Scientific Journal ‘Nature’ Voices Concerns over Fukushima Disaster; What Must We Do?

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It may be hard to believe that the situation at the Fukushima Nuclear Plant is getting any better. This is a fact that is  clear to anyone.

The briefings on the situation by TEPCO are undecipherable (they are completely lacking any effort of being understood by the Japanese public as well as the international community, making statements that suggest that they think it is someone else’s problem) . And so too the information from the central government, as well as plans for the response to the crisis. With an overwhelming lack of transparency, there is no explanation as to the reasons behind the plan of action, leading to a loss of trust from the whole world as well as here at home.

Curiously, the Japanese media has also lost its courage, with less and less critical coverage, leaving the people of the nation without a voice. Even if one has information of critical importance, it is rarely divulged for fear of endangering one’s job or position. All this deception is counter-productive, and will only lead to a loss of faith from the international community.

The respected scientific journal ‘Nature’ has also lost patience with the situation, and has put forth a strong stance (Japanese version). The internet is buzzing with opinions being passed back and forth. Twitter too, has many examples of such activity.

A disaster on such a scale with dire implications on an international level as the one at Fukushima disaster would do well to pay heed to the lessons learnt through the British government’s response (1) to the outbreak of BSE.

Costly mistakes were made in the early stages, from the discovery of the first cases and the initial response, resulting in the disease spreading to humans. This was followed by  countermeasures based on the recommendations of the EU’s Scientific Steering Committee, and the struggle to regain consumer confidence in the scientific advances of the age. In the end it took more than two decades before British beef could be exported after the discovery of BSE ( it is interesting to note that here too, the Japanese government made a mess of the situation).

What we need is an independent international committee, committed to scientific principles and transparency to come up with solutions to the problem and make proposals to the government, which in turn will make decisions and execute these solutions. We need a plan of action that deals with the mid and long-term plans of the Fukushima Disaster, and we need it to be shared with the world.

Independence, transparency, public disclosure, adherence to scientific principles and an international approach are a must as a first step towards recovery of trust in this globalized day and age. It is because of these factors that the NAIIC was so highly rated and respected, earning the trust of the global community, and there is an urgent need for the public to understand this.

Visitors to my blog here, what do you think? The State Government that loses the trust of the nation will a long take time to regain it.

It’s already two-and-a-half years since the Fukushima nuclear accident.

A Surprise from the New York Times

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In recent days, the situation at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant has been extremely unstable. It has become widely known all over the world. In this day and age, it is not possible to keep things hidden.

The current situation at Fukushima has been reported in overseas media as a major scandal. The New York Times is no exception. On September 4th, it was front page news on the late edition (PDF), and they quoted me in the article (it can also be read in electronic version). This New York Times article was partly reported in the Japanese media.

But what surprised me was that my words were chosen to be the “Quotation of the Day” More than just pleased, I was surprised. It shows how much of an impact it has.

The following is the chosen quote:

“Water keeps building up inside the plant, and debris keeps piling up outside of it. This is all just one big shell game aimed at pushing off the problem until the future.”

The interview was conducted by Martin Fackler, the Tokyo Bureau Chief for the New York Times. He has also published a book titled, “Credibility Lost: The Crisis in Japanese Newspaper Journalism after Fukushima”(Futaba Shinsho, in Japanese), which critiques The Japanese news coverage after the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident.

The world is watching. The Fukushima accident occurred in a country that is one of the few major economies in the world, and has been evaluated highly in the areas of science and technology, engineering and manufacturing. Although the earthquake and tsunami set off the accident, it was still unexpected and shocking. What is more, it has been two and a half years since the accident but neither TEPCO nor the Japanese government has established any mid- or long-term plans.

It is vital that we gather wisdom and intellect from the world and prioritize transparency. It is very worrying and it is imperative that something must be done.

Down With a Summer Cold for a Week

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On the 29th, I made a day trip to Karuizawa, reaching my destination, the Old-Karuizawa Golf Club at noon. Feeling somewhat tired, I declined the invitation to play a round of golf and instead chose to rest in the club-house. It was a strange situation, me sitting in the lounge watching a beautiful and inviting golf-course.

After everyone enjoyed their game of golf, they came back and attended my hour-long speaking engagement. I also met Mr Takenaka, a colleague at GRIPS, as well as his parents. I also met the former president of Tokyo University, Mr. Komiyama, besides many others.

Returning at night, I still felt the same lethargy. I slept early. The next day, a Sunday, brought with it a high fever, at times reaching 40℃. I went to my neighborhood general practitioner, my friend, for a consultation, and was given an intravenous drip and told to rest. Monday also saw a high fever hovering around the 40℃ mark. To the doctor again. Although I was sick, I did not feel sick. I cancelled all my appointments for the week. Wednesday brought a respite, and I felt a bit better.

