My Thoughts in the Japan Times and the University of Tokyo School of Medicine Alumni Newsletter, “The Iron Gate Newsletter”

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Even in the New Year, I have had many interviews regarding the National Diet of Japan Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission (NAIIC). Abroad, not only has the report been well received, but also elements of the process, including public disclosure, transparency, high awareness of the global audience, and efforts to communicate in layman’s English have been evaluated highly.

This may also include feelings of hope for Japan to change, the Abe Cabinet, and the significance of NAIIC.

In February, I will be traveling to many places for NAIIC related panels, awards, and speeches: San Fransisco- Stanford University, Paris (OECD) - Boston (AAAS), Rio de Janeiro (InterAcademy Panel). I will be very busy, but I think of it as being good publicity for Japan.

Recently there has been an article in the Japan Times, “What Japan Needs to Do”, which features interviews with five people including myself, as well as the article, “Making Democracy Truly Work” (in Japanese) in the University of Tokyo School of Medicine Alumni Newsletter, “The Iron Gate Newsletter.”

In this way, the word is getting out.

 

Awarded the Tokyo American Club: Distinguished Achievement Award

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Last December I was notified that I would be receiving the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Tokyo American Club (TAC). I was interviewed by the TAC’s monthly magazine, “iNTOUCH,” for their article introducing me.

I have visited and given talks at the TAC a number of times and was happy to receive the award.

The January issue of “iNTOUCH” is out now. If you have visited TAC, you will have seen many copies of “iNTOUCH” with my picture on the cover and the article with the title “The Protruding Nail.” (PDF)

The interview (PDF) tells my story, highlighting the impact that the first words of my professor in the United States had on me, and covering my subsequent career and lifestyle, my work after returning to Japan, and the recent Fukushima nuclear accident. I would be happy if you read it.

It is true that I have quite an unusual career. Some old pictures of fond memories are included in the article.

 

Attending Fukuzawa Yukichi Memorial School of Civilization

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During the Meiji period at the turning point for a new era in Japan, Fukuzawa Yukichi was perhaps one of the greatest visionary leaders. Especially, the spirit of “Personal independence without relying on the government” and his way of life were extraordinary considering the situation at the time, and I believe this was Fukuzawa Yukichi I admire at his best.

This spirit of Fukuzawa Yukichi is even today one of the universally accepted social values. What is remarkable about Fukuzawa Yukichi is that he practiced this ideology. In other words, it wasn’t just lip service. He started up institutions such as Keio University (human resource development), Kojunsha (business community interaction), Jiji Shinpo (media), Gakushiin (scientists). Furthermore, he wrote a lot of deep, insightful, visionary novels starting from “An Encouragement of Learning” (Gakumon-no-susume) and “An Outline of a Theory of Civilization” (Bunmei-Ron-no-Gairyaku). He was truly a superman.

Maybe for these reasons, I have several personal ties with Keio University. If you search “Keio University” or “Fukuzawa Yukichi” on my website, a number of postings on Fukuzawa Yukichi should come up.

In 2010 and 2011 during the autumn semester, I taught a class on the Keio’s Shonan Campus. In 2010, I also spoke about a topic on “Global agenda and Japan’s risk management.”

Several years ago, a leadership development program called Fukuzawa Bunmei Juku was launched. There are a lot of great lecturers lined up. I took part in it about four years ago, and also last year in the final session of the 8th period.

Together with the aim of making young people find their career on their own, I strongly agree with the idea of putting emphasis on the spirit of Fukuzawa Yukichi even today, or rather, because the time is now.

I got to meet a lot of spirited young people.

The “N Program”: Physicians of the Global Age

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As the year started, there was a gathering of physicians who have undergone clinical training in the United States, hold U.S. licenses and board-certified in internal medicine and who have even undergone further sub-specialty training. These physicians underwent three years of clinical training in US through the “N Program” (mostly consisting of internal medicine but also including pediatric medicine) established by Dr. Nishimoto with the support of Tokyo Marine Nichido Fire and hosted primarily in the Beth Israel Hospital in New York City (NYC). Many continue onto further special training, eg, infectious diseases, cardiology, hemotology and oncology, and kidney disease, among others.

Pictures are uploaded on Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/harumi.gomi?fref=ts>

Many people have returned to work in Japan, but some have stayed in the U.S. Dr. Kuwama, my junior who I introduced the other day, is one of such people. He has established his own clinic in NYC and has contributed greatly to the teaching of students and physicians in training as a clinical professor. There must have been many Japanese in NYC whom Dr. Kuwama helped.

