Asia Innovation Forum; Eyes to see Japan from “outside”

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As I introduced to you in my recent column, the “Asia Innovation Forum” opened at Roppongi Hills for two days on September 14th  and 15th under the initiative of Mr. Idei, the former CEO of SONY. By looking at the program you may see that “Group 20” worked very hard to make this happen and I am proud with the result.  I was also delighted to see so many people coming.  We used Twitter and web cast to achieve more effect.

From the beginning we planned this year’s forum mainly for Japanese so there were only a few non-Japanese participants.  I was unfortunately unable to attend the start of the first day due to other obligations, but the sessions seemed to have run pretty well.  The speakers were all very qualified as well as good debaters with so much to say that the moderators had hard time trying to spare enough length of time for each of them.  The moderators all did wonderful job.

I managed to attend whole day on the 2nd day.  I saw Mr. Ken Okuyama (Ref.1) after a long time at lunch.  He has a wonderful talent to speak of big views and to take actions.  President Fukutake of Benesse Co. gave an attractive speech on the world famous “Naoshima” island.  A warm, gentle style of Dr. Yonekura in moderating the succeeding panel was also nice.  The last panel by “Group 20” ran a bit short of time unfortunately.  Dr. Sadako Ogata delivered a closing remark. There was also a session by people aiming to be social entrepreneurs.  It was a remarkable close-up.

We used “Twitter” for something new and Webcast was also available.  Thanks to staffs for their hard work.

The “Group20” might appear strangely different for traditional Japanese business people.  Its members are comprised of young leaders that possess high ability to challenge the global age, a completely different type compared to traditional “elites”.  On the other hand, however, I saw a weakness in their words because their views were only from the standpoint of home country ? not being able to look at the world affairs apart from Japanese point of view.  I have the impression that they are not really being able to see or feel Japan “from international point of view”.  But this is precisely the point how people of the world see Japan.  Maybe it is because these young Japanese people have no experience of living abroad for a long period as an individual, free from Japanese organizations or companies.  If you are working for a Japanese company, no matter how long you have lived abroad it is nothing but a “long business trip” because you would be acting in accordance to the instructions of the management.  You would not be free from Japanese society or culture of Japanese business.  I saw this problem being expressed in many questions raised by non-Japaneses who participated in the panels.  It is important to understand your “strength” and “weakness”.  You are all our precious human asset with whom we entrust the future of Japan.

My closing comment was structured around this “lack of overseas experience” in Japanese young people.  I also pointed out that talents of women are being wasted which was another big problem.  The latter issue was discussed in an article next day in “Newsweek International” (Sept.21 edition) featuring “the Female Factor” (see the picture at the top) titled “The Real Emerging Market”.  Such discussion is not only my view (you will find this theme repeatedly in my blog), but also a world trend.  Thinking of Japan as a different, special country is a terrible mistake.  So I made the tone of my comment stronger than usual.  Let me remind you that the theme of this year “The Earth’s Limits. Asia’s Growth and Japan’s Role” was selected because people expect a lot from Japan.  There are so many things that we can and must do.  Action is everthing.

Summer Davos-2 Japanese women shine

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I would like to write about my impression on this year’s Summer Davos.  In short, China, not only because it was the host country, demonstrated great energy, presence, and commitment of government through speeches by Premier Wen Jiabao and the Mayor of Tianjin and so on.  The details of this meeting are reported at the website (webcast  １, ２ , photos ).  Dr. Ishikura also writes many columns in her blog （Sept.12, 15, 16）. These reports are very lively and informative so please take a look.

Many people participated from Japan and I was happy about it.  There were many interesting sessions taking places in parallel in more than one venue, personal net workings to do and consultations to attend…so I was quite busy.  At the reception on the 2nd day, I enjoyed encounters with many old and new friends.

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Photos 1-4: 3 scenes from the receiption, President of the China Daily and his staffs, Prof. Moon of Yonsei University (left end).

