Nadeshiko Japan Grasps a Miraculous Victory, All of Japan Cheers the New World Cup Champion

Posted on by kiyoshi kurokawa

→Japanese

Homare Sawa shot a miraculous heel shot goal, with just 4 minutes to play in the extra time, making the score even with the US.  Click here for the video.

After returning home from Washington DC on Saturday, the 16th, I spend the next day fighting against the jet-lag.  On Sunday the 17th, I watched on TV Darren Clark of Northern Ireland win the Championship at The Open in England.  Darren Clark gained victory after 20 times of challenging The Open which made this victory even more heart-warming..  Yuta Ikeda from Japan did fairly well in the final round.

After midnight of the 17th, from 3:30 am on 18th, the final match with US, the number one ranked team of the FIFA Women’s World Cup kicked off.  Since I did not want to miss this game, I took a short nap and started watching.  I think that the US team could have been frustrated because their aggressive play did not produce any goal in the first half, with a score of ‘0 ? 0’ ..  They might have been mentally tired a bit, too.  Japan was actually in possession of the ball 53% of the time versus the US at 47%.  The physical difference between the two teams was visibly clear, but Japanese players were  doing their best to overcome it.

In the latter half, Ms Morgan ’s beautiful shot resulted in 1 goal.  Japan of course fights back trying to score, but was unable to get the ball in the net.   With only 10 minutes to go, Japan plays beautifully just in front of the goal and leveled the score with a goal..  The game thus goes into extra time with the score tied at 1 – 1.

In the first half of the extra time, Wambach scored with a heading shot..  This goal might have made the US side believe that they won.  However, with just 3 minutes to go in the latter half, when the ball was corner kicked, Sawa caught it and shot a miraculous outside heel into the goal.  This evened the score again at 2 – 2.  Regulation time ended 3 minutes later.

So, next came the penalty shoot-out.  I think the Japanese team was in a better mood.  For some reason, the Japanese players were all smiling.  The first 3 US players missed their shots. Ayumi Kaihori, the goal keeper, blocked the 1st and the 3rd shots.  The success of the 4th player for Japan sealed a miraculous victory for Japan with a final score of 3 – 1.

What a game.  What a big surprise!  Both teams did great.  Sawa, the captain of the Japanese team, had shown not only wonderful leadership, but also has done a beautiful job of being in the right spots at the right times throughout the game.  For this effort works, Sawa was awarded the MVP and the Golden Boot.  Truly a wonderful achievement.

I think the keys to this victory were their spirit of togetherness, and the good management by the head coach, Norio Sasaki.

I was impressed.  It was truly a great game.  Nadeshiko Japan moved us all in many ways.  Thank you so much.

Many photos are uploaded here for you to enjoy.

The Nadeshiko team returned to Japan today with their faces shining with sense of achievement and happiness.  They are truly wonderful women, our pride.  I respect them deeply.  Their victory has had also a huge impact and serves to encourage the people of Tohoku.  Thank you, Nadeshiko Japan, for your wonderful work. 

Discussion With CSIS: Health Policy and Restructuring Japan After ‘3.11’

Posted on by kiyoshi kurokawa

→Japanese

As I have mentioned earlier this year on my web site, we, the Health and Global Policy Institute (HGPI), are collaborating with CSIS, a well known Think Tank of the United States, on health policy issues.

The topics for our collaboration for this time are: 1. Payment System of Hospitals and 2. Application of ICT.

Since we now have drafts of the reports on the two themes, I came to Washington DC to jointly present interim reports and discuss the issues with the invited specialists from outside.

I arrived at Dulles airport from Narita at 10:40am, and headed directly from the airport to CSIS.  We discussed over lunch on the ‘recommendation for the restructuring of Japan’ which CSIS started to develop after ‘3.11’.

This theme is very complicated, to say the least, and there is no end in our discussion.

However, I enjoy discussing. Health care system issue is a huge problem and it takes a tremendous amount of time to achieve any reforms.  We are searching for realistic policies and the ways to apply those policies in order to bring about the desired changes in the existing systems.
 
