A Speech in Expectation of Empowering Women

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I arrived at Haneda from San Diego early in the morning.  This day, I ended up corresponding all day for the Project Hope.

Supporting system for disaster relief in Tohoku seems to be gradually getting into order, and more aids, although far from enough, are coming in to the stricken areas.  Needs for medical care is changing rapidly.  Now, there are more needs for handling of chronic disorder rather than acute illnesses.  Equally becoming important are mental supports for the children and elderly.

Project Hope decided in the end to go to the stricken areas as well as the Fukushima area.  Everyone is working very hard to contact relevant sections and offices in order to arrange the trip.

Dr. Shimabukuro decided to come back to Japan from UCLA again, and is busy getting into touch with people.  In between, she even wrote an article to USA Today.  Dr Shiabukuro is such a hard worker!

As for myself, I had to give a lecture next day at the luncheon hosted by the ‘Women’s Committee’ of the Tokyo American Club (TAC) on ‘Women Empowerment in Japan’, so to my regret missed the opportunity to go the disaster hit area with our Project Hope team. 

At the TAC luncheon, I was seated next to Mrs Roos, wife of the U.S. Ambassador to Japan.  I had the privilege of talking much about the quake and Fukushima issues with her.  The activities of the Ambassador can be followed via twitter and you will easily see how much he is dedicated.  By the way, all of the participants at this luncheon were women except for myself and Mr Lee, the President of TAC.

I opened my lecture by saying “Thank you for inviting me to TAC luncheon seminar to discuss ‘Gender Empowerment here in Japan.’ But, I must say that I am disappointed because today my audience consists of only women except for me and TAC president and what I speak to you today must be addressed rather mainly to men and you women know well many issues I will be talking about”.  I also distributed a list of references.

I said that the challenge is how to shift from ‘society of men’ to ‘society of gender equality’ and ‘gender empowerment.’.  In fact, Kathy Matsui of Goldman Sachs have written how her analysis show that if the Japanese society succeeded in encouraging women to take good part in workforce, the Japanese economy is expected to grow by 15%.  For details, please refer to ‘Womenomics’ which I included in the reference list.
 
As you may notice, I am raising this issue again and again in this website.

TED -4; Great Technologies Used in Google Car and Other New Devices

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I knew that Google succeeded in creating a driverless safe car.  The story of its development was presented at this year’s TED (4 minutes).  The car ran between San Francisco – Los Angeles, so it seems.

It happens that two of those cars were demonstrated at the TED venue.  Of course, I signed up for the test ride.  The car ran with the high speed of 50-60 Km/h around the narrow course set up at the venue.  Here are the video of the test run (Ref.1). Both of the cars were Toyota Prius by the way.

Another speech was about a graffiti artist affected by ALS and his friends.  ALS is a disease that causes muscle weakness and degeneration of functions – known also as the disease which Lou Gehrig, the famous American Major League Baseball first baseman had.  It was a story about a project which, by combining cheap mechanical components, created a system that made possible for the artist to continue his work.

Stories of amazing application of technologies..

Health Summit: The Annual Event of the HGPI

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Following the Congressional Briefing with the members of the Diet of Japan which took place on February 25nd, we opened the Global Health Forum 2011on 26th.

We focused on Global Health, in collaboration with  UNITAID and Department of Global Health Policy of The University of Tokyo.

As you can see from the program, the host of this forum was Ms. Doden of NHK, an expert in this field, and the key note was delivered by Mr. Douste-Blazy, Board of UNITAID, UN Special Advisor on Innovative Financing for Development, and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of France.  The panelists were; Professor Shibuya, University of Tokyo, Mr. Tistdall, GAVI (Japan is one of the major nations supporting the bond issuance for immunization), Mr. Eun Joo Lee, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Korea, Ms. Cristina Parsons Perez, American Cancer Society,  Mr. Mugitani, Senior Vice Minister of Ministry of Health of Japan, Dr. Stephen Morrison, Senior Vice President of CSIS and Director of Global Health Policy Center, and Dr. Yonekura, Chairman of the Sumitomo Chemical and Japan Business Federation (Keidanren).  I am grateful for their participation, knowing their tight schedule.

The forum succeeded in coordinating a good, meaningful discussion thanks to the participation of many key persons in the field of Global Health.  I would also like to note here that Mr. David Bowen of the Gates Foundation kindly joined our Forum.

The discussion started by searching for the possible area and means where Japan could contribute.  We focused on the achievement of the MDG, discussing possible support by the developed countries, and the process to follow, taking into account the current financial difficulties which those developed countries have.  Although Japan is currently making contributions through immunization bond issuances in addition to ODA by the government, we tried to figure out new types of support that is independent from the tax money allocated from the government of Japan.

