From Seoul

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I came to Seoul on 13th.

I was invited to give a special lecture on August 14th in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Kidney Group at the Seoul National University (Ref.1)  Medical Research Center.  Such invitation must be accepted by all means.  This kind of gathering is very important.

This year happens to be the 100th year of Japan’s annexation of Korea.  14th being the last day of ‘Independence, Liberation’ in light of the Declaration of Surrender of Japan that took place in August 15th, 65 years ago,  Korean people celebrate August 15th annually as ‘Restoration of the Light Day’ (Gwangbokjeol) 

In my lecture on 14th, I included some comments about these two days (14th and 15th).  I also stressed especially, as always, the importance of human resource development which is the challenge of the global age, expressed further my views, introduced the works of Dr Gozo Sato (Ref.1) in the field of medical education in modern Korea, and concluded with some thoughts on our responsibilities as University Faculties.

I think my lecture was well accepted since many people told me that they were happy to have learned to see things in broader perspectives.  I was also fortunate enough to see several of my old friends.

So here I will post the text of my lecture and Power Points (part1 and part2) for your reference.  Please take a look.

NHK TV Broadcast: Global Health- Chatham House

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Recently I have posted a report on ‘From G8 to G20’ meeting on Global Health- Chatham House、London.

I also reported that NHK television crew joined us to cover this meeting.

The NHK made two sets of 30 minutes English programs ‘Asian Voices: Global Health’ based on interviews with the main participants of this meeting.

Dr. Shigeru Omi, former WHO member appears as a guest commentator in ‘Part 1’ and I appear in ‘Part 2’, both hosted by Ms Aiko Doden, who speaks very nice English.

This program will be broadcasted on Cable TV at overseas, but in Japan and elsewhere will appear On-line for several times.

Please check the Cable TV and On-line broadcast schedule （in Japanese） of ‘Part 1 and Part 2’.

‘Part 1’ comes in 6 series starting from 11:10 am, August 7th (Sat) through 7:10 am, August 8th (Sun).

‘Part 2’ consists of 5 series starting from 11:10 am, August 14th (Sat) through early morning; 5:10 am, August 15th (Sun).

I was actually a little nervous when the interview was done without any rehearsals so I imagine that there must be several places here and there that make me blush if I see the video clips (though I haven’t seen it, yet).  But after all, in the Global age, what matters in “English is ‘the content’, ‘to speak’ and not in the least ‘pronunciation’”.

I invite you all to see this program.

Take Leave of Absence from School: Human Resource Development of Web2.0 Era

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On July 31st, I was invited to give a special lecture at Annual Meeting of Japan Society for Medical Education (in Japanese) at Annual Meeting of Japan Society for Medical Education.  The title of my lecture was ‘Take Leave of Absence from School: Human Resource Development of Web2.0 Era’

Before my lecture Dr. Maxine Papadakis, Associate Dean of Student Affairs at UCSF delivered a special lecture.  I happen to have worked with her to write a chapter of ‘Fluids and Electrolytes Disorder’ in the book by Professor Lawrence Tierney ‘Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment’ (revised every year), the most selling book on medicine in practice for these 10 years.  She is also one of the Editors of the book.  We managed to have a small chat between our lectures.

Dr. Sakae Iwasaki, chair of my lecture, introduced me and said ‘What does this title mean?  I can’t wait to find it out’.

I am sure that many of the frequent visitors of my website will sense some idea from this title.

Here is the summary of my lecture (PDF file, in Japanese).  Do you see what I mean?   I know that some people seem to have really understood my points.

See-D Contest: Technologies Appropriate to Local Needs Will Save the World

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The ‘See-D’ which I introduced to you recently, was held at the Fukutake Hall of University of Tokyo on July 31st Saturday.  About 200 people participated, mainly young students, including those who by coincidence came across the event and decided to join.  Kopernick is one of the important supporters of this meeting..

This event is hosted by Ms. Riku and Mr. Tsuchiya (also members of MIT D-Lab, currently living in Boston), D-Lab Japan office, other organizations, and some students from Boston who are in Japan for their summer vacation.  These people are the main driving force for planning and carrying out this conference.

It is very important that such projects/actions are created, spread and encouraged for action, particularly by young people.

