Kiyoshi Kurokawa's blog （en）

The Committee of Parliament to Investigate the Accident at Fukushima Nuclear Power Plants -2

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As I reported on the New Year’s day, the “Committee of Parliament to Investigate the Accident at Fukushima Nuclear Power Plants” was launched officially on December 8th last year.  On this day, the nine committee members and I received the official notice of appointment at the Parliament from the Presidents of both the House of Representatives and the House of Councilors. This ceremony was followed by a session where the ten committee members made comments and representatives from all political parties expressed their thoughts and expectations towards this committee.

This whole event was broadcasted live from the Parliament and now the audiovisual record of all the comments of the committee members as well as all the requests from the members of the congress are uploaded at the  "Shugiin TV"  for public viewing.  My comments as the chair of this committee appears at the start of this session, and also in the end after all representatives from every political party have presented their “requests” to our committee.  By the way, it happens that 70 years ago on this day, the 8th of December, the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked Pearl Harbor to join in the World War II.   It was truly the beginning of the great tragedy of our nation.  I could not help touching upon this historical coincidence when I talked about the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant accident.

Mr. Yasuhisa Shiozaki, a representative of the Liberal Democratic Party who served as the Chief Cabinet Secretary, and one of the key persons to set up this committee, writes about this issue in his blog several times.  Mr. Shiozaki also wrote a record of the whole process of the making of this committee and published it as a book in mid December titled “ ‘The Committee of Parliament to Investigate the Accident of the Nuclear Power Plants’ - A Challenge From the Legislature (「国会原発事故調査委員会」立法府からの挑戦状)” (this book is published in Japanese only).

At any rate, we are now at the start of a very challenging year.

 

Discussing Pharmaceutical Evaluation Process at Seoul, Energetic Youths of Japan

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The problem of “Drug Lag” in Japan - that approval of pharmaceutical products take longer time and thus is behind western countries - had been being pointed out by many since quite a while ago.

One of the endeavors to address this issue is “ICH -International Conference of Harmonization”, a conference launched about 20 years ago by Japan, USA, and EU.  It continues its activities to date, and I had been a part of it.  Last year, we held a joint conference (Ref.1) of Japan, Korea, UK, and USA to discuss the issue of “Cancer Clinical Trials”

Growing countries such as China and Korea have already introduced the system into their country, and it was to discuss mainly on this theme that I went to Seoul from 14th (Mon) as an overall moderator of the one and a half day conference by the invitation of a pharmaceutical company. 

Upon my arrival, I went right away to see Mr. Richard Samans at the “Global Green Growth Institute”　 , an organization founded by current President, Mr. Lee Myung-bak with Mr. Han Seung-Soo (Ref.1), the first Prime Minister of the Lee administration, as the Head of the Board.  Mr. Samans and I are friends from the time he was working for the World Economic Forum.

On the following day, I led the one and a half day conference to discuss from various aspects the pharmaceutical evaluation/assessment issues with special focus on the evaluation system in Japan, Korea and China.

After dinner at the hotel, I decided to stroll a bit at the “Myondon” street, a shopping area.  Here I saw many young people, and felt a good energy.  I saw the new shop which UniQlo, a Japanese casual clothing shop, just opened as its flagship shop close to ZARA and H&M.  It was a good feeling to see this energetic Japanese enterprise performing actively at this busy area.

Another good feeling was that after the one and a half day conference, we became acquainted with each other, and I could sense that many new exchanges were about to begin.

It was about a two hours’ flight from the Gimpo airport to Haneda Airport.  From Haneda, I went directly to Swiss Embassy.  A reception for “Global Shapers Community” (Ref.1) was being held.  I always enjoy seeing young people working actively in various fields.  Being with them also gives me energy.  After the reception, I spent about an hour with a reporter from “The Economist”, partly to be interviewed, and then went back to my home at around 11pm.

It was a long but a very fulfilling day.

 

CSIS-HGPI Conference at Fukushima

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CSIS is a famous Think Tank located in Washington D.C. which is well known among Japanese.  Our Health and Global Policy Institute (HGPI) has worked with CSIS on a number of joint projects beginning last year as I have previously talked about on this site. 

In the early days of this year, HGPI together with CSIS engaged in various activities including meetings with members of the Japanese Diet and some of the results of these activities were presented to the public in a report. 

In particular, CSIS rapidly responded in the wake of 3.11 by coming up with proposals for the rebuilding of Japan and they are also working together HGPI in the fields of health and medical care.  This site has reported (Ref.1) on these activities.

A gathering was held to announce this “Partnership for Recovery and a Stronger Future: Standing with Japan after 3-11” on November 3rd, 2011 in Washington D.C. followed by a similar gathering in Tokyo during the week of November 7th.  This report can be accessed via the web as well. 

