economy – Page 28 – Kiyoshi Kurokawa.com

Lost in translation? Not really

Posted on 2008/03/252014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

In a recent panel I participated ?perhaps about 20 panelists — 6:4 for Japanese and non-Japanese, heated discussion went on how to combat climate change. Several Japanese corporate and policy leaders claimed that Japanese energy technology is most efficient and they worked very hard with ‘Samurai spirit’ to improve energy efficiency after ‘oil crisis’ of 1973 Middle East War and insisted that innovative technology is the key to reduce carbon emission.

But others, both Japanese and non-Japanese, argue that this is not enough and insisted that rules and regulations including ‘carbon cap and trade’ must be implemented. Japanese side insists ‘sector approach’ leaving best practice in the world for each sector to pursue.

It seems EU and even US seem moving toward ‘carbon cap and trade’ in addition to various mandatory policies in addition to innovative technology. Unless Japan takes it own initiative, she becomes just a follower of new world rules and could be singled out from this kind of business.

On video-screen, the translation appeared as ‘Samurai Worrier,’ which should have been ‘Samurai Warrior.’ An American noticed this error, but said gently this may not be an error and rather sending a correct message. Sometimes, translation may convey the true meaning of what is being said.

Meeting with Mr. Blair and participating in “Blair Project”

Posted on 2008/03/212014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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From March 14 to 16, “G20 meeting of ministers of energy and environment” was held in Makuhari, Chiba prefecture.

In the morning of 13th, I met with Prof. Sachs and discussed about the latest Global Health Summit, as well as the announcement made by president Bush during his visit to Africa, on additional support for Africa on neglected infectious diseases other than HIV, Malaria, and tuberculosis. We also discussed about various types of ODAs, supports that can produce visible outcomes, and how we could best fund them. From late afternoon, a meeting organized by Columbia University was held in Shanghai, to which I was invited, but unfortunately had to be excused.

I then rushed to the 3rd meeting of GIES, “GIES2008.” “GIES2007” held in June 2007, and there my talk on “Innovation25,” is available on webcast.

In the morning of March 14, I had breakfast with Honorable Malcolm Wicks, Minister of State of Energy of the United Kingdom, who participated in the “G20” meeting. In the late morning of March 15, I with several others met with Mr. Tony Blair, prime minister of England until last year (Photo 1). Mr. Blair delivered a keynote lecture early in the morning at G20 meeting. We discussed primarily on climate change and its policy of upcoming G8 Summit, China policy, issues on developing countries, and other related issues. Mr. Blair highlighted the topic of climate change for the first time at his Gleneagles G8 summit in 2005, and since then he is sincerely working hard to follow up the theme. He works closely Davos meeting, and co-presided a lecture given by prime minister, Mr. Fukuda, this year’s Davos meeting. Mr Blair has continued his effort through various mechanisms to work on thi and other major global issues. I have been invited to join his team and am looking forward to participate in this honorable endeavor. Mr. Blair will head to next destination, Beijing and New Delhi, and I have already starting to correspond with his staffs by e-mail. No time to waste!

Photo1　With Mr. Tony Blair

March 16, lunch at “Global warming symposium” organized by Ministry of Environment, Tokyo, and Nikkei (photo 2), followed by keynote lecture by Mr. Blair, and a panel by Mr. Kamoshita, Ishihara, etc (photo 3). Excerpts will hopefully appear in Nikkei Shinbun sometime soon.

Photo2　Lunch with Mr. Blair. From left, myself, President Nishizawa of Tokyo Metropolitan University, Mr. Namiki, vice Minister of Environment, Mr. Graham Fry, British Ambassador to Japan, Mr. Blair, Mr. Ishihara

Photo3　 From left on the panel discussion, Mr. Kamoshita, Minister of Environment, Mr. Blair, Mr. Ishihara

Photo4　Before the lecture, myself with Mr Graham Fry, British Ambassador to Japan

L’Oreal – UNESCO 10th Award “For Women in Science” – from Paris

Posted on 2008/03/132014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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I flew from Narita to Paris in the evening of March 5th to attend a memorable 10th anniversary event of L’Oreal-UNESCO “For Women in Science” Award. There was also the year 2008 Award presenting ceremony. Laureates in the past 10 years count up to over 50 and if we include International Fellowship and National Fellowship, nearly 500 women scientists have been awarded and supported in the past 10 years. This is a wonderful contribution to the society. Almost 40 Laureates participated to celebrate the 10th anniversary event.