At the IdeasLab session Keio University and the University of Tokyo participated.  This was also good.  Dr. Yoko Ishikura took lead of these sessions.  I did not fully listen or discuss in these sessions but Drs. Murai, Natsuno, etc. at Keio University gave a nice exciting presentation on IT field, focusing on Internet and cell phones.  Especially, the high-tech cell phone presented by Dr. Natsuno surprised the audience. But why is it that the Japanese people do not try to develop a targeted market for such first class technology?  Why don’t we make effort to present it?  This issue is discussed also at “Cho (literally meaning ‘surpass’) Galapagos study group” where I participate with Drs. Natsuno and Murai and we are planning to announce policy recommendations shortly.  The University of Tokyo gave presentation on sustainable human society, with focus on ecology, particularly ‘water’ problems. This was also a very interesting session led by Dr. Hashimoto, a specialist on photocatalyst and Dr. Oki doing research on global balance of water resource but unfortunately the time was not enough..  Details of these sessions are available on the web (Ref.1 2), so if you have time visit the sites and enjoy.

Photo_5_ishikurasanPhoto 5: Panel on Global Competitiveness report

The World Economic Forum, organizer of Davos meeting also announces “The Global Competitiveness report” every year.  Dr. Ishikura participated from Japan to help analyze, evaluate and make reports.  For the year of 2009-2010, Japan scored 8th among 133countries (8/133).  Not bad – but this does not entitle us to sit back and relax.  There are yet so many things that can be done.  Lift your spirits high and keep on working.  Find out what you are good at or unique, and make it better, utilize it, see the world trend, broaden your horizon and go out to take action.

Nick Gowing, a famous anchor of BBC, hosted the panel on this report .The panelists were vice minister of Vietnam (75/133), minister of trade of Costa Rica 855/133), vice minister of Mauritius (57/133) and Dr. Ishikura.  Dr. Ishikura first explained the report and then comments and remarks by each panelists followed, ending with a question from Nik (isn’t it a bit impolite?) to minister of Zimbabwe (132/133) who was in the audience.  The minister responded by explaining his thoughts on the issues, plans, and promises to the world and then Nik turned to Ms. Ishikura for a comment.  Her comment was good, actually.

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Photos 6-9: Panel hosted by Ms. Kuniya (6.7) and Ms. Doden (8,9)

On the last day, we had a heated panel on global economy “Asia’s New Role in Managing the Global Economy” . Ms. Hiroko Kuniya, host of a popular interview program “Today’s Close Up” at NHK, did a good job handling discussions on difficult issues such as the role of IMF with five outstanding panelists.  One of the last panels just before the wrap-up session of all panels was “China, Japan and South Korea; Shifting the Power Equation Together?” hosted by Ms. Aiko Doden who is also a reporter of NHK. They must have had only a little time to discuss in advance with the panelists, but they both did very well.  I believe the panels will be broadcasted in Japan shortly.

These three Japanese ladies that I introduced to you are very good English speakers, but not just that.  They are also wonderful hosts; handling the flow of discussions smoothly by stepping aside, but not missing the chance to draw good comments from the panelists at a good timing, not afraid to challenge them if necessary.  It is a hard work, calling for a very different type of skills than the panelists.  I guess they learn how to do this by seeing good examples, experiencing, and getting feedbacks.  In anything we do, we improve by studying, seeing examples of the world, copying good examples, trying, experiencing, getting feedbacks, and by reviewing..  This kind of skill is what we might call “Tacit Knowing”- an ability that cannot be learned from manuals or user’s guide.

This year many Japanese came to participate and were active but I have an impression that Japanese women’s work as host, taking charge of the flow of panels, was particularly noticeable and therefore shining.  In all of the 4 sessions which I wrote about, including IdeasLab, Japanese women served as hosts but the panelists and speakers of the presentations were all men.  Were these women even more prominent because of this?  It might be so because their role was to cast a spotlight to each of these men, one after another, and they were all in established positions.  Am I being a bit prejudiced?  Anyway, it is good for Japanese to attract attentions.

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Photos 10-11: At dinner together

In the evening of the final day, I had a nice dinner with Ms.Kuniya, Ms. Doden and other Japanese people, about 12 people altogether. (Photo 11).  I fully enjoyed this opportunity and appreciated it.  By the way, the attendants were half men and half women.

Summer Davos at Dalian: ‘D.Light’ and other flourishing Social Entrepreneurs

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As at elsewhere, ‘Social Entrepreneurs’ is in the spotlight at Summer Davos also.  Japan as a high tech country tends to see the world just from her perspective making international contribution with philosophy or products that lack ‘knowledge or sensitivity to the local situation’ or having ‘too much focus on cutting -edge technology’ – both being the ‘weakness’ that Japanese must recognize.