At the See-D conference room, twitter and Ustream（Ref.1) were displayed on the screen in real time.  Live program with East Timor through Skype enabled the audience to  communicate by writing some comment via Post-It to moderating staff.  The three people in East Timor responded in English and those comments were instantaneously summarized in Japanese and shown on the Screen; a kind and considerate service!  The report of this event is posted on the web site of See-D Japan  (in Japanese).

Those gathered are eager and enthusiastic in search for what they could do. Three panelists with overseas experiences through JICA programs shared their work and thoughts with us.  One of them was Mr Ide who now works at Sumitomo Chemicals and its mosquito net or BetNet in Tanzania. I met him first time last March year in my flight to Dubai, sitting next to each other and we met a few time since then.

I had an opportunity to further encourage them in my ending remarks.  Here again my focus was on ‘the importance of first hand experience' (Ref.1, 2)　and ‘advice to take leave of absence from school and go abroad’.  I think the event was very hot.  I had the same impression by browsing through the many tweets. 

Anyway, everybody was so lively and high spirited.  The conference fully utilized high-technologies, too.  It was truly a motivating, good, happy conference.  By the way, Mr. Miyoshi (in Japanese)  whom I have introduced in this site many times, currently working in Bangladesh, also joined via twitter.

After this meeting, I moved to join ‘Global Health Summer Course'  which we co-host with the University of Tokyo.  It was almost 7 pm, but everybody was still working hard to make policy recommendations, presentations, having discussions. Thanks to all participants and staffs.  Tomorrow, they will present their policy recommendations in the presence of several legislators.

University of Tokyo and Health Policy Institute Co-Organize ‘Global Health Policy Summer Program’

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Global Health is now a hot topic at the University of Tokyo.   In this context, our Health Policy Institute and the University of Tokyo co-organized‘Global Health Policy Summer Program 2010’ (in Japanese.  English version will be posted soon) with participation of about 30 very eager and movited students (including graduate students and those who are currently studying abroad).  I joined this event on the opening day, July 26th, and enjoyed mainly interactive dialogues for 90 min. The session was carried out half in English and half in Japanese.

Everyone spoke up actively which I think resulted in good exchange of views.  After my speech, Professor Kenji Shibuya, the host from the University of Tokyo, gave another session in English.

As always, I asked the participants to send me e-mails, which they responded, so I continue to hear and exchange views even after the event.  Through these correspondences I realized how each student are thinking hard in spite of all sorts of difficulties and uncertainties that they feel because of their strong interest to this topic.  I sincerely wish that their experience in this program will help each of them think about next steps, in whatever way possible, in the future.  I look forward to seeing what sort of policy recommendations they will come up with.

Fly and soar, you future leaders of the Global Health! 

Japan Wine Challenge Gala Dinner & Charity Auction

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I enjoy wines, not as any expert, in contrast to many of you and friends, thus have posted a few times such occasions when they are exceptional. There are also many gatherings for fund-raising charity I join sometimes with my friends.

Last week, I joined with my good friends, Japan Wine Challenge Gala Dinner & Charity Auction; this year’s charity is for the Tyler Foundation, which has been active in helping children with cancer.

I am not an expert of wine, but enjoy good wines as I posted a few times (Ref.1).

We joined around a table with 10 friends, and one wine expert to guide us. It so happens he knows well not only about wines, but also a very good friend of a couple who owns a wineyard in Baune, Bourgogne, where we stayed for three days in March.

Many surprises, old and new friends, and lots of fun conversations over many bottles of wines and a course dinner. Total money raised through auctions and lotteries came around 10,000,000 Yen, which goes to the Tylor Foundation..

We all had a good time. 

Kidney Center in Hanoi, 10th Anniversary

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In the morning of 9th, after the dialogue session with Mr. Toyama, I left for Hanoi.  This travel is to join the 10th anniversary of the Kidney Center which I helped its foundation with Dr Tang and Dr Ann  whom I have introduced to you last year. This plan is also an outcome of the effort by the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) for these 20 years of focusing its activities to the programs for developing countries

In 1990 the ISN meeting was held in Tokyo.  I have been leading the ISN activities as a committee and executive member and later as the President (1997-99) of the ISN, so I was naturally involved in COMGAN  program in reaching developing countries since its very beginning, and have traveled to Asia and many other parts of the world.  Through various activities such as COMGAN, ISN has succeeded in constructing the networks of people throughout the world for 15 years including kidney specialists in many developing countries of the world.  We celebrated the 50th anniversary of ISN last month although I had to be excused because of other responsibilities elsewhere.

