Kiyoshi Kurokawa's blog （en）

From Tianjin, kungfu master and international star Jet Li takes action

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I'm a Jet Li fan and often watch his movies on planes and television (I must admit that I haven't been to a theater for almost ten years now).

His films move at brisk, quick-cut pace and are filled with hard-hitting excitement.  It's hard to describe, but they're so much fun to watch.  Lately he's also been starring in many mainland Chinese pictures like "the Monkey King" which I've seen on tv.

The martial arts star has set up an NGO called "One Foundation" and is addressing problems in China and the world.

He is energetically persuading many individuals and businesses around the world to join in and get involved in charity projects to help victims of the recent Sichuan earthquake, alleviate poverty and economic disparity, and solve problems in education. He wants everyone to participate and expand it into a big movement.

In Tianjin I met One Foundation staff members.  They're young, but passionate and bursting with energy.  When I parted with them I told them, "Say hello to my master." I am very impressed how the foundation is thinking very big.

It's the same idea that I have repeatedly emphasized on this blog.  In this world of globalization, each person can take action based on individual ability and mutual trust.  And because this new world is connected and flattening, each action will have the power to enable and empower others (See page 5 of my opening keynote at the G8 Environment Ministers' meeting).

Jet Li is participating in this New Champions conference too.  On September 28th, there was an interview session with him.  I found time and sat in.  At first I was a bit surprised to see that he is much smaller in person than on screen.  But his passion and ambitions are big.  He took all kinds of questions and energetically answered them one after another.  He repeatedly emphasized that "transparency and governance" are key in his projects and operations.  He said that even if he makes mistakes he wants to take one small action at a time for the world.  It was a wonderful session that communicated his great depth of feelings.  He wants to get everyone to think about what they can do and join hands to make a difference.

If everybody does a little bit, it can solve global problems of the world.

To London, for the GLOBE planning committee

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2 weeks ago, I received a FAX from Mr. Morley, the Minister of Environment of Mr. Blair's regime, whom I have introduced before.  He wanted me to participate in the planning meeting of GLOBE, to be held in London on September 8.

I therefore reached London on the 8th morning via Paris, went to the hotel, changed in just 30 minutes and left for the meeting.  I was a bit late and joined the conference at 10:20.  The meeting was held in the Thatcher Room of Portcullis House, House of Commons which is a part of British parliament.  After the announcement of resignation by the Prime Minister, the representative of Japan and Member of the House, Mr. Yoshio Yatsu decided not to participate in the meeting.

Photo 1  Photograph of participants, Mr. Morley, Member of the house in white shirt (in the center), to his right Mr. Gardiner, Member of the house. Some participants returned to their countries in the half way.

Photo 2  The venue of meeting, a new building immediate right to Big Ben (It is not seen here)

Photo 3  Mr. Tokumaru from the Ministry of the Environment

It is necessary to investigate the policies as well as approach to the "Land utilization, Forest conservation, Biodiversity, Ecosystem" which is actually very difficult.  As Mr. Barry Gardiner, a member of the House of Great Britain, was in-charge and delivered a speech in the beginning followed by a series of serious discussions by about 15 participants.  I think it will be a significant step if we find out the way to focus the policy from domestic to global. It may take a while, but it is very good if such discussions go ahead in a meaningful form in years to come. It is a global and very important subject but does not move forward easily.

Photo 4  At  the reception, Mr. Gardiner, Member of the House, Mr. Nishigahiro, Minister to Great Britain.

The reception was organized at "The Goring Hotel", a small but sophisticated hotel which is common in London.

After staying for 24 hours in London, next morning, I am leaving for Swiss.  I will send next column from there.

Executive personnel management- simple questions from an outsider?

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I was interviewed by Nihon Keizai Shinbun for a column called "Airspace violation".  It is an interview report and aims to have a person present open questions about things other than his/her profession.   Although I had several themes in my mind, I decided to talk about personnel management of enterprises.  The article appeared in the morning edition page 5 on Aug. 4th, 2008, under the heading of " 'Tenures' are not appropriate for executives.  Decide according to their performance and actual results." The article is as follows. Gist of my remarks are in the quotation marks.

■ We understand that you have doubts about "Tenure" of business executives?
"I hear that there are many enterprises which have customs or byelaws that set presidents' tenure as 2 terms of 4 years or 3 terms of 6 years.  But does it make any sense?  I hardly think that the governance of Japanese enterprises so far was good enough just because they have a tenure system. "

■Current trend is to shorten the tenure of top managements of large industries. Along the trend, many enterprises are shortening the term of office of CEO from 2 conventional years to 1 year.
"If manager's term of office is set short, he/she won't consider the business on long term scales.  Suppose some problem occurs during the tenure.  I suspect that it will not be solved by he/her but will be transferred to their successor."  "Same things happen in governments as well as universities, the field where I come from.  As government officials are replaced one after another the problems go on passing to the successors.  Since tenure of deans and president of university is short, talent training cannot be planned from long term perspectives."