It seems to me that the key is how to use the ‘3.11’ as a chance agent to restructure current social system.  Of course, we must develop good and deep understanding in the broad range of the public, and the process of how we do this is very important.

Japan has huge burdens; aging society, chronic diseases burden, expansion of income disparity, stagnating economy, and on top of that we are at the brink of bankruptcy.  We have hardly any time left for reforms.  If we do not turn this great crisis of ‘3.11’ to an oppoutunity for big chance , I seriously think that Japan could collapse.

 

The Last Space Shuttle, My America

Posted on by kiyoshi kurokawa

→Japanese

The last Space Shuttle ‘Endeavor’ was successfully launched.

This is the end of one era.  I suppose that you each have your own different memories related to the Shuttles.

People of my generation would recall Apollo 11.  It landed on the moon on July 20th, 1969.  We watched part of the landing live on television.  It was the scene where Neil Armstrong, a human being, departed from the mother ship on Eagle, landed on the moon and walked on its surface.  These pictures were sent all the way from the moon.  Then they traveled all the way back.  July 16th, Florida 13:32:00 lift off, 20th 20:17:39 Lunar landing.

Such an exciting moment is rarely experienced in life.  Nothing like this ever took place in history.  And everything was on TV.  As I watched this in Japan, I thought of the greatness of America, a nation not afraid to show live this event to the whole world, in spite of the possibility of failure, this great adventure which no other country dared to challenge.

Many people in the world must have watched TV with a sense of awe.  America was in the height of science, technologies and engineering.  Japan, on the other hand, was gradually developing its confidence, having held the Tokyo Olympic game 5 years before.

The exchange rate at that time was 1$=360yen, the limit of carrying out dollars overseas rose from $500 to $700.  The salary of fresh graduates from university typically started from around 30,000 yen/month.

Back then, the Fukushima Dai-ichi (dai-ichi means ‘the 1st’) nuclear power plant was being constructed.  Nuclear fuel was installed in this plant in 1970, one year after the Apollo’s success.

1969 is also 6 years after the assassination of JFK (Nov 1963), 5 years after the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, bombing of the North Vietnam (Aug 1964), and the expansion of the Vietnam war.  Domestically were the assassinations of Martin Ruther King Jr and Robert Kennedy (Apr and June 1968, respectively), the American civil rights movements and riots were at its peak.
 
In July 1969, after having witnessed the Apollo11 lunar landing, I left for the United States to continue my study.  It was my first time to go abroad.  I departed from Haneda airport and arrived at Honolulu airport, Hawaii.  There, I was offered a glass of pineapple juice, and I will never forget how good it tasted.

Same day, July 24th, at 16：50：35, Apollo11 splashed down at the Hawaii off shore, succeeded in return to Earth.  It was truly a great adventure of mankind which was to be marked in the history.  What a timing for me, too.  It was only a coincidence and not planned, but this memory is unforgettable.

It was the start of my 15 years of life in America, but back then, I did not have the slightest idea that this was going to happen.

What comes to your mind when you reflect upon this news of the ‘last space shuttle’?

 

Hot Summer, Town Event, ‘Quiet’ Japanese

Posted on by kiyoshi kurokawa

→Japanese

It is hot summer now.  In Iwate or Miyagi where tsunami hit, people must be having hard time because of the heat.  Many problems must be solved; such as securing appropriate shelter, maintaining hygiene, or keeping their food safe and edible.  It was March when the Tsunami hit, there were even snowfalls then.  Time passes so quickly.
 
Through this disaster we saw how the ‘strength’ and ‘weakness’ of Japan was exposed to the world by the power of highly developed information technologies.  I have pointed this out repeatedly in this site(Ref.1, 2, 3), as you readers know.

This is the season of Tanabata (a summer festival in Japan), and it is so hot every day.  In the town where I live, we have a ‘Rio Carnival’ every year, and people paraded gaily again this year too, a view which so matches the hot summer.

It was a very hot Sunday. I found the sides of the streets packed with people.  Many street stalls stood alongside the narrow streets which made us feel the air even more heated.

