Kiyoshi Kurokawa's blog （en）

Inauguration Ceremony of Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST)

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I have introduced OIST (Ref.1)  to you several time in this site.  Now, OIST is officially approved as a graduate university starting from November 1st, since the government has given permission.

In Japan, as well as in other countries, we have been discussing much about the reform of universities or researches to address today’s needs.  However, at least from my perspectives, nothing has changed much.  I have been pointing this out  every now and then in my web site whenever appropriate.

On November 18th, the first board meeting as a university was held at OIST.  I have been supporting this project from the start, so I attended and joined in the seminar in the morning of 19th where four researchers gave presentations.  The presenters introduced to the audience new type of researches which were not only interdisciplinary, but also had great scale of scopes.  The researchers from the world who were at the seminar were apparently very impressed.  It is our earnest hope that we promote such unique researches open to the world that will contribute to the solution of global issues, as well as to nurture young researchers of the next generation equipping them with both the mind set and power to take action for such solutions.

In the afternoon, the inauguration ceremony was held.  Mr. Tatsuo Kawabata, current Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs, Mr. Koji Omi, the first person who came up with the idea of this project, and Ms. Yuriko Koike, the Minister prior to Mr. Kawabata were among the guests.  From Okinawa, Governor Hirokazu Nakaima, Mr. Keiichi Inamine, the former Governor were present.  Many more from in and out of Japan attended the ceremony.  The list of main participants should be available for your reference at the website of OIST.

There were four speeches at the ceremony.  Among them, the one I particularly liked was the speech given by Dr Charles Vest, President of the National Academy of Engineering, who served for 14 years as the President of MIT, as a message addressed to this new Graduate University, titled “On Universities of the 21st Century.”  I understand that those speeches will be uploaded on the website of OIST soon.

It was a pity that the weather was a bit rainy this day, that the ceremony had to move its place from the wonderful courtyard to the auditorium.  However, we had a small intermission of the rainfall in the afternoon, and we enjoyed for about 20 minutes dance performance and such at the courtyard.

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!

 

Paris in Autumn

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I arrived at Paris in the midst of autumn at 6 am, after departing from Haneda at midnight.  The purpose of this visit is to attend the final jury of 2012 L’Oreal -UNESCO Women In Science Awardees.  A car from L’Oreal picked me up and took me to Hotel Concorde Opera. At the lobby, I noticed quite a number of tourists from Japan in and around the lobby.  Maybe it was because of the good season.  The weather was beautiful, not a single cloud in the sky, and the temperture was around 25-26℃ （77-79Ｆ）.  I was told that it was rather cold until last week, though.

H.E. Kiso, the Ambassador of Japan to UNESCO kindly invited me to his official residence for lunch.  I have been to this place before,  but its been quite a long time since. Dr. Georges Haddad of UNESCO, former President of Sorbonne University (appointed to the presidency at young age of 37) joined us.  He was a fantastic person to talk with, having amazingly broad range of topics including the situation of Japan, and we all had such a nice, enjoyable conversation.

In the evening, I had a dinner at “Kei”, a very popular restaurant recently, with Dr. and Mrs Mimura of American Hospital of Paris.  Kei stands for Chief Kei Kobayashi. I was quite impressed to know his career.  Every dish is wonderful not only in its taste but also in the ways how they are presented.  He certainly well deserves the high reputation.  Why not try this place next time you visit Paris?

The next day was the selection of 2012 L’Oreal Awardees.  The discussion continued for about 7 long hours including lunch time.  After the hard work, we finally succeeded in choosing the 5 wonderful scientists which made us all happy. Participating in this sort of discussions, listening to various views, is very inspiring and there is much to learn from such experience.

In the evening, we enjoyed a concert, which is now a customary event.  We listened to 3 works each by Bela Bartok, Zoltan Kodaly, and Samuel Barber (Piano by Garrick Ohlsson), conducted by  a much loved conductor from Korea, Myung-Whun Chung, who was appointed to the musical director of Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France for this Autumn season.  I find Chung’s crisp, sharp style of conducting very attractive.

At around 10 pm, after the concert, we stopped by at Drouant.  It was sometime past 1 am when we finally said good bye to each other.  It sure was a long day.

Anyway, whenever I come to Paris, I rediscover its beauty.  People in general are not too overweighed, many smoke on streets or at cafés, and many women are dressed nicely, that is, in a chic style, regardless of their age.

I plan to return to Paris next March for the award ceremony of L’Oreal-UNESCO Women in Science Award.  I very much look forward to coming back to this lovely city.