I hope that the Japanese economy as well as the mood in its society will improve soon.

 

‘Kaisya Ishin (Restoration of Companies)’ and ‘Zasetsu-ryoku (Capacity to Fail)’ by Kazuhiko Toyama

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Kazuhiko Toyama is known for his direct comments and actions.

His books "Company rots from its head (published in Japanese only)" or "Tenacity of one finger decided the contest (published in Japanese only)" might give you an impression that he is a radical, but I consider his works as clarifying the essence of the issues, and presenting to you views worth listening to.

He published a new book last year titled ‘Restoration of Companies ? A Guidebook to Capitalism in the Transition Period (published in Japanese only)’.  In this book, he makes his points very clear on what we must hold as the core values of capitalism and enterprise.  I found many parts where he clarifies things I did not understand well before.  Of course, since the book is on ‘cores’ and ‘essence’, he discusses not only about how a company should be organized, but also presents many keen observations about society as a whole.  Therefore, I strongly recommend reading this book not only to businesspeople, but also to those in the government sector or academia ? or anyone who is in positions responsible for running organizations in our society.

I said on twitter; ‘The book is a ‘must’ to all businesspeople.  But I also recommend it to officers, legislators, or anyone.  Don’t argue with me, just read the book because it concerns essential issues regarding the problems we have.’  I later found that someone read it right away and posted a comment on his blog . I was thrilled.  Thank you so much for your action.

Some of you may remember my recent posting on ‘failure’ (in Japanese) in which I mentioned this new book by Toyama, ‘Capacity to Fail (published in Japanese only).

Again, this book is great.  Like in other books, he writes in a light but firm tone, how important it is for any individual to experience a failure.  He lists about 50 (actually, 52…) valuable lessons to be learned by failing in something especially in your early stage of life.  In short, he talks about having a ‘backbone’.

The importance of learning lessons by experiencing a failure is significant.  One learns a lot from the process of overcoming failure.  Manuals are no good for such learning.  Come to think of it, the proverbs that exist in all parts of the world reflect such wisdom.

I recommend this book, especially to young people.  Old people might find hints here on how to support youth, things they can do for the young people, by reflecting on the paths they, the old people, have gone through.

It doesn’t make sense to regard someone as ‘no-good’ just because the person failed to get a job in the year they graduated.  Only Japanese society has such an employment system.

Everyone, please support the youth so that we may create a society that has opportunities for the future.

 

This Year’s Employment and ‘Naitei Torikeshi (Cancellation of Job Offering)’

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The status of employment is still very bad in Japan.  I feel sorry for the youth.  Their future is being inhibited.  I think a large number of young people were deprived of opportunities during the past 20 years in Japan.  Why must one need to be a new graduate in order to apply for a job?

Risa Mamiya, a private university student in her junior year, wrote a book ‘Naitei Torikeshi (Cancellation of Job Offer)’ that recounts her experience job-hunting. Her activities turned out to be a battle with the enterprises.  Having read this, I felt it hard to believe, but who would take trouble to make up stories on such matters?  Of course, she writes a blog, too. (in Japanese)  By all means, please take a look.  Unimaginable things do happen in this world.

However, is there any guarantee that the current permanent employment system will continue?  Will there still be severance packages in 30 or 40 years from now?

So, how could you enhance your value in society?  What is the mission of higher education?  Will universities change?  Will enterprises change their ways?

What will the future of Japan be like?  If you look broadly at the current situation of the world, I think you will be able to see many more of things.
 
Just yesterday, I had a meeting with a board member in charge of the Japan and Asia regions at a new company (which was founded 10 years ago in the U.S., but from the start, this company has worked on the premise of going global). This company is now recruiting employees, and the two people they hired recently seemed to be very capable. Had I been a human resource worker, I too would have interviewed them at once.  However, they had failed to get jobs in Japanese companies (of recognition, and I was told that one of the two was declined by all 16 companies which he/she applied to…), so they were introduced to this company for  an interview, and the human resource decided on the spot to take them.  Those two people had a high potential to actively work from the beginning not only in Japan but also in Asia or any other parts of the world.

 I wonder why they failed to get a position at top Japanese companies.  This is the question.  What criteria do human resources in Japanese companies apply in evaluating their applicants? What kind of people are they looking for?

As I have introduced to you before,  Pasona co. launched a program to support new graduates who could not get jobs.  I think this is wonderful.  Such companies will get the support and trust from society.