The D-Lab of MIT which I have introduced to you in my blog is a good example of the project that started with consideration to these points.

At IdeasLab, the session on social entrepreneurs, many examples were introduced but I would say Ned Tozan of ‘D.Light’ (Ref.1) caught most attention.  In India and Africa, many places are without electricity so some people burn kerosene at night.  This is apparently dangerous, unhealthy, and costly for poor people.  What can we do about it?  Their work starts from this question.  Their enthusiasm was felt to all who listened.

Other examples included:  1) Activities to provide modest education and skill training to migrant workers for their possible career opportunity after their return to homeland. 2) Helping people with only small land to be financially independent 3) Helping young women forced in prostitution in Cambodia and other lands to become financially independent.

I asked Mr. Tozan ‘Did your project stem out from D-Lab (Ref.1) ?’ and his answer was ‘Yes’.  Recently I posted a column on D-Lab, a wonderful new course that started at MIT.  I was told that this activity spread through the alumni and heard about a successful example of a Stanford student.  I had a feeling that D.Light was it, and correctly so.  Just looking at the background of Sam Goldman (Ref.1), CEO and founder of D.Light, you will see how American youth are aware about the world affairs, have energy and vitality to do something about them.  I also admire from the bottom of my heart the innovative ways elite universities of America treat the students and their ambitions.

I think that more social entrepreneurs would emerge from Japan if more Japanese business people or youth see global issues through their own personal experience. Letting them pass time in ‘Hikikomori (Social Withdrawal)’ is ‘mottainai’.  I wonder whether young people in Japan find it difficult to draw a bright picture of future when they see people 20-30 years older and think to themselves that those kind of life are their only options.  But they are so wrong!

In order to open up Japan to the world, it is crucial to ‘let young people experience and see more of the outside world’ (Ref.1, 2, 3).  It is now almost my mantra, but once again, I confirmed its importance.  The world is big.  As Steve Jobs puts it, ‘Don’t Settle, Keep Looking’(Ref.1)

World Economic Forum Japan meeting in commemoration of the opening of Tokyo Office, then to New Dheli, Taipei, and Summer Davos in Dalian

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WEF annual meeting in Davos may be described as the world famous place for the so-called “Track II” dialogue by members of the global society.  On the year of its 39th anniversary WEF opened Japan Office in Tokyo.  I understand that the Tokyo office is the fourth office of WEF in the world.  How exciting!  But then, why?  Might it be because of their high expectations for Japan?  Then, we certainly must do our best.

On September 4th and 5th, a meeting to announce the opening of Japan office  was held in Tokyo.  Large number of people gathered making this meeting very lively.  As the election of the Shugi-in (i.e. House of Representatives) just ended with the implication of the possibility of establishment of historical new administration, Mr. Hatoyama, the head of Democratic Party of Japan (and Davos meeting caucus)  joined to deliver a reassuring message.  I also participated in the panel afterwards.

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In the afternoon of the opening day of this meeting I left for New Delhi.  Arriving early next morning via Singapore I went straight to the meeting titled “India and Japan of Clean Energy Technology”(Ref.1, 2).  The conference opened with the keynote lectures of Dr. Pachauri of IPCC (it’s been a year)  and myself followed by a number of presentations from Japan introducing ecological technologies through which they seek “Win-Win” partnership of India and Japan. Ambassador Domichi also came to greet, and we had an honor of having him at the reception party in the evening.

India has a population of 10 million with expectation of annual 6-8% growth in economy for many years to come, but to my regret, Japanese business people residing in India are only 3,300 in total.  Isn’t this sad?  Although high potentials for establishing “Win-win” partnerships exist, we have such few Japanese doing business in India.  I think this is such a waste of opportunity, as I always say. (Ref.1)  Chinese and Korean industries are making quick moves into India.  I did point this out clearly to people participating from Japan.

Img_1815_2 At Sotokufu, the office of governor-general of Taiwan. The bust behind us is Sun Yat-sen.

