Doha, Qatar -2: Global Redesign Summit and Madame Sadako Ogata, President of JICA

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The purpose of this visit to Doha is to attend the ‘Global Redesign Summit’.  Programs and other information are posted on the web, but at this meeting all documents and reports abide the ‘Chatham House Rule’, a style that do not disclose the identity of the speakers, and its exceptions are very limited.  Therefore, we need to obtain consent from the host of the conference and the speakers in order to reveal who said what, even in a blog like this.

The intention of the agenda of this Summit as I understand is to pick up issues from the discussions of the past ‘Global Agenda Councils’(Ref.1, 2), focus, have them further discussed at this Summit and carry the results perhaps to the next Davos Meeting in January using them as the basis of discussions at panels and other programs so that some kind of global actions may arise.

As usual, the programs were divided into several themes in which I found one interesting session titled ‘Oceans’, an unusual theme.  ‘Oceans’ has been one of my interest for a while, and since the content looked attractive, I decided to join.

I had an impression that participants were carefully chosen and invited (though many naturally could not come due to other obligations) for this Summit, with members of the ‘Global Agenda Council’ as the core.

Since I have been helping the work of the World Bank on Development (Ref.1) for 2 years as a ‘volunteer’, I joined mainly in the sessions related to ‘Development’.  Committee members presented each point in about 5 minutes to express their views from their own standpoints to set issues for the discussions that followed.  The number of participants was about 50 or at most, 100 in each session, so it was a comfortable size to exchange views and discuss.

In such meetings, you are given opportunities to listen to many experts that make very good points, hear different views, observe the way good discussions are conducted, and hear the views of many leaders of the fields.  Also, you learn how to express your view within a limited time frame, how to lead discussions, expand the scope, or to introduce new viewpoints.  I always learn a lot from this sort of events.
 
As I have reported to you in my past columns, President of JICA, Madame Sadako Ogata is a wonderful speaker and one of the true leaders of the world.  Each word of her comments is very clearly understood by other participants, appreciated – and by the way she was invited to appear in 4 panels including the closing Plenary Panel.   This extraordinary talent and insights that Madame Ogata embraces is quite visible and valued at the annual main Davos meeting, also.  Such an extraordinary character is found in a very few people even by the global standard.  The last panel 'A Framework for the Future' was conducted by a male host, two male panelists and 4 female panelists.  The president of Finland (female, was a minister of foreign affairs for 5 years, has been the president for 9 years, originally was an activists at NGO.) commented on this fact at her closing remarks.  Such structure of participants would be hard to imagine at comparable panels in Japan.

I was fortunate enough to spend quite a time with Dr. Sadako Ogata, and was impressed to know her broad networks of people including many (former) heads of the states of so many nations.  She has been in touch with them personally for 10-20 years.  This is quite extraordinary and therefore a proof how people appreciate and trust her.  She is truly the pride of Japan.  Ogata-san visited Kabul, Afghanistan, a few months ago, and will head for Egypt after this meeting; she is practically hopping around the world. She does not appear this Summit as President of JICA, but as an individual, thus she came here alone, no staff, even at her age and the position. What a remarkable and honorable lady she is.

Participants from Korea (staff members from the Blue House- I am acquainted with several young staff such as G20 Sherpa Ahn Ho-Young (Ref.1) and Professor of Political Science, Moon Chung-in ), China representatives from political arena and academics impressed us with their clear and relevant comments at a Plenary as well as their skilful handling of the questions and answers that followed.
 
I urge Japanese youths to participate more aggressively in such ‘opportunities’; to learn how to discuss and ask questions at panels and follow good examples.  Try, fail, learn, and grow.  Gradually you will get used to being in such ‘places’.  By all means, take every opportunity to be at such events.  Failing to do so will result in even more low presence of the Japanese.  Besides, it is also an excellent chance for your global network building.

 

Geniuses and Super-Talents of the SONY Computer Science Laboratory

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I went to the ‘Open House 2010’ of ‘SONY Computer Science Laboratory (CSL)’  known as ‘Sony’s magic lab ? a place where geniuses and super-talents pop up’.

After the presentations of very interesting fijndings by both Sakurada-san and Rekimoto-san, Kitano-san and Tokoro-san joined to host a panel with these two.  Being requested to make comments, I asked what they thought about recent reports of ‘Craig Venter having succeeded in making artificial life in laboratory’ in relation to their (Sakurada san’s and Rekimoto san’s) research themes.  After all what Venter accomplished is truly ‘extraordinary’ and ‘outrageous’.