So, then, what can the youth do?  I think there are many things that can be done or should be done.  Think about it.

One would be going abroad for study/overseas experience…. It’s the ‘Kyugaku no Susume (Recommendation on Taking a Leave of Absence from School)’.

To the G1 Summit

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Two days after I returned from Okinawa, I went to the Hoshino Resort Risonare at Kobuchizawa located at the foot of the Yatsugatake and Kaikoma mountains. 　My plan was to participate in the G1 Summit  hosted by Mr. Yoshihito Hori and his colleagues.  I saw Mr. Hori on several occasions: in the Davos Meeting conferences; at India, Singapore, Dalian, Tianjin, etc.    He is a young colleague of mine.

It was cold, but the weather was so beautiful that the low temperature did not bother me.  The view was all white.  The participants consisted mainly of young people, and I felt a great energy of desire to move Japan forward.  To my regret, I had work to be done in Tokyo on the first day (in spite of the 11th being a national holiday), but thanks to Twitter, I was able to sense what was happening at the conference. The guests were fantastic; for instance, from the policy and economy sector were Mr. Yoshimi Watanabe, Dr. Heizo Takenaka, Mr. Tetsuro Fukuyama, Hironari, and Mr. Hiroshige Seko. The business sector included people such as President Hasegawa of Takeda Pharmaceutical, Mr. Kazuhiko Toyama, CEO of Industrial Growth Platform Inc., Mr. Yoshimitsu Kobayashi, President and CEO of Mitsubishi Chemical Corp., Mr. Miki Watanabe, the founder of Watami Co., and Mr. Yoshikazu Tanaka, the founder of GREE Inc. 

I arrived at the venue in the afternoon on the 2nd day to host the panel on science and technology policy(in Japanese) with Mr. Kan Suzuki, Senior Vice Minister of MEXT, Dr. Keiji Tachikawa, President of JAXA, and Dr. Shinya Yamanaka of iPS cell.  I claimed that the science technology is dependent on human resource development – whether it is a basic research or a Big Science new sprouts must spring from the seeds.  After witnessing the examples of their seniors, many young talents will spring.  This is the challenge that we must address.  While I admit that it was a great achievement for Japan to produce 10 Nobel laureates in the 21st century, I think we must also think seriously about the fact that 3 of them were residing in the U.S…

The closing program was a dialogue between former Prime Minister Abe, and Ms. Ryoko Sakurai under the title of ‘As Proud Japanese, we ….’.  In the evening, we went to the Suntory Hakushu Distillery and the aroma of whiskey made me feel mildly intoxicated.  We also enjoyed the entertaining talk of Mr. Rome Kanda, a speaker of last year’s TEDxTokyo.

On the next day, I hosted a panel; ‘Is Heavy Social Welfare Compatible With Economic Growth?(in Japanes)’ with Prof. Yoshikazu Kenjyo, Mr. Motohisa Furukawa, and Dr. Yuji Yamamoto.  The discussion somewhat strayed away from the title, I thought.  I also feel a bit responsible for letting each panelist talk too much (they had difficulty keeping the requested time of 5 minutes……).

The closing was gracefully hosted by Mr. Yoshito Hori, with Dr. Ikujiro Nonaka, Dr. Hiroshi Tasaka, and Mr. Seigo Matsuoka. 

It was a nice gathering.  I congratulate and thank Mr. Hori, the organizer, and his staff, as well as all the participants.

 

ACCJ Person of the Year：　Speech at the Award Reception Celebration Luncheon

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Several days ago, I posted a column titled ‘ACCJ Person of the Year, Why Me?’ .  It reported on my being selected as the ACCJ Person of the Year.

To celebrate, ACCJ kindly held a luncheon at the newly renovated Tokyo American Club on February 8th.  I gave a 2 hours speech followed by a Q/A.  ACCJ’s official report is on its web site (Japanese, English).

Princess Takamado honored us with her presence. ACCJ also kindly invited prestigious members of the ACCJ as well as many of my friends and staff at the beautiful banquet hall. In total there were about 100 guests.  It was truly a great honor.

Because my selection was a surprise to me, I tried to think ‘why they chose me, and what I could do to honor my selection.  I organized the speech into 4 parts. They constituted of 1) Kurokawa as ACCJ Person of the Year- what does it mean ?  2) What is Kurokawa saying, anyway?, 3) What I learned in America, and 4) What we need from America.  The full speech is here for your reference.  A 20 minute Q/A followed.

