OECD Conference in Paris

 →Japanese

I flew to Paris on February 11. I was invited to serve on the the Knowledge Based Capital panel held on the 13th and 14th. I was invited to speak o the opening panel of Day 1. I decided to use this opportunity to see some people in Paris, thus I left Tokyo one day early.

I checked into the hotel around 5 pm of the same day (Feb 11th) and had dinner at the residence of Ambassador Yoshikawa, Representative of Japan to the OECD. It is the same place I visited at the time of former Ambassador Hattori.

In the morning of the 12th, I went to the OECD with two people who as volunteers,work for Table for Two, then onto lunch with Chairman Laurent Stricker of WANO and meeting with Commissioner Philippe Jamet of the Nuclear Safety Authority, who I had met in Tokyo in December.

In the evening, I had an American Hospital in Paris (AHP) related dinner with ten people of the French financial and business world and some from Japanese companies. We enjoyed French cuisine at Dominique Bouchet. We discussed many topics, beginning with the National Diet of Japan's Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission (NAIIC). We ended up hardly talking about AHP, but since they are all diverse and multitalented people, we had a wonderful conversation.

The next day was the OECD meeting. I served as a panelist on the first panel with Minister Willets of the United Kingdom, Minister Ljung of Sweden, and Mr. Landefeld of the United States. The panel was moderated by Mr. Wyckoff of the OECD. I stood up and gave a presentation for ten minutes. The audience was mainly composed of government officials and policy makers, so I stated that the change the world is currently going through must be the biggest change since the industrial revolution. I handed out two slides, one originally by Joi Ito, director of the MIT Media Lab and another by Chairman Komiyama of the Mitsubishi Research Institute.

I was able to meet with many people from Japan who are working in the OECD. Yuko Harayama, who previously worked here for two years as a senior executive, attended the conference. She was on her way back from the UK and I met with her for the first time in a while.

I left the conference for a bit and visited the French Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN). Over lunch, I discussed many matters with Jaques Repussard and other top officials. This was one of the places members of NAIIC visited in March of last year. Frank discussions are helpful for understanding each other.

Afterwards, I returned to the OECD for the last two panels, reception and dinner. Here too, I had the opportunity to speak with many people.

Many people gave me very positive feedback on my talk. I believe it was good that I provided a wider framework for everyone to think broadly at the start of the panel conference.

I leave for Boston tomorrow morning.