Next was unique presentations by young researchers.  Hasegawa-san at Tomato (London) proposing ‘Process Design’, Tobita san in Comic Computing, and Owada san known for ‘Toirel, Moe (Toilet, Sprout); are all very ‘strange’, ‘Otaku-fu (somewhat Nerd or geek)’ but definitely have some big energy.  At a panel after their presentations, Kenichiro Mogi-san tried hard in various ways to provoke them, but these three wouldn’t be provoked so easily, which was in a way surprising.

In the end, Kansai Yamamoto-san sitting at the front row of the room boosted all by saying “Maybe the key is to keep on going, being ‘strange’…..”  and I very much agree.

Kitano san, the Director himself, is quite a character who was awarded the ‘Mentor Award’ https://kiyoshikurokawa.com/en/2009/12/mentor-award-of-nature-the-crazy-ones.html of the Nature magazine by his motto ‘The Crazy Ones’ though he never have worked in Japanese Universities.

I think that you must be a ‘misfit’, ‘out of box’, to develop a new field, new idea, produce outcomes big enough to change old dogma or to pursue something with energy strong enough to change the society.  It has always been so in history.

This is the entrepreneur mind, the father of innovation, and the idea or value lying at the base of the activities of GEW (Ref.1), TEDxTokyo, and D-Lab.

SONY CSL‘Demonstration’ was scheduled 2 days after, but to my regret I have to miss it.

I spent a great, satisfying half day at the Open House 2010 of SONY CSL.

Japan, UK, US, Korea ? Cancer Clinical Trials International Symposium

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On May 25th, in a very pleasant weather, Japan, UK, US and Korea held an international symposium on cancer clinical trials at the British Embassy. At the opening, British Ambassador H.E. Warren, American Ambassador H.E. Roos (see May 27th article of ‘News from the Embassy’, the web site of the American Embassy in Japan), and Minister Hwang, Soon-Taik of Korean Embassy gave speech.  I made remarks as the Chairman of Health Policy Institute of Japan followed by Dr. Agnes Chan  who closed the ceremony as the Goodwill Ambassador of Japan Cancer Society.

Regarding clinical trials, trilateral conference (ICH: International Conference on Harnomization） continued for 20 years. In these years Japan tried to respond to the constant requests by US and Europe to speed up its work, and until just recently the problem of ‘Drug Lag’ was also being called to attention within Japan.
 
Nowadays, world affairs are changing rapidly with increasing participation of Asia and fast growing markets as the background.  FDA of the United States has been sending their staff to China and India for many years to provide training and education so as to make common bases for clinical trials or the common system of approval of new drugs in these emerging markets. This is precisely what I call a strategic action and thinking based on good visions.  Europe is also speeding its participation, and all are working restlessly to become the ‘core of Asia’.

Korea’s rapid change was again clear from their presentation at this conference.   UK, US, and Korea sent their specialists and Japanese participants included President of PMDA and Ministry of Health.  I understand that Japanese government has launched a growth strategy, ‘Life Innovation’, and I am curious to know what sort of strategic policies they would craft.

The programs, participants, references, and reports of the symposium and action plans recommendation to our government and other stakeholders will be uploaded on the web site of ‘Health Policy Institute, Japan’, so I will report to you once they are available.

2010 TEDxTokyo; A Very Exciting Day

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Click here for Photos.

On May 15th, TEDxTokyo 2010, the 2nd event following the TEDxTokyo in 2009 which I introduced to you last year opened at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Rinkai Fukutoshin (Water Front City), Tokyo.

Beautiful month of May sunshine, fresh sea breeze, stylish venue, nice entrepreneurial action-oriented people…..

This is an event aiming to nurture ‘Shinsyu no Kisyo (entrepreneurship)’ and promote vibrant movements to bring up ‘Deru Kui (Nails that Stick Out)’ (Ref.1, 2)   through a variety of activities with TEDxTokyo as one of the ‘Main’ event.  The TED main headquarter, the host, and many people worked hard together to organize various related events and programs for these couple of years.

The activities of TED is spreading rapidly throughout the world and focusing more on youth in recent years.

Details of the programs, speakers and wonderful performers are at TEDxTokyo2010, but the point is that this is a global On-line Live event and is expanding worldwide in an enormous speed via various media such as blog, twitter, YouTube.

The great ukulele player Jake Shimabukuro (YouTube here), Ms. Kanae Doi of the Human Right Watch and many, many more people shared lots of excitements, moving experiences, laughter, tears, and ‘thrills’.  It was definitely a very refreshing, good day – even better than the wonderful weather we had.