On Thursday, I had a meeting in the morning with the representative ministers from the EU. The meeting lasted about an hour, during which I briefed them exclusively about the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster and its current situation. This is understandable, given the current situation. A few more meetings and I was done, and I reached home at 3 pm,  back to bed. I was supposed to visit the New Ise Jingu Shrine this week, but I was forced to cancel this trip.

I recuperated on Friday and Saturday; I felt much better. But all the same, it was one nasty summer cold.

On Sunday, 1st September, I took the Shiinkansen to Hiroshima in order to attend the celebrations and my invited special speech that would be accompanying the unveiling of a new hospital building at the University of Hiroshima. It’s been a while since I  met many of my friends in the medical profession. I returned the same day.

On Monday (the 2nd), I went to Shonan Village (Shonan Kokusai Mura) to attend a 3-day program, the ‘U.N University Global Seminar’. I met The rector of the University, David Malone, as well as the honorary chairman of Shiseido, Yoshiharu Fukuhara. I was to give the first keynote lecture, ‘Global Agenda, Post-Fukushima’. Most of the people attending were undergraduate as well as graduate students, with women making up more than 70% of the audience. Nice! The foreign students and faculty also helped make the atmosphere more lively. I talked animatedly, and the questions flew in from the audience. And of course, it was all in English.

I do not know how exactly to describe this open and uninhibited atmosphere; but I love it. This informal exchange of opinions and ideas.

The keynote delivered after mine was by Akiko Yuge, director of the UNDP Representation Office in Tokyo. She was very articulate, and had a response to every question. After attending the reception, I returned home, while the participants stayed on; they were lodging together.

It felt that a week had ended at last, giving way to a new week. I had plenty of rest as well.

To H-LAB Again

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The other day, I wrote about H-LAB, which has been producing remarkable results.

This program only started in 2011 but it is impressive that already forty percent of high school students who　enrolled have chosen to study at a university abroad.

HLAB has come again this summer and I took part once more. After two days of rest in Tateshina, I returned to Tokyo and spoke for half an hour.

It makes me very happy that there is a student from Harvard who has participated for three years in a row, from 2011. She spoke in Latin this year at the graduation ceremony at Harvard. There is a male student who moved to San Diego from an impoverished village in Mexico with his mother and wants to contribute to the education system in his homeland. They are all remarkable.

Afterwards, we all went to the reception. Mr. Makihara of Mitsubishi Shoji who is a Harvard Alumni came to the reception. We are very grateful for his support for the program.

A few days later, I attended a session at GRIPS. The “Wise Leader” session was led by Mr. Hirotaka Takeuchi who established the Business School at Hitotsubashi University and is now a professor at Harvard Business School. It goes without saying but the world’s leading professors are incredible. The content of the course was pure, first-class entertainment. Professor Takeuchi has introduced many cases of Japanese companies at Harvard.

The next evening, I attended the reflection session held at the old inn in Hongo where the students were staying. Many people participated in the program and were able to meet and they all seemed very happy, as was I.

Watching the youth, I felt that Japan still has a bright future ahead.

I would like to send a heartfelt thank you to the people who organized the program.

From Okinawa -2

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On Saturday, August 10th, I visited Okinawa again. I attended the ten-year anniversary of the Muribushi Clinical Training Program (in Japanese), which was started by Dr. Seishiro Miyagi and is a pioneering program for dealing with the future of medicine clerkship. I had the honor of giving a speech at the celebration, as I did ten years ago when this program was first established.

After training in this program, many OB/OG alumni from the time of the Okinawa Prefectural Chubu Hospital have gone on to receive further training in the United States, showing that this program is suited for a global Japan and world.

In these past ten years, the required skills of doctors have changed in response to what is happening in the field. There are many outstanding clinicians who are active and appreciated on the global scale, as can be seen in the establishment of the ACP (American College of Physicians) Japan Chapter (1, 2) and the OB/OG of the New York Beth Israel hospital clinical training program.

In my speech, I mentioned the virtuous cycle that is created when people who have received clinical training in such programs pass on their expertise and wisdom to their juniors. It just happened that Dr. Harry Ward, who was a fellow at my time at UCLA, was visiting Okinawa, and I introduced him to everyone, thus creating another virtuous cycle.

On the afternoon of the 11th, Mr. Ichida of BirdLife International showed me around northern Okinawa. He took me to a secret place where butterflies can be observed and to see the Okinawa rail or ‘Yanbaru Kuina’ On this day, twenty-eight Okinawa rails were killed due crashes with cars on roads this year. I was told the number used to be only around ten per year….