■On the other hand, there are adverse effects if the tenure is prolonged and also criticisms about "problems caused by aged people".
"For 'problems caused by aged people', you can simply set young presidents in their 40s.  Then even after serving for 10 years, his/her age will still be below 60.  There are some cases, like Sharp or Hotel Okura, which had presidents in their 40s.  However, in large industries in Japan, the number of young managers is still very small.  What is required of a leader is; vision, ability of conveying the vision to the other people, intellectual and physical strength, and strong faith.  Age is irrelevant.  Younger talents should be selected."  "Nevertheless, it doesn't mean that 'long term control' is always no good.  There are many founders of corporations in Japan, like Mr. Akio Morita of Sony, who demonstrated wonderful management skills for a long period of time.  There may be many employed managers who can achieve excellent results in their long term tenure."

■Problem is not the short or long length of tenure?
"The point is not to set tenure but to build a mechanism so that the ability and achievement of a manager is evaluated objectively and in case any problem arises, the mechanism must work to have him removed immediately.  But how many Japanese enterprises actually have such structure functioning? If a company can not have a person to retire till completion of his customary tenure we must say that governance does not exist."

■One more word, please.
Once you become a professor, you will be safe till retirement.  This is also strange.

■A word from the interviewer.
How should we select and evaluate the heads of management?  It is a very important issue connecting to the base of enterprise governance.  There are cases where external reporters or external directors participate in selection of the succeeding director but such advanced examples are yet very few.  How do Japanese managers answer to those simple questions about executives raised by Dr. Kurokawa? (Editing committee, Yoshiyuki Miyata）

I expect there will be various opinions, points regarding the contents of this article.  Although I spoke for a long time they had to summarize it in a little space.  Anyway, pushing theory of your own is useless in this era of global economy, especially if it is the world's second great economic nation.  It is a matter of credibility of a business, a nation.  In this information age, governance with transparency is the basis of company’s worth. Not limited to enterprise, everything is transparent from the world even if you tried to hide.  And here lies the challenges of "Flat age".

Some of the arguments about this article have appeared at Nikkei Net PLUS.  You are able to read them by registration (free).  What do you think?

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.

"GLOBE Tokyo G8+5 Legislators Forum," a movement initiated by politicians throughout the world

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"GLOBE Tokyo G8+5 Legislators Forum" was held in Tokyo on June 28th and 29th.  Japan was represented by Mr. Yatsu, the former Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan.  Mr. Morley, the Minister of Environment of Mr. Blair's regime, presided the 1st session on day 1 (I saw him at the G8 Environment Ministers meeting also), which started off with the greetings by Mr. Fukuda followed by key note speeches by Mr. Blair, the former Prime Minister of England, and Mr. Abe, the former Prime Minister of Japan.  Everybody spoke very well.

Photo1　Greetings by Mr. Fukuda with Mr. Blair and Mr. Abe

Photo2　Key note speech by Mr. Blair

Photo3　Mr. Abe

Though this forum was founded in 1989, since after the Earth Summit held in Rio in 1992 it constituted mainly of the nonpartisan congress members of all the countries.  Framework for "G8 Gleneagles Climate Change Dialogue" was formed during the Gleneagles Summit held in 2005.

Video messages from the U.S. senators, Mr. McCain, Mr. Obama, Mr. Kerry, and Mr. Snowe were also played.  A common theme that their messages held was that "With the new U.S. President, the Parliament, the large-size U.S. corporations, more than 500 U.S. Mayors and U.S. State Governors participating, America will make a historic transformation towards 'Cap and Trade' and formation of a 'Low-carbon Society'."  Japan, it seems, is the only country adopting a wait-and-watch policy.  It is vital that politics, the government, the corporations as well as the citizens be well-prepared.

Discussions during the forum were highly dynamic.

I had a speech on day 2 (photo4), though it was a bit difficult for me since the session was on forests and biodiversity.  I heard the request for a lecture a week before, and considering the fact that my speech was to be interpreted simultaneously in 9 languages so I decided to use the lecture that I had delivered at Kobe as a basic document, prepared a manuscript by including the above mentioned themes and circulated its copies among the interpreters as well the participants (the manuscript contained many errors since I was unable to proofread it sufficiently) before I spoke.

Photo4　My speech on Day 2

Tony Blair and his team reports their outcomes

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On June 27th (Friday), the report "Breaking the Climate Deadlock" prepared by the team that Mr. Tony Blair represents, was presented in Tokyo.  Mr. Blair is the first person who put "climate change" in agenda at G8 summit, and also has launched "Gleneagles Process" to tackle this problem.  As a leader of the world he continues worldwide lively activities even after retiring from his post as a Prime Minister.  I have written about it before, and his purpose this time, I assume, is to announce the results of these activities and to promote them in the G8 summit.

Photo 1　Mr. Tony Blair

Photo 2　With Mr. Blair and His Excellency Ngubane, Ambassador of South Africa

Photo 3　With former prime minister Mr. Abe

On June 28th and 29th, GLOBE International, an activity of legislators of the states in G8+5 will be held.  I understand that Mr. Blair is going to give a keynote speech there also.

On the evening of 27th, a reception was organized at British Embassy in Tokyo in which many members of parliament from England were also present.  After that, I moved to Roppongi Hills to be a part of the panel with 100 young people and Mr. Miliband, Minister of Foreign Affairs.  Mr. Miliband is a 42 years old, up-coming star who is expanding the public relation activities by posting information on his personal Blog.  The panel was focused mainly on these topics, but unfortunately, the duration was too short i.e. just an hour.  I would like more of various programs like this to be organized.  You can view the sight of the panel in his Blog.