And, of course, we must not forget that this event was made possible by the wonderful works of Todd, Patrick and other organizers, about 100 volunteers, as well as the help and support from many partners and people involved.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart for this truly wonderful one day event.

By the way, one ‘Telsa’ (Red), the hot topic, was brought here for test rides (Cool !), but to my great disappointment, I have totally forgotten about it!  Hummmmmm…

A New Program of Canada

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On May 3rd, the Canadian government announced the launch of the new 5 year ‘Global Challenges Canada’ program. 

While this program collaborates with the ‘Grand Challenge Explorations’ program of the Gates Foundation, its major objective is to have Canadian researchers (though not limited) contribute to the improvement of poverty, health, public health, health care of the developing countries that participate in this program.

The program is limited to 5 years but it is an approach to construct a ‘Win-Win’ relationship with the developing countries through new form of scientific technology diplomacy. With and through the outcomes of this program, Canada is apparently trying to strengthen its presence in international agenda.

I am supporting this program as a member of the scientific advisory board,  but in Japan also, I am happy to report that cooperation with the World Bank will possibly be enhanced, Japan’s ongoing aids to African countries were recognized and approved, JICA and JST are continuing its collaborations in a number of projects.

Promoting multi dimensional effort toward MDG and other goals to fulfill the different needs of the developing countries ? from the poorest to the fairly developed ? together with many ongoing bilateral cooperation or multi nation organizations such as the World Bank is very helpful for the good of human security and the realization of MDG.

Also, it will be important than ever before to collaborate with other nations, and exchange information.

There are still many, many things that Japan can do to help solve the problems of the world.

Think for yourself what each one of you can do to contribute. The point is how you see “the world from Japan and Japan from the world”.

‘Asia Vision 21’; by Harvard and NUS, From Singapore

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On April 29th and 30th、‘Asia Vision 21’ was held under the auspices of National University of Singapore Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy and Harvard University Ash Center.  I have been invited by the Ash Center for several years to attend this Program, but had been unable to until this year.  I am to join the panel on Biotech.

Dean of Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy (Ref.1) , Dr. Kishore Mahbubani, is widely known by his books.  Dr. Mahbubani has been quite visible these years around the world, has been a diplomat for many years, and his discerning wisdom is great.  I have introduced him to you in my blog postings (Ref.1) several times in the past.

Participants from Harvard were also very interesting, including the well known Professors Ezra Vogel, and Arthur Kleinman, Director of Asia Center.   I was with Dr. Kleinman this January during my visit to Boston and we enjoyed a rounds of Martini.  I might add that I was quite filled up then.

The two days session was a very stimulating opportunity, particularly to me to learn much about Asian politics and economy in global world since there were so many experts and first class debaters of this field.  I also made new friends, which is one of the many reasons why attending this sort of meetings is such a pleasure and eye-opening.

I slightly regret to have to say that I can not introduce you in full about the speakers and participants since the host maintains a policy not to post the record of this meeting even on web..

I was at the Breakout Session ‘Flashpoints in Asia’ on the 2nd day where there were about 10 participants. The Co-Chairs of the session Professors Astrid Tuminez,  and Huang Jing, both at NUS, were superb as moderators as well as depth of knowledge and thoughts-provoking comments and questions. Various views, insightful observations by expert participants were full of valuable lessons, and I was quite stimulated.  Harvard University is of course a great source of talents, but the National University of Singapore is also attracting wonderful faculties creating quite a vibrant atmosphere of ‘pulling power’..

Immersed Deep in Debt, Japan At The Brink of Default?

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In the world, especially in the ‘developed countries’, government spending is soaring up high while economy recovery is still slow (although not as slow as Japan…)  so the increase of national debt is now being a deep concern to many government leaders. 

At EU, Greece fell into insolvency, Spain and Portugal may also become excess debts and the value of Euro is facing crisis.

Economy in Japan still continues to be in bad shape.  Japan has seen hardly any significant GDP growth for these 20 years.  National budget this year consists of more government-bonds than tax revenue, and policies they come up with only demands more public spending.  Japan’s total debt (mostly government bonds) is now close to 200% of its GDP.

Nonetheless, I don’t see any self control in Japan in the way they issue national bonds, and compared to other nations Japanese experts, academics and media are being too diffident in expressing concerns on the national debt of our country.  Could it be because the volume of the dept is too huge (200% of GDP)?  I feel that it looks almost like a ‘drug addiction’ symptom.  On top of that, aging of our population is accelerating making it almost impossible to pay off the debt. The younger generation must be feeling, though vague maybe, more and more insecure and depressed.  I must say that our generation is so very irresponsible.