On the 12th, I took part in a gathering at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) in order to discuss plans for the future of this new research-based graduate university. We spent the entire day discussing many different issues.

I hope that this will aid the reform of research in Japan.

To Okinawa, Twice in One Week -1

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Other photos:
https://picasaweb.google.com/101937154598536516246/Aug5Day04?authkey=Gv1sRgCOrRi5ry9tOHfw

I visited Okinawa twice in the week of August 4th.

On Monday August 5th, I took a day trip to Okinawa. I attended the program Asian Youth Development Program in Okinawa (AYDPO) that I have reported about in past postings. It is a program held in Okinawa in which some fifty students, between the ages of fourteen and sixteen, spend three weeks together. Around 10-15 university students also participated, as well as a few OB/OG.

The program started when I was special advisor to Prime Minister Abe as a project planned by the Cabinet in 2007. This will be the sixth time it has been held. Everyone is connected via Facebook and they are very active during this time of year. I recently met with an OB from Indonesia, who taught as a university student tutor in the first and second years of the program. We discussed his current project, which he is conducting in his home country.

I have been a part of this program since the very first year. This year, I gave a speech at the opening ceremony. I had many discussions with the youth, who will lead the future of Asia, and the session was very interesting and stimulating.

Among the Japanese youth, the ratio of female to male students has always been around 2:1 since the start of the program, but this year all of the participants from Okinawa were female. I encourage more male students to participate. Everyone had an enjoyable time and there were some OB/OGs joined this year’s program. The students from Asia had a female to male ration of 1:1, as recommended by their home countries.

I hope that this kind of program will start in many regions of Japan, in local schools, villages, through homestay programs, for example,  no matter how small it is in the beginning.

The future of Japan depends on the youth.

Two Panels; In support of Women Empowerment

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other photos:
https://plus.google.com/photos/105840412439031950380/albums/5910115686676869777?authkey=CKPXlJPgwpSp-QE

One of the problems with Japan, well recognized in the world, is the situation where there is less opportunity for women to shine when compared with other countries. The need for gender empowerment and gender　equality is sorely needed, and is a major social issue.

I have long been advocating gender equality, and have mentioned this topic numerous times (a quick search of my blog will tell you just how much) and thus have been invited to participate in panel discussions about this topic.

On the 4th of August, I attended an event organized by Ms. Sasaki (CEO of ewoman), the 18th International Conference for Women In Business, where I was on a dialogue with Ms.Yuri Okina (link in Japanese). The last time I met Ms. Okina was for the Keizai Doyukai Panel a few years ago. I shared this very stage two years ago with Ms. Yoko Ishikura (link in Japanese).

There were a lot of young women in the audience, and the program for the whole event was packed with interesting events. Started off by an opening speech by the organizer Ms. Sasaki, the event included talks by Kathy Matsui, two women Ministers, both are lawyers and children, Ms. Mori and Ms. Inada, a stirring address by the mayor of Yokohama city, Ms. Hayashi. These were followed by my dialogue with Ms. Okina. And there was more to come in the afternoon sessions as well.

Worth special mention is the talk by Japan’s fencing silver medalist at the Olympic Games, Mr. Ota (link to blog in Japanese). His points of view and his perceptions are truly world-class.

At the event, I sold around 50 copies of my book co-authored with Ms. Ishikura, ‘How to Build a World-Class Career’. What I was really happy though, was to see a visitor who had brought along their own copy of this book and asked for my autograph.

On the 8th of August, I went to Tohoku University in Sendai. This was to attend a symposium (link in Japanese) held as part of a series of events (link in Japanese) to commemorate the first ever female students accepted into then Imperial University, which happened here over 100 years ago; three women were accepted here.

Everyone on the program were very happy to join this event, particularly the two visitors from the U.S and the U.K, respectively, Dr. Colwell and Dr. Haynigen, but also Ms. Kubo, Ms. Tsujimura, Ms. Mukai, Ms. Kotani, the two Ms. Takahashis, Ms. Motomura, the two Ms. Kurodas, Ms. Harayama,  and Ms. Ueki, all were inspiring.
Additional information may be found on the Tohoku University page, because the event was organized by the efficient Ms. Noriko Osumi (link to her blog in Japanese).

Finally, there was a speech by the President of Tohoku University not exactly promising anything but providing hope that change is close by. The key issue is when the promises will be made into reality.

I was with Rita Colwell for the fourth time this year, and I was also with Ms. Motomura, with whom I had shared a panel discussion the previous day for the Nature Cafe.

I have been pretty busy this hot summer days, but it has been rewarding as well.

Nature Café: Can Japan Change?

