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I was invited to a luncheon held at the British Embassy in Tokyo, when British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett visited Japan. I expected to meet again with "British Climate Ambassador" John Ashton , Special Representative for Climate Change for the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), whom I met in London this January. There were many politicians, foreign officials and businessmen attending the event, including Sadako Ogata, President of Japanese International Cooperation Agency, and former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. There was another meeting for some politicians with Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett in addition to the luncheon, too. Nobutaka Machimura, former Foreign Minister, House of the Representatives (HR) member, Masahiko Takamura, former Foreign Minister, HR member, Kazuyoshi Kaneko, former Minister of State (Regulatory Reform, Industrial Revitalization Corporation, Administrative Reform, and Special Zones for Structural Reform), HR member and Yuriko Koike, Special Adviser to the Prime Minister for National Security Affairs, former Minister of the Environment, HR member showed up at the luncheon.

The seating order being decided beforehand, I was so surprised at being assigned to the main table, just next to Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett. This table had many prominent politicians including British Ambassador to Japan Graham Fry across the table from Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett and Sadako Ogata next to me. To tell the truth, I did not feel so comfortable at the table, hearing that Science Adviser is recognized as a highly respected position in UK. The difference of the recognition of Science Advisers between UK and Japan impressed me on the importance of the history as well as the responsibility of Science Adviser. I heard that Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government Sir David King meets with Prime Minister Tony Blair as frequent as once a week, while I as Special Science Adviser meets alone with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe once a month to exchange ideas for an hour or so, which you might have learned from a press release of the daily schedule of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

　INTERVIEW_Essentials_of_Innovation（PDF）

Source:　The Japan Journal （JUNE 2007）

It has been a while since the last post. I came back from Province and Egypt via Paris.　Now is the best season in Paris.　The horse chestnut leaves were so beautiful.

To complete the final report of Innovation 25, my staff and I have worked almost every night for two weeks, including weekends. For the cabinet approval of the ministers, each ministry and agency is busy with many things it has to do. This is difficult, but everyone has worked so hard and they are excellent, I always think we can use their talent for something else too. I have worked with them though at home, so in recent nights I have only slept for two to three hours. I sometimes send emails and give some instructions in the dead of the night.

Innovation 25 has been frequently covered by the media, so you may see this report from time to time. My Interview and the summary of the interim report of Innovation 25 are both in the Japan Journal, the English public relations magazine of the Cabinet Office. The English translation of this interim report is on the homepage of Innovation 25. I heard when Sanae Takaichi, Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs, Science and Technology Policy, Innovation, Gender Equality, Social Affairs and Food Safety, visited Germany during the Golden Week holidays (in early May), she was asked about this report and it drew increasing attention. Prime Minister Sinzo Abe also made remarks regarding its high-visibility. It is regrettable that until now, the Japanese government never had the idea to communicate Japanese policies to the world.

The world only feels ten percent of Japan’s presence. This is typical and cannot be excused, and is evidenced by Japan’s closed-minded mentality. Conversely, UK shows its presence perhaps ten times more beyond that of its substance. Please think about this. This is a part of significant, important and basic national strategy. Japan only responds after others put pressure on it to take action. Japan has little sense of grand vision, so it cannot develop a strategy, and therefore Japan gambles on tactics. Don’t you think you have heard this before?

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I came back from Singapore on the morning of the 22nd and in the afternoon, I attended the meeting on the cardiac disease hosted by our NPO, Health Policy Institute in the auditorium at the United Nations University. I am so glad that this NPO activity is widely known. These activities show the ideal future of Japanese society.

On the 23rd, I attended the Education Rebuilding Council on university reform at the Prime Minister's office in the early morning. After the Council, I attended the meeting of Innovation 25. It was a busy day. In the evening, I gave a lecture on the innovation in the conference which was hosted by Japan Science and Technology Agency. The attaches of foreign embassies were invited. After the lecture, I left for Narita Airport. I took Air France to Paris at 9:55PM. I often take this flight; is very convenient to go to any place in Europe and because it gets to Paris at 4:30 in the morning and I can be in any main city in Europe in the morning. I can leave Tokyo after working all day and it is about 13 hours comfortable flight. I saw two movies in the plane, Casino Royale and Dream girls (Diana Ross and the Supremes are the model of this movie. These names would be good old memories for those who lived their youth in 70's.) I also met Mr. Nobuyuki Idei, the former chairman and Group CEO of Sony Corporation and the wife of Mr. Carlos Ghosn, President and CEO of Nissan Motors. Mr. Idei started something interesting, a consulting company called Quantum Leap. You can understand if you read his book, Waver and Determination: Record of Ten Years in SONY (in Japanese, Shincho Shinsho, December, 2006) that being the CEO of the global companies is very difficult work.

