From Davos -2

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The 2nd day in Davos was another beautiful day.  I attended the Japan breakfast meeting of GAC (Global Agenda Council).  About 20 people were there including the YGL (Young Global Leaders), and since all were Japanese, our discussion was naturally in Japanese. I was the chairman of this breakfast session, and so seeing that some people were new to the Davos meeting, I first talked in English and pointed out that this Council was the only council in which the participants all spoke Japanese (the majority were Japanese and the rest were American who live in Japan).  Perhaps I surprised them.  But afterwards, I was told how they liked my comments because it served as an ice breaker.  Of course, the main topic at this session was the visit of the Prime Minister on the 29th.

In the afternoon, after several sessions, I went to hear the speeches given by President Yudhoyono of Indonesia and President Sarkozy of France.  Recently, Indonesia is experiencing an 8% economic growth under a democratically elected administration.  The current president and his administration are promoting the decentralization of the government, appointing talents in drastic style.  The ASEAN host of this year, President Yudhoyono delivered a wonderful speech.    Great speeches by great leaders always moves our heart.

I participate in the Governors meeting of big chemical industries annually as a guest and this year it was held in the afternoon.  The discussion is always good here, and it was again stimulating with participants like Mr. Kobayashi of Mitsubishi Chemicals, Mr. Ohyagi of Teijin.  I had the honor of making comments on Shale Oil, ‘Global to Local’ and such.  I learned a lot from talking with the top executives of these industries.
 
In the evening, I browsed through the Japan Night, Korea Night, and Indonesia Night.  The Indonesia Night had the best venue, but to my disappointment, there were not many people present, since it was after 10pm. Japan Night had the largest number of participants.  This was good.

However, I understand that the news of the  S&P reducing Japan’s ratings from AA to AA- caused some stir in Japan.  I commented on this topic a year ago in my blog.  Japanese media did not cover the news much when the S&P declined last time, but I wonder how they will behave this time.  I noticed a short comment by the PM being reported…

I went to bed feeling it difficult to fall asleep.

From Davos -1

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On the morning of the 25th I departed Narita for Zurich via Frankfurt, arriving at Davos late at night.

On the 26th, I participated in the early morning sessions. The IdeasLab is always interesting and thought-provocative, so I participated in the session of ‘Design for the New Reality’.  Here, Dr. Yoko Ishikura, Dr. Kohei Nishiyama (he was the discussion leader of the ‘Product Design’ panel), and Professor Toshiko Mori of Harvard University (at ‘Scarcity-driven design’) were the participants from Japan.  As for myself, I joined the discussion with Adam Bly because it seemed interesting and I have had discussions with him on ‘Innovation’ for several years at GAC. Dr. Bly is apparently developing quite an interesting new domain.  It is both stimulating and enjoyable to join in a panel based on presentations with higher perspectives.

Please visit Dr. Ishikura’s blog also.

I participated in several sessions, as well as the closing event of the day, the GAC dinner.  The majority of the people had participated in recent Dubai meeting so we had good conversation.  Lawrence Summers and Amy Chua were the two super special guests.  Please refer to Wikipedia for their backgrounds.  I assume you all know Mr. Lawrence Summers.  He is currently a professor at Yale University.  Ms. Amy Chua published a book early this year that has become a trendy, if not controversial topic.  These two guests made our discussion so interesting.  It was a privilege to be able to exchange a few words personally with Ms. Chua after the dinner.
 
The title of her book is: ‘Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother’.  She writes about raising her two daughters as a Chinese mother. Her opinions and actions triggered quite a discussion among her readers.

Ms. Chua writes about the rules that children are ‘not supposed to, not allowed to’ do.
? attend a sleepover
? have a playdate
? be in a school play
? complain about not being in a school play
? watch TV or play computer games
? choose their own extracurricular activities
? get any grade less than an A
? not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama
? play any instrument other than the piano or violin
? not play the piano or violin
There are more important rules.  I haven’t read the book yet, but she said, ‘In a sense, it’s like a Jewish mother of 20 years ago’.  She is quite a personality.

No wonder people have a lot to say about her rules.

?

ACCJ 2010 Person of the Year, Why Me?

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ACCJ stands for ‘American Chamber of Commerce in Japan’.  It is natural that this kind of institution exists in various countries.  There are many bilateral exchanges going on in many areas, but those in business and/or industry sector constitute the basis of economy for both nation.  I was invited by the ACCJ to give several lectures in the past.