Photo 4　Mr. Miliband and Moderator, Ms. Edahiro on the panel

Cape Town

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After finishing TICAD in Yokohama, I left Narita on June 3rd in the afternoon and came to Cape Town near Cape of Good Hope at the southernmost Africa via Singapore to attend the Africa Conference on World Economic Forum.  The conference is being held here annually for the past 17 years and this is the 18th conference, which is quite an achievement.

Dr. Sadako Ogata, the president of JICA, who is also one of the leading persons in the promotion of TICAD, is the co-president of this conference.  She was very active during these three days, attending a number of panels every day.  I truly appreciate her effort.  Approximately 10 companies from Japanese business sector such as Tokyo Electron (chief executive, Mr. Sato), Hitachi, Mitsubishi Corporation, Sojitz etc, have participated.  His Excellency Odano, the ambassador of TICAD also participated which had a very good effect of impressing the presence of Japan.  No growth is possible in anything without the involvement of business. Number of conflicts taking place in entire Africa are reduced and the rate of economic growth is 5-6%.  This is a place of good business opportunities.  Japanese businesses should also get a grip.

I also participated in 2 panels, and talked especially about achievements of TICAD and expectations to G8, MDG, from the viewpoint of energy, food crisis, and development.

Photo 1　The sight of a Panel

Photo 2　 Conference by participants from Japan, with Dr. Ogata as  main person

Photo 3　From the left side Dr.Tsuchiya from WEF, Dr. Kurokawa of JICA and Dr. Kondo of Health Policy Institute, Japan.

Photo 4　Mr. Haccyoji and Mr.Okada from Hitachi

Many attendants from Africa including Mr. Mbeki, the President of South Africa Federation, also participated in TICAD, so the presence of Japan here was strong which was great.  But above all, it was the presence of Dr.Ogata.  She is known and respected by everybody here as elsewhere and her comments always make a very good point.  She is really the "Pride of Japan."

In the afternoon of the 2nd day, I left the conference, as the weather was too good and came down to Cape of Good Hope.  It was like California, since there were many places just like Santa Monica and Malibu.

Photo 5　Cape of Good Hope, from the left Mr.Okada and Mr.Hacchoji from Hitachi.

I went to Abu Dhabi via Dubai after finishing the 3 days conference.  Visited His Excellency Ambassador Hatano, discussed with the government officials related to university and the person in charge of health policy etc., thus spending 20 hours, I finally started my return journey.  On June 8th, I arrived in Japan in the evening.

Opening Keynote at the G8 Environment Ministers' meeting

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I was invited to deliver Opening Keynote to the G8 Environment Ministers' meeting in Kobe, May 24th.  What an honor and privilege!  But, then a headache.  I was told simultaneous translation to Japanese, English, French, Chinese and Spanish.  Thus, I decided to prepare my speech in English and deliver it in English.

When you listen to any speech through simultaneous translation, simply it is difficult and frustrating because translation is always, by its very process, a bit behind the actual speech, sometimes few words are obviously missing, thus you are not sure to what extent the translation is correct.  But of course unless you understand many languages almost perfectly, this process is unavoidable in international meetings.

Thus, I prepared my entire speech after a few editing and reading myself, I sent my text to translators assuring in a memo that I will read the text so that you just follow in the language you are supposed to translate.  No power-point slides, of course.

Photo 1 and 2　　ambience of the conference site

I felt really good after I finished my speech, when UK Minister Honorable Hilary Benn came to me at the podium and told me it was very well thought-out, constructed, and well delivered, and he was very impressed. Wow! such comments by a British political leader, a real native English speaker.  We chatted for a few minutes at the podium.

Thank you, Honorable Minister Kamoshita giving me this honor and privilege.  But three days must have been very hard for you all.

I left Kobe immediately and back to Tokyo to see Dr. Pachauri , Chair of IPCC, you know who he is.  We met in New Delhi this February.

Global Financial Crisis. Lessons from Japan?

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It is said more often than not, Japan is not clearly visible, particularly in last decade or so, in global scene be it domestic issues, and internationally and globally relevant issues.  Sometimes, messages may appear from government officials in some critical issues defending their own position when questioned by the foreign press, but such messages could be one-sided.  It is very important that more voices have to be expressed from independent parties and individuals, particularly opinions that may be against, but maybe more rational, prevailing views reported in Japan.  Such voices will provide better and balanced understanding of Japan.

In a recent Financial Times, one of the most widely read newspaper throughout the world, Professsor Sadatoshi Ito of Tokyo University, also a member of Economic and Fiscal Policy of the Government, contributed an article on recent global financial crisis triggered by the US subprime-loan and commented on arguments by some Japanese leadership that lessons could be learned by US from Japan on what Japan had taken over a decade 90's until recently to respond to burst of bubble economy.

Professor Ito clearly makes a point commenting the more rational and fast responses by US private sector and the government, demonstrating clear resilience of the nation.

Leaders and members of every sectors of the society of Japan follows the act of Professor Ito to express their own opinions to the world as appropriate otherwise Japan remains insular, irrelevant and incomprehensible to the rapidly globalizing world affairs as you see many places in this website.