After arriving in the morning of 6th, I had some rest. In the afternoon, there was an event at UNESCO headquarters. First, there was an introduction of L’Oreal-UNESCO Charter for “For Women in Science” and its 10 Commitments followed by signing of the 40 Laureates. Please refer to this site for detail of the 10 commitments. This is with full of good intention. I hope that my blog readers will also practice it. I was invited to take part of the event since I served as a member of the jury for 2008. It was a 1 week event, but I could only attend the award presenting ceremony.

After this introduction, there was the award presenting ceremony of this year’s Laureates. Mr. Koichiro Matsuura, Directeur-General of UNESCO and Sir. Lindsay Owen-Jones, Chairman of L’Oreal and the L’Oreal Foundation both gave a welcome speech in fluent French. Dr. Gunter Blobel of the Rockefeller University, who received the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine, was the 2008 Chair of the L’Oreal-UNESCO Awards jury. Laureates were introduced one by one. To introduce each, a short, well edited movie of each of the Laureates was shown which was filmed by visiting them, and a very clear introduction by Dr. Blobel about their scientific achievements followed by a speech from the Laureate. All of the 5 Laureates were introduced in this manner. Then Mr. Matsuura and Sir. Lindsay presented the award, it was quite an impressive stage.

Laureates representing the Asia Pacific region include Dr. Tsuneko Okazaki(2000), and Ms. Fumiko Yonezawa(2005-she was absent for this anniversary event and we missed her) from Japan. Also, Dr. Fang-Hua Li(2003) from China, Dr. Nancy Ip(2004) whom I’ve known very well from Hong Kong, China, and this year’s Laureate was Dr. Narry Kim from Korea.

Photo1 With Dr. Tsuneko Okazaki

Photo2 With Dr. Nancy Ip

In selecting the candidates, juries focus on the creativity and the quality of their achievements based primarily on their publications and professional achievements, but the most important factor is “whether it is an achievement as an independent scientist.” This year’s award winner, Dr. Kim is 37 years old, studying MicroRNA and is Assistant Professor at the Seoul National University. With her outstanding achievements, all of the juries unanimously chose her out of many outstanding candidates from Asia Pacific. I wanted to know how she could have made such an eminent achievement as an independent researcher, so a week after the selection committee, I took advantage of scheduled visit to Seoul to meet her.

Photo3 With Dr. Blobel and Mr. Matsuura

She earned her master’s degree at the Seoul National University, PhD. at Oxford University and Post-doctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. When she returned to Korea as Assistant Professor at the Seoul National University, as she told me, her Professor strongly supported her providing her a part of his research budget for a few years until she became independent, allowed her to use whatever equipments necessary in his laboratory, and had 2-3 graduate students from his program to work with her. But when coming to writing the research paper, the professor declined to be a co-author, saying that it was her own work. She said that in that process, she was able to become independent in pursuing her research and was very grateful for the support she received from the professor. This professor must have really wanted her to become an independent researcher to pursue her career; it is wonderful, but may not be ‘norm’ in Seoul National and I wonder why. One day, I would like to meet this professor in person to ask this question. In Japan, young people are not encouraged to become independently early, nor going through an open process of competing, so it is hard to see from the outside who are showing great potentials with creativity as a newly rising future stars. It is often the case, you have to become a professor to be able to compare as an individual scientist with peers to see a potentially promising scientist. This is not a way of nurturing creativity. As we say, spare the rod and spoil the child.

Photo4 Ms. Narry Kim

Upon the award accepting speech, she said that she once considered giving up research career because she had to take care of two children. She appealed that it is important for the society to support women scientists, particularly mothers, like the day-care center. I totally agree. I met her child, too. I hope that in Japan too, we can expand the opportunity for younger talented people and women, and give them chance to enhance their ability to be independent in their field of study. You don’t necessarily have to become a professor to be an independent researcher, becoming a professor must be just a result of academic achievements. It is important for professors to support nurturing the younger generation’s talents and potentials and to give them opportunities to become independent early in their career to become someone different. Our future is indeed on the shoulders of the younger people.

The hotel was Sofitel, located near the Japanese Embassy, Concorde Plaza and St. Honore. The location was magnificent, but too bad that I did not have much time to spare. In the afternoon of the following day, I had to return to Japan. At the airport, a cinema screen size photo of each of the Laureates were exhibited everywhere; Nicely done.