Next day, I went to Taipei to join in with my colleague at GRIPS, Dr. Sunami and others.  Here again, the topic is “Japanese clean energy technologies” but it seems that the world does not know how good Japan is in this field.  Japan’s existence is not prominent.  Why?  I discussed on this, too.  In this global age, it is important to recognize your advantage or weakness about global issues and collaborate with others so that you can quickly spread into the society or the world.  This “Creation of new social values.” is what the innovation of the 21st century is all about. 

After Taipei, I went to Dalian via Shanghai to participate in the “New World Champions”, the so called ‘Summer Davos’ organized by WEF.  It’s a bit busy travel, but this is diplomacy, making friends world wide.  The first New World Champions took place in Dalian,   the second in Tensin. Participants included many young business people so naturally the event was quite energetic.

From the very first day I attended 3 sessions.  I was happy to hear that as many as 80 people came from Japan and was participating actively.  I saw many friends from the day 1.  Dr. Yoko Ishikura’s Blog  also reports on this event so please take a look.  Premier Wen Jiabao of the People’s Republic of China delivered a speech as in the first and second meetings.  He talked about the policies China took to respond to this global economic crisis, explaining how their outcomes were, how the current status is, and sent out strong confident message that China is ready and willing to continue taking up responsibilities.

In the evening, I attended several receptions including Japan dinner hosted by Taiyokeizai no Kai.

Democratic Party of Japan has won the election and?

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On August 30th, Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) won a historical and land-slide victory over Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the political party that held political leadership since 1955 building so-called ‘Regime 1955’ and ‘Iron-Triangle’ structure of Japan Incorporated (a brief break by Prime Minister Hosokawa lasted less than one year, but the Regime ’55 did not change a bit).

The result has far-reaching implications on the future of Japan. The results may not indicate the public at large tried to punish LDP for economic downturn, rising unemployment, and widening of income disparity or ‘Kakusa’, a view popular by the media here and there. Rather the results may indicate a rising awareness of the public’s thirst for ‘Change’ and realization that JDP cannot Change of resistance from heavily tied ‘establishments’ and ‘stakeholders’ of the ‘Regime ’55, eg, centralized powerhouse of bureaucrats-run ministries silos, big corporate establishment, farmers, civil construction and other interest groups.

This view which I portrait above seems consistent with the views of other opinion leaders outside of Japan who have watched and closely worked with and in Japan.  An Op-Ed appeared in September 7th of New York Times by a well known author of Japan, Ryu Murakami, ‘Japan Comes of Age’ also portays the public perception of reality of Japan.

The Economist, September 5th and other issues, for example, provide several pages of coverage such as ‘The vote that changed Japan’  , ‘Lost in transition’, ‘New bosses’ and ‘Banzai; A landslide victory for the DPJ Japan’ . Other media and presses abroad share similar commentaries.

In Huffingtonpost, a liberal on-line news and blog, which President Obama is one of frequent contributors, Dr Sunil Chacko (Ref.1), another frequent contributor and a friend of mine, also wrote on the DPJ victory with a title ‘Japan’s New Era’.

A writer, journalist, and a well know observer of Japan, Bill Emmott sent me an email in February saying ‘I also wrote a quick column for The Guardian the same evening I bumped into you for their online version with a title ‘A silver lining for Japan; The economic suffering here has been harsh and long, but at last political change is coming’.

When you read his column, it is of particular interest to note its concluding sentence (underlined) of the last paragraph, precisely the pointing to our democracy as I have been often pointing out in my speaking engagements and writings （Ref.1, 2, 3) (the sites are in Japanese except Ref.2). The paragraph reads as:

‘It is a country, in other words, that is in desperate need of a change of government, and the election of a party dedicated to repairing broken social services as well as shaking up the economy. No doubt as and when the DPJ wins power, it will bring disappointments and its own occasionally shambolic ministers. No matter. The important thing in a democracy is to punish those who have failed and to bring in a new crowd capable of making new mistakes. Japan has waited far too long for that.’

Be aware, Japan remains still second largest economy of the world, thus Japan must and is expected to carry its own responsibilities in the world affairs even in ‘The Post-American World’. Indeed, Japan has lots to offer to the global challenges, but not much signs of proactive action and engagements matched to its own economic power, at least to me.

