Kiyoshi Kurokawa's blog （en）

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Creative Capitalism

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As you may note, I have been invited this year to a few, but very special occasions to speak on global issues and the fundamental changes underlying such social movements toward 'One Inclusive Society' (Reference 1 , 2 , 3 ).

One of a major focus In these speeches is changing faces of capitalism, thus CSR or 'corporate social responsibility' and I quoted Mr. Bill Gates for his phrase 'Creative Capitalism'.  You may wonder what he means by the words.

In a recent issues of TIME magazine, it features a special interview of Mr. Bill Gates 'How to Fix Capitalism' where he discuss his concept of creative capitalism as he sees the status of the world reflecting the past century.  It is a very interesting personal, yet powerful argument for business leaders, consistent I believe with what I tried to convey in my speeches.

I would appreciate your giving some thoughts on such a concept and activity reflecting your business or whatever you do and plan to do.

Mr. Bill Gates will be in Tokyo in November.

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

Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize

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

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

Photograph 1

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

Photograph 2

Photograph 3

Photograph 4

Photograph 5

Photograph 6

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

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

Week of Africa: A day with Jeffrey Sachs, Bono and Tony Blair.

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The public relations of "Table For Two" activity which I am also involved was held in Diet Member's office welcoming Dr. Jeffrey Sachs.

It is a wonderful thing that social entrepreneurial activity like this originated in Japan and is spreading to the world into a movement that works on problems of scarcity of food on one side of the world and overeating on the other.  I encourage you to participate.

I went to Keio University in the afternoon.  Various events are being held on its 150th anniversary this year.  There was a presentation of a degree of "Doctor of Law" to Mr. Bono of Rock band U2 (Photograph 1 to 3) followed by commemorative speech.  The award presentation ceremony was held at the auditorium, a prestigious place for Keio University, which was built by the initiative of Yukichi Fukuzawa, the founder of Keio.  I was invited to this ceremony by Mr. Bono.  Ever since our meeting in the Davos Forum this year I am helping him along with Dr. Sadako Ogata and others.

Photo1 Mr. Bono, at the presentation of 'Doctor of Law', and Dr. Anzai, the President of Keio University.

Photo2 With Mr. Bono.

Photo3 Jeffrey Sachs also participated.

The speech was a series of lectures on Shibusawa Ei'ichi memorial lectureship of Keio University that promotes the movements of "Civil Society."

Then, I went to a meeting with the staffs of Mr. Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister of UK, whom I have reported to you in my past column.

These are all related to Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) that will start in Yokohama this week and Toyako G8 Summit in July (Reference 1 TICAD, 2 Toyako Summit). Attention and expectations for Japan are very high.

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.

G8 Dialogue at United Nations University

United Nations University(UNU) with its Institute for Advanced Studies(IAS) hosts a series of lectures "G8 Dialogue" in support of the role of Japan, that hosts 4th TICAD(Tokyo International Conference on African Development) in later this month in Yokohama and G8 Summit in Toyako, Hokkaido, early July.

I was invited to talk on Global Health and its excerpt is attached for your interest.  The lecture can be viewed on the web.

　Global Health: What is Necessary to Make it Possible?（PDF）

From St. Gallen

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Mt. Santis （2503m）located in south of St. Gallen

As you can see in my earlier column, I participated last year, and also this year at the St. Gallen Symposium.  It is a project started by the students of St. Gallen 38 years ago, and even today the planning and administration is performed by the students.  Isn't it wonderful?  About 200 students around the world and 400 persons (mostly from Europe) from various fields such as business, participateed.  For the first time in its history, 20 students are participating from Japan this year and they were selected from nearly 500% of competitive ratio.  They are not just Japanese students, 50% of them are international students.  The selection was performed by reviewing English thesis.

This year's topic is "Global Capitalism - Local Values."  It is a very timely theme, isn't it?  The opening session started with the wonderful opening addresses of President Pascal Couchepin of Swiss and President Dr. Heinz Fischer of Austria.

Besides the regular members, this year, Mr. Yoshimasa Hayashi, a Diet member, participated in plenary of day one and Dr. Yoko Ishikura of Hitotsubashi University participated as a faculty and took lead in the workshop on the same day.