Economist Conference: Japan’s Strength and Weakness

Posted on 2008/03/102014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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On March 5th, 8.00AM, I attended the first “Conference of global warming issues” at the Prime Minister’s Office. It may be a little too late to kick off at this timing, but as we can see from the Prime Minister’s speech in Davos, he is beginning to take a step forward. It’s a good thing. But the Diet is facing full of issues such as the budget committee, funding for road, gasoline tax, nomination of BOJ governor etc.

The world’s most read economic media, “The Economist” featured “JAPAIN” (not “JAPAN”)　in their recent edition. It reports that despite Japan being the 2nd largest economic power in the world, there is little political leadership even under this critical situation. Today there was a conference hosted by “The Economist” and I attended the afternoon panel. I joined part of the session before lunch where Minister Yoshimi Watanabe and Matsui-san from Matsui Securities Co. Ltd., both known as polemists were talking about “Agony of socialist nation, Japan.” In the afternoon, a Vice Minister (of course a politician) showed up. Vice Minister is a role to support the Minister, but that Vice Minister, he seems a good man, was just reading a draft written by a bureaucrat. This is strange. It’s not consistent with democracy. Is this a joke? That’s why they are called “reader,” not “leader.” More than half of the audience was not Japanese, thus this situation was a little awkward. I understand that it is difficult to distinguish the “R” and “L” pronunciation for Japanese, but it is a little too ironic. Anyway, the relationship between Japan’s bureaucrats and Ministers are completely incomprehensible for the world.

During lunch, there was a lecture from Tetsundo Iwakuni, member of DPJ. I took part in the first panel in the afternoon. Please refer to Yoko Ishikura’s blog for details. There were 4 panelists and each did a 10 minute presentation. To wrap up, I talked about 4 things. (1) First, I started by saying “We ‘eated’ lunch next room and enjoyed a lecture by Iwakuni-san.” “We eated lunch” is grammatically wrong, but no one got on it nor anyone laughed at it. It makes sense in English. Of course it is correct to say that it’s not “We eated,” but “We ate,” but “eated” is enough to pass on the meaning. It’s a good thing to pay attention to grammar, but I just want to point out that this is one example of “starting to talk in English.” This is the common language “broken English” in this global era.

One of the panelists, an executive from Nokia delivered an interesting speech. He said that everyday a million cell phones are sold worldwide. So I said (2) the share of the global cell phone market is 38% by Nokia, 14% by Motorola, 12% by Samsung, 9% by SONY-Erickson and the 10 or so Japanese cell phone companies combined all together only have 5% of share. Some may say that the service providers like DoCoMo is too dominant, and I agree to this point. But the quality of Japanese made components are good and 65% of the world’s cell phone components are actually “made in Japan.” We have to precisely understand Japan’s strength and weakness to do business in the global arena. Next (3), I pointed out the problem of Japanese cell phone industry, engineers, management and the organization itself appealing to Apple that they want to handle iPhone. What’s more important is to look at the customers “in the world.” Remember, back in 1997 Apple’s cash flow was only durable for 5 weeks and was rumored to be bankrupt or be merged by some other company. Do Japanese companies have to be put in a situation like this to understand? It’s also a problem that Japanese companies tend to run in to the government officials for help. I would say first “Mind your own business in marketplace.”

There are unbelievably childish scandals going on by the management among big companies, bureaucracy and well-established companies. But come to think of why these incidents occur. It is really disgraceful that the top management doesn’t take responsibility to resign, or in some cases resign from President but remain as a board member. It is only natural of the cold response from the society and younger generation questioning “dignity of Hin-kaku in Japanese” of people in higher positions. Everywhere in the society, the top are corrupted. They should owe responsible to the society. What is economic growth in such a society?!

Lastly (4), I took out my iPod and explained that the design of this shiny back side of the gadget and prototype was made in Japan, production was done by a Taiwanese company, and its factory was in China and some of the components used inside are made in Japan. But these are all component manufacturers. Apple doesn’t do the actual manufacturing. They just designed the whole system and created the concept but get 50% margin out of a product. My message was that “manufacturing” is important but what is more important is why you make it, what you make and how you seize the customer’s heart. The instruction manual for iPod is extremely simple. You can see it on the internet. Compared to that, the instruction manual for Japan’s cell phone and other electrical appliances are unimaginably difficult to understand. I assume that the engineers are writing it, but it is simply not user friendly (interesting books are written to this by Dr. Koreo Kinoshita in Japanese). One reference related to this is “iPhone shock” (Nikkei BP, 2007, in Japanese) written by Nobuyuki Hayashi.