The parade began.  Music just like in Rio (though the scale of everything is much smaller) starts almost noisily, including the sound of the drums. Men and women dressed up in festival clothes dancing in the parade move along.  This is actually quite a view.  Onlookers are busy taking pictures with their cell phones.  Dancers in brilliant costumes wave hands to the children who are watching on both sides, and many take pictures with the dancers.
 
I came across unexpectedly to my friend, a Korean news reporter, who was there with her child.

When we talked over the phone later that afternoon, she said to me ‘I was surprised by how quiet Japanese people were even at a jolly festival like this.  They don’t make sounds.  I myself shouted ‘bonita’ and such words over and over…. Japanese people are taking photos but…”

Actually, I did not notice this much, but it seems that such behavior gives somewhat an unusual or strange impression to the foreigners.  People in the parade are trying to encourage onlookers to join and stir up the festive mood but their efforts do not seem to be working.  Here again, I might say, the typical Japanese behavioral pattern of ‘follow others, try not to stick out…’ is prominent.

The ‘strength’ or ‘patience’ of the people at Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima exist in the behavioral pattern of Japanese as a whole – we act this way in every day life, and although foreigners admired it at time of the tragedy, such character could turn out to be very useful for their (Japanese) leaders.

Iadmit that Japanese have more tendencies to ‘suppress than pour out personal emotions, act in the same way as others’.  However, it is not good to act like this at all time.

I think it is much better to pour out emotions, especially a happy or gay feeling such as in this festival.

In the time of major disaster, being ‘stoic’ is good but not enough. Firm leadership is badly needed.

 

A Nice Email From Tatsuya Honjo

Posted on by kiyoshi kurokawa

→Japanese

Starting in about April of last year, I became totally exasperated with universities due to their unchanging, unbending and unyielding mindset.  As part of my frustration, I advanced the notion of allowing students to take time off from their university studies for a quasi-sabbatical or gap year.  If you search this site for “Let Us Take a Leave of Absence From School” you will see that ever since my talk at the Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC) on April 8th 2010 that I have strongly encouraged students to take such a break.  You have probably seen many posts (Ref. 1) which talk about this subject since then.

It has been a little while since I posted my opinion in January that students should take a break from their studies and embark on travels overseas to get a taste of the world.  I say this despite the fact that I realize private universities often require a large payment of tuition fees even during such “sabbaticals”.

A number of private universities have greatly reduced the fees for students during this break from studies.  I really must express my appreciation to the university administrations.  So while I do offer my heartfelt thanks, their actions are actually no more than what should be expected.

I have just recently received a very nice email from a Tatsuya Honjo (Ref. 1) who, after hearing my talk, went off to Ghana despite the fact that he was a senior and had to halt his postgraduation job search.

Dear Dr. Kurokawa,

I hope that you are doing well.  I hope that you remember me, I am Tatsuya Honjo of Keio SFC.  I have recently take a break from university and gone to Ghana.

After thoroughly thinking over all the things that I have experienced in Ghana, I have recently decided that I will accept a full-time position in a company.  Thus, I will be working at Nissan Motors beginning next year. 

Nissan truly has a diversified workforce at the highest levels including female employees and foreign employees who have entered mid-career.

I think that in today’s global society that we are in a situation where it is important to study the various philosophies and approaches as part of deciding how we will live our lives in a manner that conforms to our own values.

By leaving Japan and coming into contact with value systems which are not found in Japan, I was able to understand, with all my being, the importance of living based on my own internal measuring stick. 

This was all the result of hearing about your recommendation to take time off from my school studies.

In the same vein, since I will be graduating in September of this year, and I have a whole six months before I have to start working in April of next year, I have decided to make the most of this time as a kind of “gap year.”

                                                                                Tatsuya Honjo

 

He seems like an entirely different person.  I really get a sense of confidence coming through what he has written.  I know that his parents were probably worried and anxious, but I really want to offer my congratulations.  I suspect that his parents were quite displeased with me due to pushing their son into a non-conventional career path.

