Drs Iiyoshi and Ishikura of the Open Education

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The weather was beautiful on May 31st, and from 8am, I gave a speech to a group of young legislators of Democratic Party and Liberal Democratic Party focusing on the 3.11 disaster under the title “What’s Now, a Step to Take” (Ref.1). The meeting was held at a conference room of the Office building of the House of Representatives (Syugiin Kaikan).  We had a good discussion, but on the other hand, since there was an imminemt issue of non-confidence motion of Prime Minister Kan, I felt uneasiness in the air.

I am deeply concerned about the state of our nation and wish to do whatever I can.
 
From 10 am, I ran a meeting at Ministry of Health, and I arrived late at a meeting over lunch with Drs Yoko Ishikuara (photo is here also) and Toru Iiyoshi (Ref.1) on the role of Open Education in Japan and the trend of education in the world.  Our table was outdoors, faced a cozy garden, with bright sunshine, so we very much enjoyed passing of the time.  I felt urge to start a new project, a new move.  I hear that Dr Ishikura is starting her new work aggressively at Keio University.

Then, I went on to join in a board meeting of an educational institution which I am part of.  The relations between education reform and conventional power is difficult anywhere.

In the evening, after a brief stop at my home, I headed to Haneda to take a flight to Paris that will take off shortly after midnight.  By coincidence, Mr. Tsuchiya, who takes charge of Japan program at the Davos meeting, was on the same flight.  We are both visiting the headquarter of the World Economic Forum in Geneva.

It was a busy day, but with the help of the nice lunch time with Ishikura-san and Iiyoshi-san, I managed to take off in a good spirit, boarding on the night flight to Paris departing at 0:35 am, June 1st.