A gathering was held in Fukushima on Friday, November 11th to report primarily on the joint activities with HGPI. (Please click here for the programs) The meeting was extremely productive with approximately 70 attendees, and I am extremely grateful to those who participated on a day when Fukushima was in a light drizzle.  

Among the participants were Michael Green, Stephen Morrison and Brian Biles from CSIS. While Seiji Maehara, Chairman of the Policy Research Committee, of the Democratic Party of Japan had to cancel at the last minute due to matters related to the Transpacific Strategic Economic Partnership, participants from the Japanese side included Mitsuru Sakurai (in Japanese), Acting Chairman of the Policy Research Committee of the Democratic Party of Japan (he is a former Senior Vice Minister of Finance and physician from Tohoku University), Masao Uchibori (in Japanese), Vice-Governor of the Fukushima Prefectural Government, Kazuhiko Toyama who owns transportation-related companies in Fukushima and Ichiro Tsuji (in Japanese) of Tohoku University. 

Dr. Seigo Izumo (in Japanese) who participated in this event resides in Boston, but he jumped in from an early juncture with radiation measurements and medical treatment policies.  Dr. Izumo is a Japanese doctor who was behind me in school.  After graduation from medical school, he went overseas and embarked on an illustrious career as a professor of internal medicine at Harvard with a specialization in cardiac medicine.  He is now working more on the business side and is engaged in work that allows him a more flexible schedule. 

The medical care related themes are focused around the three pillars of radiation, coping with psychological issues and reforming how medical care is provided, and a goal is to create an “Open Platform” that facilitates cooperation between the United States and Japan.  

When we returned to Tokyo, six of us, Michael Green, Stephen Morrison, Brian Biles, Seigo Izumo, Yoshiji Makino (in Japanese) (a freelance journalist who is known for his opinion pieces) and myself gathered for dinner.  Everyone was greatly pleased with the conference and we discussed what should be the next steps.  It was, all in all, an extremely fulfilling day. 

As a final bit of food for thought, Dr. Izumo carried a Geiger counter while we were walking about and actually recorded readings of over 10 uSv/hs!

 

Bilateral Exchange with Botswana

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I had the opportunity at the beginning of last year to visit the country of Botswana (Ref. 1, 2, 3) at the request of the Botswana government and meet with high-level government representatives of many different ministries.  I also had the opportunity to meet with Minister of Foreign Affairs who accepted a report on science, technology and innovation policies which I proposed at the time.  The Minister has accompanied the President on his recent visit to Japan.

During this current visit, Dr. Ponatshego H. Kedikilwe, a Minister with the Botswanan government received the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun and a reception was held in his honor by the Botswana embassy.  The reception was held in a small, intimate space which was permeated with a friendly and celebratory atmosphere.

During the Minister’s stay in Japan, I was able to meet for around an hour with a number of individuals who are heads of different government bureaus and had accompanied the Minister to Japan. My proposal of the previous year had made its way through the Parliament, and they reported on its passage and we also talked about what the future holds. It is also important that cooperation be offered from a variety of perspectives including outside of the auspices of the government.  This is particularly true in the modern world we live in.

Japan has started to actively provide assistance and support to Africa.  In particular, the cooperation (Ref. 1, 2) of JICA, which is in charge of ODA, and JST, which is in charge of science and technology policies, over the past several years is encouraging.

The exchange of human resources through multiple different levels and venues is at the core of a strong and vital foreign policy in our global world of today.

 

Announcement of the November 11th (Friday) Conference

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The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a prominent Think Tank based in Washington DC,  is poised to release the final report of its ‘U.S.-Japan Partnership for Recovery Task Force after 3.11’   in Washington and Tokyo.   In Washington DC, the announcement was made today. In Tokyo, a symposium will be held next week in collaboration with Keidanren.

HGPI, the think tank in Japan which I chair,  had partnered with CSIS on issues of healthcare (Ref.1).

Upon this occasion, HGPI-CSIS will hold a conference for a dialogue between Japanese and U.S. experts, inviting Dr. Michael J. Green, CSIS Japan Chair, Dr. J. Stephen Morrison, CSIS Senior Vice President and Director of the CSIS Global Health Policy Center, Mr. Seiji Maehara,  Chairman of the Democratic Party of Japan’s Policy Research Committee, Dr. Mitsuru Sakurai, former Vice Minister of the Ministry of Finance, in the afternoon of Friday, November 11th, in Fukushima. 

If you have time, please come and join us.  For details on program, venue, and application form, please see here (for Japanese version, please click here).

I hope you will be kind enough to tolerate any inconvenience which you may experience at the venue, due to the circumstance in Fukushima.

A Speech at the Board Meeting of Project Hope, Washington DC

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After leaving Abu Dhabi, I came to Washington DC to give speech and express our appreciation to the board meeting of Project Hope, for their support and cooperation in the restructuring of Tohoku.