Through more than 20 years of work at Asian Pacific Congress of Nephrology (Ref.1) and other activities, I have expanded my networks with many kidney specialists, medical leaders and scientists in Asia Pacific including Dr Tang and his colleagues,  visited Hanoi and Ho Chi Ming City (former Saigon) a few times, and about 15 years ago we started to make plans for Kidney Center.  The hospitals and clinics then were in terrible conditions that one may hardly imagine.

The Kidney Center is located within the hospital of Ministry of Transportation.  It is an outcome of what we would call today the ‘Public Private Partnership’ between the government of Vietnam and a few corporations of Japan.  Japanese companies did not necessarily pursue　profits, but brought about a big success in creating jobs and enhancing the growth of local businesses.   I attended their 5th anniversary, and now we are celebrating the 10th.  We had a great exciting ceremony with large number of participants.

The accommodation at Hanoi was Intercontinental Hotel. I highly recommend to try this nice elegant hotel which stands by the lake if you have a chance to visit here.

On 11th, I moved to Ho Chi Ming City. Here, everything is much more ‘developed’ compared to Hanoi and was filled with completely different energy.  I enjoyed dinner with my friends here at Cham Charm.  I do not hesitate to recommend this restaurant to you also.

At any rate, every city is filled with motorbikes.  I even saw a whole family riding on one bike. So energetic!

The return flight from Ho Chi Ming City was in the midnight of 11th, so I was able to hear the news of the overall result of the election of the Upper of Japan.  I regret having had to miss watching the World Cup final game…. I congratulate Spain for the victory.

At Chatham House: From G8 to G20, Issues on Health and Development

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Photos by the courtesy of NHK Asian Voice and HPI-Japan

Chatham House in London is more formally known as The Royal Institute of International Affairs, one of the world’s top Think Tanks on international issues, a place for debates, famous also for the rule often referred to as the ‘Chatham House Rule’

This Chatham House, CSIS, an American Think Tank in Washington DC (Ref.1), and  our Health Policy Institute Japan have spent about a year preparing for this meeting at the Chatham House which was held on June 30.  The meeting was scheduled at the timing of the G8 Summit in Canada that took place a few days earlier, and the theme of the meeting was ‘Global Health: What’s next for the G20? Investing in health and development’.

Its agenda, panel speakers, and sponsors were all superb.  I understand that the total number of participants was around 200.  Dr. Shigeru Omi (in Japanese), former regional director of WHO Western Pacific Regional Office, represented the government of Japan.  Also, some Japanese officials in London were present including Minister Oka of Japan Embassy, from JETRO, and NHK crew came to report this meeting.  I would like to extend my sincere thanks to them all.

Now and in the future, such process of independent Think Tanks or other non-governmental institutions hosting and organizing conferences to set global agendas to lead discussions that in the end can come up with some overall understandings or agreements is and will be extremely important.  Organizing and participating in such conferences have been a very good experience to us, too.  I myself was honored to have a role of listening to the discussions of the day and wrapping them up in the closing.  We also tried to make clear what we could do with the outcomes of this meeting, or what our next steps could be.

These things are easy to say, but actually to reach to this point was truly a tough task. I did write several postings on this process in this site (Ref.1, 2, 3) in addition to the reports which are posted on the web site of the Health Policy Institute, Japan.  Most importantly, we must understand that in the global world, building ‘personal’ credibility/trusts’ amongst ‘colleagues of the world’ is the basis of everything. 

It seems to me that one of the fundamental problems of Japan lies in the conventional attitude of the majority of the Japanese people who think that those global issues must be handled by ministries in charge, i.e. government offices or bureaucrats, or big companies if talking about industry.  In other words, our society is not yet mature enough as the ‘Civil Society’ – at least in my view.

So, let us all together nurture as many human resources and capitals as possible who are capable of taking actions based on the deep understanding of the importance of actions by independent individuals who do not necessarily rely on ‘governmental authorities’, as well as the importance of development of mutual trusts in individual levels, particularly in this ‘global’ and ‘flat’ world.

Commentary and Other Publication Relating to Harvard University

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This year, I was invited twice ? in January  and May (Ref.1) – to participate in the activities of Harvard University.

No publication was issued of the meeting of January, but for the meeting in May  a report for the participants only was prepared under the Chatham House Rule.  One of the participants, Mr. Kurihara wrote in his Gazette (in Japanese) that he ‘laughed many times during Professor Kurokawa’s talk’ (p.3 left column) which I take as ‘honor and pleasure’.