Magnificent Youth

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The World Economic Forum (WEF) is well-known to visitors to this blog.  I think that people who visit this web site can get a sense of world events and new directions the world is moving in.  This Forum could be characterized as a multilevel network which links the world together horizontally, and it is a place for those individuals who are international leaders and have themselves been characterized as a “super class” in a book of the same name.

A conference was held last week in Dalian which has been dubbed the “Summer Davos” (a name that brings to mind Davos which is held in the winter).  More than a hundred attended from Japan, but my schedule did not permit me to make it.   The WEF Asian-Pacific Summit was held about a month ago in Indonesia, and I was unable to make that conference either.  I recommend the WEF site to everyone who wants to keep tabs on our rapidly changing world whose future is almost impossible to predict.

In light of these activities, Professor Klaus Schwab, who is the prime mover behind the WEF, has launched the new Global Shapers Community.  The aim is to broaden the arena for young activists who are striving to invigorate society.  William H. Saito, with whom I worked to launch Impact Japan in Japan, has been appointed as the Japanese Curator.  Impact Japan has also become a contact point.

Mr. Saito arrived back in Japan in the early hours of Saturday the 17th (actually he landed a bit after 5:00 in the morning on the day of the gathering).  Prof. Schwab, who had arrived in Japan the previous day, met with a gathering of approximately 30 youths in their 20s.  The Global Shapers Community was thus launched in the course of the subsequent 90-minute meeting.  Everyone, with the exception of 1, is someone who is working towards socially significant goals, setting up new organizations and engaging in entrepreneurial activities.  They are a hard-working and energetic group.

 

I beseech adults before they start to say “the young people of today are so  . . .” to think about these youths who are actively engaged and to offer them support.  There are also a number of youths based overseas.  Mr. Atsuyoshi Saisho and Mr. Yusuke Matsuda (in Japanese) who I have talked about previously in this blog also participated.  All of them are setting high goals and aggressively tackling them even while running into obstacles and dealing with major setbacks. 

This network of youthful activists which expands beyond borders should surely invigorate Japan.

Mavericks Moving into New Frontiers

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I departed from Kuala Lumpur and arrived at Narita early on the morning of the 17th. 

The Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST） has entered in the final stage of preparations to be certified as an official graduate school.  Meetings of the executive committee were held on the 16th and 17th.  I was unable to effectively participate in because the teleconferencing connection from Kuala Lumpur was bad and the connection wasn’t much better during the final morning session on the 17th after I returned to Tokyo. So unfortunately my input during these meetings was minimal.

OIST may very well become an international research facility that leads us into a new era. This type of approach qualifies as “going rogue” in Japan, but the OIST represents a hugely important project as we move into the future. This endeavor is, without question, deserving of our support.

I sat down in the afternoon for a talk with Dr. Robert W. Conn, CEO of the Kavli Foundation, Hitoshi Murayama of the IPMU at the University of Tokyo (which is a global research institute in the real sense of the word) and a few others. Dr. Murayama (Ref. 1) is one of only a handful of truly global leaders in opening new science frontiers. The IPMU is an institute which has become well known throughout the world over the past several year for its superior and, one could even say, unique approach, and has received the global “stamp of approval.” Dr. Murayama also gave a presentation at TEDxTokyo2010. 

Drs. Kalvi  and Conn are true “mavericks.” They had just met ten days before with President Obama at the White House with the 2010 Kavli Laureates. 

Dr. Conn and I crossed paths at UCLA and he often reads this blog. We are kindred spirits and our conversations are quickly became very lively. Since the mission of the Kalvi Foundation is to provide backup for leading university research labs around the world and support research in the areas of space, nanoscience, and neuroscience, we had plenty to talk about. I really hope that we can work together here in Japan. 

Dr. Maruyama is cut from the same mold as Joi Ito, the newly appointed head of the MIT Media Lab, whom I introduced on this blog, and I was pleased to be able to engage him, as he happened to be in Tokyo, in stimulating conversation.

I really hope that we can also send more graduate students from Japan to the Media Lab.

Murayama-san and Ito-san are both Japanese mavericks of the global world. I think it is essential for the revitalization of Japan, that we see more of these mavericks in Japan.

 

Kuala Lumpur - Pacific Science Congress

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I had the honor of being appointed eight years ago to the Presidency of the Pacific Science Association (PSA) and we held the 2007 Pacific Science Congress in Okinawa and then the 2009 Inter-Congress in Tahiti (Ref 1, 2, 3).  I have already, as you may know, talked about these gatherings on this site.

The Pacific Science Congress also has a committee within the Japan Science Council and belongs to the International Council of Science (ICSU).  This organization has a long and illustrious history of 98 years.

