol and the resistance of the oil industry etc. Half of the participants came from overseas, but it was a wonderful opening.

Photo1 Former Prime Minister Jun-ichiro Koizumi

Photo2 The World Bank Vice President Dr. Joy Phumaphi

Ms. Sadako Ogata was traveling to Africa, so she addressed her greetings via video.  Then followed a speech from one of the Vice Presidents at The World Bank, Dr. Joy Phumaphi. Panel participants were Mr. Jay Naidoo, Chairman of the Board of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and Development Bank of South Africa (whom I met in Davos during this year’s session with Bono), Dr. Tachi Yamada from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation whom I have referred to many times in my blog, Mr.Hiromasa Yonekura, President of Sumitomo Chemical which is globally well known for their outstanding effect of Olyset Net against malaria, Mr. Tadashi Yamamoto, President of Japan Center for International Exchange, known as the pioneer who started a real NPO in Japan and Ms. Akiko Maeda of The World Bank headquarters in Washington DC. With such distinguished members, we had a lot of fruitful discussion. For many of the Japanese audience, Japan’s contribution to Africa may have sounded something new. Mr. Koji Tsuruoka, Director-General of Ministry of Foreign Affairs made a speech on Japanese government’s view for TICAD, G8 Summit etc. To wrap up the conference, Mr. Yukio Hatoyama, Secretary General of The Democratic Party whose local is Toyako, where the next Summit will be held, addressed a message via video.

Photo3 Dr. Naidoo, Dr. Yamada, Mr.Yonekura from right during panel

Photo4 Ms. Doden, Ms.Maeda, Mr.Yamamoto from left during panel

They are all the global leaders of initiating Global Health. Dr. Naidoo’s 13 year-old daughter, who is a big fan of Japan, accompanied him to Japan for the first time.
The reception was also very successful and I felt the high expectation towards Japan, being the hosting country for the upcoming TICAD and G8 Summit.

The following day, on Sunday February 17th, there was a discussion session with people working for Global Health related NGO in Japan which was hosted by G8 NGO Forum. This also turned out to be very fruitful.

As I repeatedly say, Japan is hosting big events this year; TICAD in May and G8 Summit in July which will attract great deal of attention worldwide.  Most probably, it will be the last chance for Japan to host a G8 Summit. In that respect, this conference was held very timely and the output was successful.

For an independent think tank like HPI to hold a conference with the support of The World Bank, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation etc. is a very open policy discussing process that is not necessarily led by the officials. I felt that it was a conference that showed a glimpse of Japan’s direction in the global era.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude for the people who attended this conference. Also, many thanks to the staff that help organize this event!

(photography by Tetsu Kudo)

Global Health part 1

In this global world, as super-rich emerge, the poor become even poorer. Currently, out of the 6.6 billion world population, about 20% are the so-called “extreme poverty” class and face high death rates for mothers giving birth, infants and children under age of 5.

Every year, millions of people die from hunger, malnutrition and diseases related to that.  Especially poverty in Africa and South Asia is miserable.  As our awareness towards global warming changes, production of bio fuel has increased, leading to the raise of corn and wheat prices.  The world is moving to a critical direction.  “2C”＝”Climate Change” and “3Ｆ”＝”Fuel, Food, and Feed” has a big impact to the people suffering from poverty. This is effecting heavily to the changes in global human society.

On February 15th, we held a conference on “Global Health: Under-nutrition” with the support of The World Bank, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other organizations. Dr. Tachi Yamada, President of Global Health Initiative at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, made the closing remark and I did the welcome remark.  During lunch, there was a wonderful speech from the Ghanaian Minister of Health and Welfare.

In addition, the world’s leading medical journal “The Lancet” started to feature on world nutrition since this January. The article is based on data from vast evidence and finds issues, some what like building up data for what can be done. The real challenge is what we can really do to make a change.

Japan is doing grass-roots ODA activities such as distributing iodine salt to Mongolia, something that is unique to Japan.

School meals are good, but babies up to 1-2 years’ nutrition and supplying necessary elements (like iodine, iron etc.) is what is important. Especially breast-feeding should be the key nutrition for babies up to 6 months and if nutrition is not enough up to 1-2 years old, it will influence their lives later on like poor grades in school, and allowing themselves to be in a social level of facing unemployment and low wages.  As this leads to unfortunate future for the children and gives great impact on the nation’s productivity, nutrition is indeed a big issue.

