Students from India

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I reported earlier in my blog that I went to New Delhi in relation to the YES program of Honda Foundation in February this year.

In that YES program five students were awarded.  They were students from IIT which is a prestigious university in India.  Out of these students, four studied in Japan for 6~8 weeks from the end of May.  Mr. Jain participated in the research of robots at Honda, Mr. Goyal did research at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Mr. Tomar did the research for 4 weeks at the Okazaki Laboratory and Tsukuba University respectively, and Mr. Agarwal participated in research at JVC.  All of them gathered at GRIPS (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies) to participate in the round table talk before going back to the home country the next day.  I have heard that one person did his training in Google as there was some problem for acquiring Japan visa.  It is very unfortunate as it is such a trivial thing.

I asked everyone to talk about the awarding ceremony of Honda YES Award, their conversation with Mr. Pachauri, and about their personal experiences in these several weeks in Japan.  All four talked about how they enjoyed the study and doing the research in Japan, how everybody helped them very kindly, how they could do the exchange with many young people and how wonderful the teachers were who gave them splendid guidance.  Mr. Agarwal stayed with a host family who treated him very well.  It seems that everyone had a wonderful experience.  During the talk, everyone commented on the differences between India and Japan which they often experienced.  Hands-on experiences like these at young age are very important.  I am confident that they will all become precious "ambassadors of Japan" with wonderful memories of Japan in their mind.  I said so to the students, too.

We had dinner together in the evening.  I am thankful to many people including those from Honda Foundation who helped us.  International exchange of young people like this is inconspicuous but it is an extremely important activity which would increase the fans of Honda in India as well as the world.  It is a delightful thing.  I would like to see such type of activities expand more and more.  I would be happy if this kind of efforts arise more from civil and/or private sector.  Expanding personal relationships from the young age is the basis of making friends internationally and also to nurture the diversified human talents (resource) in this global era.  It is most important for the future of Japan.

Furthermore, to encourage youth of Japan to have actual experiences overseas is even more important. Knowledge only is not useful.  Activating the bilateral exchange is an important policy through which big effects towards the future of Japan in the global era can be expected.  After all, nowadays, there are too many extremely introvert Japanese.

MBA students in pharma-business from Philadelphia

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Philadelphia is my American home-town where I started my professional career in US at the University of Pennsylvania.

The University of Science in Philadelphia is unique and it offers various programs focusing on pharmaceutical and pharmacy sciences and businesses: it also offers courses for MBA program in this area.  The MBA program offers students a summer course to visit Japan and this year it includes a visit to GRIPS where I am a member of faculty.  I hosted a seminar taking an interactive dialogue style posing a wide range of subjects relevant to these future professionals in healthcare and global health issues.

Photos  Group photo and the session at GRIPS

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As I did for Harvard students of School of Public Health, I began asking them how many know and watched on the web of the commencement speeches of Steve Jobs at Stanford in 2005 and of Bill Gates at Harvard in 2006.  The background of about 10 students was quite diverse, which made the session a very interesting and rich.  I enjoyed very much the exchange.

G8 Science Ministers’ Meeting in Okinawa

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On June 15th, Science and Technology Ministers’ meeting was held for the first time in G8 summit history, in Okinawa.  The host was Minister, Mr. Kishida.

The informal G8+5 Science Advisors’ Conference was held on June 13th and 14th and the main topic was "Brain Circulation."  This is the extended version of Erasmus program of EU.  There is awareness that for the challenges of coming global era, it is necessary to develop mutual understanding between the young people who are the pillars of the country’s future.

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Photo 1  Dr. Nina Fedoroff, science adviser of U.S. Department of State

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Photo 2　Dr. Wan, Minister of Science and Technology, China

Everyone is aware that short-term mutual exchange program of 1 year or so is necessary in the universities, graduate schools or at even younger ages.  This is especially an important issue for Japan.  I have repeatedly mentioned in the blog, that I think the biggest problem is that Universities in Japan are isolated even in this era, and young people are not aiming for overseas opportunities.  Also the number of Japanese student studying abroad is decreasing.

On 14th, after a presentation related to clean energy by Dr. Steveｎ Chu from The Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST)  in the evening, there was a reception ceremony by Mr. Nakaima, a governor of Okinawa, and arrival of Minister Mr. Kishida.

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Photo 3　With Minister Mr. Kishida and Dr. Baughman (OIST)

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Photo 4　Show in reception

TICAD4 Yokohama and Asahi newspaper chief editor Bono

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A large number of achievements were released from Japan at TICAD4, held in Yokohama, I can say.  Having heads from 40 countries in Africa to the conference, the Prime Minister Fukuda met and talked personally with them almost every day.  In addition, he talked with Dr. Bono as well as Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, UN Secretary-general Adviser.  Japanese Government certainly worked hard and did a good job. I feel that the Prime Minister strengthened his recognition of the importance of the activities of NGO.