The purpose of this trip was to attend the conference hosted by Sony Computer Science Laboratoris, Inc.(CSL) held in Camargue, marshland at the mouth of River Rheine in Provence located, in southern France. Mr. Mario Tokoro, the president of CSL was on the same flight with me and I also joined Mr. Luc Steels, the director of CSL, Paris, Ms. Kaoru Yoshida and Ms. Yumiko Kitamori from Tokyo. (Please look at the CSL website.) We took TGV for three hours and had lunch with wine in the train. The land was so flat in France and green and rape blossoms were all over the land. It was so sunny, which made me feel so good.

Photo 1: From left, Mr. Makoto Tokoro, Ms. Yumiko Kitamori, and myself at the TGV station at Charles de Gaulle International Airport

Camargue is in the marshland in the mouth of River Rheine and is famous for the salt production.(Photo 2) In addition, Saintes-Maries de la Mer is at the seaside of Caramague and the church dedicated to Sara the black (Sara-la-Kari), a servant of Mary Magdalene (The Da Vinci Code) is here.(Photo 3) I remembered the French movie from 50 years ago, Crin Blan (meaning "White Mane" and I think Japanese title of this movie was "White Horse"). This was a story of a boy and an all-white horse, famous in Camarague, and I can picture the last scene with that horse running on the beach. White horses are every here and there in Saintes-Maries de la Mer and you can enjoy horse riding, too.

 

Photo 2: Salt mountain and myself

 

Photo 3: On the church roof

This time the conference was small (approximately 15 attendees) and the theme was "Sustainable Society." The conference was held in Hotel Mas de la Fouque (Photo 4). The hotel is quite attractive. Sessions are quite interesting too, especially, a lecture from an individual from the London School of Economics, who stayed in Congo and lived with isolated indigenous peoples for three years (surprisingly he took his wife and his three year old son). I felt the profound wisdom of the people living with nature from the lecture. I was impressed with his research. He has a reason as to why it was in the Congo. It is said that a research theme that no one is presently or has previously pursued is desired. I thought this is the strength of the United Kingdom.

 

Photo 4: The scenery around the hotel

 

At night, my friend, Ms. Kitano joined us and the atmosphere was delightful.

On the second day of the conference, the discussion was always ongoing. The energy-efficient houses (for example, Passive-On Project) gave me ideas.

　Steering Japan into the Future – "Innovation 25"

Source:　The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan. （Apr.18, 2007）

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On April 17th, I was invited by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan (FCCJ) and spoke about Innovation 25. You can read the press conference in the website of the FCCJ (I think you can see the video soon, as well). In advance of the press conference, my interview was inserted in Science (April 13th issue), so I handed out the article with English translation of Innovation 25. I found the English interviews were easier than those in Japanese, because English, as a language (and any language), reflects the culture behind it, thus you do not need to carefully choose so many wordings based upon whom you are speaking. As I have been saying, if I speak in Japanese, I speak with reservation and spend so much energy choosing words that are appropriate for whom I am talking to and their social states and often cannot speak honestly and frankly to express my true feelings.

On the 19th, I went to Singapore. Singapore is one of the most rapidly growing and dynamically changing Asian nations. The purpose of this visit was to attend my first meeting as the Member of the Board of A*STAR, the center of the biotechnology policy planning on the 20th. The meeting was held in the Biopolis which was built in just 18 months. Up until now, Mr. Philip Yao was leading the scientific policy and his work had received wide attention in the world. Mr. Yao has great leadership as well as and has successfully built on an incredible list of leading scientists of the world. He has a clear vision as a political leader, is decisive, has great managerial ability and as such, the government has put strong faith in him. From now on, Mr. Lim Chuan Poh, Permanent Secretary for Ministry of Education will become A*STAR’s chairman and Mr. Yao will work for new entrepreneurial businesses. Thinking creatively, working hard and quick decision-making are the hallmark of this small government of city nation (population is four million). Singapore is promoting a national policy of improving human resources development, which focuses on young people’s education and internationalization as the center focus of a long-term strategy. Efficient government and an improved social system are significant factors that make Singapore one of the most well regarded innovative countries in the world. Picture 1 is with Dr. Tachi Yamada, one of the board members (He is my friend from UCLA and is Director Global Health Initiative of the Gates Foundation, thus travels all over the world) and Dr. Yoshiaaki Ito, former professor of Kyoto University and the former Director of the Institute for Virus Research, who currently works at Biopolis. I hope many people take an active role in the world like Dr. Ito.