Higher Education in the Global era-Hitotsubashi Business School

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As reported before, the first half of the Golden Week passed restlessly as always.

On the 6th, the Ambassador of Finland and I participated in Prof. Yoko Ishikura's class on "competitiveness" held at Hitotsubashi University business school.  In the beginning, Prof. Ishikura raised the key important issues and then we discussed the issues.  The students were raising their hands and expressing their views enthusiastically.  They were expressing their own variant opinions and it was really a constructive and good time.

All lectures here are in English and around 70% of students are from overseas.  The faculties can view typical businesses in the world through the internet, by using "Harvard Business School" as a hub and the evaluations of the faculties are also done in common way.  Given such open evaluation, it would be hard for the faculties but they can be motivated by referring to the lectures conducted by many faculties all over the world.  Though challenging for the faculties they have no reasons to complain.  It's true, this is the scary part in the internet era, but it is also a pleasure to compete with global standards.  Are there any such universities elsewhere?  If not this way, universities in Japan cannot gather brilliant youngsters from all over the world since information is shared by everybody in this "flat" era.  University faculties, I beg you all earnestly to work hard.

After the class, we spent time on lounge, enjoying wine happily and talking with the students of various countries, such as India, US, Bangladesh, Russia, Myanmar, Poland, Uzbekistan, Thailand, and Vietnam etc..  I wish to express my gratitude for the wonderful hospitality.

An article with full of suggestions and a recent comment by Prof. Ishikura about the ideal way and the evaluation of the higher education in the global age is available on her blog.  Chairman of the institute, Mr. Takeuchi Hirotaka, his policy is very strict from the beginning, however it's really remarkable.

By the way, a follow-up on this is available(in Japanese) in Prof. Ishikura's blog.  Please go through it.

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)

Visit of Minister of Higher Education and Research of France

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On  April 10th, Fillon, Prime Minister of France and Ms. Valerie Pecresse, Minister of Higher Education and Research arrived to Japan, and Ms. Valerie Pecresse visited me on April 11th in the morning.  I met her in June and December last year.  She has studied Japanese when she was a student, and has worked about two times in Japan previously.  She entered the room and suddenly asked "How are you, Kiyoshi-san ?"  in Japanese.

The focus of the discussion was the G8 Meeting of Ministers of Science that is going to be held this year in June in Okinawa before G8 Toyako summit and the discussion about scientific policy and higher education policy.  France is in the midst of major reformation of universities and national research institutes and is struggling hard with the demonstrations of students and people related to the universities(on the other hand, it seems that the Japanese do not have energy to demonstrate).  Her activities are wonderful considering that she is still 40 and upbringing two children.

Photograph 1 With the Minister Ms. Pecresse

In the evening, I attended the welcome party organized by the Prime Minister Fillon at the France Embassy.  Danjyurou (a Kabuki actor) greeted in fluent French language and he showed the performance of "NIRAMI"(Kabuki movement of driving away bad vibes) and "GANRIKI"(Kabuki's strong expression of eyes).  After the welcome speech of Prime Minister Fillon, I went to Swiss ambassador’s residence to attend "Thank you" reception of Davos Forum held this year.  After that, went for dinner with the Professor Dr.and Mrs. Dale (Chairman of ACP, American College of Physicians).

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.

Economist Conference: Japan’s strength and weakness

On March 5th, 8.00AM, I attended the first “Conference of global warming issues” at the Prime Minister’s Office.  It may be a little too late to kick off at this timing, but as we can see from the Prime Minister’s speech in Davos, he is beginning to take a step forward.  It’s a good thing.  But the Diet is facing full of issues such as the budget committee, funding for road, gasoline tax, nomination of BOJ governor etc.

The world’s most read economic media, “The Economist” featured “JAPAIN” (not “JAPAN”)　in their recent edition.  It reports that despite Japan being the 2nd largest economic power in the world, there is little political leadership even under this critical situation.  Today there was a conference hosted by “The Economist” and I attended the afternoon panel.  I joined part of the session before lunch where Minister Yoshimi Watanabe and Matsui-san from Matsui Securities Co. Ltd., both known as polemists were talking about “Agony of socialist nation, Japan.”  In the afternoon, a Vice Minister (of course a politician) showed up.  Vice Minister is a role to support the Minister, but that Vice Minister, he seems a good man, was just reading a draft written by a bureaucrat.  This is strange.  It’s not consistent with democracy.  Is this a joke?  That’s why they are called “reader,” not “leader.”  More than half of the audience was not Japanese, thus this situation was a little awkward.  I understand that it is difficult to distinguish the “R” and “L” pronunciation for Japanese, but it is a little too ironic.  Anyway, the relationship between Japan’s bureaucrats and Ministers are completely incomprehensible for the world.

During lunch, there was a lecture from Tetsundo Iwakuni, member of DPJ. I took part in the first panel in the afternoon.  Please refer to Yoko Ishikura’s blog for details.  There were 4 panelists and each did a 10 minute presentation.  To wrap up, I talked about 4 things.  (1) First, I started by saying “We ‘eated’ lunch next room and enjoyed a lecture by Iwakuni-san.”  “We eated lunch” is grammatically wrong, but no one got on it nor anyone laughed at it.  It makes sense in English.  Of course it is correct to say that it’s not “We eated,” but “We ate,” but “eated” is enough to pass on the meaning.  It’s a good thing to pay attention to grammar, but I just want to point out that this is one example of “starting to talk in English.”  This is the common language “broken English” in this global era.