When the Q/A ended and the session was over people stood to applause for a while.  The standing ovation surprised me, but I was genuinely happy and honored.  The guests seemed to truly welcome my speech.

My adventures and education started in 1969, when I went abroad to the U.S. as a young physician for ‘nternational study. I had intended to return to Japan in 2 or 3 years.  It turned out that I ended up staying in the U.S. for almost 15 years. During this time I went through countless important experiences, leading me to a life that I have not imagined or expected.

This year, as Ambassador of ACCJ, I intend to contribute in any way possible to the enhancement of the already well-established U.S.-Japan relationship.

Ten questions on Japanese from ‘a strange foreigner’

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I have a scholar friend who travels around the world, studies and analyzes ‘innovation’ and its patterns in many countries of the world.  He knows Japan well through his study and work over 30 years and is a friend of Japan. 

We met in Davos and he sent me an email with ’List of 10 Questions’ on ‘Japanese behavior patters’. He thinks I am a ‘strange Japanese’.  I feel honored by his comment.

The list is shown below and I wonder what would be your thoughts and answers?

QUESTIONS / ISSUES
——————————
(1)  “Why is it that most Japanese go to conferences and always stay and sit together in a corner and talk to each other, without including any foreigner into their conversation?
… there are no other country citizens behaving that way !!!
 
(2)  “Why is it that the Japanese participants never dare to raise a question or give some comments in a workshop or at the Q&A session in a conference”?
… other Asians from China, Singapore, Taiwan, India, etc. are very different in this regard !!!
 
(3)  “Why is it that many of my Japanese colleagues and friends have to take a vacation when participating in a conference or think-tank overseas”?
… the Western people consider this to be part of the business activities !!!
 
(4)  “Why is it that most Japanese go to international conferences without a specific objective and measurable results in mind”?
… Most other country participants have very clear targets to meet a certain number of suppliers, customers, etc., in order to end up with specific new business proposals !!!
 
(5)  “Why do most Japanese companies not like to see their employees writing and publishing industry articles or even books with other colleagues in their professional domain, even if they do it in their spare time over the weekend and the evenings”?
… in the Western world we consider this to benefit the company and the employee, as it demonstrates domain expertise vis-a-vis potential customers and peers in the industry !!!
 
(6) “Why do Japanese speakers in international events and conferences only present or ask in Japanese (there are always a few exceptions to the rule)”?
… it is common practice the government officials may speak their own language at an event in their own country, but most of the time, Japanese also do so in international conferences overseas !!!
 
(7)  “Why do all the conference participants or students keep their hands down and lower their heads when the professor or speaker asks a question that everybody is able to answer”?
… there are always a number of Europeans who have good answers or questions, while many Americans will raise their hands even before the question ends, whether or not they have a full or only a partial answer !!!
 
(8)  “Why is it that most Japanese executives only see the differences, risks and threats but never look at the  similarities or opportunities?”
… it always leaves a strong sense of pessimism and no optimism, hence, how can you advance personally or as a nation with such an attitude !!!
 
(9)  “Why is it that most Japanese people and senior executives are scared to call for serious changes in their organizations or even in the nation”?
… without constant changes, you cannot adapt to the ever rapidly changing world around us, hence, you are left behind !!!
 
(10)  “Why is it that Japan and its citizens will only be able to change or are willing to change when the country will either hit the wall, or will experience a total market crash, or is about to disintegrate completely”?
… a common answer by some of the highest ranked corporate officers, association or some government leaders, whom I spoke to during the “Japan Night” in Davos !!!
 

From Davos -4

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Today is the last day of this year’s Davos meeting.  Throughout the meeting I have been exposed to many thought provoking things/issues.

One of them is the power shift taking place in the internet age, as observed in the drastic political change in Tunisia and Egypt.  The effects of WikiLeaks is similar in nature to these shifts.

On the other hand, the world economy’s prospect is still unclear.  Mr. David Cameron delivered a wonderful speech as the leader of his nation.  Mr. Cameron and his administration are rapidly carrying out many bold policies in this difficult time.  I think their task is very difficult.  People will criticize them in many ways, naturally, but in today’s circumstances, true leadership is being sought more than ever before.
 
President Obama also delivered his State of the Union address in Washington DC.  A poll right after the speech showed that 55% of the people supported Obama.  This is a good rate.  There is no one policy that will satisfy all people.  It’s best to learn from history, see the trends, equip oneself with intelligence and courage to do what has to be done so that we may adapt to the change taking place in this totally new global world.  Leaders are expected to do all this and set clear priorities, to talk to people of the nation and of the world so that they can understand what to do ? a leaders’ ability to do all this is being tested.  Such is the world we are in today.