There are a number of companies that hire this type of youth who have finally opened their eyes to their surroundings and the rest of the world.  Students should not focus all their energies and attention on just trying to secure employment, but also give some thought to the possibility of taking a leave of absence through organizations such as AIESEC. 

We should spread the word about the existence of companies that view these activities as a matter of course in their potential employees.  These companies have a value system which should be respected and are actually nothing out of the ordinary in the global world.

Companies also need to think about approaches other than simply interviewing and hiring university juniors and seniors en masse.  Society at large looks at corporation evaluations including actions such as rescinding of job offers.  This is one of the important points of CSR.  An impact is slowly being felt on evaluations. 

Work opportunities for the youth of today are not limited to Japan.  Thus, everyone should at least consider taking a leave of absence and taking on the challenges of going overseas, if even for a short period of time.

 

Dialogue with Ikujiro Nonaka: An Event at a Gathering of the UCB-UCLA Alumni Association

Posted on by kiyoshi kurokawa

→Japanese

Ikujiro Nonaka is one of Japan’s most influential ‘gurus’ on innovation.  He is a highly regarded international scholar and someone I also greatly respect.  Professor Nonaka has written many wonderful books (in Japanese and in English), and among them are some of my favorites.  Included among these books are “The Essence of Defeat”, “The Essence of Innovation”, “The Etiquette of Innovation” and “Virtuous-Based Management”.  His ability to conduct research and analysis, and then find the “essence” of a thing is truly amazing.

Moreover, Professor Nonaka does not just look, in his books and talks, at the analysis and know-how that forms the foundation of the average business school, but rather he strives to delve into the essence of a thing as well as delve into “leadership” and shared philosophy which exposes the humanity at the root of all. Specifically, Professor Nonaka looks at the importance of phronesis as proposed by Aristotle.  He could even be characterized as Japan’s Peter Drucker.  And in reality, he is the First Distinguished Drucker Scholar in Residence at the Drucker School of Management, Claremont Graduate University.

We had previously had some discussions, and we have worked together on various projects in his role as the head of the University of California at Berkeley (UCB) Japan Alumni Association and mine as the head of the UCLA Japan Alumni Association (in Japanese).

One of our projects that came to fruition is our dialogue on “Japanese Innovation in the Aftermath of the 3.11 Disaster ? What Will It Take?” which was held on July 1st.  This event was well attended by a lively audience.  The event started from 6:30 in the evening and the reception continued on until 10:00 pm.  Unfortunately Professor Nonaka had to leave early because he had to leave for Dalian the next day. 

The Hitotsubashi Business Review has recently put out a special feature entitled Thoughts on Ikujiro Nonaka: Frontiers of Knowledge Management (in Japanese) in its Summer Issue.

I started out by setting the tone for the first 30 minutes and reiterated the themes that I have talked about on this site at length.  For example, how both the strengths and the weaknesses of Japan have been laid open to the world in the aftermath of the events of 3.11 (Ref. 1, 2) .

Professor Nonaka has also coauthored a paper The Wise Leader with Hirotaka Takeuchi that was just published in the May issue of the Harvard Business Review.  (Professor Takeuchi launched the Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy at Hitotsubashi University 10 years ago and last year returned to Harvard.)  Anyway we launched into our dialogue for 30 minutes which was followed by a 60-minute Q&A session.  All in all, it was a hugely intellectually stimulating evening.

Professor Nonaka and myself both strongly stressed the importance of, not knowledge, but rather the spirit that one can garner from liberal arts, philosophical and communal values as well as wisdom and experience gained through practical application, actions and evaluations.

At the same time, the July issue of Voice (in Japanese) had a special feature on “The Kan Administration, the Essence of Defeat”, and Professor Nonaka lead off with an article entitled “Non-Reality-Based Politicians are Destroying Our Country”.  Professor Nonaka noted during the talk that sales of his book The Essence of Defeat have jumped since 3.11.

Our dialogue should eventually be available for all to see via video and I will let you all know when it is posted.

I received a number of messages via Twitter and email from participants, and someone also talked about this event in their blog (in Japanese).