Photo1 Lord Griffiths (on the right), Martin Wolf of Financial Times (on the left).

Photo2 with the students participating from Japan.  Mr. Suzuki (Credit Swiss Japan president, 3rd from the left) and Dr. Ishikura (right end).

Photo3 with Mr. Suzuki, Mr.Hara, my staff member (left end), Mr. Philipp Kuhn-Regnier of St. Gallen (right end).

I attended the workshop on the second day.  Last year, when I participated in the first Plenary Panel, the speech and message I delivered to the students were very good (said Lord Griffiths of England), so this year they planned that I should act as a commentator, hosted by Mr. Peter Day of BBC, and comment to a South American student honored in the essay contest, Rhodes Scholar Mr. Cillier (will pursue studies in Oxford University from September), and Mr. Klaassen, student of St. Gallen who wrote contradicting opinions to the views of the former two.  The topic is "Global Capitalism and Local Cultures of Innovation."  It was fantastic.  Please look on the conference site.

Photo4 with Mr. Hara and Mr. Philip.

Photo5 with Mr. Y.C. Deveshwar, a wonderful Social entrepreneur and Entrepreneur.

Photo6 with Mr. Owada, Ambassador Abe, Mr. Akashi, Energetic student Ms. Imai.

Photo7 with Mr. Cillier, Mr. Klaassen, Mr. Bay of the Panel.

The reception was held in the evening of 14th.  On 15th, we went a dinner at Der Gupf, the same restaurant I came last year (this restaurant is known for its wine collection and wine cellar). It is a place that offers a view of Lake Bodensee and I was able to take a look at the surrounding scenery for the first time, since weather was good this year.

Photo8 with Dr. Ishikura in Gupf.

Photo9 with Mr. and Ms. Owada, Mr. Akashi, Ambassador Abe.

Meeting with Mr. Bill Gates

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

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

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

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.

Welcoming Leaders-to-Be on Global Health

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

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

photo1　Our group picture

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

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?

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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 New York City

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

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

Photo2　Together with Advisory members and NYAS staffs

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

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

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

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

Photo4　With Dr. Laurie Garrett

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

Photo5　On the street of NYC

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

Photo6　Together with Dr. Ariel Pablos-Mendez

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

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

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

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

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

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

Visit to Washington and then New York

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On January 6, I went to Washington DC from Narita airport.  It was very warm just like last year.

In the afternoon, we went to the Holocaust Memorial Museum along with Mr. James Kondo, my colleague at Health Policy Institute, our “Think Tank.”  The plan and building of the museum had been well designed but I felt the stupidity of mankind.  With only slight differences, the same things are happening again and again even today somewhere in the world and it is madness.  Preserving, exhibiting and exposing such historical records and documents are very important.  Otherwise nothing can be learned and the same things could happen again and again.  It’s foolish isn’t it?

The following day, on January 7, there was a meeting with the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) in the morning. (Photo1).  Lunch for me was arranged in the members’ lounge, exclusively for the members of National Academy by invitation of Dr. Nina Fedoroff, Scientific Advisor of U.S. Department of State.  It occurred to me then I could have used this lounge since I was a member of Institute of Medicine (IOM) too and we talked about various topics with Dr. Fedoroff and Mr. Arimoto.  We were able to network with various people while talking and Nina was kind enough to making several phone calls.

Photo1  From left-Dr. Goldin, former director of NASA, Dr. Cicerone, chairman of National Academy and introduced many times, Dr. Serageldin, Director of Alexandria Library

On that day, there was a board meeting of IOM coincidently, thus I came across my old friend, Dr. Victor Zhau (Mentor of Dr. Ryuichi Morishita of Osaka University, well known in Digital New Deal a forum to support as a cheering group member of ‘Innovation 25’).  Dr. Zhau is now a powerful person running every thing from the medical school to the hospital at Duke University.  I also met Dr. Fineberg, President of IOM with whom I had lunch just 1 year back.  It is good to have professional friends.

(By the way, I had been selected as ‘DND person of year 2007’ in Digital New Deal, mentioned just before.)