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As I have mentioned before, the well-known scientific journal ‘Nature’ organizes an annual ‘Nature Café’ (Japanese).

This was the 12th such event, and was organized in collaboration with Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST). The panel for the Japan session was mainly composed of the ‘Crazy Ones’, scientists who are willing to think different. The title for the discussion session was ‘Will Japan Change? Universities and Research Facilities Faced with Change’.

The venue for the session was SONY CSL, the small research laboratory where geniuses and other ‘crazy’ people have been rcruited.

The panel was composed of the director of SONY CSL, Mr. Hiroaki Kitano (1); the leader of the initiative to bring about a new collaboration between the astronomy and the mathematics department of Tokyo University, Hitoshi Murayama (there are a lot of videos with him as well); a professor at OIST, Yoko Sugiyama Yazaki; and me. The moderator for the event was Yukiko Motomura (Japanese), from the Mainichi Shimbun.

I liked that the audience was composed mainly of students. Each of the panelists gave a brief but energetic 10 minute ‘talk with a twist’ before entering a panel discussion. We had a surprise during this discussion as Joi Ito (1), the head of MIT Media Lab, joined in.

For the details of the ‘Nature Café’, please check the OIST web site.

It was a  wonderful evening and the young people in the audience enjoyed it immensely.

I am glad it was a very stimulating session.

H-Lab: High school students to study in universities abroad and the impact of real experience

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H-Lab is a program that has been held in August of 2011(1) and 2012, which I and Impact Japan, with others, have supported from the start.

It is a one week long summer program for high school students that is made up of mostly undergraduate students from Harvard University as well as Japanese universities.

It aims to teach high school students the importance of liberal arts, as well as the fact that liberal arts is the foundation of the university education in the United States and Great Britain.

The second and third year high school students who participated in the program in 2011 and the third year high school students who participated in 2012 have begun to be accepted by universities from this spring and they are almost decided about which universities they will attend.

When considering these results, it seems that this summer program had a larger impact than imagined

The choices of the high school students can be summarized as the following:

Eleven out of twenty-two male students will go to a university abroad.
Twelve out of thirty-two female students will go to a university abroad.

Among overseas universities, there are nineteen students who are going to universities in the U.S., two in the U.K., one in Canada, and one in Australia. There are some students who were accepted to the universities that are on everybody’s minds, such as Harvard, Yale and Imperial. Some had a difficult time choosing because they were accepted by more than few universities.

Some students were also accepted to University of Tokyo and there are three students who chose to study abroad instead (although they may be enrolled in University of Tokyo).

By allowing students to go through real experiences rather than just thinking in their heads, and offering ‘peer mentoring’ by university students who are a bit older, the impact that this program has on students is giving them the opportunity to find their own motivation and choices.

Such students who choose to challenge themselves by studying abroad are likely to keep broadening their horizons. It is something to look forward to.

“Bula” from Fiji

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After participated Manaba, I departed Haneda Airport on July 6th for Nadi in Fiji, via Hong Kong, and then to the capital city of Suva.

I attended the Inter-Congress (1) of the Pacific Science Association.

Everywhere you go, you first say “Bula,” the greeting for hello.

This association was established in 1920 and I have been quite involved in its work since 2003. On this website, I have written about the activities in Okinawa, Tahiti (1, 2, 3) (including the hidden story of Yoshida Shoin), and in Kuala Lumpur after the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami in 2011.

This time the congress was held at the University of the South Pacific and there were many students who were active as volunteers and it was a vibrant environment. I met with some Japanese professors who are members of the faculty here as well.

The next day, President Ratu Epeli Nailatikau gave a powerful speech at the opening ceremony. At the opening  ceremony, myself, Professor Nordin Hasan, Director of Asia Pacific Regional Office of ICSU gave the keynote speeches. Ambassador Eichi Oshima also attended the ceremony.

We were interviewed by television reporters and were on the evening news. The next day, it was widely reported in the newspapers as well.

Over the next two days, there were many activities organized around the sessions. I spent three hours sightseeing, had dinner with USP Vice-Chancellor and President Chandra, and was invited by Ambassador Oshima to lunch, where I spoke with members of the Embassy and Japanese people who work in Fiji. I also met with female UNDP officials who are working in Pakistan, Sudan and Fiji.

The official residence of the Japanese Ambassador to Fiji was acquired twenty years ago, is in a prime location in Suva, the capital city of Fiji, and has an incredible view.

Fiji was a British colony in the past and recently has been developing relations with India, China and South Korea. There are many Chinese fishing vessels that have come to do tuna hunting. Although the work of Japan is well known, there seems to be few Japanese people here.

This is also one of the challenges facing the Ambassador.