Today’s conference was very enlightening for me and I thought is was good.
Tomorrow will be the second day of the conference.

Medicins San Frontieres

Medecins San Frontieres or the Doctors Without Borders was established in 1971 by a group of French medical doctors and journalists in the wake of famine in Biafra, Nigeria.  On February 1st, Co-founder of MSF, Dr. Xavier Emmanuelli visited my office with Dr. Tartiere and the French Embassy staff (photo).

Photo: With Dr. Tartiere, me, Dr. Ememmuelli, Mr. Miaux and his Embassy staff, from left..

I showed him a few pictures of my daughter, an US educated medical doctor, who works in Los Angeles, when she was under MSF mission in Liberia for 6 months from April, 2006.  It was time after Liberia elected Ms. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (whom I met in Davos last year) in November 2005, as its new President, well educated in US, and the nation was gradually moving toward stabilization and refugees were coming back from adjacent countries, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast.  My daughter told us that she met a good number of Japanese young helping Liberians and indeed, there are many young Japanese committed to such humanitarian causes and I am very proud of them.

He told me that they visited Sanya, a slum in Tokyo, and this was a center of concern of MSF originated from SAMU or Service d'Aide Médicale d'Urgence, "Emergency Medical Assistance Service".

We had a wonderful one hour discussing various humanitarian issues.

From New York City

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Here I am in New York City.  I came to visit The New York Academy of Sciences which is the first Academy of Sciences established in the United States.  I have been working with this organization for several years now and decided to visit their new office which was moved to a new site last year.  The office of the President and CEO, Mr. Ellis Rubinstein (photo 1), is located at the 40th floor of a building that stands next to Ground Zero of September 11.  I did an interview with him for 45 minutes from 8:30 am.  From 10:00am, attended a board meeting of a new project called “Scientists Without Borders” (photo 2).  Sounds familiar?  Yes, the naming comes from “Doctors Without Borders.”  Its mission is about the same.  Twelve (12) people are working as its Advisory members including myself.

Photo1　President Rubinstein and myself at his office
(Today, his wife, Dr Joanna Rubinstein is in Ethiopia with Dr Jeffery Sachs.  She works as Executive Director of a program run by Dr Sachs )

Photo2　Together with Advisory members and NYAS staffs

Dr. Wakhungu from Kenya is also an Advisory member.  Kenya has just gone through a presidential election and now is in great confusion because of the doubt of injustice.  Especially I was concerned about Kibera slum which was reported to be in terrible chaos, and Dr. Wakhungu told me that the situation is really bad.  Olympic Primary School which I mentioned in my blog of June 2006 and October 2007 was burned.  I hope the school will be rebuilt somehow quickly.

Also, Prof. Victor Zhau at Duke University, whom I met yesterday at Washington DC and introduced in my blog is in the Advisory board. We are working together again.  Dr. Seth Berkley of Int'l AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), whom I introduced in my blog in October 2007 is also with us and he gave us many suggestions based on his own experience.  We did brainstorming for full 3 hours covering issues such as registration, potentials, management, funding, etc.  There are many problems addressed and to be solved, but it certainly was a good learning opportunity.  A MD-PhD candidate at Columbia University School of Medicine (moved from India with his/her parents) is joining our session, too.  Developing a new project like this inviting such young people is nice.  I certainly hope that this project will get started no matter how much time it may take.

Photo3　In front of the bust of Charles Darwin at the reception of NYAS with Ms Miura, vice consul of Consulate general in New York

In the afternoon, I went to the Council of Foreign Relations known by its outstanding journal “Foreign Affairs.”  To my amazement, the day before, Dr. Tachi Yamada of Gates foundation, whom I wrote about in my blog was here to give lecture on “Global Health.”  It is an interesting coincidence that I gave a lecture at The World Bank in Washington DC under the same theme.  I quickly sent an e-mail to him about this.  The purpose of my visit is to see Dr. Laurie Garrett, a Senior Fellow for Global Health, who wrote a great paper on “Foreign Affairs” Jan-Feb 2007, which pointed out that “the waste is seen so much in projects on AIDS.”  I was impressed by this paper, and asked her to be a jury member to select the winner of Noguchi Hideyo Africa Prize, a prize established by the suggestion of former Prime Minister Mr. Koizumi, it’s first awarding ceremony scheduled during TICAD that will be held in Yokohama in May.  I came to thank her for accepting our invitation and discussed our common interests, global health.