Japan’s strength and weakness. We have outstanding technical capabilities but lack imagination and energy to step out to the world. After all, it’s the management that is weak. It is unbelievable in this world of information that a President of a company says without hesitation that he will stay in realm for “2 years for 2 period” to follow their arbitrary internal rules. This is the basics of corporate governance of market economy. I can’t imagine that Nissan said to Mr. Ghosn about their internal rule of “2 years for 2 period” when inviting him as president. Let’s face the world and stop being obsessed by Japan’s original common sense.

What we need in Japan right now is a “Mr. Morita at SONY” in the 60’s. Some may argue that time has changed, or he was special, or other reasons that we can’t do. Those are the ones who are not fit to be the leader of an organization.

From New Delhi part 2

Posted on 2008/03/072014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

My 2nd and 3rd day in New Delhi was mainly visiting Honda and local business leaders. First visit was Honda (Honda Siel Cars India). I met with President & CEO Mr. Takedagawa and Vice President & President of the Manufacturing Facility, Mr. Matsuzaki. Mr. Takedagawa shared his experience about the tough times, the current business situation and future plans. Mr. Matsuzaki established a manufacturing facility in America in 1982 and stayed in the U.S. for about 15 years. After America, he worked in various parts of Asia and set up this manufacturing facility in India. The facility was very clean and the employees were very polite. This must have been a painstaking effort.

Photo1 My visit to Honda Siel Cars

Photo2 In front of their entrance

After Honda, I visited the local office of Dentsu Inc. and the New Delhi campus of ITT. In the evening, we had dinner at the Japanese Embassy with Ambassador Domichi, Dr. Sunami of the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies and First Secretary, Mr. Seto. Ambassador Domichi was assigned this post from the Japanese Embassy of Iran and Mr. Seto is the person who helped organize the SCA (Science Council of Asia) 2 years ago in India.

Photo3 At the New Delhi campus of IIT

Photo4　At the Japanese Embassy from left: Dr. Sunami, Ambassador Domichi, myself and First Secretary Mr. Seto

The following day I visited the local office of Mitsui & Co, Ltd, Mr. Munjal of the Hero Group, Mr. V. Krishnamurthy, Chairman of National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council and one of the leaders of Indian business (Photo5), and the Confederation of Indian Industry (an organization similar to the Japan Business Federation?!). The main topic was about business. India is especially keen to have technological alliance with Japanese companies, but the Japanese way of business is slow and they insist on getting the majority share. No wonder the Koreans and Chinese outdo us. I also heard that the European and American businesses are becoming more active in the Indian market.

Photo5 With Dr. Sunami and Mr. Krishnamurthy

During the meeting with Mr. Munjal at the Hero Group, I was told that the JV negotiation with Daimler has been launched and that he just received a letter from the French President Mr. Sakrozy yesterday. In the past two years, I have met the Indian Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Minister of Technology and Science, they are all unique and intelligent in their field of business and science technology. Of course there maybe some “challenges” special to India, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to let it go. There are various ways to do business relevant to the local business tradition and strength. In that respect, Mr. Suzuki, Chairman & CEO of Suzuki Motor Corporation is admirable as a business leader. Suzuki has become somewhat a local brand. You have to be the first comer and work up a sweat to get the fruit. Understanding local customs and incentives to the local staff may also be important. All my best wishes for the people involved in business in India! I hope that our economy flourishes together with growth of India and Asia. I remind you all that Japan is the only OECD member country that has not grown their GDP in the past decade…Wonder why?

From New Delhi part 1

Posted on 2008/03/042014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

After successfully ending the 3-day Global Health Conference on February 17th, flew to New Delhi the following morning. Upon arrival at New Delhi Airport on time at 17:30, I went directly to the city of Noida in the suburbs. The objective of my visit was to attend the commendation ceremony of YES（Young Engineers and Scientists） by The Honda Foundation. This is to recognize the top 5 outstanding students atIndian Institute of Technology（IIT）, now well known to the world as one of leading technology institutions. It is a wonderful project. That is Honda, or so to say the spirit of Mr. Soichiro Honda. There was one other guest aside from myself who just appeared at the last moment of the commendation ceremony, and that was Dr. R K Pachauri. I have known him very well through the SCA (Science Council of Asia) and other conferences that we have attended in the past few years. Even 3 years ago in Bangkok, we did the keynote speech together at the AGS-Global Alliance for Sustainability conference. Last year in 2007, as IPCC was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize together with Mr. Al Gore, we can say that Dr. Pachauri became globally known as being the Chairman of IPCC. But he was already widely reputed as the leader of global warming issues among scientists.