Afterwards, I was able to enjoy drinks with Mr. Kobayashi who is the originator of “This is Liberal Arts: Summer Course 2011” that was conceived in Boston last year, and his friend Mr. Kano, Mr. Yasui and Mr. Yokoyama who is a UCLA alumni.

After spending several fulfilling hours with everyone, a truly productive day came to an end.

 

 

“This is Liberal Arts: Summer Course 2011” by Harvard College students

Posted on by kiyoshi kurokawa

→ Japanese

I noted in previous blog articles (Ref 1 in Japanese) that the number of students from Japanese going to top universities in the United States is dropping which caused quite a stir. This drop is a fact but it is different from the problem that the youth of today do not want to venture into the outside world. 

I have pointed this out a countless number of times (Ref. 1 2) and explained the reasons why. I look forward to picking up this topic for further discussion at a later time. 

I think you all know from the contents of this site that I make as much effort as possible to interact with the Japanese youth when I go abroad.  As you know, I get together with a lot of youth who are engaged in research in Boston, primarily in Harvard and MIT. 

The planning of this summer course on the liberal arts started as part of these interactions when Ryosuke Kobayashi, who was a sophomore at Harvard College last year came to the realization that liberal arts education is extremely important and he felt the need to convey this importance to Japanese high school students.

We discussed how to concretely get this message across in the course of emails and meetings when he visited Japan, and finally an actual course entitled “This is Liberal Arts: Summer School 2011” will be offered for one week at the end of August from the 20th to the 27th.

The main sponsor is Impact Japan which was launched last year.  The Summer Camp receives support from many individuals and groups. This Summer Camp will be attended by 25 students from Harvard, 30 students from Japanese universities and target approximately 80 high school students.  You can take a look here for more information. 

We are looking for highly motivated high school students to join us.

The Camp is scheduled to be held at GRIPS which I am affiliated with and other locations around Roppongi.

We are currently putting together what promises to be a great curriculum that will address the questions such as “why the liberal arts?” and “what are the liberal arts?” and more.

All in all, it should be a very enjoyable experience.

 

An Interview with NBR

Posted on by kiyoshi kurokawa

→ Japanese

My opinions on the response of Japan to the 3.11 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster and the Fukushima nuclear disaster have been posted on the NBR website. This interview is entitled “Moving Forward: Relief Efforts, Health System Reforms, and Japan’s Role in Global Aid”.

Among the things that I discuss in the this interview is the establishment of an independent, international task force, to examine Fukushima nuclear disaster, which also serves to halt the loss of confidence and damaging rumor mongering in Japan.  The establishment of such task force is critically important, thus the government must take immediate action, and adopt a stance designed to learn from the mistakes of the past and share those lessons learned with the rest of the world.

I just want to ask you, dear readers, what message did you take away from this interview?

Interviews of a number of other friends (ref.1)and acquaintance have also been posted, and I encourage you to take a look.  Not an awful lot of news in English gets out of Japan, so many in the general public overseas look upon Japan with uncertainty because they are unsure of what is going on. 

However, we are in an age of new tools and venues for communication.  I, myself, have decided to try to send out at least half of my messages on Twitter in English.

 

 

An Invitation to a Dialogue with Yoko Ishikura

Posted on by kiyoshi kurokawa

→ Japanese

The 16th International Conference for Women in Business will be held on Saturday July 23rd at the Grand Pacific Le Daiba. The theme of this conference is “Acting and connecting beyond borders.”

This event is the brainchild of Kaori Sasaki who is the CEO of eWoman, Inc.  Keeping in mind the need to save electricity, the doors to the conference rooms will open at 7:00 a.m. and the conference itself will start bright and early at 8:00 a.m.  There will be a networking lunch with the conference ending at 2:00 p.m.

You can take a look at the program here. The conference itself promises to be extremely thought provoking and I will be participating in the form of a dialogue with Yoko Ishikura in a session entitled “Connecting beyond borders”.  She has recently published a book entitled Global Careers (in Japanese). She has also moved over to Keio University in April and is taking on new challenges.  I anticipate that my dialogue with Professor Ishikura will be fun and lively.