Photo4　With Dr. Laurie Garrett

Today, it is warm here New York City this winter.  The city has unique and unexplainable charm.

Photo5　On the street of NYC

Then I went to the Rockefeller foundation to see Managing Director, Dr. Ariel Pablos-Mendez (Photo 6) to talk about the report on a meeting which he organized “Pocantico II: The Global Challenge of Health Systems.”  Unfortunately, I received a message from the President Dr. Judith Rodin, saying that her schedule did not match mine this time.  Maybe we will be able to see each other at the World Economic Forum at Davos, two weeks from now.

Photo6　Together with Dr. Ariel Pablos-Mendez

Dr. Rodin is the first woman to become the president of an Ivy League University in 1994.  She became the president of the University of Pennsylvania, where I started my career in the US.  But, now, four (Princeton, Pennsylvania, Brown, Harvard) among eight Ivy League Universities have female presidents.  How about Japan?  I mention this so many times, but….

Dr. Rodin was the Provost at Yale University before becoming the President of the U. Penn., and as I pointed out several times, Dr. Allison Richard, top (it is called Vice Chancellor because Chancellor is HRH Duke of Edinburgh) of Cambridge University and Dr. Suzan Hockfield, President of MIT, both were recruited to head these top universities when they were the Provost at Yale.  Is this a sheer coincidence?   Or does this mean that Yale has an exceptional ability to choose right people?

This day was also a day of preliminary of the Presidential Election in New Hampshire, and Ms. Clinton won to make up the defeat in Iowa, making it a tie to Obama.  Do you think US will have a first female president?

The main objective of this two day trip of visits and lectures was to prepare for the Global Health related meeting (under the auspices of WHO, World Bank, Gates Foundation, NPO, Government of Japan) and connecting it to preparation of and publicity for TICAD, G8 Summit.

In the evening, I had dinner in a restaurant in Soho with Dr. Rubinstein and Dr. Berkeley, whom I saw in the morning, and Mr. Nakasone, a student at the School of International and Public Affairs, Graduate School of Columbia University whom I met in Tokyo this summer.  Mr Nakasone is a fascinating young man.  I am looking forward to his future as a world level career holder. Maybe you have guessed by his name – yes, he is a grandson of former prime minister Mr. Nakasone, and son of Mr. Hirofumi Nakasone, a member of the House of Councilors.

I left JFK Airport in the morning of January 9, to return to Japan.

From California-1, UCLA after a long time

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Dec. 4th, I flew to California.  First of all, I had lunch at Napa Valley Grille at Westwood, with my ULCA teacher, Dr. Kleeman(Photo1) and his wife.  Then, I went to the newly established California Nanosystems Institute（CNSI）(Photo2).  This is yet to be fully opened but some work has already started.  There are joint research programs with the University of Tokyo and National Institute for Materials Science(NIMS) at Tsukuba, and I am happy to hear it.  I met there Prof. Matsui of Kyushu University Silicon Valley Office was also visiting.  Since the research conducted over here is a joint work related to medicine, engineering, and chemistry, the research laboratory is constructed right in the center surrounded by these departments, and various ideas are applied to the system of how the researchers will participate.  This NanoTech Center aims to collaborate with Bio and also works in collaboration with Univ. of California Santa Barbara (The place where Mr. Nakamura Shuji who discovered Blue Diode was head-hunted) which focus mainly in the Nano material area.  I met several researchers and also met 2 Japanese scientists.  They are doing very interesting research projects.  They are involved in their research from past 10 and 20 years, respectively.  They are working hard.  I with both all the best.

On the next day, I met Dr. Gerald Levey, Vice-Chancellor of Health Affair and Dean of School of Medicine. We knew each other for some 12 to 13.  We greeted each other and talked for an hour.  Then I had a meeting with the professor of pediatrics, Dr. McCabe(Photo4), who is a friend of Dr. Eto of Jikei University, both work in the same field, thus genetics of pediatrics deseases.  Dr. McCabe raises horses at the Doublestrand Ranch from the time he was at the Colorado University.  He is not only brilliant but the scale of activities is big.  I am envious.