Photo1　At the commendation ceremony. From left Mr. Takedagawa, President & CEO of Honda Siel Cars India Ltd., myself, Dr. Pachauri(**）, Mr. Ban from The Honda Foundation

Photo2　From left Dr. Pachauri, one of the awarded students and myself

**Dr. R K Pachauri arrived from America the day before and is wearing a hat to cover his blotch on his head.

After the commendation ceremony, Dr. Pachauri and myself each gave 20 minutes’ speech to congratulate and encourage the award winning students. I touched upon Mr. Soichiro Honda’s sprit and wished the students to inherit his spirit to contribute and play an important role in the global agenda we all face. I will introduce my speech on another occasion. People from The Honda Foundation, executives and members from local Honda and the families of the award winners were also present and they all looked very happy. Also, Mr. Brijmohan Lall Munjal, the Chairman of Hero Honda Motors Ltd. was attending this ceremony. Hero Honda is a joint venture with Honda since 1982 doing production and sales of motorcycles. Mr. Lall’s son, Mr. Sunil Kant Munjal is leading the Hero Group and we both serve as a member of the President Council of the University of Tokyo.

Photo3　this is me giving speech

Photo4　With the award winners and staff （5th from left is Mr. Brijmohan Lall Munjal, Chairman of the Hero group）

At night I had a drink with Dr. Sunami of the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, and Ban-san and Ishihara-san of The Honda Foundation. Meeting bright young people, it was a pleasant and wonderful evening.

Global Health part 2

Posted on 2008/02/292014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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In the morning of February 16th, our NPO Health Policy Institute (HPI) held the annual “Medical Policy Summit” with our directors, advisors and members. The half-day meeting includes four panels focused on various issues on Japan’s health system.

Based on our 3-year activity at HPI, it may be time to expand our scope to go global, thus this year, we held an international conference in the afternoon, “Global Health Summit: Advancing our promises for TICAD/G8 and Beyond”. The MC was NHK’s Ms. Doden.

Former Prime Minister, Mr. Jun-ichiro Koizumi addressed the key note speech about “Food and Environment”. As may be expected, his speech was vibrant and fully attracted the audience. He talked for exactly 30 minutes without a manuscript or memo. His speech covered from beriberi, change of eating habits, longevity in Japan, the Japanese word “HENJIN” meaning “extraordinary” and not “eccentric, crazy”, his knowledge about Anjin Miura (William Adams) and scurvy, his visit to Miyako Island 2 days ago to see the process of sugar cane being produced into bioethanol and the resistance of the oil industry etc. Half of the participants came from overseas, but it was a wonderful opening.

Photo1 Former Prime Minister Jun-ichiro Koizumi

Photo2 The World Bank Vice President Dr. Joy Phumaphi

Ms. Sadako Ogata was traveling to Africa, so she addressed her greetings via video. Then followed a speech from one of the Vice Presidents at The World Bank, Dr. Joy Phumaphi. Panel participants were Mr. Jay Naidoo, Chairman of the Board of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and Development Bank of South Africa (whom I met in Davos during this year’s session with Bono), Dr. Tachi Yamada from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation whom I have referred to many times in my blog, Mr.Hiromasa Yonekura, President of Sumitomo Chemical which is globally well known for their outstanding effect of Olyset Net against malaria, Mr. Tadashi Yamamoto, President of Japan Center for International Exchange, known as the pioneer who started a real NPO in Japan and Ms. Akiko Maeda of The World Bank headquarters in Washington DC. With such distinguished members, we had a lot of fruitful discussion. For many of the Japanese audience, Japan’s contribution to Africa may have sounded something new. Mr. Koji Tsuruoka, Director-General of Ministry of Foreign Affairs made a speech on Japanese government’s view for TICAD, G8 Summit etc. To wrap up the conference, Mr. Yukio Hatoyama, Secretary General of The Democratic Party whose local is Toyako, where the next Summit will be held, addressed a message via video.