Participation is not restricted to women and Japanese/English simultaneous interpretation will be provided.  I look forward to seeing you there!

You can sign up via the conference website.  However, I must say that the conference fee is just a little on the high side.

 

An Invitation to a Dialogue with Professor Ikujiro Nonaka

Posted on by kiyoshi kurokawa

→Japanese

The University of California (UC) is system of universities with 10 campuses located throughout the state of California and it is one of the leading university systems in the United States. The schools in Berkeley and Los Angeles have the largest numbers of Japanese alumni. 

How would you like to attend a conversation between myself and Professor Ikujiro Nonaka on the topic of “Japanese Innovation in the Aftermath of the Recent Disaster ? What Will It Take?” sponsored by the joint secretariat of the UCLA Japan Alumni Association and UC Berkeley Japan Alumni. This Dialogue will be held on July 1st from 6:30 pm at the Tokyo 21c Club.

You do not need to be a member of the UC alumni association.  I would really love to have a chance to meet and talk with everyone and anyone who follows this blog.

***************

The 4th Berkeley Arena of Wisdom

“Japanese Innovation in the Aftermath of the Recent Disaster ? What Will It Take?”

UC Berkeley Japan Alumni Chairman: Ikujiro Nonaka

UCLA Japan Alumni Chairman: Kiyoshi Kurokawa

 

■ Date: July 1st, 2011 (Fri) 6:３0 PM to 9：30 PM

■ Location: Tokyo 21c Club （Shin-Marunouchi Bldg 10F)

■ Fee: UCB・UCLA members 3,000 yen （Food included but beverages separate）

            UCB・UCLA non-members 4,000 yen （Food included but beverages separate）

Professors Nonaka and Kurokawa will both participate in the reception to be held after the seminar. （Drinks are to be paid for at the time of receipt.）

■ The language of the Dialogue will be Japanese in principle with an accompanying PowerPoint presentation in English (however, questions in English are more than welcomed).

■ RSVP (deadline for registration): Please fill out the registration form by June 28th.

***************

 

A summary of this upcoming event.

●    The 4th Berkeley Arena of Wisdom will be jointly sponsored by the UCLA and Berkeley Alumni Associations.

●    We asked the alumni chairmen to host Kiyoshi Kurokawa who is a past Professor of Medicine at UCLA and Ikujiro Nonaka who is the Fuji-Xerox Professor of Knowledge at Berkeley and these two individuals are internationally recognized scholars in the area of innovation.

●    We will be able to become better acquainted with SECI model as proposed by Professor Nonaka, based on spirals formed by tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge if there are substantial contributions to the creation of science and technology policies through the use of state funds on one hand and innovation by well-positioned corporations which are sitting on a wealth of R&D. 

●    Japan will be unable to rebuild in the wake of the recent  disaster without innovation. The secretariat of the alumni association aims to expand the Berkeley Arena of Wisdom through this talk on Japanese innovation in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami by the two guests. 

●    The two speakers have made their views known in the media on the overwhelming scale of the local disaster and problems surrounding leadership. The events surrounding the Fukushima nuclear reactor have made it clear that the concepts of “phronesis” as espoused by Professor Nonaka and "out-of-the-box" thinking by Professor Kurokawa as extremely relevant to the issues related to leadership in a knowledge-based society.

●    The two speakers plan on keeping their remarks brief with each speaker talking for about 30 minutes while raising and commenting on important issues. The hope is that the talk can develop into a deep discussion with attendees (however, all should be warned that given Professor Kurokawa’s love of a good debate who knows what could develop!!)

●    The language of the Talk will be in Japanese (but we may switch to English on occasion to accommodate inquiries from attendees).

●    A reception with food will be held after the seminar which will allow time for attendees to talk and get to know each other.  However, drinks are not included and should be paid for at the time of receipt. 

●    All funds collected for the seminar will be donated to disaster relief for the victims of the Tohoku Earthquake.