Announcing various policy recommendations is one of the important functions of ACCJ.  Recommendations on strategies for economic growth and healthcare policies in Japan are some examples of recent announcements.

I am not a business person, so it came to me as a surprise when I learned that I was selected as the Person of the Year for 2010. However, I think they probably judged highly of my activities and opinions to open Japan to the world, to prepare youth to face the global issues of the changing world.  But since I am in the field of education, it is a matter of course that I work for those causes and so, though I am honored, it is not a big deal for me.

My interview is on the journal of ACCJ (Ref.1), if you are interested.  Many of you may think that I criticize too much, but I have been saying the same thing ever since I returned to Japan in the mid 1980s, after living in the US for15 years.  I speak as an individual, a medical doctor, not attached to any Japanese organization.  The same view is expressed also in this blog, my books, and essays.

I do know that you have many different views, but please understand that my words are not personal, rather, the idea and the concern is the same as what I always say about Japan.

I would like to express my deep appreciation to ACCJ for evaluating my activities.  I take this honor not personally, but as a duty bestowed upon me, to connect Japan to the world as much as to the United States.  I will continue to participate in ACCJ activities to support and help them in whatever way possible.  For instance, besides my work at the university, I could enhance the activities of our Think Tank,  or Impact Japan,  an organization which we founded just recently.

Several people congratulated me via e-mails about this ‘event’, and Dr. Yoko Ishikura introduced this topic in her blog.

It makes me feel like taking a new responsibility with ACCJ, and I am thrilled about the prospect.

A Debate on Education at The 2nd anniversary of The Commons 30 Fund Created by Mr. Shibusawa and His Friends

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Late in the afternoon, on January 19th, after giving a lecture at my Keio SFC course (which I intend to write about later), I joined a panel (in Japanese) at the 2nd anniversary of the Commons 30 Fund (in Japanese) founded by my friend, Mr. Ken Shibusawa.

The panel was hosted by Mr. Shibusawa and I was supposed to have a dialogue with Mr. Kenichi Fukuhara, the CFO of Benesse and the head office manager of Corporate Communication (I knew this much beforehand….)   Then, I discovered that the theme was education.  Just the right topic for me!

Mr. Fukuhara showed slides titled ‘Escape from Galapagos Island’.  His intention was to deliver a strong message that Japanese education was also changing to a Galapagos.  Quite shocking!  Then, the topic shifted to ‘the insular mindset of Japanese youth’, which is popular these days.

Given his message, I responded by saying ‘it is not the youth which has problems, but the generation of their parents, and the older’ (Ref.1, 2) (Ref.3, 4 in Japanese). 

I have been focusing on this message for 1-2 months.

This provoking panel is uploaded on UStream.  I feel a bit embarrassed to show this to you, but the future of the youth comes first.

The key, always, is to see the essence within the big picture.

P.S.  I already found some blogs (Ref.1,2 all sites are in Japanese) reporting on this event.  、　、Their comments made me happy.

 

Try to Participate in the St. Gallen Symposium

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There is a beautiful town in Swiss called St. Gallen where the students at St. Gallen Universty organize the annual St. Gallen Symposium.  This year’s schedule is from May 12 to 13. The Symposium is a wonderful opportunity to listen to worldwide leaders and to speak with them in person.  In such a beautiful setting with such opportunity,  I am sure many friends will be made with students of the world.
 
I participated twice (in Japanese)(Ref.1 in English) and still continue to support them.  This program has been around for 40 years and is quite enjoyable.

This year again, they will organize the event.  As usual, the application involves writing an English essay.

Dr. Yoko Ishikura also writes about this in her blog (in Japanese) (Ref.1 in English), so please take a look.
 
Nothing can be achieved unless you try.  Focus, think, and write!  The detail for application is given here.  The deadline is close (Feb.1) but do not worry.
 
I urge you all to put your best effort in and give it a try!
 

Welcoming Mr. Akira Tsuchiya and Mr. Daisuke Kotegawa to My Keio SFC Class

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I assume that you are aware that I have a class at the Keio SFC campus  (Ref.1, 2) during the autumn semester of 2010. 