One of the panelists, an executive from Nokia delivered an interesting speech.  He said that everyday a million cell phones are sold worldwide.  So I said (2) the share of the global cell phone market is 38% by Nokia, 14% by Motorola, 12% by Samsung, 9% by SONY-Erickson and the 10 or so Japanese cell phone companies combined all together only have 5% of share.  Some may say that the service providers like DoCoMo is too dominant, and I agree to this point.  But the quality of Japanese made components are good and 65% of the world’s cell phone components are actually “made in Japan.”  We have to precisely understand Japan’s strength and weakness to do business in the global arena.  Next (3), I pointed out the problem of Japanese cell phone industry, engineers, management and the organization itself appealing to Apple that they want to handle iPhone.  What’s more important is to look at the customers “in the world.”  Remember, back in 1997 Apple’s cash flow was only durable for 5 weeks and was rumored to be bankrupt or be merged by some other company.  Do Japanese companies have to be put in a situation like this to understand?  It’s also a problem that Japanese companies tend to run in to the government officials for help.  I would say first “Mind your own business in marketplace.”

There are unbelievably childish scandals going on by the management among big companies, bureaucracy and well-established companies.  But come to think of why these incidents occur.  It is really disgraceful that the top management doesn’t take responsibility to resign, or in some cases resign from President but remain as a board member.  It is only natural of the cold response from the society and younger generation questioning “dignity of Hin-kaku in Japanese” of people in higher positions.  Everywhere in the society, the top are corrupted.  They should owe responsible to the society. What is economic growth in such a society?!

Lastly (4), I took out my iPod and explained that the design of this shiny back side of the gadget and prototype was made in Japan, production was done by a Taiwanese company, and its factory was in China and some of the components used inside are made in Japan.  But these are all component manufacturers.  Apple doesn’t do the actual manufacturing.  They just designed the whole system and created the concept but get 50% margin out of a product.  My message was that “manufacturing” is important but what is more important is why you make it, what you make and how you seize the customer’s heart.  The instruction manual for iPod is extremely simple.  You can see it on the internet.  Compared to that, the instruction manual for Japan’s cell phone and other electrical appliances are unimaginably difficult to understand.  I assume that the engineers are writing it, but it is simply not user friendly (interesting books are written to this by Dr. Koreo Kinoshita in Japanese).  One reference related to this is “iPhone shock” (Nikkei BP, 2007, in Japanese) written by Nobuyuki Hayashi.

Japan’s strength and weakness.  We have outstanding technical capabilities but lack imagination and energy to step out to the world.  After all, it’s the management that is weak.  It is unbelievable in this world of information that a President of a company says without hesitation that he will stay in realm for “2 years for 2 period” to follow their arbitrary internal rules.  This is the basics of corporate governance of market economy.  I can’t imagine that Nissan said to Mr. Ghosn about their internal rule of “2 years for 2 period” when inviting him as president.  Let’s face the world and stop being obsessed by Japan’s original common sense.

What we need in Japan right now is a “Mr. Morita at SONY” in the 60’s.  Some may argue that time has changed, or he was special, or other reasons that we can’t do.  Those are the ones who are not fit to be the leader of an organization.

From New Delhi part 2

My 2nd and 3rd day in New Delhi was mainly visiting Honda and local business leaders. First visit was Honda (Honda Siel Cars India). I met with President & CEO Mr. Takedagawa and Vice President & President of the Manufacturing Facility, Mr. Matsuzaki. Mr. Takedagawa shared his experience about the tough times, the current business situation and future plans. Mr. Matsuzaki established a manufacturing facility in America in 1982 and stayed in the U.S. for about 15 years. After America, he worked in various parts of Asia and set up this manufacturing facility in India. The facility was very clean and the employees were very polite. This must have been a painstaking effort.

Photo1 My visit to Honda Siel Cars

Photo2 In front of their entrance

After Honda, I visited the local office of Dentsu Inc. and the New Delhi campus of ITT. In the evening, we had dinner at the Japanese Embassy with Ambassador Domichi, Dr. Sunami of the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies and First Secretary, Mr. Seto. Ambassador Domichi was assigned this post from the Japanese Embassy of Iran and Mr. Seto is the person who helped organize the SCA (Science Council of Asia) 2 years ago in India.

Photo3 At the New Delhi campus of IIT

Photo4　At the Japanese Embassy from left: Dr. Sunami, Ambassador Domichi, myself and First Secretary Mr. Seto

The following day I visited the local office of Mitsui & Co, Ltd, Mr. Munjal of the Hero Group, Mr. V. Krishnamurthy, Chairman of National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council and one of the leaders of Indian business (Photo5), and the Confederation of Indian Industry (an organization similar to the Japan Business Federation?!). The main topic was about business. India is especially keen to have technological alliance with Japanese companies, but the Japanese way of business is slow and they insist on getting the majority share. No wonder the Koreans and Chinese outdo us. I also heard that the European and American businesses are becoming more active in the Indian market.