I also met Dr. Bruce Alberts, the President of the National Academy for 12 years, who had devoted his special attention to support developing countries.  This is the first time we had met since last October.  He told me that he has returned back to the University (UCSF) but the work is becoming monotonous.  He will become an Editor-in-Chief of “Science” magazine this coming March.  So I joked with him “You will be famous won’t you!.”  In the afternoon, I visited the World Bank and met Mr. James Adams, Vice President of East Asia and Pacific Region and Mr Alfred Watkins, Science and Technology Program Coordinator.  I gave a lecture about 'Innovation for Development' for about 45 minutes in the auditorium.  You can watch it on the webcast.  Though it was the beginning of New Year, lots of Japanese were in attendance as it seems Japanese embassy announced.  Many questions were asked and it was fun.

Photo2, 3  After lecture in World Bank (In Photo2, the person on left in front of me is Mr Watkins.)

Photo4  At the exit of World Bank, with Mr. Ebata of Japan embassy
(Mr. Ebata had been previously assigned to Samawah in Iraq)

In the evening I visited Dr. Marburger, scientific advisor of President Mr. Bush (Photo5, 6). After that, I returned back to the National Academy and met Dr. Charles Vest, who has been a Principle of MIT for more than a decade (Photo6).  In this way I could meet heads from all three academies of the National Academies in one day.

Photo5, 6  In the conference room of Mr. Marburger
(Photo6 Joan Rolf, administrative secretary. He had been in Japan for about 2 years and is fan of Japan.)

Photo7  From left-Myself, Dr. Goldin, Dr.Vest and Mr. Arimoto

I had to excuse my self during dinner and returned to New York from Ronald Reagan Airport.

It was one busy day!  The temperature during the day was 18 degrees and really warm. The temperature last year was more than 20 degrees. Is this proof global warming?!

Speech Information

Date：　December 6, 2007　4:15～5:30 pm
Place：  Skilling Auditorium, Stanford University
Title：　「Innovate Japan」

From Seoul

→Japanese

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

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

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

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

Photo3  At the Korean Medical Institution

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

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

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

Photo5  At the fish market in Seoul

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

Photo6  With Dr. Narry Kim of the Seoul National University

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

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

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

The young people and the leaders of the world, and Sir. David King of the British Embassy ～Issues and Expectations of Japan as seen from the world

→Japanese

This is an activity report from October 7th to 9th from the following day after I returned back Japan from the selection of UNESCO-L’Oreal prize in Paris.  8 o'clock in the morening on October 7th, I went the BioCamp.  This is a “Camp” conducted once in a year by Novartis, the global company, for about 40 young Asian people since 2005 （Refer:1, 2）.  The first camp was conducted in Taiwan, and the keynote was addressed by Dr. Yuan T Lee, the 1986 noble prize winner in chemistry.  The second camp was conducted in Singapore, and the keynote address was given by the Science Minister Mr. Philip Yeo.  And this time, Mr. R. Horwitz of MIT, the winner of medical student noble prize of 2002, and I made the keynote address.  There were probably about 40 participants and the male : female ratio was 5 : 5.   Amongst them, there were 15 participants from Japan and the ratio was 7 : 3 which shows the large number of male participants （this means that there were more female participants from other countries）.  I was a bit sad as I had just selected a woman researcher in Paris the previous day.

I came to know later that the event was telecast in the "Mino-Monta’s" morning show on the following day for about 90 seconds, included some parts of my speech.  The program reported this camp as an example of that the private enterprise's contribution towards the growth of young people.

I had to go Kyoto just after the address.  There was the 4th STS Forum.  There was a short greeting by Prime Minister Fukuda in the morning session.  I could not reach in time for his speech and so I participated from the afternoon session.  This year, the event attendees have considerably increased to about 4 times.  It was a wonderful opportunity to meet the leaders, friends and have new acquaintances （Picture1～4）.  The discussion, such as about problems and policies of the world, have progressed quite well since the last year’s conference.  After all, there is no doubt that the climate changes or sustainable society are the main issues of the world, from the last year's conference.  In this world's issues, there are huge expectations to Japan, I think・・・.