In the New Year, there was a gathering of medical doctors who have built their careers in such a way. Since the beginning of this “N Program,” I have tried to support Dr. Nishimoto in my own capacity and there has been some 150 medical doctors trained through this program. There were a number of students who I have taught, and meeting them for the first time in a while felt nostalgic. Furthermore, it was possible to see that each person is becoming a good influence and a wonderful role model for others. I believe this is a group of physicians who will be trusted wherever they go in the world.

Underlying this is the American tradition of clinical training, which is built on the continuation of interaction and competition with people of diverse medical schools and universities, and is always open and adjusting previous generations’ training to change with the times and to develop good physicians. This tradition is ingrained into the doctors who are involved with teaching. There is something special about this kind of education, which only people who have received quality education/training would understand.

The foundation of this is high quality training that lies only with people who have gone through themselves in quality education/training, and which you intuitively “give back” to your juniors and students. These are the “good tradition” or 'virtuous cycle' that forms the foundation of education.

In a global world, good traditions can be passed on through this kind of a continuation of open interactive and competitive training. During the three years of this program, I believe that the seniors pass on their shared “good traditions” to their juniors and students. In this way, “N Program graduates” are the “global standard” (in Japanese) and are physicians who have qualities which are universal and applicable anywhere in the world.

This is the state of the world today.

 

A New Year’s Conversation and an Invitation to Two Events

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I would like to wish all my readers a Happy New Year, although we are already deep into the new year, but please bear with me.

Parliamentary power lies with the Abe administration for a second time. Many committees have been newly set up, and each Government Ministry is surely running at full steam, oblivious to the New Year’s holidays in order to come up with supplementary and revised budgets.

As for myself, I too have kept myself somewhat busy.

I have added here a link to my ‘New Year’s Conversation’ with Chief Representative of the Komeito, Mr. Yamaguchi. This conversation was carried on the New Year’s issue of the Komei Newspaper, and although short, I think it is familiar to those who have been visiting my blog after the ‘Fukushima Commission’.

I would also like to invite my readers to participate in two events.

1) First is an event organized by AGOS in Shibuya, Tokyo on the 14th of January that starts at 2p.m where I have been invited to talk. AGOS is a company that supports students who want to study abroad. I will try my best to adopt a discussion approach, so feel free to drop by!

AGOS is an organization supporting studies abroad and is headed by Mr. Yokoyama, who is an alumni of UCLA. Having studied there as an undergraduate, he went on to become the head manager for the college basketball team, a post made famous by the legend John Wooden. His post was a first for any Asian, let alone any Japanese person. Apart from his activities at AGOS, he is also a generous supporter of the H-LAB program, which as you may know makes frequent appearances on this blog.

2) On the 29th of January, starting from 7pm, this time held in Marunouchi, Tokyo, we will begin a series of seminars in the run-up to the TICAD 5 event that will be held in June at Yokohama. The first of the series is ‘Keys to Economic Growth in Africa: Global Health’, and the panel is moderated by Ken Shibusawa of JCIE , with two panelists Mr Sato of Africa Business Partner (in Japanese) and me from the Health and Global Policy Institute(HGPI). I would like to call upon those who are interested in African Development, and even those who are just curious, to take part. Incidentally, I myself have been to Nairobi (1,2) recently, in October.

Today in the morning, the HGPI held a special breakfast meeting to listen to Mr. Jay Singh’s talk. It will be heartening to see the cooperation of Japanese companies and ODA of USA in the near future.

Turns out to have been a busy start to the year.

 

A Wake-up Call To Those Who Want To Make a Difference: TEDxKeioSFC and H-LAB

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I was up early on the 22nd of December; I was on my way to the Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC) of Keio University to participate in the TEDxKeioSFC.

This is an event that has its origins in the course 'Global Science and Innovation', a course that I taught in the academic years 2010 and 2011 during the fall term. Through conversations with the students where I heard their requests, it so happened that I invited Todd Porter, who was involved when we launched the TEDxTokyo event, as a guest to one of my lectures.

There was no looking back since that class. Backed by my TA, Mr Nojima and the Dean, Mr. Murai, the students teamed up and poured in their efforts to make the TEDx event a possibility.

On a cold, rainy, winter day, Theta (θ) Auditorium of the SFC campus far from the Tokyo city center, was packed with 500+ students and guests. The theme this time round the team of students picked was 'Think Like a Child'. Everybody was tensed up, but still managed to produce sterling performances. The passion of the speakers was infectious, and soon the air was charged with the shared excitement. I was also happy to meet Atsuyoshi Saisho after a year and half. He bowled the audience over with his superb presentation about his work which takes him to places like Bangladesh and Palestine.