The Congress was held this year in Kuala Lumpur from June 14^th to June 17^th, and as the Immediate Past-President, I was invited to give a Keynote address.  I departed on the 13^th for Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia is a country that is vibrant and growing and it is pouring its energies into policies designed to promote education along with scientific and technological innovation.  Many local researchers who receive backing from the government were in attendance at the conference making for a really excellent gathering.

The title of my Keynote address was “Age of Uncertainty: Have We Become Wiser?” and my objective was to be as stimulating and thought provoking as possible.  Of course, many in the audience also expressed their support, concern and condolences regarding the recent tsunami and the subsequent events in Fukushima.

Everyone present seemed to find my address interesting and it prompted numerous questions from the audience.  The next day I even sat down for a live TV interview that lasted approximately 25 minutes. I was pleased to find out that Greg-san from Nagasaki University observed on his blog that the spirt in the room during my address heightened.

The Japan Science Council’s Hatai Medal was awarded this year to Professor Katsumi Tsukamoto (Ref. 1) for his research on the origin and migration of Pacific eels.  Professor Tsukamoto picked up his award in the company of his wife and I want to offer him my heartfelt congratulations on receiving this honor. 

I also was able to meet up with Dr. Robert Underwood (left photo below) who is the President of the University of Guam and had served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2003.  He talked about the far-flung Pacific Islands including the problems they grapple with in the areas of education and health care as well as their unique relationship with the United States from an extremely interesting perspective. He extended an invitation to me to visit Guam and I think that I would like to take him up on his offer sometime within the next year.  The Congress was an overall enjoyable experience which allowed me to see many old friends, make some new ones and meet young up-and-coming researchers.

  

I have previously talked about the Global Science and Innovation Advisory Council (GSIAC) which operates under the Malaysian Prime Minister, and I also had the opportunity to meet for around an hour with Dr. Zakri, who is the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor, and his staff. The members were truly an impressive lot and I was honored to be able to participate in this confab.

The next Inter-Congress meeting is scheduled to be held two years from now at the University of the South Pacific (Fiji).  How about joining us then??

 

 

Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK Government Visits GRIPS

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I have written several times here(in Japanese)(Ref.1)on the Chief Science Advisors to the UK Government.  As the representatives of the scientists of the United Kingdom, they are well trusted by the science community and have great responsibilities to the government in giving advices in their policy makings.  

This post is currently served by Sir John Beddington from three years ago, if I remember correctly.  He is a wonderful person.  I happen to be especially close to his predecessors Sir David King, and Robert May (later the President of the Royal Society, Lord May of Oxford); we trust each other and get along quite well.

This is one of the most highly respected positions in the British Government　(Ref.1) (both links are in Japanese), and therefore a person is carefully and well selected to assume the responsibility.  This background is observed clearly in the healthy relations between the science community and legislators - particularly the Prime Minister (although the distance varies depending on the Prime Minister of the time.  Tony Blair, for example, is said to have been quite eager and used to have discussions with the Chief Scientific Adviser almost weekly… I think that, in the end, it is a matter of the level of insights of the top of the administration how they use these wonderful advisors….)

Taking the opportunity of Sir Beddington’s visit to Japan, GRIPS invited him to give a lecture and a panel, and the event was moderated by Mr. Akira Ikegami, a well known journalist/TV broadcaster. The main topic was “3.11 and Fukushima”.  It was a quite nice conference, with lots of participants, good Q&As from the audience and twitter.

I was invited to ask first question to Sir Beddington after his speech.  Its video record is uploaded on Youtube (part 1)(part 2) and summary document is available at these links (Ref.1 in Japanese) (Ref.2 in English) .

His presentation was very clear and good.  I understood very well that he was speaking with full sensitivity to political issues and process.  I hope you will learn a lot from his lecture on how to communicate/work with governments.  On the other hand, I think it would be interesting also to imagine what Japanese people in such a position would say or act if they were in a similar circumstance.

My question appears right in the end of Dr. Beddington’s presentation (I urge you to listen to this…), after a comment by Mr. Ikegami, the host.

Fukushima is a global issue and the lecture was given at the timing when we were waiting for the results of the investigations by the IAEA. 

Good questions were raised from the floor, too.

 

The Prime Minister of Malaysia Launched Global Science and Innovation Advisory Council

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Photos here

Almost every nation of the world is setting science and innovation, ie, the creation of new social values, at the center of their national policy.

It is no exception for Malaysia, a nation that puts high priority in education, more recently making strong commitment to science research, in order to realize its economic growth.

Prime Minister of Malaysia Dato' Sri Mohd Najib announced the launch of GLOBAL SCIENCE AND INNOVATION ADVISORY COUNCIL on May 17th making use of the opportunity of his visit to New York City.