The panel of ‘WHAT IF: there is reunification on the Korean Peninsula? ’was also very thought provoking.

The last session of this year’s Davos meeting, ‘Inspired for a Lifetime’, is on-line in video and summary, too.
 
Overall, the Japanese media, I regret to say, seemed as if they did not exist at all.  The list of media coverage is uploaded on the front page of the Davos meeting, and even the Huffington Post is in the list! The Japanese media were not listed once.  Isn’t there any Japanese journalist or journalism that would speak/write not only to Japan but to the world?  Are we not the nation of the 3rd largest economy?  I did see several (but not many…) Japanese reporters in Davos. It  seemed to me however, that even there Japanese reporters were sometimes trapped in ‘traditions’ such as the ‘kisha-club (reporter’s club)’ which is so powerful back at home.  However, I saw some good signs in the phenomenon of participants being active in twitter.  I like it.

This year, luckily, I had the privilege of traveling with Ms. Junko Kawaguchi, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs to and from Zurich-Davos.  Thank you!

I will be back at home on the 31st.  I wonder how politics, the economy and everything else in Japan will look to my eyes after having been exposed to so much here?

From Davos -3

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What’s happening in Davos is reported on its web site   (for videos, see here).  Take a look and enjoy!

Today, the Prime Minister Kan will deliver a speech at 11am.  I imagine staff are busy in preparation.

I started the day with the ‘IdeasLab’ of Harvard University. The speakers were Dr David Ellwood of the Kennedy School, Dr Mohsen Mostafavi of the Graduate School of Design, two Deans　(the Business School Dean, Dr Nohria was unable to make it), Dr David Bloom, GAC’s Ageing Council Chair, and it was hosted by Annie Koh of Singapore Management University.  The theme was ‘Breaking Education’s Boundaries’.  It was a very exciting session.  I enjoyed making comments, too.

The speech of the PM Kan started at 11:30.  However, much of the audience left the venue before the speech since the panel before was ‘The Global Economic Outlook’ hosted by Martin Wolf  of the Financial Times. But who can complain?

I thought that the prime minister’s speech was quite good. Starting with the recent disturbance of Egypt, he spoke well, and the way he handled the Q&As was also good.  You can view this On-line (both in English and Japanese ). Now, the question is, when, how, and to what extent can the Kan administration carry out their plans as described in the speech.  It’s time that the strategies and decisions of the government be tested.

On the other hand, I see quite a few problems on how PM Kan’s speech was reported in Japanese media.  I urge you to read and compare how the newspapers reported it.  Today, unlike the old days, you are able to see and listen directly to the original speech.  This is the power of the internet.  How do you evaluate the speech of Mr. Kan or the quality of the reports by the Japanese media?

Immediately after the speech, a lunch meeting was held with Mr. Kan, and hosted by Mr. Carlos Ghosn.  I think Mr. Ghosn managed the Q&A’s well, too.

After lunch, there was a panel titled ‘Re-inventing Japan’ (everybody knows that there have been many panels with similar titles and yet nothing has changed…).  The Prime Minister opened the event with his message, followed by Minister Kaieda, Dr. Sadako Ogata, Mr. Kojima, Chairman of the Mitsubishi Corporation, Mr. Charles Lake of Aflac.  The host was Mr. Kristof, former head of the NY Times Japan office.  Since Mr. Kristof was well aware of the problems in Japanese media (such as the one about ‘Kisha club’, the reporters’ club), it seemed there was incompatibility amongst some of the comments in the beginning.  Of course we know Mr. Kristof is not responsible for this…..

I enjoyed participating in several sessions, listening to many new ideas, meeting wonderful people, having lively conversation, and making new friends in new fields.  You never know what happens in the future.  I saw many interesting new developments in the fields such as Design, Arts and technology, the Scientific frontier, etc. in the effort to address global issues.

The evening soiree, ‘Inclusive India!’, presented a show full of actions. The venue was packed with people, so I left rather early.

At any rate, in this Davos meeting, I noticed gaps existing between the roles played by government and industry in their handling of international finance and other issues.  Things appear to be calming down at this moment, but in reality, there is a high possibility that some big change could actually occur within several years’ time.  The notion of this was not spoken openly, but at a level of very private conversation.  I had this sort of conversation with a very famous economic journalist who told me there was a concern that EU may be like Japan, like it was for these 20 years.

Today, there exists a number of situations that could trigger crisis on global scale.  Tunisia and Egypt may be just the beginnings.