It was early in the morning when I arrived at Dulles airport, Washington DC, from Dubai. I checked in to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, prepared  myself quickly to join with Dr. Noritake of HGPI and Dr. Fred Garber of Project Hope (Ref.1) to visit Ambassador Fujisaki at the Embassy of Japan.  Collaboration with  Project Hope and our Impact Japan  - HGPE all started with one phone call from Ambassador Fujisaki at Washington DC to my blackberry, shortly after the “3.11” Tohoku disaster, suggesting that we work together.  

After seeing Ambassador Fujisaki, we went to the National Academy of Sciences, then to Global Knowledge Initiative, an organization which I am part of, located in the AAAS building of the National Academy of Sciences.  

Project Hope holds board meeting four times each year, and invites guest speakers to two of those meetings. I asked “What sort of people are invited for speech?”, since I knew that Project Hope was a global scale disaster relief health care team - one of the largest in the world. But when they said it was “James Jones  recently” , to be honest, I panicked a bit.  Mr Jones was the National Security Advisor to President Obama.  Condoleezza Rice came to speak, too, they said.

There were about 40 people in the room.  After having cocktails, we were seated at tables and enjoyed conversation until it was time for dessert,  when Dr John Howe introduced me as the guest speaker.  I talked for about 20 minutes on topics such as the Tohoku great disaster, activities with Project Hope and Ambassador Fujisaki, Operation Tomodachi, future plans, perspectives of Japan-US relationship, and so on.  By the way, this year is the 70th year from the “Pearl Harbor” in December, and is also the 100th anniversary of the planting of the famous cherry  trees in Washington DC. 

After the speech I received many questions and we were able to enjoy dialogues actively.  Mr Dr Gerber later told me that “It was a good speech.  We don’t usually have so many questions raised from the audience after speech at this board meeting.... I am so glad that you came....”

At about the same time of the day, a reception for the President of Korea, Mr Lee Mhung-Bak, who was visiting the United States then, was being held at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel banquet room.  I saw many Korean people at the lobby gathering from early evening, their faces gleaming with happiness and pride, making long lines in excitement.  How wonderful.

I understand that President Obama welcomed President Lee with special treatment of State Visit (Ref.1). I envy this energy of Korea admitting that Korea has many of its own problems.

In contrast, Japan, the neighbor of Korea, has had six different Prime Ministers in 5 years.  It is hard for us to see what the government is up to, and I suspect it is even harder for the government to make any big decisions....  Our Lost Decade continued for more than 20 years now, long ahead of EU or US in this sense.

Just a week before, US Japan Council was held at Washington DC. The Keynote Remarks was delivered by the Secretary of State, Ms Hillary Clinton, with many political leaders present, including Daniel Inouye, senior United States senator....  I wonder how the event went.

I started the next day early in the morning discussing our collaborative project with CSIS, the meeting we plan to organize in Fukushima in November and other issues to take care of.  After finishing these tasks, I headed to the airport.

This was a trip around the world - departing Narita on the evening of 8th (sat), staying one night each at luxury hotels in Abu Dhabi and Washington DC, spending 3 nights in airplane, arriving Narita on 13th (thur).

I slept well in the plane.

 

To Abu Dhabi for GAC, then to Washington DC

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In the evening of 10th, I departed Narita for Abu Dhabi on a direct flight by Etihad.  The objective of trip is to attend the Global Agenda Council organized by the World Economic Forum.  The conference, for your information, was held in Dubai annually for the past three years. I saw many of my Japanese friends also boarded on this flight to Abu Dhabi for this meeting.

After arriving at Abu Dhabi early in the morning I checked in to the YAS Hotel, the venue, which is also the scheduled venue for the Formula One Car Race (Ref.1, 2) in November.  The Car Race was being held at Suzuka, Japan from October 7 to 9, too.  Anyway, I was amazed to see the strikingly gorgeous facilities of this Hotel.

I attended the full two days of the conference at the building standing next to the Hotel.  I understand that this place is going to be used for the Formula 1 also.  As for the meeting, I was in the session of the “Japan Council” for the whole day as the sub-Chair. Thanks to the nice support of Mr. Takashi Mitachi of the Boston Consulting Group  and many others, we managed to facilitate good discussions.  The problem was that there was not much information available from Japan after the “3.11” Disaster (not to mention that six Prime ministers changed within these five years....)  thus offering issues for discussion was not easy, and we had to think hard in order to share views with each other.  However, I am thankful that we had nice constructive discussions with many people.

The reception was at the Royal Tower of the Race Track.  It had a nice view over the straight course of the car race.  Many political leaders including the Prime Minster of UAE were present, too.

After attending the full schedule of the 2nd day, I took a car to Dubai, and boarded on a midnight flight to Washington DC.

It was a very full, busy two days.