SteLA, K-RIP and Grameen Change Maker Program

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Last week, I had very enjoyable three unique encounters, SteLA, K-RIP and Grameen Change Maker Program

STeLA stands for Science Technology Leadership Association which began two years ago by and for the graduate students between University of Tokyo and MIT  (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). This is its third annual meeting and was held in Tokyo with participation of about 90 students from Japan and USA, and, in addition, students from China and France. They spent about 10days in Tokyo and I was invited to give a speech and sit on the jury panel of their contest. It was such a fun and joy to see collaboration by science, technology and engineering graduate students for global agenda focusing on the benefits and risks of such technologies as nuclear, biotechnology. I fully endorse and enjoy such initiatives by the young leaders-to-be of the global age.

In Nagasaki, I participated K-RIP meeting in Nagasaki University and delivered a keynote speech (this site is in Japanese). Chair of the program  is one of leading business leaders of Kyushu, Yutaka Aso, a brother of Prime Minister Aso, who lost two days earlier the Lower House Election in a major way to the Democratic Party of Japan.  But we spent a great day with many college students and graduate students. I enjoyed speaking and discussing various issues of innovation emphasizing potential distinction of Kyushu in the flattening global world. I enjoyed the day very much engaging and discussing with students on their potentials. In the evening, Mr Aso and senior members of the program shared a pleasant dinner.

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Photos; Professor Yunus and Japanese college students to Bangladesh

Upon my return to Tokyo, I had a visit to my office by Daisuke Miyoshi (this site is in Japanese), a leader of Grameen Change Maker Program, (Ref.1) and two students who participated this program. They just returned to Japan after three weeks in Bangladesh. Two students are college freshmen and this was their first travel abroad, for the first time they held and saw their own passport. It may be quite unique for young Japanese in these days. They truly enjoyed their experiences, such as no bath tab but instead bathing in the river, diarrhea, and many fun and learning of the differences, heterogeneity, diversity, reality of poverty. One of my former students and a medical doctor from Bangladesh, Dr Jamil, was very helpful for sickness. Before leaving Bangladesh, they could meet Professor Yunus 、(Ref.1) of Grameen Bank who spent almost three hours with these young boys and girls from Japan.

This one week was quite gratifying and enjoyable to associate myself with many young Japanese seeking and looking for their each future possibilities.

A course of Prof. Mario Tokoro, e-mails in English

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Dr. Mario Tokoro of SONY CSL whom I have introduced to you in my posting of August 24  is also a Professor at Keio University (actually he moved to SONY CSL from Keio) and is offering a course on “Innovation” for graduate school students of science and engineering.

I was invited to give a lecture at the Yagami campus of Keio University.  The audience was about 120 students (master course and doctoral course), and I spent very enjoyable 90 minutes talking to those earnest students and answering to their questions.

In the end, as always, I requested them to listen to the 14 minutes’ commencement speech of Steve Jobs at Stanford in 2005.  I asked the students to listen and understand this speech by the creator of Apple, iTune, iPod, iPhone, etc. and tell me by e-mail via my website their reaction to it; what they felt or thought.

In the evening of that day, I received 4 e-mails.  I sent reply to all of them.  But after that – none came.

After having waited for several days in vain, I telephoned Dr. Tokoro to ask why.  He said “I think the students couldn’t believe that an important person like you could really mean what you said.”  So, I asked Dr. Tokoro to “Please tell the students to send me e-mails.  No need to be shy.”  Few days later, a flood of about 50 e-mails came in in two days!  Many of them were written in English.

I read the mails for 2 nights, sent my response to each one of them, and reported so to Dr. Tokoro.  I included Dr. Tokoro in CC to some of my responses since I thought he would enjoy reading them, too.  I stayed up for most of those two nights, but well worth it because there were so many things being said, including reactions to my lecture, in those e-mails.  Being able to exchange views with the students is also very amusing.

About a week later, one student sent me a message saying “Dr. Tokoro said that you responded to all e-mails from the students.  But I’m afraid I haven’t received your reply.”  I rushed to my PC to check.  Yes, I missed just one.  It was a fairly long, good writing.  I started my response by an apology for overlooking his e-mail.

By the way, I write my e-mails in English most of the time.  Even to the messages in Japanese, I reply in English.  When Dr. Tokoro introduced me to the students, he said “Dr. Kurokawa’s e-mails are always in English” so quite a few students challenged sending me an English e-mail.