Wefcapetownjune2008001Photo 1  From left, with my staff members Hara kun and Ms. Sugiyama, Dr. Pablos-Mendes at the TICAD Conference

I also attended the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize ceremony and lectures of the prizewinners at the United Nations University on the next day, participated in the panel of "Action Wave" organizer Mr. Koji Omi, with the President of Rwanda and Professor Juma of Harvard University.  Since I had just received the photograph of a lecture by Mr. Ito Ken of Tokyo University in Rwanda, I was inspired to start this panel with his story.  Here also, many Japanese young people are working hard.

Rwanda02Photo 2  Dr. Ito teaching at Rwanda

In the excellent project of "one day chief editor" of Asahi Newspaper, Dr. Bono edited the newspaper of May 31, and discussed various topics such as Africa and TICAD and it was sparklingly different from regular newspaper.  In addition, he wrote about Africa support program budget of Japan that was announced at TICAD.

Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize

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The inaugural ceremony of "Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize" was held in the evening of May 28th, the first day of TICAD 4, in the presence of Emperor and Empress.

Dr. Greenwood and Dr. Were, the winners of the award, are great people who have embodied the spirit of Hideyo Noguchi.  They are both very modest and friendly.  Such a great work performed by husbands and wives, supporting and helping each other in Africa for a period of more than 30 years is very respectable.  As a selection committee chairman, I am happy from the bottom of my heart that we are able to present to the world with great pride this excellent selection result.

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The head of states and chief of government of more than 40 countries from Africa have participated in this celemony and it was really a refreshing and pleasant reception that reflected the personality of both of them.

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Former Prime Minister Mr. Koizumi, as a founder of this award, greeted everyone and said, "It seems that, today the spirit of Dr. Noguchi has come down over all the people in this assembly hall."  We came to know afterwards that this was an improvisation and was not in the original draft.  It’s a good expression, isn’t it?  There really was that sort of an atmosphere in the entire assembly hall.

Next day in the afternoon, Dr. Greenwood and Dr. Were both gave speech at the United Nations University at Aoyama.  Ms. Doden of NHK led panel of three (myself and the two) which was also good.  After that, they went to visit Inawashiro, the birthplace of Hideyo Noguchi.  There was a grand welcome in Inawashiro.  Details are written in the Blog of Mr. Kanke, Mayor of Aizu Wakamatsu city (29th May, 30th May).  I imagine that they learned something new about Hideyo Noguchi at the actual place of his upbringing.  The winners and their family enjoyed the visit, I hear.  For a moment, I felt much closer to Africa again.

From St. Gallen

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Familynewyear2008000Mt. Santis （2503m）located in south of St. Gallen

As you can see in my earlier column, I participated last year, and also this year at the St. Gallen Symposium.  It is a project started by the students of St. Gallen 38 years ago, and even today the planning and administration is performed by the students.  Isn’t it wonderful?  About 200 students around the world and 400 persons (mostly from Europe) from various fields such as business, participateed.  For the first time in its history, 20 students are participating from Japan this year and they were selected from nearly 500% of competitive ratio.  They are not just Japanese students, 50% of them are international students.  The selection was performed by reviewing English thesis.

This year’s topic is "Global Capitalism – Local Values."  It is a very timely theme, isn’t it?  The opening session started with the wonderful opening addresses of President Pascal Couchepin of Swiss and President Dr. Heinz Fischer of Austria.

Besides the regular members, this year, Mr. Yoshimasa Hayashi, a Diet member, participated in plenary of day one and Dr. Yoko Ishikura of Hitotsubashi University participated as a faculty and took lead in the workshop on the same day.

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Photo1 Lord Griffiths (on the right), Martin Wolf of Financial Times (on the left).

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Photo2 with the students participating from Japan.  Mr. Suzuki (Credit Swiss Japan president, 3rd from the left) and Dr. Ishikura (right end).

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Photo3 with Mr. Suzuki, Mr.Hara, my staff member (left end), Mr. Philipp Kuhn-Regnier of St. Gallen (right end).

I attended the workshop on the second day.  Last year, when I participated in the first Plenary Panel, the speech and message I delivered to the students were very good (said Lord Griffiths of England), so this year they planned that I should act as a commentator, hosted by Mr. Peter Day of BBC, and comment to a South American student honored in the essay contest, Rhodes Scholar Mr. Cillier (will pursue studies in Oxford University from September), and Mr. Klaassen, student of St. Gallen who wrote contradicting opinions to the views of the former two.  The topic is "Global Capitalism and Local Cultures of Innovation."  It was fantastic.  Please look on the conference site.