Photo5 With Dr. Sunami and Mr. Krishnamurthy

During the meeting with Mr. Munjal at the Hero Group, I was told that the JV negotiation with Daimler has been launched and that he just received a letter from the French President Mr. Sakrozy yesterday. In the past two years, I have met the Indian Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Minister of Technology and Science, they are all unique and intelligent in their field of business and science technology. Of course there maybe some “challenges” special to India, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to let it go. There are various ways to do business relevant to the local business tradition and strength. In that respect, Mr. Suzuki, Chairman & CEO of Suzuki Motor Corporation is admirable as a business leader. Suzuki has become somewhat a local brand. You have to be the first comer and work up a sweat to get the fruit. Understanding local customs and incentives to the local staff may also be important. All my best wishes for the people involved in business in India! I hope that our economy flourishes together with growth of India and Asia. I remind you all that Japan is the only OECD member country that has not grown their GDP in the past decade…Wonder why?

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)

Japanese Economy, A Long and Slow Slide

A recent article in Washington Post, Sunday February 3rd ‘For Japan, a Long, Slow Slide: Declines in Productivity, Population Combining to Stifle Economic Growth’ resonates with recent special issues on Japan as well as quite a number of books published in Japan and elsewhere.  It is clear that Japan still needs powerful reform to re-build vibrant economy and not much time is left for Japan.  The political situation may be a bit difficult to maneuver now, but has to act, and business must ‘act globally’ focusing on the core competence.  Business sector needs more Morita-san of SONY in 60s.

I felt quite disturbed or uneasy in Davos of a session ‘Japan: A Forgotten Power?’ with a moderator and panelists being all Japanese.  Similar sessions in the past always included non-Japanese experts in the panel.  In fact, when I walked in the room toward the end of the session, there only a few non-Japanese in the room and the language spoken were understandably entirely Japanese (maybe someone, Japanese or non-Japanese, may have used English before I entered the room) and discussing mostly domestic issues, such as gender empowerment and immigration policy rather than what Japan’s role in globalized world: why not discuss domestic issues in Japan?

Japan still is the world’s second largest economy in terms of nominal GDP, but It seems Japan wishes to withdraw itself from global affairs, at least me.

from Davos, Part4 (The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2008)

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Attached here (photo 1), you’ll see the view from my hotel window this morning. The sharp edged mountain in the middle at the far back is Tinzenhorn, looking rather similar to Matterhorn.

photo 1

Here I am at the last day of the annual meeting. The Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda arrived this morning to join the prominent others such as William Gates, Microsoft Corporation, USA; Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1997-2007), Bono the famous musician, and so forth. Fukuda’s plenary speech began at 1130 am in the main hall, co-hosted by professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum, and Tony Blair. 

Myself sat in the very front row, together with Bono and his team. Our Prime Minister appeared understandably nervous, which made him talk a little faster than he had probably planned (photo 2). I was listening the simultaneous interpretation, one in English – as is often the case, the interpreter appeared to be relying on the translated document in hand with some lapsed delivery rather than being simultaneous. The content of the speech was quality I thought though it had the room to be refined as a politician’s speech.

Both Tony Blair and Klaus Schwab asked several questions at him (photo 3). It was broadcasted on NHK so my friends emailed. I wonder what you have made of today’s event – any reflections?

photo 2

photo 3

Prior to the speech made by our Prime Minister, the main hall held a plenary seminar on the world economy, fully packed. The panel included Laurence Sommers, the former Treasury Secretary during the Clinton era, who is an extremely talented economist though also known for jeopardising his career as the President at Harvard University through failing to accord his public comment to the gender-equal matter. Anyhow, the economic outlook projected was bleak. The theme of this seminar spilled onto the session with our Prime Minister whereby he was asked a question on the world economic trend. It was felt that his response could have better embraced the mood of the speaker panel though I must say the support team was perhaps already operating at the capacity more than expected. I must acknowledge that facilitating the Japanese Prime Minister to join the forum is already a remarkable achievement; the last was with then the Prime Minister Mori several years ago. I’d like to pay respect and send my warm regards both to the Prime Minister Fukuda and the support team, and in fact also wish all the best for affirmed efforts around the TICAD and G8 in coming May and July respectively, ultimately for all people concerned including the general public in Japan.

After the forum, our Prime Minister joined a luncheon with the various business leaders. Having dealt with interviews for CNN, and so forth, he was quickly on his return home.   

photo 4: with Mr Okuda of Toyota

photo 5: from left – Mr Ujiie of Nomura Holdings, Mr & Ms Shibata of NGK Insulators, Mr Okuda, myself, and Mr Takenaka

photo 6: me working hard at the conference!

My evening began at the ‘Tokyo reception’ at a hotel. The Governor of Tokyo Shintaro Ishihara was unable to join thus the Vice Governor Naoki Inose replaced his place as the host. Then, the official Forum closing evening began with the concert, featuring the world reknowned violinist Ms Akiko Suwanai – Bruch’s ‘Concert No. 1’, - the second piece was Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’. It was the first time for me to hear this latter piece right through to the end. Suwanai san, it was truly wonderful.