Why English?  It’s not because it’s cool.  I have mainly 4 reasons.  My typing is not fast and not blind touch, to begin with…

1. Writing in Japanese needs converting typed letters to Kanji etc. which is time consuming.

2.  If I mistype one key of a word or phrase, I have to repeat all over again for that word or phrase, which is time consuming.

3.  In English, the meaning is understood even if I misspell a bit so I don’t have to be too nervous about hitting wrong keys.

4. And most importantly, language reflects culture.  In Japanese, ‘vertical’ relations such as titles or positions in society must be considered when deciding how you begin the letter.  You must first write some phrase of greetings such as “It’s been long time since I contacted you last time…” and so on (not a short one), to show respect politely.  Sometimes when I read those messages, I wonder what their point is.  English of course also has many polite ways of expression, but since people are basically “equal” as a person you can go straight and clear into the point without being rude.  In a ‘vertical’ society like Japan, one has to be mindful of the social positions of his/her counterpart; superiors vs. subordinates, professors vs. students, etc.  In my case, since most of the people I correspond with are younger than me, such as those students, it should be convenient for them to use English because they do not have to worry about greetings or being polite.  But I do have an impression that Japanese people are not used to writing in English.  My advice is ? ‘just get used to it’.

Writing e-mails in English has an advantage of being able to convey your message clearly without worrying much about misspellings.   But sometimes your expressions could be too straight forward and there are times when you have to be fairly careful about it.

Sony’s magic lab ? a place where geniuses and super-talents pop up

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This is a title of a book that was recently published. (in Japanese)

The book was written by “Mario Tokoro and Nobuko Yuri”, and on the Obi (a belt like sheet of paper over the cover of the book) it reads: “A secret of the ‘wonder lab’- The Sony Computer Science Laboratories Ltd. – home to Hiroaki Kitano, Kenichiro Mogi, Hideki Takayasu, and Jyunichi Rekimoto ”, “Haven’t you heard those names somewhere before?”

“Hiroaki Kitano is….. one of the inventors of pet dog AIBO…..founder and top scientist of the new field of “system biology” …. Kenichiro Mogi is known for analysis of the function of brains such as “Qualia”, “Aha experience”…..original point of view and keen observations, fluffy hair, calm baby-face…….idol of media, books, TVs, games…..Hideki Takayasu is…..a best-seller author by his book “Fractal”…. started “Econophysics”, a field that is currently spreading throughout the world.  Junichi Rekimoto ……has developed a series of technologies that smoothly connect real world and the virtual world .. … these four were co-workers at one laboratory…. (Chapter one,  p.11)

This book is describing the 20 years of “Sony Computer Science Lab. (SONY CSL)”
since its foundation.  It is also a story about Mario Tokoro who devoted himself to the opening of the lab that produced number of geniuses and great talents.  Dr. Tokoro is by himself a “great talent, out of box type” but he is also a wonderful manager and a very attractive person.  His “out of box (henjin)” character was clear even from his childhood that his friends used to call him “Tokoro-henjin-Mariops”  (Chapter one, p.78)

SONY CSL – a laboratory that produced so many “henjins” who helped starting of a number of epoch making new fields, presenting new concepts to the world-, is but a small institute with only a little over than 30 members including administrative staff. And those 5 described above are not the only unique people that this lab produced.  There are many others.

I have had the privilege of working with Drs. Tokoro and Kitano in many ways for these several years (Ref.1, 2, 3)

Although the topics we talk about are quite serious, I always enjoy talking with them.  This book tells us that there are so many young people with great possibilities (including Tokoro and Kitano), the importance of setting up a “place” to nurture their talents, that in such place one can find the essence in things, create true values, and feel the excitement and challenges that are accompanied with discoveries.  The stories in the book are wonderful – it is truly an attractive book.  Partly this is due to the deep philosophy Dr. Tokoro and the extraordinary quality of his management skills.  Also Yuri, the co-author, contributes by her splendid talent on story telling and writing.