Picture 1: From the left, Dr.Ito, Myself and Mr. Yamada

In addition, at the National University Hospital, the opening ceremony of the Molecular Biology Clinical Institute built in commemoration of Dr. Sydney Brenner was held and I had a good time there. (Picture 2) The institute was remodeled by Mr. Ken Kornberg, an architect who was also involved in designing Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, and it was nicely done. Mr. Ken Kornberg is the son of Dr. Arthur Kornberg who won a Nobel Prize and his brother also won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry. I think Mr. Kornberg is the third case in which parent and child both won Nobel Prizes. One of the cases was Madame Curie and her daughter, Dr. Joliot Curie. I think you can understand how great they are.

Now Singapore is bursting with vitality.

Picture 2: At the opening ceremony of Brenner Institute. From left Mr. Yeo, Dr. Brenner and Mr. Lim, Chairman

Picture 3: With Mr. Ken Kornberg, architect

Today (6th), I went to Okinawa and came back to Osaka in a day.

In Okinawa, I attended a groundbreaking to commemorate the start of construction of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology. Dr. Sydney Brenner, president of this Institute, Mr. Hirokazu Nakaima, governor of Okinawa Prefecture and many other people were in attendance at this great ceremony. Finally, our OIST plan will be realized. I look forward to your continued support.

Mr. Ikuo Nishioka is a top talent at one of Japan’s powerful venture capital companies and an entrepreneur himself. He is writing a series column called "Ikuo Nishioka’s IT Tool Box" on the Nikkei business online website "The Latest Way of Management." In his second column "Executives Especially Need to Use Emails," he introduced how executives use emails and he even introduced me. I was very happy. Please read his column.

As you know, the English translation of Innovation 25 is on the website, and now you can read the Chinese translation. I am glad to see the translated version. In the "flat" world, sending messages to the world is crucial. The general public throughout the world will be able to evaluate what we do. This is the "flat" world. Japanese does not communicate to the world enough and effective. Is this because of our thinking? Maybe it is because of Japanese leaders who have closed minds.

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This weekend, cherry blossoms will be in a full bloom in Tokyo, but unfortunately it will be raining.

The title of this blog: "Yale University had a Symposium on Patriotically-minded Historian Kan’ichi Asakawa. He is on spotlight again." is an article of Sankei Shimbun from March 29th. I know many people who visit my website know of Dr. Asakawa.

The small headings of Sankei Shimbun’s article were "He had foresight and indicated Japan’s course" and "Dr. Kan’ichi Asakawa said ‘Japan will lose the trust of the world’ and ‘the United States is a country of public opinion.’" This is the same purpose as mine which I always write about in this site. For the past 100 to 150 years, Japanese basic thought has been introverted, and Japanese can only see things panoramically and have closed-minds which are not good at thinking. Why have Japanese been like this? I think this is an interesting theme for us to think hard.

If Japan had only a small presence in the world, Japanese mind-set would only be a problem inside of Japan (although this is also not good!) and this would not a big problem to the world. However, Japan is the world’s second-largest economy. I think self-righteousness is not acceptable in this era of globalization and even dangerous. I am a little worried when I see the current state of the world, rapidly changing Asian situations and the direction in which Japan is seemingly heading to.

Was this symposium held because people feel same kind of anxiety as me? The answer is probably ‘No’. This symposium was held this March because hundred of years have passed since Dr. Asakawa had taught for the first time. The symposium theme was "Japan and the World: Domestic Politics and How the World Looks to Japan" and some noted individuals from Japan that you may recognize were in attendance. If you think of the present global landscape, this year is the historical hundredth year for Japan, too. This is such a coincidence!

Dr. Asakawa is the first Japanese professor in the United States. He is the first to become a professor at Yale University. The first Japanese who officially got in and graduated from Yale University was Dr. Yamakawa Kenjiro, who served as a sixth president of the University of Tokyo and in fact was a remaining survivor of the Aizu Clan’s Byakkotai. In 2005, when Dr. Richard Levin, current president of Yale University, came to Japan, he introduced to the audience Dr. Asakawa and Dr. Yamakawa in his lecture at Tokyo University.