 

Magnificent Youths - 2

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The title of this column is the same as the previous one and reflects my feelings after spending time with some truly magnificent youths in the past week. 

I have mentioned the GCMP (in Japanese) numerous times on this site, and I participated in the wrap-up meetings  (in Japanese) for the Bangladesh summer program of this year.  Everyone worked in an environment which is dramatically different from Japan and they talked about issues including “water,” “waste,” “health,” and “education.”  I also spoke myself and offered up several suggestions.  They were able to expand their horizons, really grow and widen their circle of acquaintances. 

Next up was the Asian Innovation Forum (Ref.1) organized by Nobuyuki Idei, formerly President of SONY.  I have had the honor of participating in this Forum for the past four years.  I found the Forum of two years ago extremely stimulating, had a more sedate experience last year, but once again found the Forum to be inspiring this year.  This return to form can be partially attributed to six months having elapsed since the events of 3.11.  We also have a new prime minister.  In the face of the rapidly changing world that we live in, one does wonder what those individuals who are our “leaders” of Japan are thinking.  The talk of Naoki Inose, the vice-governor of Tokyo, was straightforward and thoughtful. 

This year I was part of the How Innovation is Changing People, Companies and Society  and participated in the Closing Session panel and gave a Keynote Address.  In the course of these activities I got to hear the ideas and musings of Mr. Idei who is truly a thinker of great depth and perception. 

In the course of the two-day gathering, I had the opportunity to converse with the young participants over lunch and in the meetings, and was impressed with these passionate individuals.  I think, more than anything, that it is important for us to take on the role of pushing these youth to look beyond and outside of themselves and to create arenas for activities.  I believe that many “adults”, having grown up in a different era, do not have a basic understanding of the fundamental differences of days gone by and rapidly becoming uncertain times of globalization.   

I stepped outside after the end of the two-day forum into a raging storm. 

The GRIPS graduation ceremony was held on the 16th (photos) .  As generally happens every year, almost all of the fall graduates are students who spent time with us from abroad.  Attendees included ambassadors from many nations, embassy staff and others and the multicolored flags of many countries lined the campus.  Definitely not your typical Japanese graduation ceremony!  

It was, as always, an emotional and inspiring experience for me to just participate in this GRIPS graduation ceremony and send out youth who will become leaders of nations around the world. 

 

Sydney Opera House

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I left Hayman Island after the ADC Forum for Sydney and stayed there for overnight for time adjustment.

The weather was beautiful next morning, and I had free time for about half of the day.  So, of course, I headed right away to the Opera House and enjoyed a very relaxing time.

What is amazing about this Opera House is, that the more you take a close look at it, the more you see how it was built with a vision for the future, integrated plans to materialize the vision - not only within its structural design, but also in the contents and wonderful programs that continue to attract people of the world to this day.  In short, this House has a great “magnetic power” that comes only from something produced with long term perspectives.

On the other hand, it seems to me that the national policies of Japan lack such dynamic, big concepts based on the understandings of current and future standpoint of itself in the global settings as I sense in this Opera House.  After all, our national policies are essentially nothing but the output of the “small town community” mindset traditionally nurtured within each ministries, which, as Tatsuru UCHIDA put it, is the reason why “Japan tends inherently to be a follower/responder rather than leader in the world affairs ” (Ref.1 in Japanese).

I decided to spend rest of my time at Bondi Beach, and had lunch at an Italian restaurant run by a young Jewish fellow from Israel.  I enjoyed talking about various things with him.  By the way, Bondi Beach is also famous for its Life Saving Club as well as the Icebergs.

Now, I will pick up my baggage at the hotel, go to the airport, and fly to Singapore.

Again On “2010 ACCJ Person of the Year”

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I was elected as the 2010 ACCJ Person of the Year in the end of 2010, and gave an acceptance speech this February at The Tokyo American Club luncheon.  The text of the speech is uploaded on my web site for your reference.

Recently, someone told me that Mr. Richard Smart posted an article about me, which, I think, was based on my speech at the luncheon, on the Tokyo Weekender titled “Kiyoshi Kurokawa, The Maverick”

Well, it is true that I speak my mind outspokenly although it may irritate some people, so it is quite natural for Mr. Smart to think that way.  However, I have never doubted that I might be wrong.  My point is that the Japanese society is a too insular minded, closed “Vertical Society.”

I know that many people will have hard feelings when truths are spoken and I don’t think we can do much about it.   However, it is very important that we speak what we truly feel.

You all know how the Japanese media coverage took the side of the government, trying to make things look better in their news coverage after the events of 3.11.  I think the credibility of Japanese journalism has fallen down sharply by their behavior of currying favor with power.  And now it is clear to the whole world that this attitude of flattering to power is not limited to the Japanese government, Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), or Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).
 
Where is Japan headed to?  I am a bit worried.