Mr. Akira Tsuchiya is a graduate of Keio SFC.  He also studied at the graduate schools at Harvard, Columbia, and Georgetown, has been working for several years at the administrative offices of the World Economic Forum (popular as the Davos meeting), in Geneve and Japan.  I have known him for almost 10 years. We’ve worked together on various occasions.  Unfortunately, I was unable to attend his lecture due to my trip to Doha, but later, he kindly let me know how it went.  The lecture was well received by the students, too.  I assumed this since Mr. Tsuchiya is their senior. He works at a global institution and he talked about his experience first hand.  I would have liked you to see his lecture on video but unfortunately it is only for access within campus because many of the Powerpoint slides used were not intended for public viewing.

The lecturer of the week after was Mr. Daisuke Kotegawa. He is a top-scale, unique, international leader. He is the current Director at IMF, recently having returned from Washington DC, and resigning from the ministry of finance. (I searched and hit many sites on him in Google, but could not find the link just right to introduce to you…) It is hard to find a person like him these days.  One might call him a kokushi, a Japanese term for a patriot who devote one’s life for the good of the nation.  On a side note, he is competent in many languages, and is currently learning Chinese from a private tutor.  I think he is polishing his skills.

The lecture by Mr. Kotegawa was on international finance and was given in English.  He talked about the bubble bursting in Japan 20 years ago, the fail of Lehman in 2008, lessons to be learned from these events, future perspective of Japan and the world, and so on.  It was truly a top-scale talk, just like him.  What he said had a huge impact and a sense of reality because everything was based on his actual experience. He was one of the people in charge of these problems at the ministry of finance at the time the bubble burst, and he was at IMF at the time of Lehman issue in 2008.

It was a good learning for me, too, since I am also one of the many outsiders, just like the students.  Thank you very, very much to these two invited speakers.

Kim Haegwan, a ‘Pari Pari’ Worker; The Law of Success 2.0, and Vabel

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Last June, a young student contacted me via e-mail requesting an interview.  He is a Korean born in Japan, and a very active young man who is now on leave from school to travel around the world.

He has been interviewing many famous people and is reporting about it on his web site The Law of Success 2.0.  I find it quite interesting.

More recently, he launched a Japanese blog site (where I learned the Chinese character for his name, Kim Haegwan) and an NPO Vabel.  I have been corresponding with him via e-mails ever since I saw him in London and my interview appears on his web site in English and Japanese.

I think it was in October last year that he asked me to participate in a conference hosted by Vabel in Tokyo.  I agreed, but hadn’t received a reply from him afterwards for some time. One day, I randomly went to Vabel’s web site and was quite surprised to find an announcement for the conference. It’s taking place in Tokyo on January 23rd.

I immediately sent him an inquiry about the details of the conference. I needed to know things like where it was and what the program looked like.  His plan didn’t seem to be able to gather enough people or pay expenses.  We talked over via e-mails, and also had thorough discussions about the project after he returned to Japan in December.  We wanted to be sure that the invited guests would be treated with due respect. I advised him on variety of things, especially since I felt accountable because my name appeared as one of the supporters.

The problem was that he was a very difficult person to convince, a tough character…

Then, after some time, I sent him an e-mail asking how things were going.  He wrote back that he was trying to gather his friends at Waseda University and the University of Tokyo.

Anyway, I am doing my best to satisfy the invited speakers and support Mr. Kim’s hard work with the spirit of; ‘pari pari’ (a Hangeul word for ‘hurry up’).

He is a person of action. He does not detour!  His attitude is not bad for a young person.  Setting high goal makes great dreams realized.

The Vabel conference will take place on January 23rd.  I invite you all to participate.  Registration is free and open.

Design Thinking ? A New Movement of the New Age

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A Happy New Year!

I wish for a more active mood to emerge in Japan for the year of 2011. I strongly expect it to happen….

Over the past two to three years, I’ve noticed the phrase, ‘Design Thinking’ has spread gradually through the world.  How people interpret this word may differ according to each individual, but basically I think it stands for the essence of wisdom for how to address the very complicated issues of the world.

As I have mentioned several times in my blog, today, the word ‘Design’ is not confined to the dimension of objects or shapes only. It also refers to the act of presenting practical solutions to complex problems by taking into account various ideas from diverse viewpoints.  In other words, we should understand it as a process of ‘Design Thinking’.