Dr. Zakri was appointed to the Science Advisor to the Cabinet at the time of the inauguration of the Prime Minister. I have been acquainted with Dr. Zakri since he was a senior official of the United Nation University (UNU) in Tokyo as well as Director of its affiliated Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS).  Dr. Zakri asked me for support when he came to Tokyo last year, and it so happens that the request materialized in this announcement.  The activity of this council is to be led by the New York Academy of Sciences (Ref.1). 

Below are the press coverage of the council for your reference;
1. BBC   
2.  New Strait Times

From the announcement, I learned that there are some people, such as Jeffrey Sachs, and Rita Colwell, whom I know very well in the members of the council.  If you search in my web site I think you will find their names in some of my postings.  I very much look forward to working with them.

Since I plan to go to Kuala Lumpur in mid June to give a lecture, I hope that our mutual schedule will permit me to see Dr. Zakri then.

I very much feel honored to be asked to serve in such an important task.

 

The Fragiligy of Japanese Elites, How to Make Leaders

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The whole world was watching Japan, holding breath, ever since after the 3.11.  I have been sending out series of hard comments in my blog (Ref.1,2), too.

Although what I have been saying was nothing new,  I have been saying the same things (in Japanese)for a long time, it seems that the management of the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster by Japanese authorities made my points - the weakness of Japan – becoming clear to the world.

The world media do not seem to report anything about Japan recently except for the nuclear power plant issue, though..…

The conduct of Japanese scientists also ruined the credibility of this nation.  Speaking in Japanese (not English) did not prevent the audience of the world to understand what are said and written.  My overall impression however, is that the comments by the Japanese scientists, especially on the nuclear power plants, were too vague and incomprehensible.  I know there are tons of reasons for this, but still, I have to say..….

In the morning edition of Nikkei Newspaper of May 9th, my comments (in Japanese) appear.  I would appreciate it if you could read this and think a little about it.  People are sending me many e-mails and messages on this article.

Here is another article (in Japanese) on Nikkei Newspaper quoting my comments, which was published a bit earlier.

‘SSR’ and the Responses of the Scientists/Engineers to the Great Disasters of Japan

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After the great disaster in Northern Japan, we - scientists and engineers - had to face numerous problems of all sorts, just like others.  Various experts made comments on the TV and other media.  What did their peer experts think of those comments?  Did they think that those comments made sense and science-based?

I think most people would agree that the press briefings of the government, TEPCO or Nuclear and Industry Safety Agency (NISA) were so clumsy and incomprehensible　detached from the public. It could be that the situation was too complicated that it was difficult even for the scientists or experts to make comments  in depths.

General impression was that, since the authorities presented only their own conclusions/results of their own interpretations without any data, analysis, nor basis of judgments, we felt or became suspicious there had to be some reasons for such conducts.  I believe this is true.  Many people responsible appeared to be simply trying to get away with excuses such as ‘not sure’ or ‘have not been confirmed yet’…

In this connected information age, however, if actual data releaved later, credibility of the authority and/or any organization will rapidly deteriorate.

I notice recently that major Japanese media, seemingly repenting on their poor initial behavior, started to publish special issues focusing on the future. (They were all the same and looked terrible in the beginning, though).  The Nikkei Newspaper launched this week a series; ‘A New Start from The Crises’ Part 1 ‘Towards the New Japan’.  It looks pretty good.

In Part two, “A Technology Nation ‘In the Well’” (in Japanese), they quote my comments.  The concept of ‘Intellectually Closed Nation’ (Ref.1)(2005, in Japanese), (Ref.2)(2005, in Japanese), (Ref.3)(2006),  (Ref.4)(2006, in Japanese), (Ref.5)(2009), (Ref.6)(2009),(Ref.7)(2010) which I repeatedly touch upon in this blog and elsewhere, is introduced, also.

I expect all Japanese scientists and engineers to understand that their value (their responsibility is not limited to research only) is evaluated by the peers and the public of the wide world not only by how they behave in Japan but in the world.

I don’t want to sound self-seeking, but ‘Japan Perspective’, a report by the Science Counsel of Japan in 2005, under the supervision of President Yoshikawa and I served as Chair of the committee, points out clearly the basics of the issues on how Japanese scientists should connect with the society, not from vertical ‘silo’ points of views, but from a horizontal perspective.

It is crucial for all scientists and engineers to recognize their strength and weakness, to see the changes and needs of the society of our age, and to have a strong vision on how to address the issues of the society and put those visions into actions.

This, in short, is the SSR ‘Scientists’ -as a community- Social Responsibility’ in this global world, I strongly believe.