It confirms my view that it tends to be women rather than men who tend to be ones radiant at the world stage among the Japanese. At an individual or personal level, the presence of Japanese female tends to be more defined compared to what Japanese male in general is able to exercise. At the back of my mind here is the strong tendency of Japanese men to acquire the viable self through organisational affiliations. As always indeed, the radiant Japanese face of the Davos Forum was our honourable Madame Sadako Ogata. Soiree followed the concert – this year, it featured Turkey with Turkish cuisine, which we enjoy very much.

photo 7: Mr Idei, formerly of SONY, Mr & Ms Takeuchi of Hitotsubashi University Business School, Professor Schwab

photo 8: Mr Idei、Mr & Ms Takeuchi, Professor John Maeda of MIT

Professor Maeda holds a place at MIT, and is a prominent professor at MIT’s famous Media Lab, though he is apparently venturing out to take up a presidency at Rhode Island School of Design from June. I do like that spirit. We much need a persona like him in the Japanese academia – to stimulate the research, and initiatives of universities, students, and young people in general. As I always say, among the crucial social resources is ‘Kojin Ryoku’ or indivisual power and uniqueness, a creative synthesis of the self exercised at the personal level.

From Davos, part3

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The morning of the 25th was busy. I had an early morning meeting with Dr. Tachi Yamada from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to discuss about the upcoming February conference in Tokyo and other meetings that I had arranged. In the afternoon, I attended a session related to innovation and joined the beginning of plenary session “New Drivers of Development” chaired by Ms. Indra K Nooyi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pepsi Co. Participants were Mr. Bill Gates, Mr. Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Mr. Robert B Zoellick, President of World Bank, Mr. Michael Treschow, Chairman of Unilever and Mr.Trevor Manuel, Minister of Finance of South Africa (photo1,2).

photo1 From left: Mr. Gates, Mr. Brown, Ms. Nooyi, Mr. Zoellick, Mr. Manuel and Mr. Treschow

photo2 Ms. Nooyi

The reason for attending only the beginning was because I had a session with Ms. Sadako Ogata, Bono(photo3) and some big figures who represent Japan. We discussed how Japan can show their initiative globally to make a move on development in Africa, TICAD and G8 summit and respond to the expectation from the world. Other participants were Mr. Okuda, former Chairman of Toyota Motor Corp, Mr. Yasuhisa Shiozaki, Ms. Yoriko Kawaguchi, Mr. Matsuura, Director General of UNESCO and Dr. Komiyama, President of the University of Tokyo. I met with Bono and his staff yesterday and I think we will continue to work together in the future. Bono respects Ms. Ogata very much. He is well aware of Japan’s successful and long ODA history in Africa which is different to that from Europe and America. This year is an important year for Japan and he is seriously considering how Japan can show its presence. I was surprised at how much we can do. I learned a lot. He also said that during the 3-day concert in Japan, 120,000 fans gathered, which I later heard that he tried several attempts to send his message to the world through the crowd. He feels the passion that everybody is considering what they can do to make a change, but with the current political level, it is not well communicated inside and out.

photo3 With Bono before the meeting

Also, John Gage from Sun Microsystems joined. He supports Bono and Al Gore’s activities and I’ve been meeting him every year in Davos for 4 years. I hope my blog readers give consideration to what we can do and expand our will to the vast world to realize it. Then, I ran into Larry Page(who is very interested in climate change and global health and established the Google Foundation), the founder of Google which I introduced in last year’s report with some photos and Steve Grove from YouTube (photo4,5).

photo4　With Larry Page and Steve Grove

photo5　With Dr. Hirotaka Takeuchi from Hitotsubashi Univ, Mr. Tsuchiya from the World Economy Forum Secretariat, Larry Page and Steve Grove

（Mr. Tsuchiya studied with Steve Grove at Harvard Kennedy School. Isn’t that interesting, it’s the value of each individual in this global era.）

Tonight, Prime Minister Fukuda will arrive at Zurich. He will arrive at Davos the following morning and meet with Tony Blair, Mr Bono, Bill Gates and will deliver a speech. After that, I heard his schedule is full with luncheon meetings with the business community. I wonder whether the Prime Minister is really satisfied with his speech draft, but the speech writer must have worked hard to prepare it. The world’s opinion will show us the result. How will Japan be reported? How do the foreign media see Japan? What is the real opinion that doesn’t show up? At night, I met a lot of people at the ASEAN reception, but ended up with the usual members, Victor Chu (He is well known everywhere. He said that he travels 250 days a year for business. Wow, what an energy!) and John Gage. We had a drink at a bar at the hotel next door. Dr. Michael Porter from Harvard Business School joined and we had a great time together. This is the excitement of Davos.

photo6　With Mr. Chu and Mr. Gage

I am invited to a “Bollywood Party” hosted by India from 23:00, let’s see…

From Davos, part2

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The last keynote speech on the first day was by the US Secretary of State, Ms. Rice.  She delivered a clear and firm message about the current role of the US and the responsibility for the US and the world.  Then, the political and business leaders from the world, such as Mr. Blair, Mr. Kissinger, Mr. J Dimon(JP Morgan and Chase), Mr. KV Kamath(ICICI Bank, India), Ms. IK Nooyi(CEO of Pepsi Co, she graduated from the famous IIT in India…. Can you imagine this in any Japanese company?!), Mr. DJ O’Reilly(CEO, Chevrons), Mr. Wan Jianzhou(China Mobile Communications Corporation) etc, went up the podium for a Q&A session.  Ms. Rice handled this session very nicely.  This is indeed world class. Answering to tough questions in front of a big crowd.

