Global Health Conference in Bangkok

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I flew to Bangkok on January 28th for the conference that is convened along with the Prince Mahidol Award (1) for Medicine and Public Health. One of the recipients this year was Dr. Akira Endo, whose research led to the development of statin drugs to treat high cholesterol. Dr. Endo has also been awarded the Japan Prize and Lasker Award. I had been unable to attend the award ceremony day and missed the opportunity to congratulate him.

The Prince Mahidol Award Conference (PMAC2015) followed the award ceremony day and this year’s topic was “Global Health Post-2015, Accelerating Equity”.  Our Member of the House of Councilors, Keizo Takemi spoke on universal health coverage, very rich in content and powerful in delivery.

On the second day, I was a panelist on the last panel of the conference, Plenary Panel 3 “Global Health Financing- What Lies Ahead?” along with Tim Evans of the World Bank, Mai Oanh Global of Vietnam, Health Sciences Senior Fellow Dean Jamison of UCSF and Ariel Pablos-Mendes of the Rockefeller Foundation, who was the moderator.

The discussion at the conference tended to center on ODA, WHO, the UN and World Bank. I pointed out the fact that although “global” is the key word, the discussion was still focused on the nation as the unit and being international as the framework, in this time of great change around the ‘global’ world. Similarly, though “innovation” is on everyone’s lips, how it is to be defined remains unclear. I touched upon the Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund, which is co-sponsored by Japanese companies, the Gates Foundation and the Japanese government and it was well received.

In the evening, I had dinner with the leading nephrologists in Thailand. Afterwards, I met with Dr. Sugimoto, Ms. Hayashi, with a few from JICA, was joined by people from JICA and later headed to the Red Sky rooftop bar at the Centara Grand Hotel, where the conference had been held.

I have visited Bangkok many times over the past twenty years, for the International Society of Nephrology and JICA related missions. Some things have changed in Bakgkok while others have remained the same, but all in all, it is full of vitality.

Davos World Economic Forum Meeting – My Message

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The annual World Economic Forum Meeting at Davos will begin tomorrow. I am not attending the meeting again this year and you can read my views in a recent article in the Japan Times.

Other interviewees are here.

The Japan Night is likely to be festive again. Anything could happen anywhere tomorrow but one thing that is certain is there is much to discuss regarding the fragile state of the world.

Abroad in the New Year

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Happy New Year.

I hope you had a wonderful new year celebration. It seemed very cold around Japan but we were lucky to have sunny weather in Tokyo.

It has been a while since I have written. I have been quite busy with many things.

I did not do anything particularly special but on the morning of the 6th, similar to last year, I gave a lecture to around forty graduate students, brought by Professor Takeuchi from Harvard Business School. This year turned out to be a very fun seminar too.

After the lecture, I returned home once and then headed to Haneda Airport and flew to Toronto. I arrived in Toronto in the afternoon and then went to dinner. It was cold outside and the wind was very strong. With the wind-chill factor, it was about -20°C.

The following day, I met with the Canadian nuclear power and electricity leaders as well as Professor Shinya Nagasaki who moved to McMaster University from the University of Tokyo. Afterwards, we had a round table discussion from noon with around twenty people in total. I found this style of discussion to be very productive.

Everyone was very frank and we had an open discussion on energy policies, the role and processes of nuclear power, the importance of trust and transparency, the reprocessing of spent fuel. The participants were not held back by the lines of politics, industry and bureaucracy and their input reflected constructive and well-thought out views. Canada’s nuclear power plants are concentrated in Ontario, where Toronto is. Although political differences exist between the provincial and national levels, I felt that I was able to observe the good aspects of Canada.

Later in the afternoon, I visited Havergal College, a prestigious girls’ school in the middle of Toronto. It was established 120 years ago by Francis Ridley Havergal, in order to provide high level education to bright, young women.

The following day, I attended the advisory meeting of the Gairdner Foundation. The meeting went on for approximately six hours and many members had sharply contrasting opinions, with some being quite outspoken. But the meeting bore fruit as the discussion went on.

The merits of these meetings are that they are very constructive. Furthermore, the differences in opinions and interpretations provide an insight into other areas to study and it was a very good learning experience. Though, the role of the Chair seems very tough…

In the evening I had dinner at the residence of the consulate general of Japan, Mr. Nakayama, whom I would like to thank.

I flew back to Tokyo the next day. During the trip, I was fortunate enough to meet many people.

The first few days of this year ended up being similar to last year.