Photo1　With my Mentor at UCLA, Dr. Kleeman.

Photo2　In the UCLA California Nanosystems Institute(CNSI).

Photo3　With Dr. Gerald Levey

Photo4　With Dr. McCabe, Dr. David Lundberg(In-charge of UCLA-CNSI international cooperation administration).

I still miss my university where I studied for quite a long period.  The penetrating blue sky of California which seems to beckon me to come back.  The unending bright campus, the University town, Westwood, I miss every part of it.  This is my 24 hours visit to UCLA, that I feel I wished I could come back.

I headed towards the airport and went to San Francisco.  By the way, the flight was late by around 2 hours and I reached in San Francisco at 5: 30 pm.

Japan-Arab conference at the Alexandria library

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I arrived the Kansai airport from Haneda on the evening of Nov. 19th.  Then I flew to Dubai and now arrived at Alexandria, Egypt.  This was my 3rd visit to the Dubai airport in last 4 weeks.  I arrived at Alexandria on the 20th at 11:30 and headed directly to the Alexandria Library.  This about 2300 year's old library is the world's first scientific academy, and the magnificient buliding was reconstructed 5 years ago.  The contents have also been reinforced under the leadership of Dr. Serageldin, the library chief.  He is also my friend and has developed several excellent programs.  I am also a member of the Board of Trustees of the library for past 3 years and I visit this place for the meeting conducted in spring.

I arrived to the Library just in time.  I had an interview from 1:00 pm with Mr. Helal, the Education Minister of Science and Technology.  I have met him several times in past few years.  He is a scholar and a splendid person.  There is a considerable support from Japan.  It is delightful to hear that an opera house is being constructed recently in addition to the plans of establishing a science and technology institute with the support of Japan.  I mainly discussed about the academic exchange with Minister Helal.

Photo1  On the library terrace

There were about 120 people from Japan and 150 people from Arab countries participated in the Japan-Arab conference.  The conference had various sessions and sub-sessions and a full discussions were conducted about a wide range of topics, such as politics, economics, science, technology, environment, health care, culture, and art, etc..  From Japan, the group was headed by honorable former MInister Mr. Taro Nakayama besides honorable former Ministers, Mr. Koji Omi, Ms. Yuriko Koike.  From the business sector Mr. Jiro Nemoto of honorary chairman of Nippon Yusen, Mr. Sadao Umeda of chairman of Kajima Corporation.  Dr. Masahisa Yamauchi, a professor of Middle East politics, Mr. Daisuke Nishimura, a foreign ministry environment personnel, and Mr. Youji Yamada, a film director who directed "The Twilight Samurai" was also present since this film was to be shown there.  I chaired the environment and water panel and went to several panels.  I was happy that several people I know had come as representatives from the Arab world.

Also I have a good time with former Ambassador Mr. Arima Tatsuo, the busy Japanese government representative on the MIddle East Affairs.  We had planed to meet up before but our timelines never matched until this time.  Needless to say that Mr. Ishikawa, an ambassador to Egypt, and from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Katakura and Mr. Sudou, the former ambassadors to the embassy of Egypt, participated.  This kind of gathering of three ambassodor was extremely rare as I was told.  Also, an ambassador to Morocco, Ms. Haruko Hirose(Also introduced in the blog of Ms. Mayumi Moriyama, a member and worked as No.2 in UNIDO) had come over there.  Since she is working with the United Nations for a long time, even a minor opinion she say shows a fine taste on international relations.

Photo2  In the Hernan Palestine Hotel.  From right, Mr. Kaoru Ishikawa, Mr.Takaya Sudo(Chairman of Research Institute of International Affairs Disarmament Center, Former Ambassador to Egypt), Dr. Masayuki Yamauchi(a professor at The University of Tokyo), Ms. Aiko Douden(NHK Commentator), myself, Mr. Numata Sadaaki(Chairman of Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership, Former Ambassador to Canada), Mr. Shinsaku Sugiyama(Councilor of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Middle East Africa Bureau)

Historically, there has been little religious conflicts between the Middle East and Japan.  Since good relations are built from the past, it is a region in which mutual exchanges need to be continued.and strengthened  The basic understanding with both parties is that current exchange with Japan is solely in relation to petroleum, and Arabs are not very aware of Japan and vice versa.  It was agreed that there should be more and more exchanges in various fields.  In addition to this, it was also agreed that the contribution of Japan towards environment, clean energy and water problems was immeasurable.