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Photo4 with Mr. Hara and Mr. Philip.

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Photo5 with Mr. Y.C. Deveshwar, a wonderful Social entrepreneur and Entrepreneur.

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Photo6 with Mr. Owada, Ambassador Abe, Mr. Akashi, Energetic student Ms. Imai.

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Photo7 with Mr. Cillier, Mr. Klaassen, Mr. Bay of the Panel.

The reception was held in the evening of 14th.  On 15th, we went a dinner at Der Gupf, the same restaurant I came last year (this restaurant is known for its wine collection and wine cellar). It is a place that offers a view of Lake Bodensee and I was able to take a look at the surrounding scenery for the first time, since weather was good this year.

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Photo8 with Dr. Ishikura in Gupf.

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Photo9 with Mr. and Ms. Owada, Mr. Akashi, Ambassador Abe.

Higher Education in the Global era-Hitotsubashi Business School

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As reported before, the first half of the Golden Week passed restlessly as always.

On the 6th, the Ambassador of Finland and I participated in Prof. Yoko Ishikura’s class on "competitiveness" held at Hitotsubashi University business school.  In the beginning, Prof. Ishikura raised the key important issues and then we discussed the issues.  The students were raising their hands and expressing their views enthusiastically.  They were expressing their own variant opinions and it was really a constructive and good time.

All lectures here are in English and around 70% of students are from overseas.  The faculties can view typical businesses in the world through the internet, by using "Harvard Business School" as a hub and the evaluations of the faculties are also done in common way.  Given such open evaluation, it would be hard for the faculties but they can be motivated by referring to the lectures conducted by many faculties all over the world.  Though challenging for the faculties they have no reasons to complain.  It’s true, this is the scary part in the internet era, but it is also a pleasure to compete with global standards.  Are there any such universities elsewhere?  If not this way, universities in Japan cannot gather brilliant youngsters from all over the world since information is shared by everybody in this "flat" era.  University faculties, I beg you all earnestly to work hard.

After the class, we spent time on lounge, enjoying wine happily and talking with the students of various countries, such as India, US, Bangladesh, Russia, Myanmar, Poland, Uzbekistan, Thailand, and Vietnam etc..  I wish to express my gratitude for the wonderful hospitality.

An article with full of suggestions and a recent comment by Prof. Ishikura about the ideal way and the evaluation of the higher education in the global age is available on her blog.  Chairman of the institute, Mr. Takeuchi Hirotaka, his policy is very strict from the beginning, however it’s really remarkable.

By the way, a follow-up on this is available(in Japanese) in Prof. Ishikura’s blog.  Please go through it.

ACP Japan Chapter annual meeting

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As introduced number of times in this blog, American College of Physicians (ACP) has branch office in Japan and is supported by Japanese Society of Internal Medicine.  It is the first branch outside the American Continent, working on the mission to bring up proper physicians in the global era
Professor David Dale (University of Washington, Seattle), President from the headquarters visited to Japan with his wife this year also and we had a delightful dinner together on April 11th (Photograph 1).

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Dinner with Professor Dr. and Mrs. Dale.
From left Professor Dale with Mrs. Dale, Dr. Hiyama, Ms. Miyamoto (Secretary General) , Dr, Ueno and me.

In the annual meeting on April 12th, various ideas were put into in the program.  "Britain-U.S. style case discussion" was conducted for the medical students and residents, and there was a "female doctor’s activity" research presentation and discussion by the medical students in the afternoon session.  This is a program of the committee being organized by female doctors.  The main topics of this year were problems of female doctors, leadership, mentor and there was a powerful lecture by Guest Dr. Heshiki (former professor of Saitama Medical College radiation department who also worked at Johns Hopkins etc.).

Moreover, "Ichimoku Ryozen: self-explanatory" by Professor Gremillion of Kamogawa Hospital in Chiba Prefecture which is well known for its good clinical training is becoming popular every year.  It is a presentation with the well-designed cases that feature examples that are characteristic in Japan also.  Please consider it as model.

Neary 100 members of the branch are doing activities of translating the articles of Journals such as "Annals of Internal Medicine", quickly loading it onto the web-site and informing about it via mail.  This year, they were awarded with the Evergreen prize from head office.  The credit goes to all who participated. I hear that it is utilized by lots of members and used at the actual sites of diagnosis, treatment and clinical education.  Requesting you all to become a member.

Professor Ide who is expanding the activity of "Psychiatry in Primary Care" won the Volunteer Award.

It is an activity also important from the perspective of current state of Japan especially where "depression" is increasing in these 10 years.  Congratulations and expecting increasing activities in the future.

