On May 25th, the last meeting of “Innovation 25” was held at the Prime Minister’s office. At last we have finally come this far. There is still yet to go for the administrative staffs though, lobbying related parties and the ruling party since cabinet approval is scheduled at the beginning of June. Obviously it is beyond one’s imagination that a word like “a nail that sticks out” is included in the official document for cabinet approval. We have also included some drastic contents such as the suggestion of “elimination of the classification of arts and sciences” upon admission of students to universities. The full text is available for your reference at the homepage of “Innovation 25”.
In the homepage, a letter to Minister Takaichi which I addressed as the chairperson, “Upon drafting the final report of Innovation 25” is uploaded also (in Japanese only). For the past 2 weeks, our staffs have worked almost around the clock seven days a week. Since “getting approval from the cabinet” was our goal, we needed to get the consensus of each office and ministry, and this process obviously has “watered-down” the report. As you all may be aware, this problem is one of the gravest problems that must be addressed in Japanese policy planning and government decision making process.
After Minister Takaichi finished the press conference, the Minister and the committee members were invited for dinner at the Prime Minister’s residence. The Prime Minister himself acknowledged our work.
Then, I took Shinkansen for Hamamatsu to attend the general meeting of Japanese Society of Nephrology celebrating its 50th anniversary where I was given an honor to deliver special lecture in the morning of the 26th.