I really feel that the students gathered in SFC were excellent. Those who were in charge of the whole event must have felt very tired, and this sentiment was echoed in the email that I received later.

It must have been an unforgettable experience for them; this working together in a team to achieve a goal within a limited amount of time. This hands-on experience is something that will stand them in good stead in the years to come, and will also boost their self-confidence, enabling them to become game-changers in the years to come. Well done, everybody. As for me, I had to leave for Tokyo right after my talk in the last session. Sorry guys!

I had a good reason, though. I was going to attend an end-of-the-year party organized by some highly motivated undergraduates. They were part of a group that I had lent my support to 2 years ago, and already this group was producing astounding and unexpected results. This group is known as H-LAB (1, 2), or Harvard College Liberal Arts Without Borders.

As a result of these activities and perhaps because of the networks it created, many young participants (high school students) went on to enter prestigious institutes of higher learning like Harvard, Yale, Ivy League and other colleges. It is very heartening to hear that more and more young people in junior high and high schools opting to study abroad in and around UK and the USA.

Yes, its good to know that young people are not being bound by adults who say that they are increasingly reticent. They are taking advantage of new opportunities. And yes, this is the point (1) that I am always trying to get across (1) … Increasingly, young people are able to see opportunities where their parents could not simply because they did not have any role-models close by.

I feel that what we as adults can do is to fully support the activities of these youngsters who have realized that they can change the world for the better.

Impact Japan is one such organization which we created in order to support the 'nails that stand out'. These outliers need all the support that they can get and we try to provide it.

Please do visit our site!

 

Interacting with Young ‘rikejo’

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‘rikejo’ is a shortened form of Rikei joshi which in Japanese means ‘women in science’.

One of the biggest companies in the cosmetic industry today, L’Oreal has a highly successful awards program called ‘For Women in Science’ which it has been running for the past 12 years. There has even been Nobel Prize winners among the recipients of this prize.

As a judge on the panel of this prize(1), I have had the opportunity to play an active part on its here in Japan. Unfortunately, I was unable to participate in this year’s award ceremony held in Paris because I was busy with my work at the NAIIC.

However, I was able to attend the special awards ceremony held here in Japan and meet the young Rikejo who were in attendance. Ms Miki Ando, world figure skate champion, received a special prize this year; Ms Meisa Kuroki, one of top TV/movie stars, was the recipient a year earlier, and this I think is proves that L’Oreal does things in style. Interestingly, it was at the ceremony last year (unfortunately, I have not had the opportunity to introduce this in my blog) that the word Rikejo started gaining currency, and this has developed into the award ceremony that it is today.

Held on the day of the General Election for the Lower House of Representatives, there was a contest where around 50 students from universities and high schools participated. Called ‘Team Match-Up:What If…You Could Create Your Own Cosmetics!’, the participants were divided into 8 teams and asked to dream up of new cosmetics. The well-practiced participants were able to come up with novel ideas within 45 minutes despite being put into random groups and then make their case in a 2-3 minute presentation. I got into the action by tweeting my thoughts as well.

There were three prizes in all, two presented by the panelists and one by the participants. Amazingly, the verdicts were the same. The products had daring and innovative names, and all the presentations were delivered with confidence and convincing. Just as I said, you’d better watch out for the awesome Rikejo!.

First Prize
Product name: Pheromone Eyeliners to Woo the Opposite Sex!
Concept:
? Baseliner equipped multifunctional eyeliner.
? Different eyeliners for each sex (differentiate on basis of fragrance and packaging)
? Introduce as the world’s first fragrant eyeliner!
? Encourage the spread of cosmetics in Japanese men a la Korean men.

Panelist Special Prize
Product name: Butterfly
Concept:
? Combine lip cream and lipstick for a beautiful color.
? Make it possible to customize the product through the use of stackable and interchangeable parts.
? Make it possible to use each of the parts on its own.
? Allow for decoration of the exterior of the product.
? Attach a removable mirror.

Best Cosmetic Award ( chosen by the votes of the rikejo)
Product name： ‘雌’ girl lip stain (「雌」is Chinese character for female)
Concept
? The must-have product for that all-important Christmas date (Makes him fall in love, but doesn’t fall off!)
? Target girls and women in the range of 15 to 20+ years of age.
? Combine the innocence of a young girl with a hint of mysterious allure. For women who want it all.
? Make it  an affordable luxury at a price of 1800 yen.

What do you think? L’Oreal is certainly going about its business with panache!