Visits to the UK in October and November – 2

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more photos→　（1）（2）

After returning from London, I gave a speech at the international conference for the Red Cross in Fukushima, met with Peter Piot, and participated in many lectures. It was November before I knew it.

I participated in the World Dementia Council’s Legacy Event Japan for the entire program on both November 5th and 6th. On the 7th, the OECD-HGPI held an event that focused on the activities of private sector companies and NGOs.

I have written in my previous entry up to this point.

On November 10th, I flew to London again. This time it was for a board meeting for the GHIT fund. It was held at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, of which Peter Piot is the President. It is a prestigious university with a long tradition. Dr Piot is from Belgium, this reflects the strength of the UK, where people in the top positions are recruited regardless of nationality.

Similarly, Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England is Canadian. This has received much attention around the world and is likely to increase global trust in the institution.

On the evening of my arrival, we had dinner at Bocca Di Lupo. The Vice President of the Royal Society, and a friend of mine, Anthony Cheetman also attended the dinner.

The next day, after finishing the board meeting, I attended a public event by GHIT Fund hosted by the Embassy of Japan as well as a reception at the Embassy in the afternoon.

I gave the closing remarks. It required much thought, as it had to convey to the audience and hosts the main message of the event as well as the remarks of the panelists and speakers. I decided to focus on two past winners of the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize, the only award given by the Japanese government: Brian Greenwood (1), the keynote speaker of the event and first person to receive the award, and Peter Piot, who was the chairperson of the panel at the event and the second person to receive the award. Both of their partners also made an appearance afterwards and I was happy to see Mrs. Greenwood again after six years.

After this evening event at the Embassy, GHIT board members were invited to dinner at the Ambassador’s residence. I am grateful to Ambassador and Mrs Hayashi as well as the people of the Embassy for the entire evening events

The Poppy Installation at the Tower of London was on at the time and it was a shame that I was unable to go see it.

Visits to the UK in October and November – 1

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Over these past two months, I have had the opportunity to be involved with the UK on several occasions.

At the beginning of October, I served as a panelist at a conference held by Chatham House and the Japan Foundation.

Chatham House is a world-renowned British think tank. I have visited and worked with them many times.

Last year, Chatham House launched a five-year seminar series in cooperation with the Japan Foundation. This year was the second conference, entitled, “The Role of the Nation State in Addressing Global Challenges: Japan-UK Perspectives.” I was invited to be a speaker on the “Fukushima” panel held on the second day. The panel chair was Sir David Warren, who was the British Ambassador to Japan at the time of the 3.11 earthquake and tsunami in 2011. I was also asked to write an essay for the conference and will introduce it here on my blog when it has been published.

In mid-October, I was in London, my last trip there having been in April. It was for the third meeting of the World Dementia Council (WDC) . Similar to the first meeting, it was held in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. I briefly touched upon documents provided by the Japanese government in preparation for the WDC Legacy Event Japan, which will be held in Japan in November. However, since I am not the representative of Japan, I focused on participating in the discussion as an independent board member.

Also in London, I had the chance to meet up with a few young people, whom I have worked with in the past.

After returning to Japan, I met with the Senior Partner of BLP, Mr Paisner, who has participated in the IBA Tokyo twice. He was well received at the GRIPS Forum, with a turnout of around 200 students and faculty members.

Before I knew it, it was the end of October and I welcomed Professor Peter Piot, the Director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (this is only comprised of a graduate school) to give a lecture at the GHIT.

Thirty-eight years ago, he discovered Ebola in the Congo and was awarded the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize (it is the only award given by the Japanese government and I am the Chairperson of the prize committee). It was very busy, with over seventy organizations at the press conference, countless questions asked on Ebola and many other lectures to give.

In my spare time, I had the opportunity to meet with people from British companies in London and in Tokyo.

Legacy Event Japan: Dementia Summit in Japan

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The World Dementia Council (WDC) (1) was launched last year in the UK at the G8 Summit. Until now, the Council has met three times, in London, Paris and London, with the Legacy Event being held in London in June, in Ottawa in September and in Japan on November 5-7th.

As a Council member, I have had many roles, including giving a speech at the opening ceremony, as you can see from my website and my twitter, at the Lagacy Event Japan of November.

I was pleased that the first day was even more successful than I had anticipated, due to the strong will and leadersip of the UK government and the ongoing events that were held five times over the past six months in London, Paris and Ottawa, allowing members to share many experiences. The Japanese government and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, who were the hosts of the event this time around, were also very pleased.