The content of the book is as follows:
1. It all began with a draft written in one day.
2. Working at the cutting edge of computer science
3. What is the essence of research management?
4. Escape from computer science
5. Broader, deeper
6. What the SONY CSL means to me
7. The future of science and SONY CSL

Chapter 2: “Tokoro says; ‘There are only two things that I do.  One is to decide the direction this lab must go.  Another is to manage human resources; hire those who fit in, help those who graduate, and ask anyone who seems to be a mismatch to leave.’” (p.62)

Chapter 3: “Most important is to open a new field of science, make a new culture.  If we succeed in this, it would not just skyrocket the brand value of Sony but will be without doubt an immeasurable contribution to humanity.” (p.75)

“The management that Mario Tokoro put into practice was clearly out of the “Japanese Standard”…..often we heard people saying “it’s insane”…..but “that insanity started to shine as they went on for years.  Oh, it was such a unique lab that they made.  Was it only possible because it was a private enterprise?  No, a private company will not have a way for such thing.  Well done!”

“Tokoro is known for being flexible and straight….  Even the editor in charge said, as Tokoro recalls, ‘Dr. Tokoro throws only straight balls’”

In Chapters 4-6 interesting episodes are introduced about how Tokoro met researchers such as Kitano, their backgrounds, and thoughts.  Tokoro sees their essence.  I recommend this book as reference to young researchers, or even non-researchers, for some lessons on life.

Kitano says “Synergy between fields that appear at first to be so irrelevant will not enhance unless we understand the fundamental idea that lies within each field.  However, that broadness is the only way to access to a new area or deep understanding of nature.”….”With the progress of computer technology, we are now able to handle sophisticated systems that involve many elements.  This opened the door to a new framework of science by breaking the walls between fields of information science, bio, sociology, economy, and so on and connecting them by new perspectives or methods.”  These words of Kitano become very convincing as we read through the works of seven (footnote 1) scientists that are introduced later.

Footnote 1; Junichi Rekimoto、Luc Steels、Hideki Takayasu、Kenichiro Mogi、Kazuhiro Sakurada、Franc Nielsen、Francois Pachet .

Two women helping them as staffs comment in the book: “I go to the presentations of researchers… and their way of thinking or ideas astonishes me quite frequently.”  “I am stimulated…… by the small words that the researchers utter in every day life”, “The researchers are all gentle and kind….of course there are many aspects in them that do not fit in to the standard value of company or ordinary life, but for matters outside research, they are basically nice people.” (p.226-227)

It seems that Dr. Tokoro’s philosophy is about finding unbelievably out of box “henjins” that have high potentials and creating a “place” to enable them grow freely. Maybe it has to do with his experience of being at several western laboratories working together with first class researchers.  Because of this experience SONY CSL is able to say that “…fresh PhDs…young inexperienced researchers are treated as colleagues, fairly, openly, and also with strictness….this atmosphere…. is a manifestation of very pure spirits that has nothing to do with disguise or connivance……” “….even in the presence of the most distinguished professors, no matter what they may say, SONY CSL researchers will not flinch” (p.216-217)

In Chapter 7, Dr. Tokoro proposed an “open system science”  as one possibility in facing future challenges and has published a book by this title  early this year in celebration of the 20th anniversary.

Anyway, I recommend this book strongly to anyone who is interested in research or anything fun, and to students in universities or graduate schools.

And as I repeatedly point out in this site also (please ‘Search’ by keywords such as ‘out of box (henjin)’, ‘nails that stick out’ or ‘common sense’),  it is these “out of box (henjin)”, “nails that stick out” “non-common sense” that go beyond the frontier, create new values, and change the world.  My conviction is even stronger after reading the stories of many scientists introduced in this book.

To Okinawa; Asian Youth Exchange Program, Influenza, and Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology

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August 20, I came to Okinawa.

The visit is for the Asian Youth Exchange Program (Ref. 1)   that started last year.  As I have reported before it is a project of having youth from Asia and Japan spend 3 weeks together in Okinawa.  This year, 35 international students (15 nations) and 42 Japanese students (14 from Okinawa) participated. Their age was mostly 15 or 16.  This kind of exchange programs should be more actively expanded.  Experience of mixing with other young people in their youth is the basis of formation of broad perspectives towards the future and constructing networks of friendship.  The whole world sees this as especially important (Ref.1) in this global age and is moving based on this notion.

6 students from the Asia Pacific University  who participated as Tutors last year were also present as well as students from the University of the Ryukyus and Okinawa University.