I feel that this phenomenon is observed in many areas.  For instance; a scientific approach by the Open Systems Science of Dr. Mario Tokoro of Sony , Graduate School of Design at Harvard, the D School at Stanford, or the i.School  at the University of Tokyo

Design Thinking often uses the process of presenting figures to summarize and clarify issues.  The IdeasLab of the World Economic Forum may be one of such examples that are based on these concepts.  I recently had an opportunity to participate in meetings at WEF in Dubai; Global Redesign Summit (Ref.1) and Global Risk Response Network  (Ref.1). Nice visual demonstrations were prepared by Design, Innovation Council and the like, meant to clearly suggest the importance of showing and visualizing complex ideas and issues for better understanding.

Recently, designers have more opportunity to work in business sectors.  I think this is partly because of the trend I described above, combined with various technologies to present information in visual ways based on the rapid progress of digital technologies.  Examples of such designers would include Mr. Ken Okuyama (Ref.1 in Japanese), Mr. Issey Miyake (Ref.1 in Japanese), and Mr. Kashiwa Sato　(Ref.1 in Japanese).
　
Because they are all international designers, always thinking about the essences of the human mind, they naturally acquire visions to respond to today’s need to create ‘Open and Demand-driven Innovation’.

We have been organizing the Global Entrepreneurship Week （GEW） since 2009, and bearing in mind the trend described above, for 2010, we invited a group of youths to do a workshop under the theme ‘ Impact Japan : Design Thinking’ (Ref.1).  This triggered the foundation of our institution, Impact Japan.  Nikkei newspaper put an advertisement article on its December 29th morning issue about the Design Thinking activities that originated in GEW Japan.

I feel the wisdoms of the world working to adapt to the new age.  Now, how will Japan do this year?

A Table for Two’s Holiday Season Charity

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Have you ever heard of Table for Two （TFT) ?

It originated in Japan.  This idea was developed to make this world a better place.  It links the hunger people in the poor developing parts of the world with the overweight people of developed countries.  TFT is now spreading through the world and the name is gradually gaining recognition.

I have been supporting this project as one of its advisers since its inception.

TFT threw a Charity Party in Aoyama, Tokyo the evening of December 25th.  For many years, I was unable to attend this party but this year I did.  I thought it also a good opportunity to have a reunion with Dr. Kogure, the director.

Dr. Kogure seemed to be in good shape, but he of course has his shares of worries.  The party was packed with lively youth, a very different generation from mine.  Presentations, quiz game that competed between groups (I was in the Rwanda group), and other activities followed one after another to keep the guests entertained.

The party closed with the song ‘We are the World’ (Ref.1) First, a professional singer started, and then we all followed. 

The power of this song is truly amazing.

 

Mr. Saisho of the Dragon Cherry Blossoms and the ‘Dream Award 2010’ by Watami Co., Ltd.

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On December 21st, I posted a column titled ‘The Dragon Cherry Blossoms (in Japanese) of Dhaka – They Did it Again’, which I wrote on 20th.

The main character of this story, Mr. Saisho, passed the screening of the ‘Dream Award 2010’ (in Japanese) from so many candidates to remain among the 5 finalists, and on 21th, the day after I drafted the above column, the final speech competition took place at Hibiya Public Auditorium.  I heard about this from Mr. Saisho himself because I met him the day before, on 20th near Hibiya, where the event took place.
 
I was told by the organizer that the speech by the wonderful 5 finalists were all very moving, but surprisingly Mr. Saisho won both the ‘Best Watami Dream Award’ and ‘Special Watami Award’ (in Japanese).  Mr. Saisho’s presentation can be seen on the web (in Japanese) within the timeframe of  01:57:55-02:12:33 and the announcement of the winners during 02:19:15-02:25:30.

A transcript of the interview of Mr. Saisho (in Japanese) is on the web, too.

The Dragon Cherry Blossoms is an outstanding project in terms of its scope, the big gap between now and the goal, and the strong ability to take actions to carryout the plans.

The impact of this project is huge because they, together with the youths of the poor village in Bangladesh, actually proved in real life that a big dream can become true.

I sent an e-mail to Mr. Saisho right away to say ‘I am proud of you.  But let’s be careful not to be too flattered by those series of good things that keep happening recently.’  The next day, he sent me a reply: ‘Yes, I will keep telling myself that praise is the biggest trap!’.  Good!

He will leave for Dahka on December 26th.

I wrote an e-mail to him: ‘Have a nice holiday season in Dhaka. Take care’.