On the second day, both Minister Shiozaki and Prime Minister Abe spoke at the event, pledging a strong, ministry-wide commitment to dealing with dementia. I had the pleasure of presenting Dennis Gillings, the WDC Special Envoy, who spoke via video message as he could not be present at the event. After opening remarks were given by Mark Walport, the Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK Prime Minister and an old friend of mine, as well as by the World Health Organization (WHO), the panel commenced.

The first two-days of the event in Tokyo were comprised not only of presentations and panels by experts but also by people with dementia themselves; thus, it was evaluated very highly by people in the field from the participating countries.

On the third day, there were government-organized events held in Tokyo, Nagoya and Kyoto. In Tokyo, one of the events was a TED Talk-style presentation, led by my Health and Global Policy Institute (HGPI), in cooperation with the OECD okyo office and ten private companies and NGOs that are independent from governments. The presentation included the topics of city planning and the potential use of robots. It was a huge success.

This kind of “social investment,” in which multi-talented people and stakeholders from different backgrounds actively come together, will play a key role for society in the decades to come.

The UK government has displayed a strong commitment to tackling this problem and the British Embassy held two other events in parallel to this Legacy Event, including a dementia workshop led by young people on the second day and a meeting of Japanese and British pharmaceutical companies and ventures on the third day, both of which I attended.

I am incredibly impressed by the will of the British government, as well as their imagination, strategy and implementation in dealing with dementia.

Two visits to JFK in September

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I have not posted very often in September and October. It is not that there was nothing to report, but I had many engagements that took up my time, such as lectures and conferences both in Japan and abroad.

On September 15th, I flew to JFK. From there, I headed to Philadelphia where I had a dinner. The next day I sat on a panel at a conference. After staying one more night, I left early in the morning to catch a flight back from JFK.

In the two days after this trip, I attended a couple of very important conferences in Tokyo and was able to finish them successfully. After spending the weekend at home, I headed to JFK once more on Monday, the 22nd.

This time, I went to NYC. I attended an educational session for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and a conference by the New York Academy of Sciences. This was held last year in San Francisco where I attended the conference as part of the Prime Minister of Malaysia’s advisory group. As this session was held during the United Nations General Assembly, the security in Manhattan was very tight and it was hard to get around.

On the evening of the 22nd, SONY CSL held its special annual event at MoMA for the first time. As I had some time, I attended the dinner. This big jump to MoMA must have required lots of practice from the participants. It is a wonderful idea.

The next evening, on the 23rd, I had dinner with Japanese doctors (1) who are conducting clinical residency training, which has become almost customary for my visits to NYC. There were also two medical students from Jichi Medical University who were there for two weeks of clinical clerkship. I enjoyed the dinner very much.

It is nice to be in New York in the autumn.

Teach For Japan: Celebrating 4 Years

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It has been already four years since the sweltering summer when Yusuke Matsuda was rushing around to get the Teach for Japan project off the ground. We had a small gathering to commemorate this occasion.

I have been a big fan and supporter of Mr Matsuda ever since I found him on Twitter and have always been championing his cause (newspaper article in Japanese).

The venue was not very big nor fancy, and was packed with people, people and more people, all of whom seemed to exude passion. Needless to say, I had been invited, and even made a congratulatory speech. My message, in short, was to explain that it is not the knowledge that is crammed inside your head that is important in life, but instead the intuitive understanding that is born only out of hands-on real experience. I also remarked that maturing as a human being meant that one needed the decisiveness that is required for decision-making.

And Matsuda’s life embodies these principles. After all, what is life but a development of the experiences we had in our childhood, as our curiosity-fueled hunger for information led to serendipitous revelations and firm commitments? It is useless to only think or ponder on this thought. I believe that everything essentially boils down to a mix of real-life experience, serendipitous meetings and bold decisions.

There was also some talk from the Fellow teachers, who related their own experiences at Teach For Japan program, of making the deliberate choice to act, and I can only applaud them. It brought tears to my eyes, as I was overcome with waves of emotion. Professor Seichiro Yonekura, who was sitting beside me, a great champion of innovation and was also a fervent supporter, was also struggling to contain his tears. After all, we human beings cannot stop these spontaneous tears of an outpouring of emotion.

I really wanted people all over Japan to hear them speak. We had three Fellows speaking, one of whom talked about his activities over the past year-and-half. As they talked, their passion was conveyed to us in their words, in the reality that lie behind their stories, and just as they inspired their students who are unfortunate in being made to live in less-privileged conditions, we too were inspired all evening long.

To these wonderful young people, I can only offer my thanks, and share their vision of a brighter future for Japan.