This year, there were especially a large number of participants including 20 or more Presidents and Prime Ministers.  Even only on the first and second day, Mr. Karzai(Afghanistan), Mr. Musharraf(Pakistan), Mr. Yushchenko(Ukraine), Mr. Simon Perez(Israel), Al Gore and Bill Gates were there.

From Japan, ever since Prime Minister Mori attended in 2001, Prime Minister Fukuda will attend. As a hosting country for TICAD and G8 Summit, the world is watching Japan’s leadership of global agenda.  What kind of message will he give to the world? Let’s hope it will be a high toned, powerful speech that reflects as a Prime Minister of the second largest economic power, not something drafted by bureaucrats.  Regardless of domestic circumstances, ‘it’s spoken message that counts as politician.’ It is important to strategically communicate to the overseas press.

Needless to say, Ms. Sadako Ogata, President of JICA, is a global figure representing Japan, but also the global minded professors from Hitotsubashi University School of Business Administration, Hirotaka Takeuchi and Yoko Ishikura as well as Heizo Takenaka of Keio University are taking an active role in various panels and acting as session leader. In a brainstorming session called WorkSpace, Prof. Takeuchi showed his amazing ability as moderator by entertaining the participants while pursuing the subject on track. Wow, this is something inimitable.

Photo1 With Mr. Hatoyama and Ambassador Fujisaki at the conference room

At night, there was Japan Sushi Reception jointly hosted by University of Tokyo and Keio University, supported by Teijin Limited and Sojitz Corporation.  Many guests from the political, academic and business world attended.  I would think this kind of party should be led by the business community.  In fact, it’s the World “Economic” Forum.

Photo2 At Japan Reception with Mr. Hasegawa from Takeda Chemical, my friend and famous Indian political scientist, Mr. Challaney, Mr. Sakurai from Japan Association of Corporate Executives or Keizai-Doyu-kai

Photo3 With Ms. Kuniya of NHK, moderator of ‘Today’s Close-Up’

Photo4 With the President of Peking University

Just to list a few of the big names that attended from the political world, Mr. Hidenao Nakagawa, Mr. Koji Omi, Mr. Yukio Hatoyama(to substitute Mr. Ichiro Ozawa, the leader of DPJ who could not make it), Mr. Yasuhisa Shiozaki, Mr. Motohisa Furukawa, Ms. Kuniko Inoguchi etc.  From the business world we had Presidents, CEO’s and Chairmen from various companies like Mr. Okuda of Toyota Motors, Mr. Yonekura of Sumitomo Chemical, Mr. Sakurai of Ricoh and Japan Association of Corporate Executives, Mr. Nagashima from Teijin, and Mr. Hasegawa from Takeda Chemical, etc.  Ambassador Fujisaki, Mr. Kono the G8 Summit Sherpa and Councilor to the Foreign Ministry, Imai-san and Kuniya-san from NHK, Mr. Xu Zhihong, President of Peking University, Dr. Tachi Yamada of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Global Health Initiative also joined and we discussed about Japan’s contribution. Mr. S Brim, Founder of Google also showed up briefly.  Also Dr. Yamanaka from Kyoto University, who is gaining fame by his research in iPS cells, was also there.

Photo5 With Takenaka-san, Dr. Yamada and 2 of Bono’s staff

Photo6 With Dr. Yamada, Prof. Yoko Ishikura and Prof. Anzai, President of Keio University

As Prime Minister Fukuda will participate this year, there is a mixed emotion of expectation and anxiety among us, as to how much he can communicate a high vision and powerful political messages expected of as one of the world’s political leaders.

From Davos, part1

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The annual World Economic Forum will be held in Davos at the end of January.  This will be my 8th attendance in a row.  Please refer to some of my past blog in January.

Last year and this year, too, there is not much snow even around this area known for its snow and for skiing.  Yesterday we had some snow fall, but today the weather is crystal clear.

Prime Minister Fukuda will give a speech on the 26th, so I heard that there are many people from the business society of Japan this year.  It’s a good thing.  Mr. Okuda, Chairman of Toyota Motor Corp., will also be arriving on the 24th.  On my way to Davos, I was on the same flight with Ms. Sadako Ogata, President of JICA, Mr. Yonekura, President of Sumitomo Chemical (both were accompanied by their spouses) and Imai-san from NHK.

I was one of the panelists of the first session on the first day, 23rd, “Update 2008: Defining Innovation.”  Participants were the CEO and Partner from IDEO, TPG Growth, Doblin (all from U.S.A.), CEO of Index（NPO, Denmark） and myself.  Mr. Nussbaum(Business Week) was the session leader.  The main topic was about investment into clean energy, relief for the socially vulnerable, open innovation etc.  It was very encouraging to hear issues centered on these global agenda.  It was indeed a bit surprising.  Mr. McGlashan from TPG referred to my friend