A beautiful project: “Grameen Change Makers Program”

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Three sophomores of Waseda University and their partners visited me in December last year.  When they traveled to Bangladesh they were extremely shocked by its situation and “wanted to find out what we can do, to eventually change Japan from there, and we are definitely doing it!” they said.

They returned to Bangladesh, saw more people, and one of them are already starting activities by taking one year leave of absence from the university.  I was unable to see this person, but the remaining two came over to see me and give me follow ups of their activities (their blog (in Japanese) is filled with passion and photos.)

Many plans are going on ? one of them is "Grameen Change Makers Program". This program shows their wonderful ability to think, move, and act.  Their ideas come from their local experience and we can also see their strong message to Japan from the plan.  I am also very pleased to know that they are having lots of advice from Professor Seiichiro Yonekura of Hitotsubashi University.

The point here is: "Local experience matters".  It is where you find what you have in yourself.  No meaningful contribution is possible without this, just as I have said in my recent column.

Also, it is a very nice thing to take a year of leave of absence from the University.  I would like to recommend taking a leave or joining in a student exchange program for a year to many university students as possible. Universities will supposedly not charge tuitions from students on leave, but I even think it is high time that universities, or even governments, consider offering financial supports for such cases.  (See article "Opening Japan Up to the World" by Kurokawa.  Registration at Science Magazine necessary.)  Companies could give scholarships, too.  Nothing but such communication/exchanges of youths are so crucially important for the upbringing of  human resources that shape the future of Japan.

I urge young people to join this "Grameen Change Makers Program" (this website is in Japanese) and ask everyone to support them.  Universities and companies, too.  The future of Japan depends on more and more expansion of such movements and activities.

Influenza and Civilization

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The "swine flu" outbreak that started in late April this year swept the whole world into a big fuss.  Fortunately this time, the swift scientific analysis and action, together with the world wide sharing of information seem to have succeeded in preventing disastrous human, social, or economical damage.

If we look back carefully into our history as human beings, it is clear that our past had been a constant battle with pandemics, and basically, as mankind and their activities spread over this planet, this battle will inevitably keep on taking place repeatedly.

From this perspective, I have written an article  "Influenza and Civilization"(in Japanese) in the July edition of monthly magazine "Shincyo 45"(in Japanese).

Look back into the history and think about the future.  This is a very important large scale framework for thinking, whatever the theme may be.

"A Brief History of the Future: A Brave and Controversial Look at the Twenty-First Century" by Jacque Atalli was published in 2006, and its Japanese translation in 2008.  This book writes about the history of mankind in a tremendous large scale and aims to foresee the world as it may be in the 21st century.  The change described here is of an unbelievably high speed, unimaginable from our current common sense.  But this could really happen.

Beautiful Japan (with her own problems)

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Dr. Nassrine Azimi, Director, UNITAR, Hiroshima office, is one of true intellectuals and good company I very much respect. We have been working together since her arrival to Japan some five years ago as you may see some of my earlier reports(Ref.1, 2).

She very much fell in love with Japan and Hiroshima, and also shares my concern on various issues of Japan. Recently, she wrote a stunningly beautiful Op-Ed on Japan in New York Times with a quote on my thoughts on reform in education.

I wish to share her Op-Ed with you. Enjoy it.

Cambodia, and coordinating new relationships

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Mr. Miki Watanabe is the Chairman and CEO of Watami Co., Ltd. whom I have introduced once in my past column.

He is trying to disseminate his message, "Let’s make dreams come true," to broad public, and practices it as a wonderful entrepreneur.  Mr. Watanabe is very passionate about education, and besides managing a school in Japan he is helping foundation of a school in Cambodia.  He has also published several books to encourage young people.

Mr. Heang Chhor, President of McKinsey Japan is also my friend.  He evacuated to France from Cambodia in that painful years of massacre, pursued education in spite of continuing hardships, and now is the President of McKinsey Japan. Mr. Chhor is a very earnest wonderful person.

I introduced these two people to one another.  Since I was abroad, I could not join them at the luncheon.  But I heared that they had a nice time together sharing same views and aspirations in many ways (Japanese site).

They have a common theme, Cambodia, so we can expect their co-operations.  I am looking forward to seeing it.

And "enmusubi (coordinating new relationships)" of wonderful people like them is very exciting as well.

India, California, and Tokyo

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A cheerful meeting titled "Japan-India-U.S. Relationship Fiesta" have been held in Tokyo, co-organaized by Indian Institute of Technology(IIT), University of California at Los Angeles(UCLA), and University of California at Berkeley(UCB) Japan Alumni Association.

Former Ambassador of Japan to India His Excellency Enoki and former Ambassador of India to Japan His Excellency Seth participated also.  There was a panel and have a nice Networking time.  See the animoto slideshow for the views.

It is good to see this kind of gatherings being held here and there.

Innovation Courier Project

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Since the start of the "Innovation 25" policy, various measures and activities are being set up and started.  "Innovation Courier Project" is the one of such activities.

I have been helping this project from the start.  Its works include various projects, lectures, publishing and so on.

This time, on June 3rd, we had an exhibition and seminar (this web site is in Japanese only) under the theme of "water" at Yokohama.  At the exhibition, many items such as truck portable sea water purification system, simple water purifying device already in practical use at Bangladesh, etc. were on display.  They were all wonderful.  However, I very strongly felt that we need to develop more things that more meet the local needs.