I also thank the school teachers who accepted and have been supporting these Fellows as they work to bring about a change.

Thank you, Mr. Matsuda, and I thank your friends.

And my dear readers, I ask you for your continued support of Teach For Japan!

Panel at Tokyo University with Charles Casto

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On October 9th, I was invited to speak on a panel entitled “Nuclear Energy; Post-3.11” at the Hongo campus of the University of Tokyo. The panel was moderated by Prof. Osamu Sakura of the University of Tokyo, with panelists, Kyle Cleveland of Temple University, Mr. Charles Casto, who is a long-time veteran in the field of nuclear power plant operation and regulation in the US, Mr. Tetsuro Fukuyama, who was the Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary at the time of the accident, Mr. Tatsujiro Suzuki, who represented Chair of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission during 3.11, and Mr. Yoichi Funabashi, the former editor-in-chief of the Asahi Shimbun and director of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident Private Independent Investigation Commission and myself.

The panelists had many opinions and we had a very engaging discussion. We had a large audience, including with NHK, National Broadcasting Station. When it came to the question and answer session, as it is often the case, many people gave their own views rather than asking questions. I had talked to the moderator, Prof. Sakura beforehand but perhaps this is the style of panel discussions in Japan.

Towards the end, we were joined by Mr. Hosono, who was a special advisor at the time of the accident (later Minister) and was the liaison between the US and Japanese governments and TEPCO.

I brought to the attention of the audience, the excellent 300 page report, “Crisis Management: A Qualitative Study of Extreme Event Leadership” by Mr. Casto, who wrote the report based on his experience during the Fukushima accident and now holds a PhD.

The panel discussion covered many topics but one of the major points was that “Japan was not in line with IAEA guidelines regarding the “defense in depth” standards for the evacuation of residents.” This is widely known by experts in Japan and around the world and it was pointed out that the necessary measures have yet to be put in place in many nuclear power plants in Japan.

What should be the next step? There is a tendency for many people to get bogged down by the details but I have focused on the fundamental issue. The National Diet of Japan Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission (NAIIC) not only covered the technical details of the accident but also the societal and structural issues in Japan, which served as the background to the Fukushima nuclear accident. Thus, I repeatedly explained that the accident was just the tip of the iceberg and that the fundamental problem lay in the governance structures in Japan, seen in the issues of regulatory capture and the separation of powers among the three branches of government.

The following day, I was delighted to receive an email from the simultaneous interpreter at the conference:

“Dear Mr. Kurokawa, thank you for the symposium yesterday. I am XX and did the interpreting at the symposium. What you said left a very strong impression on me as I was listening from my booth and it made me feel that there are many things we citizens must do as well. I would like to follow your work and look into these topics myself. I wish you all the best and would like to thank you again for yesterday.”

After I responded immediately, the interpreter wrote back:

“Thank you for your response. Since the symposium, I have been reading and listening to your work and I look forward hearing more from you in the future.”

It is wonderful that such exchanges can take place so easily via the internet.

Mr. Casto and I were on the same page about many things and the day before leaving Japan, he paid me a visit and we discussed many matters over a nice dinner together with some of my friends.

HPAIR 2014: Harvard Project for Asia and International Relations

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On Sunday August 24, the day after HLAB 2014 ended, I visited Keio University in Mita.

This was to attend HPAIR 2014, an event also planned by the Harvard University students.

The panel on this day addressed the innovative topic, “What are the ways in which Asia addressed its aging population and widening disparities in socioeconomic status?” as part of the panel on “Health and Public Policy”. Some of the students who planned the event knew about HLAB.

There were many world-renowned speakers who gave lectures at the event.

I was also a panelist of the closing day, of the Academic Plenary, “Risk Management in Asia” of the International Forum on Tuesday, August 26th (see photo). I felt very energized by the large audience of around five hundred students who participated. After the panel, many students asked questions and we had a good time discussing and taking pictures together.

The last time that this event was held in Japan was HPAIR 2005 and I had the opportunity to give a lecture at that time as well. Mr. Tsuchiya, who had been at HPAIR 2005 representing Harvard University and later went on to work at The World Economic Forum and has been active in developing stronger ties with Japan, was at the event this year and I was able to catch up with him. Time flies by very quickly.

During the five days from August 22 to 26th, through the HLAB 2014, AYDPO 2014 and HPAIR 2014 programs, I enjoyed spending time with young people who will lead the future of the world. It was great to have the chance to talk with them and be moved by them.

I send my support and encouragement to young people who will take off in the world.