 

The Fukushima Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Safety, Visits from Foreign Delegates

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The “Fukushima Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Safety” is being held this weekend December 15 to 17th in Koriyama City in Fukushima Prefecture, hosted by the Japanese government and co-hosted by the IAEA.

It will be at the same time as the Lower House election.

The list of participating countries is extensive, and shows that they are trying to learn from the Fukushima nuclear accident.

In October, I was notified about the conference by some knowledgeable people abroad. They asked me, “You will take part in the conference right?” but I considered the position of the Japanese government and just nodded, “Hmmm.”

A month ago, a certain Diet member had asked a government official, “Aren’t you going to ask Dr. Kurokawa to participate in the conference?” and an official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs visited me. The official seemed to be slightly uncomfortable, but after talking for a while it became clear that the government (meaning, the administrative branch of the government) had decided (did not think about it most likely or pressured somehow?) that “there was no reason for me to participate,”there was nothing for me to contribute to the program, and they did not consider me in the list of participants. There is no need for me to force anything, so I told the visitor 'Not to worry, I will not participate).

Actually, during these past two days, delegations from three countries have visited me separately. They praised the NAIIC report and wanted to learn and discuss more. They said they were able to deepen their understanding of each other, as well have a meaningful discussion regarding Japan’s role and future challenges.

In my previous entry, I pointed out that a comparison of the response of the U.S. and U.K. to the NAIIC report with Japan’s response indicates Japan’s delay in “true globalization” and the differences in ways of thinking.

Tomorrow is election day. Please vote no matter what. There are many parties and you may be unsure of who to choose, but you must carefully assess the qualities of each candidate. Your vote will move the democratic system, although it may not change right away.

Especially the young people, starting from this election, you must change your awareness and vote. For you are the ones who will build the future.

It will take time to make the democratic system work.

 

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC) Fukushima Investigation Commission, Nagasaki University, and Elections and a Functioning Democratic System

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It has been one year since the establishment of the National Diet of Japan Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission and five months since the report was published.

The U.S. Congress gave a mandate to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to establish an independent Fukushima accident investigation commission (the list of Commission members is here) and started their activities this past July. It is possible to see this on the website.

The third series of meetings was held in Japan and was on the progress of the inspections at Tokyo and　Fukushima. As this is an independent commission by the legislative branch, the U.S. decided that the Japanese administrative branch of the Government should basically not be involved.

The first day of the meetings in Tokyo was at the National Institute for Graduate Studies (GRIPS). The three days of the meetings began with my presentation and discussions and went on to have hearings. The commission members had each read the NAIIC report closely and their evaluation of the NAIIC was very high.

It was mostly open to the public, but the questions were limited to the commission members. There was a brief report on it in the Asahi Shimbun (in Japanese).

On a different day, I gave the keynote speech at the Daiwa Capital Markets Conference “Global Agenda in Post-Fukushima.” Since over half of the audience and participants are not Japanese, it seemed that English was the language used. I introduced NAIIC as“the first independent investigation commission mandated by the Diet, the legislative branch, in the constitutional history of Japan” and began my speech.

After my speech, a member of the audience came and told me, “I worked as a civil servant at the British Treasury for ten years and afterwards at a private company. It is unbelievable that this the first independent investigation commission by the legislative branch…there are two such commissions in the UK right now…”

Compared to how the report has been assessed abroad, the Japanese response seems to be weak (in Japanese), but this may be due to the public awareness, Diet members and public servants’ lack of understanding about the functions of the democratic system (in Japanese). I also pointed this out in my blog on August 16.

On another day, I went to give a talk at Nagasaki University (in Japanese). There were many young people who participated. There was also a considerable number of high school students and they gave excellent feedback to the university organizing office.

These young people understood that the process of NAIIC is one part of strengthening the functions of the legislative branch.

This is was it means to participate in an election, although the country will not change immediately. It will take time for the democratic system to be built.

Especially for this reason, young people must think hard, participate in the election process and vote, for Japan’s future and for your future.

 

High Sales of the National Diet of Japan Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission (NAIIC) report, and will the Democratic System in Japan Move Forward?

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I was pleased upon reading a recent article that the NAIIC report is selling well. This achievement is due to the efforts of the NAIIC team.

How would you evaluate the report? The response abroad has been an unbelievably high assessment (1) of the report.

During election times and also on the everyday level, please question the members of the Diet, who were chosen by the Japanese public, that is each of YOU, whether they are making efforts to implement the report’s recommendations.

When this practice sinks in and becomes established between the public and the Diet members, it will push the democratic systems and the legislative branch to work better.

Even if it is gradual, your future and Japan will change through the process of elections.

Elections are an important way for each individual citizen to be involved in national politics.