So-called ‘experts’ of ‘Japan Inc’ used to say until a few years ago that since Japanese people have about 1400 trillion yen in savings etc., there is really no over-debt or even possible default in Japan.  But don’t you feel that such kind of commentaries and voices have not been heard in these days?  Why is this?

In late January this year, the Standard and Poor’s (by the way, it appears to have made some illegal moves again in the ratings of financial institutions in relation to the recent Goldman-Sacks incidence….) lowered the credit of Japan by one rank.  Japanese media stangely reported this only a bit,  which is a mystery to me since this is such a big problem.

Come to think of it, the last time they lowered the rank of Japan (was it May, 2002?) the whole ‘Japan Inc’, made a big fuss out of this down-grading, media reporting on this sensationally, ministry of finance sending letter and advertisements of protests even to foreign media.  For example see this article. Do you remember?  It was very different from what we are seeing now.  Have you thought about the reason why it is so?

So, what is the current status of Japan exactly?  It seems obvious that paying back of debt (200% of GDP) of Japan is already impossible.  So the credit of this nation will inevitably deteriorate, growth in economy is hardly possible…..  Next fiscal year I see no other choice for Japan than to ask other countries to buy significant portion of our national bonds since domestic demand will not cover the whole amount (though having sold them almost entirely domestically was not normal in the first place, generally speaking.)  If this happens, then the interest rate would go up to at least about 4-5%, repaying back of the debt would be even more difficult, government debt would go skyrocket high, inflation will follow; the life of people will be more and more painful.

Japanese politics is miserable today.  ‘The Iron Triangle of Policymakers, Industry, and Government’ (‘Japan Inc’) that has dominated this country for a long time proved itself to be awfully incompetent.  It is not hard to guess what the ‘elites’ at the government and/or ministry of finance are thinking.  They are hardly likely to take responsibility to themselves, they would blame the cabinet (policy makers) for its poor work.  I can see the scenario in which the people of Japan, especially the younger generation, are forced to fall into poverty.  It is such a mess.  I think I can even foresee the steps those ‘elites’ are likely to take in the future.

Recently, Minister of Post System, Kamei raised the maximum amount of Yubin Chokin (savings at the Japan Post Office) to 20 million yen.   Isn’t this strange?  We can even interpret this as some kind of apparent conspiracy of trying to sell national bonds of next year within Japanese market only.  So is this again that same old ‘putting off of the problems’, ‘conspiracy’?  Is this their strategy to survive another one year without raising the interest rate and not causing inflation?  The decision was announced too suddenly which adds to the strangeness.   But, having this done, it is yet quite doubtful the budget of the next year (year 2011) can become toward recovery path.

In the end, the interest rate of Japanese government bond will rise, amount of repayment of the debt will increase, Japan Yen will go down, and hyper-inflation will take place.  Can you see how awful this would be?

With the election of the Upper House ahead, policy makers can not bring up the issue of raising sales tax, can not act to bring drastic changes to the government, can not decide… and the same goes with the government, media, and academics, too.  Even media seems reluctant to send out messages broadly on such a bad and painful issue; I am not sure whether they are being controlled by the government or worrying about the advertisement fees that established companies pay to them.

At any rate, after the economy bubbles burst in Japan in 1990, the interest rate sank to extreme in around 1998, causing a large bulk of our savings to flow overseas, and it is highly likely that those money worked in part as a trigger of the ‘sub prime’.  I suspect that after the sub prime burst the bubbles in the world, our savings will never come back.

Economy in Japan is very much in danger zone now (Ref.1,2). Political leadership have been unable to raise taxes because of coming election, large companies seem unable of doing good job in selecting and focusing.  They are still reluctant to offer key executive positions to non-Japanese or women so there is not much hope ahead.  It’s OK to discuss ‘this and that’, but what matters is action.  Mega companies are also low in spirit and seem to be thinking only about ‘inside’ factors.  I truly feel the necessity of more and more aggressive, positive management such as ‘M&A’.

Internationally speaking, reputation of Japan has dropped sharply, and I even sense the air of ‘not wanting to get involved with’ feelings sneaking into the minds of people outside of Japan.  ‘Weak’ is not the correct word to describe Japanese economy of today, rather it is ‘paralysed’.

I have cited articles from ‘The Economist’ again in this posting as I have done in many of my other columns. The reason for doing so is given in my column of February 15, ‘Toyota’s Problems and Sufferings: Eyes to See From Outside, Hearts to Sense Outside’ .