Photo3 Dr. Naidoo, Dr. Yamada, Mr.Yonekura from right during panel

Photo4 Ms. Doden, Ms.Maeda, Mr.Yamamoto from left during panel

They are all the global leaders of initiating Global Health. Dr. Naidoo’s 13 year-old daughter, who is a big fan of Japan, accompanied him to Japan for the first time.
The reception was also very successful and I felt the high expectation towards Japan, being the hosting country for the upcoming TICAD and G8 Summit.

The following day, on Sunday February 17th, there was a discussion session with people working for Global Health related NGO in Japan which was hosted by G8 NGO Forum. This also turned out to be very fruitful.

As I repeatedly say, Japan is hosting big events this year; TICAD in May and G8 Summit in July which will attract great deal of attention worldwide. Most probably, it will be the last chance for Japan to host a G8 Summit. In that respect, this conference was held very timely and the output was successful.

For an independent think tank like HPI to hold a conference with the support of The World Bank, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation etc. is a very open policy discussing process that is not necessarily led by the officials. I felt that it was a conference that showed a glimpse of Japan’s direction in the global era.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude for the people who attended this conference. Also, many thanks to the staff that help organize this event!

(photography by Tetsu Kudo)

Global Health part 1

Posted on 2008/02/292014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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In this global world, as super-rich emerge, the poor become even poorer. Currently, out of the 6.6 billion world population, about 20% are the so-called “extreme poverty” class and face high death rates for mothers giving birth, infants and children under age of 5.

Every year, millions of people die from hunger, malnutrition and diseases related to that. Especially poverty in Africa and South Asia is miserable. As our awareness towards global warming changes, production of bio fuel has increased, leading to the raise of corn and wheat prices. The world is moving to a critical direction. “2C”＝”Climate Change” and “3Ｆ”＝”Fuel, Food, and Feed” has a big impact to the people suffering from poverty. This is effecting heavily to the changes in global human society.

On February 15th, we held a conference on “Global Health: Under-nutrition” with the support of The World Bank, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other organizations. Dr. Tachi Yamada, President of Global Health Initiative at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, made the closing remark and I did the welcome remark. During lunch, there was a wonderful speech from the Ghanaian Minister of Health and Welfare.

In addition, the world’s leading medical journal “The Lancet” started to feature on world nutrition since this January. The article is based on data from vast evidence and finds issues, some what like building up data for what can be done. The real challenge is what we can really do to make a change.

Japan is doing grass-roots ODA activities such as distributing iodine salt to Mongolia, something that is unique to Japan.

School meals are good, but babies up to 1-2 years’ nutrition and supplying necessary elements (like iodine, iron etc.) is what is important. Especially breast-feeding should be the key nutrition for babies up to 6 months and if nutrition is not enough up to 1-2 years old, it will influence their lives later on like poor grades in school, and allowing themselves to be in a social level of facing unemployment and low wages. As this leads to unfortunate future for the children and gives great impact on the nation’s productivity, nutrition is indeed a big issue.

Today’s conference was very enlightening for me and I thought is was good.
Tomorrow will be the second day of the conference.

Japanese Economy, A Long and Slow Slide

Posted on 2008/02/082014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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A recent article in Washington Post, Sunday February 3rd ‘For Japan, a Long, Slow Slide: Declines in Productivity, Population Combining to Stifle Economic Growth’ resonates with recent special issues on Japan as well as quite a number of books published in Japan and elsewhere. It is clear that Japan still needs powerful reform to re-build vibrant economy and not much time is left for Japan. The political situation may be a bit difficult to maneuver now, but has to act, and business must ‘act globally’ focusing on the core competence. Business sector needs more Morita-san of SONY in 60s.

I felt quite disturbed or uneasy in Davos of a session ‘Japan: A Forgotten Power?’ with a moderator and panelists being all Japanese. Similar sessions in the past always included non-Japanese experts in the panel. In fact, when I walked in the room toward the end of the session, there only a few non-Japanese in the room and the language spoken were understandably entirely Japanese (maybe someone, Japanese or non-Japanese, may have used English before I entered the room) and discussing mostly domestic issues, such as gender empowerment and immigration policy rather than what Japan’s role in globalized world: why not discuss domestic issues in Japan?

Japan still is the world’s second largest economy in terms of nominal GDP, but It seems Japan wishes to withdraw itself from global affairs, at least me.

from Davos, Part4 (The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2008)

Posted on 2008/02/062014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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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?

photo 2

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.