Monthly Kogaku Shimbun is a website for international students living in Japan, which introduces 50 international Japanese in the series. This website is very interesting. Many people, including Dr. Asakawa and Dr. Yamakawa, that I spoken of on my website have been introduced in this series.

In the interview,"For the National Vision Using Science as Borderless Tools"(Iwanami Shoten, Publishers World),"life science and ethic" was discussed and Dr. Asakawa was introduced as well. Please read it.

"History repeats itself" is not acceptable anymore. My conclusion, "Have we become wiser?" was the heading of the lunch session, "World Knowledge Dialogue" held in Geneva.

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I assume that many of you have read the “Innovation 25” interim report. The key message is development of human resources. The message of “no time to spare for university reform” in this global era is defined in this report as one of the major policy issues of the time being.  The Innovation 25 site which is linked to “The Prime Minister’s Office- Cabinet Office” points out that the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy shares this view and their “Economic and Fiscal Reform” report touches upon “abolition of arts and sciences categorizations upon entrance”, “Discussion on entrance examination system reforms”, and so on. It is not my intention to bring up America in particular, but how much do other western countries think that they have general university entrance exams? About university education itself, issues to be considered may include “liberal arts v.s. disciplinary education” etc.

By coincidence, in our well known site of Mr.Deguchi’s DND, Ms.Harayama, Mr.Hashimoto, Mr.Shiozawa are all raising a controversial discussion at the same time over the topic “classification of arts and science” .　They are inspired by one another ? wonderful!  I hope that they boost up this discussion. All matters should be decided by open discussion. A similar view is proposed from the economic society as well. Please refer to this year’s March policy proposal of Keizai Doyukai

Well, the entire Japan is looking at this direction, but what will be the reactions of the universities themselves? They are too used to the current system and when it comes to their self interest, what will be their response? Rather than saying “no, we can’t”, or spending years on defining the word “liberal arts” and looking for excuses, we should take a big step forward and start on what we can do. Universities are not for professors, but they exist for our future human resources. So this is where the university people should pour their wisdom. Their insight will be tested.

As I wrote in my blog on March 3rd, compared to the drastic message of the world’s leading universities, there is no time to spare for Japan’s university reform. I sincerely hope that the university people make a bold decision and proceed with the reform. Needless to say for private universities, but national universities that have become corporations also have a good amount of freedom now.

As you can see in the material of the meeting of Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy held on February 27th, the session of educational reform also shares the same awareness for university reform. I do look forward to the reform, but at the same time, is a bit concerned that it won’t be a significant one.  I advise Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to not leave everything up to the universities, but make substantial effort through innovative thinking. Basically, universities are and must be highly independent.  However, partly because of Japan’s historical background, they seem to be paying more attention to the government authorities. Well, it can’t be helped.

People might say I am getting old, but I like Hina Matsuri. Great dolls for the Doll Festival are displayed at the prime minister’s office, too. As you may already know, last week I attended three meetings at the office of the prime minister: Innovation 25, the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, and the Council for Science and Technology Policy. I think it is good that these meetings underlined the urgent need for university reform.

One of the recent headlines was that Harvard University has selected a female president for the first time in its nearly 400-year history. Four out of eight Ivy League universities now have female presidents; the others are Princeton, Pennsylvania, and Brown University. Other elite universities such as MIT and Cambridge also have women as presidents. I have written about women presidents and empowerment of women on this blog many times.

Meanwhile, in Japan, Dr. Setsuho Ikehata, the president of Tokyo University of Foreign Study ended her term (she is a great woman and we are always in agreement), so we now have only one female president of about eighty some national universities (I don’t mean that national universities are more important, but I am speaking to you from a historical context). Ms. Atsuko Tsuji, an editorial writer of the Asahi Shimbun in her recent column on first woman president of Harvard University rightly pointing out this fact of only one woman at the top of national universities in Japan. Only one woman president is sad. The whole world is watching Japan. I don’t think it is this number that is the real issue but I feel like this number reflects how Japanese society thinks of universities and the gender issue. In this era of globalization, what universities can communicate to the society and to the world is very important.

This is what I felt as the Doll Festival approached. Japan’s "Gender Development Index" is ranked number 8 in the world, but the "Gender Empowerment Index" is in the forties. This is a shame.