Picture1　From left myself, Dr. Yuan T Lee, Dr. Yoshikawa and Dr. Waldvogel

Picture2　From left myself, Mr. Charles Vest and Mr. Youngsuk Chi

Picture3　From left myself and Dr. Serageldin, Egyptian ambassador and Alexandria library superintendent

Picture4  Mr. George Atkinson and Ms. Nina V. Fedoroff, the science advisor of Ms. Rice Secretary of U.S State Department

After the STS Forum, I came back to Tokyo on the 9th and I headed towards the University of Tokyo, Institute of Medical Science, from the Shinagawa station.  I participated in the speech about the vaccine development with Mr. Seth Berkley, a founder of International AIDS Vaccine Promotion Plan （IAVI）.  （We know each other since the Davos Economic Forum in 2 years ago, and we both participated in this STS Forum）

In this evening, I went dinner with the Science Advisor of British Prime Minister, Sir. David King.  Of course the topic was mainly about the G8 summit in July 2008 in Japan.  4 of my staff （member from the Cabinet Secretariat, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, General Council on Science and Technology and Science Council of Japan） were also participate.

Japan is the host country for the G8 summit, and deals with the problems of the world,  How are we trying to solve the climate changes and the problems in Africa?  How about Japan's leadership in Asia?  I feel this might be a crucial moment for Japan at the beginning of the 21st century・・・.

In the G8 summit in Germany, Japan's contribution was very high though （comparatively I do not think the evaluation within and outside of Japan was good.  It is as usual because of lack of communication strategy）, then what can Japan do about the climate change, now?  In addition to this, TICAD will be held in May 2008 in Yokohama.  In spite of the marvelous opportunity for taking leadership about the Africa issue, it is irritating that "intention of the nation (National Policy)" was not conveyed to the world in any of the themes.

I feel this is common sence of the world that Japan cannot be seen in the "rapidly moving world."  This can be said that because of the unexpected change of the cabinet, though.

Well, what do you think about this?  It's tiring, isn't it?

Am I afterall ‘Henjin (out-of-box)’, ‘a breaker of stereotype of Japan’?

→Japanese

In the morning of September 19th at Pacifico Yokohama Convention Center, I delivered a keynote speech at ‘BioJapan 2007-World Business Forum.’  The first speaker was Dr. Maraganore, CEO of Alanylam Pharmaceuticals (I met him about 3 years ago), the title of his speech was ‘Progress in development of a new class of innovative medicines.’  Next speaker was from Denmark, Mr. Riisgaard, Novozymes CEO, who talked on ‘Bioethanol-A sustainable contribution to the future energy supply’ and then I spoke under the title of ‘Innovation in Biotechnology: where is it headed to?’

People from OECD were also there and I had dinner with five of them at the night before.  I knew two of them from long time ago.  It’s a small world, isn’t it?

By the way, the latest Newsweek Japanese edition (September 19, 2007) is published with its cover story, ‘A Confession of Foreign Correspondent in Tokyo.’  Mr. David McNeill wrote an article, ‘I want to tell about Japan as it truly is.’  Mr. McNeill is an English correspondent of ‘The Independent’ at Tokyo but also writes for several other newspapers around the world.  He is also the coordinator of ‘Japan Focus.’

Under the subtitle of the article, ‘Although Japanese officials prefer stories of exotic Japan,’ I found a statement as below.

“・・・I also like to find and introduce such individuals who breaks the stereotype of Japan as a huge machine and that Japanese people are working there like honeybees without faces.  There are many original and talented individuals in Japan such as Kenji Kawakami who presides ‘the Society of Chindogu (a unique instrument)’;  Kiyoshi Kurokawa, a special advisor to the cabinet; Jun Takahashi, a designer;  Kazue Mizushima, a composer;  Eitetsu Hayashi, solo Taiko drummer, and so on.  I feel very lucky that I am paid for writing about their works in articles.”

Am I different from average Japanese after all?  It doesn’t particularly bother me, rather flattered to be seen so ‘properly.’

At the night, I had dinner with some British people involved in health policy and from media such as ‘the Independent.’