In the end, a reception was held as usual and it was an enjoyable event with the participation of Dr. Hinohara and much more students and residents this year (photograph 2).  Afterward I received many thankful mails from students.  I would like you to experience the world widely and pursue a suitable career in the global era.  The future is for young people.

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With students at the reception. I enjoy this most.

(Photographs from Mr.Hirayama who had sent me a mail)

Visit of Minister of Higher Education and Research of France

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On  April 10th, Fillon, Prime Minister of France and Ms. Valerie Pecresse, Minister of Higher Education and Research arrived to Japan, and Ms. Valerie Pecresse visited me on April 11th in the morning.  I met her in June and December last year.  She has studied Japanese when she was a student, and has worked about two times in Japan previously.  She entered the room and suddenly asked "How are you, Kiyoshi-san ?"  in Japanese.

The focus of the discussion was the G8 Meeting of Ministers of Science that is going to be held this year in June in Okinawa before G8 Toyako summit and the discussion about scientific policy and higher education policy.  France is in the midst of major reformation of universities and national research institutes and is struggling hard with the demonstrations of students and people related to the universities(on the other hand, it seems that the Japanese do not have energy to demonstrate).  Her activities are wonderful considering that she is still 40 and upbringing two children.

Minissterpecress02Photograph 1 With the Minister Ms. Pecresse

In the evening, I attended the welcome party organized by the Prime Minister Fillon at the France Embassy.  Danjyurou (a Kabuki actor) greeted in fluent French language and he showed the performance of "NIRAMI"(Kabuki movement of driving away bad vibes) and "GANRIKI"(Kabuki’s strong expression of eyes).  After the welcome speech of Prime Minister Fillon, I went to Swiss ambassador’s residence to attend "Thank you" reception of Davos Forum held this year.  After that, went for dinner with the Professor Dr.and Mrs. Dale (Chairman of ACP, American College of Physicians).

Announcement of Winner of Noguchi Hideyo Africa Prize

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Prime Minister Mr. Koizumi announced "Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize" during his visit to Africa in May 2006.  The prize is granted in 2 sections, the prize for the medical contribution for health problems of Africa and other one is contribution for health care, which attracts the attention of not only Africa but also the world.  The award ceremony is held in this end of May joining with TICAD.  On this occasion, 2 winners were decided and announced.  Although I had played a role of the chief of selection committee member, I was very glad for getting out the unanimous conclusion. 

Mr. Greenwood from England was awarded in the medical field had played an active role in the medical field for 30 years in Africa as a doctor and contributed for the various measures against malaria and infective diseases.   

In the health care field, Dr. Were of Kenya was awarded.  Despite many objections, ｓhe also built the fundamental sanitation environment over 40 years keeping focus especially on females and children and continued it steadily.  She has great contribution in promoting the health in Kenya as well as in Africa.

This news was reported all over the world especially at Rockefeller University, WHO(which very much supported Dr. Noguchi as his centers of activities), UZIMA Foundation and World Bank(which are the center of activities of Dr. Were). 
I think this is a good opportunity to give momentum to Japan leadership towards TICAD in May and G8 summit in July though.

Following sites are the news reports and responses from various countries. Please refer it.

British Embassy in Japan
Ministry of Foreign Affairs

<international organization>
WHO
World Bank
Rockefeller University
Gates Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
Roll Back Malaria Partnership
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
PEPFAR
AMREF
Medicines for Malaria Venture
Association of School of Public Health
Global Health Council
USAIDS
Society for International Development
UN radio
University 500 news

<press coverage inside Japan> (English version. There were many articles in Japanese.)
Japan Today

<press coverage outside Japan>
Kenya Broadcasting Corporation
Breitbart
Capital FM
Africa Science News Service
Apanews
Africa News Source
Africa News
The Nations (Kenya)
Medical News Today
Medical Health Articles
Health Care Industry
a2 media group
Med Store News
Latin America News Agency
Kinhua PR Newswire
Institute of Medical Infomation/Medical Library in China
YNCDC in China

However, still Japan’s Overseas Aid has declined remarkably.  In the 1990’s, it was world’s No.1, having great contribution in revival of Asia and also in growth.  Now Japan, still the world’s 2nd country in GDP, is
on the 5th place and it is assumed to be distanced by US, Germany, France and also by UK.  It is predicted to be distanced one after another by Holland, Spain etc.  Although it is the financial condition, it is regrettable.  It becomes a national reliance and trust problem.  Japan has difficulty in changing its policies.

Though the world has changed rapidly, Japan is too focused to domestic issues to change.  Isn’t it?  The leaders respectively from government, bureaucracy, industry and academia have to contribute definitely.  Anyone can give reasons for not doing something.  Responsibility is the behavior.