A congress member, Ms. Yuriko Koike, appeared live-broadcasting on the Cairo T.V. on the night of 21st about an hour.  There was one to one interview in Arabic and the theme was about “global warming” and “CoolBiz” in fluent Arabic language which actually was quite something.  A tree plantation is going on in the deserts from past 10 years and currently there seem to be 14,000 trees now.  This year, the Cairo University is celebrating its 100th anniversary.  Ms. Koike, a graduate of Cairo University, is quite admirable that she has many friends and influential people over here.

On the afternoon of 22nd, I left Cairo.  Since I had a time at Dubai about 5 hours for transit, I had dinner with Ms. Lama Farsakh(Photo3).  She is from Palestine and her husband is from Egypt.  They have two daughters.  We mostly talked about the Israel-Palestine issues.

Photo3  With Ms. Lama Farsakh

From Seoul

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I went to Seoul from October 13th to 17tth.

Departing early morning from Tokyo on the 13th, this is to join the reunion I organized of Mr. Sadamu Sasaki, the first grandson of Dr. Gozo Sato who devoted his life to the modern time Korean medical education and Dr. Sato’s 3 students (ages 83-86), which took place in the evening of 13th.  Exactly one century has passed since Dr. Sato went to the Korean Peninsula as a staff doctor of a hospital.  It also marks the 100th anniversary of the Korean Medical Institution (now the Seoul National University College of Medicine).  Mr. Sasaki was born and lived in Seoul with Dr. Sato for his initial 14 years.  He returned to Japan in 1945 after the end of the world war and this was his first visit to Korea ever since then.  What a surprise, what a centennial coincidence.  We also visited the house where Mr. Sasaki used to live.

Photo1  from left Dr. Ishida, Mr. Sasaki, Dr. Ju, and myself

Photo2  With Dr. Ju （Vice Chairman of the Korean Academy of Sciences）

Photo3  At the Korean Medical Institution

Photo4  Keijo Imperial University School of Medicine (now the Seoul National University College of Medicine)

I hope that this visit helps to further our understanding of our history between the 2 closest countries and opens a new door to the future.  The detail of this visit is reported in Mr. Deguchi’s mail magazine （Oct. 10 and 17 edition） who joined this trip: his background is a journalist, thus write much better and professionally.  As he wrote properly of our encounter, the story is much real and very touching; I hope you have a look.

The following day, Mr. Sasaki, Dr. Ishida and I strolled around places associated with Dr. Sato.  At night, we had a “luxurious” dinner where fresh fish were cooked in front of us at the fish market.

Photo5  At the fish market in Seoul

On the 15th, I met with a charming woman scientist, Dr. Narry Kim of the Seoul National University (Photo 6).  I wanted to pay this visit because I recognize her outstanding achievement on micro RNA.  I wanted to know how she could establish her independent research as an assistant professor while being a mother of 2 children.  I will touch upon this on a different occasion.  There are things that I can’t disclose at the moment, but please look forward to the story sometime later.

Photo6  With Dr. Narry Kim of the Seoul National University

On the 16th, I joined the World Knowledge Forum held at the Walkerhill Sheraton.  The following day, on the 17th, there was a Keynote Lecture by Mr. Colin Powell, the former Secretary of State of USA. With no paper, no memo, he talked for 45 minutes right off the reel about Vietnam War, his stay in Korea, his visit to the former Soviet Union during the Cold War, his visit to China, his secret rendezvous with Gorbachev before the end of the Cold War, etc.  He shared some specific episodes with us and talked about the current China and expectations for the future.  It was such an outstanding well constructed and presented speech with full of grace.

As for me, I joined a panel with Dr. D. Bangalore who is playing an active role in India and Silicon Valley, and Yoko Ishikura who is my co-author of the book “How to build a world class career.”

After this panel, I went straight to the airport to catch a flight back to Haneda.