But this year, the swine flu spread rapidly in Okinawa including 3 mortalities and when I arrived some participants were taking rests because of fever.  My topic was “The Global Age and Innovation”. I was told that there were several sessions on “Water”, and students divided in several groups according to their views had variety of discussions on the problem of “Water”.  So, I asked each group what they discussed about “Water” and we had a dialogue along that line.

The participants were all very lively and active.  I enjoyed being with them.  The overall program was full with seminars, transfer to islands, snorkeling, home stay, and so on.  Maybe a bit more of free time could have done them good.  I do imagine, however, that looking after such active youths must be exhausting!

Anand Ivannanto of APU, a participant of last year (who unfortunately could not be in my seminar because of sudden fever), and other university students are voluntarily setting up website and Networks such as FaceBook.  I would like to encourage all to spread such activities.

I have mentioned this last year too, but the ratio of male and female of Japanese participants  was again ‘1:2’ this year.  There are much less applications from male students.  Why is it so?  I wonder.

I went to see the site where construction of Okinawa Institute of Technology (OIST)  was going on.  Grand campus buildings were being built and I look very much forward to their completion.  Of course, there will be many obstacles that we should overcome along the way.

Reformer of Education for the Global Age

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After the Rehman shock, Japanese economy’s status is worse than it was initially anticipated by domestic authorities and the weakness of the structure of industry is rising to the surface.  ‘The 1955 Regime’, beginning of ‘Iron-Triangle Regime’ of Post-War Japan coming to a deadlock may have something to do with this.  When situations like this take place, it is always the case that some people start discussing “Leader theory” that sounds nostalgic of the activities of the people in the Meiji era such as in the novel by Ryotaro Shiba, “Saka no Ue no Kumo” (Ref. 1).  However, the situation is very different today and their viewpoints seem irrelevant.　

Changes in the world today will not wait for Japan to catch up.  If we think of 5, 10, 20 years ahead from now, it is perfectly clear that the producing future human resources should be the most important basis of national policies (in Japanese).  Search in this site by keywords such as “human resources”, or “education” since there are many columns that I have written on this theme.

Budget for education is extremely small in Japan compared to other developed countries.  Political parties at last came up with manifests with budgets for “children, education” included for the next Shugi-in election ? a speed not at all impressively wonderful.

However, though reinforcement of conventional budget on education is important, it is much more necessary to create strong policies for producing variety of talents for the future challenges.  At present, the changes in this nation are too small and timid even at the level of university education.  I have been pointing this out so many times in this site (Ref.1, 2) and although I do notice some good drastic attempts they are unfortunately too small to become big trends.  Such activities at Asia Pacific University or Akita International University , for example, are not well known even in Japan.  Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy, HItotsubashi University  is a revolutionary program open to the world and is evaluated highly by international standards.

By the way, reforms are underway in many of the Western universities as well as in the field of education utilizing IT technologies such as internet where totally new potentials are being sought after or being put into practice.  In this respect there are several Japanese active in overseas universities such as Dr. Miyagawa who was involved in the development of MIT’s OpenCourseWare  or Dr. Iiyoshi, who is seeking for new possibilities having recently moved to MIT from the Carnegie Foundation.

I met Dr. Iiyoshi in Dubai last year (Ref.1, 2)  Recently he edited and published a book “Opening Up Education” together with Dr. Vijay Kumar.  The book is highly evaluated as you can see from the book reviews written by people such as Dr. Charles Vest (who was the President of MIT for many years.  Search for topics related to him in my site.)

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Photo: Dr. Iiyoshi and I at GRIPS

Recently, I had an opportunity to see Dr. Iiyoshi.  I learned that there is a possibility of unimaginably big change in the field of education in this “Flattening” world.  People of the world are very much devoted in effort to produce leaders who will lead the politics, industries, universities in the global societies with clear vision, strong will, and strong energy by strengthening the potentials of young generation, their spirits of challenge, minds not afraid to change in the face of this global age.

I strongly advise people of Japan to listen open mindedly to the opinions of educators such as Drs. Miyagawa and Iiyoshi, who have minds full of love for the nation (see footnote), working actively at “outside”, seeing Japan from “outside”

Footnote: Person with love for the nation as I understand is “Patriot” not “Nationalist”.