Since the report includes a short description of that part, I will quote it below.

Session 2: Biotech Models for Development
、、、、
‘Panelist Kiyoshi Kurokawa, Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Japan, addressed the issue of biotechnology by first delineating some key issues related to its development ? globalization, food and water, environment, and biodiversity ? and then discussing some of the challenges facing countries interested in advancing biotech. Citing Ghana and Botswana as examples, Kurokawa argued that developing countries have little need for the newest and most scientifically intricate technologies, like genetic recombination. Rather, they need simple technologies that can be used to improve the quality of life for local people.

Kurokawa advocated the deployment of existing technology to address the most severe of world crises, like food and water shortage. Such use of technology could also result in bottom-up growth and benefit social entrepreneurs. Again emphasizing the local, Kurokawa further argued that biotech enterprises should also consider how “indigenous knowledge” might propel new developments in biotechnology. Local remedies, like the use of bark to treat malaria in China or of aspirin, have the potential to help biotechnology better address the “big needs” of the world today.’
、、、、、、
‘In the discussion that followed, Kurokawa re-emphasized his position that while frontier science contributes important discoveries, these discoveries should be shared and there should be a collective effort to apply new advancements to the betterment of the human condition.’

Another publication is a Commentary which I co-authored with my colleague Dr. William Saito for ‘Harvard Asia Quarterly’  published by Harvard Asia Center.  Its title and summary are as below.

Global Climate Change:
The Interconnection with Medical Technology and Health Care
Medicine, along with culture and technology, can both cause and resolve the problem of climate change. Medicine has helped reduce infant mortality and increase longevity, thus contributing to overpopulation which results in excessive pollution and resource consumption. But it can also help solve these problems by providing better forms of contraception and education.

The full text  is about 7,000 words which is a bit long, but if you could spare time to read it, I would be very grateful for comments and suggestions.

New York City; Wonderful Season, Great Discussions, Reunions With Young Physicians

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After 14 hours’ flight from Seoul, I arrived at JFK Airport.  The weather looked great from above few clouds but it was also a delight to feel the refreshing dry air as I stepped down the steps from the aircraft.  This is clearly the best season of the year in New York.

I headed to Le Meridian located in the Mid-Town Manhattan , the venue of the President’s Council (Ref.1 ) of the University of Tokyo.  You may remember some of my previous postings on this Council.  It was originally founded by former President Dr. Komiyama, is now succeeded by President Hamada.  Last meeting  was held at the Komaba Campus of Todai, which included an initiatives, two separate seminars by two Council members, Bill Emmott-san and by Victor KK Fung-san.

After checking in to the hotel and taking a short rest, I spent a wonderful afternoon in the fresh leaves and soft breeze walking for about an hour in the Central Park 　(Ref.1,2) to MOMA  (it was a pity that the museum was closed because it was Monday), and through the Madison Avenue.

In the evening, a reception was held with the local Todai alumni association joining in (article on this is uploaded in the University archive of June 8th ), and the number of people turned out to be quite large.  I was happy to see several old friends whom I had not seen for a long time and of course was glad to be introduced to many new friends.

On the next day, the President’s Council meeting opened welcoming the members including professors Princess Chulabhorn Mahidol of Thailand, Vartan Gregorian, Rita Colwell, Kari O Raivio, Michael Y Yoshino of Harvard, P Laudichina-san of AT Kearney, Yoshi Yokoyama-san, the former director of McKinsay & Company Inc of Tokyo.

Special guest of this meeting was Dr Rebecca Chopp (Ref.1,2) the President of Swarthmore College.  Main theme was ‘Liberal Arts’ education.  I will write on this further in a separate posting.

In the evening I enjoyed having dinner with young Japanese physicians, some in  medical residency at a medical center in NYC, and their OBs/OGs.  We had nice heated discussions on a variety of topics.  It is my firm belief that to nurture as much as possible those kinds of talents, to encourage more young people to work in broader fields outside of Japan, is so crucially important not only for Japan’s tomorrow but also for Japan to be trusted by other nations of the more and more interconnected world.  To let young people in Japan know about those young (Japanese) people studying and working at overseas, to show them good role models that they can look up to as their short-term future choices, is a very important element in the education of and nurturing young Japanese potentials that are well capable of working in dynamic global world.