Japanese inevitably are inclined to rely on technologies, and engineers are too much focused on development of technologies or improvement of their accuracies that they often come up with very high-priced items that would be unrealistic and costly.  Also, I always get the impression that they have tendency of depending on government for funding.  The items are altogether wonderful, but in order to have these items delivered to the destination ASAP, we should think different way and find new ways to build such systems and finances that make it possible.  For example, we could try to make products at local area that create local jobs and help people to relieve from poverty (even a little). I think that this kind of thought or viewpoint was missing.  Maybe it’s because many of us do not have any experience of living in those places.  Thus, we are not able to feel everyday life as the local people.  I think this is the weak point of Japan in this flat global age where "Demand-Driven Innovation" is very effective.

I had a lecture (this web-site is in Japanese only) and talked about the logic of Grameen Bank, introduced some of their examples, and also touched upon the wonderful NGO activities such as KickStart.  These are what I call the innovation, "Creation of New Values."

Stanford University and Project on Japanese Entrepreneurship

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A collaborative research with Stanford titled Stanford Project on Japanese Entrepreneurship (STAJE)  is going on since last year.  We set this up jointly with people from Stanford including Dr. William Miller, a former Vice President well known for "MOT" and we had an open symposium at the University of Tokyo on May 29.

Dr. Miller and I gave greeting speeches.  Dr. Miller is just over 80, but he is still very active and said that he started another new business lately.  Professor Shigeo Kagami of Todai and Professor Robert Eberhart are the organizers.

As for my part, my message to the audience was that "eco-platform", the "Kurofune (U.S. battleship that arrived in Uraga in 1853 to negotiate opening of Japan for trade)", pressing for the opening of the country and innovation has come; last week TEDxTOkyo and next week the opening of TiE Tokyo Office.

It was a rainy day, but I was told later that approximately 250 people gathered and joined in very lively discussions (I had to leave the place for a while and miss some of the programs).  Forbes reports on this symposium.

We talked about the advantages that Japan and Silicon Valley have respectively, but I will leave the details to the report that is coming soon.  Japan has countless possibilities.  What we need is action.  It’s "Think Locally, Act Globally" (the article is in Japanese only).  I intend to think of some ideas for fermentation with several partners.

Education and human resource development for promoting ‘Multilayered International Exchange’

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Over these 20 years and more, I have been pointing out the importance of having young people involved in competition away from home ground (Taryu-jiai) in the world.  Professional sports opened up their doors to the world too; Nomo in 1995 in Major League, FIFA World Cup and J League.  These sports earn high television viewerships in Japan just like in any other countries ? the goals and values of young people are changing to the same direction as the young people in the rest of the world.

Even Sumo, the 'National sport' of Japan, have internationalized totally and the last two matches in the last two days of latest summer tournament were done by non-Japanese only.  The rates of number of foreign rikishis (sumo wrestlers) were in grand total 7%, Makuuchi 30%, Sanyaku 40%, and Yokozuna 100%.  Nevertheless, I don't think Japanese are being especially furious or anything about this.  Japanese also cheer for their good plays, and at the same time this in effect spreads the value of Japanese cultures to the world.  People liking Japan will increase through such experiences.

Yes, the basis of a nation is human resource development and this is the most important task for the future of Japan.  For the coming global age nothing is more needed than to urge young people to see the world outside ? in order to recognize the differences or variety of people of the world, the value of oneself and to build up global networks of friends and colleagues for their future.  This is the recommendation I have been proposing repeatedly in my website.

In this year's January/February issue of 'Foreign Affairs,' Dr. Anne Marie Slaughter, Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, wrote a wonderful paper.  When I compare this with the universities in Japan, I feel very uneasy and worried about the future of Japan.  Dr. Slaughter was appointed to the Director of Policy Planning of the U.S. Department of State starting from the end of January.  A nice selection!

Recently, I participated in a meeting at the World Bank.  The content of my discussion is highlighted in its website.  I take this as a sign that people are supporting my view.  It is about the importance of 'Multilayered Brain Circulation.'

Now, can Japan change? Ozumo-nization of universities and industries are so tardy ? too many professors and CEOs are interested in domestics only, don't you think?

Please search within this website by various key words as the ones I have highlighted in Bold.

TED comes to Tokyo

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"TED comes to Tokyo."  And if your response to this news is "finally!" or "at last!," then you must be a kind of freak(?) in this area.  But believe it or not, it actually did.

On May 22, TEDxTokyo was held at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Odaiba.  The audience was limited to 200, language was English exclusively, and the percentage of Japanese participants was limited to maximum 40%.  I was involved in organizing this event, and we arranged to have each live speaker speak no more than 18 minutes.  We also sorted out several nice videos from TED and mixed them into the program.  It turned out to be a very exciting and inspiring day.

The two producers, Todd and Patrick, were nice combination and the way they hosted the event was in a good tempo and stylish.

Visit the TEDxTokyo website or the original TED site and have lots of fun.

Thanks to so many young volunteers who helped this happen.

Visitors from Canada

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Recently we have had a number of topics related to Canada (Ref. 1, 2) and I assume that this is partly because this year is the year of 80th anniversary of Japan-Canada relations and more exchanges/events are taking place than usual.

Ms. Olivia Chow, member of House of Commons of Canada came to my office at GRIPS with Mr. Christopher Burton, First Secretary (Political) at the Canadian Embassy.  Dr. Sunami and I have just returned from Toronto, so there were lots of topics to share.  The time just flew away.  Ms. Chow said that she and Prof. Ito Peng were colleagues.

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Photo: Ms. Chow, Mr. Burton, Dr. Sunami

You never know who is connected to whom.  And I tell you this is exciting. No matter where you are or whenever it is, you will be evaluated as an "individual" and will be connected to even more friends and colleagues.