 

‘Let Us Take Leave of Absence From School　-3：　‘Todai Students Won’t Go Abroad to Study’

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Starting from April, I have written two columns in a row stressing the importance of ‘Taking Leave of Absence From School’(Ref.1), and how expectation has changed for higher education that is responsible for nurturing future human assets to address the issues of the new global age.

For example, if you wanted to spread your business to the world it would not be easy even to approach to the right place if you do not have personal contacts especially in the emerging new economic sphere of new developing countries.

It is during their high school or university years when youth cultivate their personal contacts.  ‘Boarding schools’ or undergraduate years in England and the U.S. are also included in this time range.  Since Graduate University career are the places where people in the similar field gather and compete, horizontal connections are weaker than undergraduate schools but I understand that number of Japanese students going overseas for graduate school education are also decreasing in recent years…

In the coming global age, ‘horizontal connections’ will expand to become world wide networks that are beyond fields or country borders.  Because of this recognition, many leading universities abroad are trying to increase the number of undergraduate students going abroad for study or experience, as well as encouraging mutual exchange to educate the youth of the world, the future leaders.

The globalization of the world is speeding up, and therefore human networks of next generation, future partners, structured upon ‘personal credit/trust’ ‘beyond profession or organization’ will naturally become a very valuable asset for each and every youth and each nation.
 
Growth in global world depends on the activities of enterprises that recognize its strengths and weaknesses, applying ‘customer comes first’ policy beyond borders.  Especially in a hierarchical society like Japan where ‘Miuchi Shakai (organization where people have a strong sense of belonging)’of men based on systems such as ‘single track career’, ‘lifetime employment’, or ‘seniority based promotion’, it would be difficult for anyone to express different views, and therefore many things do not run smoothly in times of change or crisis as today’s world  This exactly is the weakness that is found throughout many Japanese mega companies or organizations.  In addition, in most cases workers, particulary executives levels. are all Japanese (and mostly male) and this makes the problem even worse.  People may talk about diversity or difference, but the actual status quo is what I have described above.

Just recently I have written about ‘Toyota Problems; Are They Unique to Toyota?’ where I pointed out these same elements of weakness as possible backgrounds.

By the way, while I assume that the University of Tokyo (called as ‘Todai’), as the top university of Japan, is expected to play a role as the driving force for change, Ms Atsuko Tsuji, an editorial writer of the Asahi Shinbun whose comments are always right at the point, posted a column sharing this same view (full text, summary) with me  on April 19th, a week after the welcoming ceremony of the newcomers of the University of Tokyo.

It goes like this.

“●Todai Students Won’t Go Abroad for Study ? ‘Window’ From Editorial Writers’ Office – <Atsuko Tsuji>

●‘Japanese youth do not seek to go abroad’.  People said so for many years.  This tendency seems especially true for the students at the University of Tokyo.

●According to the data of Todai, the proportion of students who have experienced studying abroad is 4.6% in science major and 4.1% in humanities major.  Other universities’ average, on the other hand, is 8.1% and 14% respectively, the difference is more prominent in humanities majors.

●President Junichi Hamada commented that ‘It is partly because the students are too packed with their courses’, but it is also true that more than 70% of them admit that they do not have ‘ability to communicate in foreign languages’.  This reality must be quite a headache for Todai that lists ‘Internationalization’ as one of their top priorities.

●Mr. Benjamin Tobacman studied at Todai for one and a half year after graduating Harvard University.  He also points out that ‘More Todai students should go abroad for study’ but reason for his saying so is not just numbers.

●Tobacman published a book ‘Culture Shock; Harvard vs Todai’ (In Japanese.  Original title; Culture Shock; Harvard VS Todai.  Published by Daigaku Kyouiku Shuppan) in which he compares the education of these two universities based on his own experience.  He says that at Harvard, professors teach students to think by themselves by asking them questions, but at Todai, professors teach students by giving them answers.  This is no way to nurture students that are capable of thinking by themselves.

●Todai, of course, have professors who welcome questions from the students but most of them know the value of discussions between professors and students on equal basis because they themselves have studied abroad.  If more Todai students go to universities abroad, come back to Todai and teach, then students will be given more chances to think by themselves and therefore have higher motivation for studying.

● Perhaps this problem is not just about students or Todai.”

I hear that President Hamada is keen in promoting international exchange between undergraduate students.  Let’s expect Action!

Some time ago, I invited Mr. Tobacman to see me at my office just after he has published his book.  He told me that he was planning to go to China.  I wonder where he is now-still in China?

‘Science, Technologies and Innovation for Development’ of the World Bank and Japan; A Chance for Win-win Collaboration But….

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On April 16th, I left Kyoto ‘ISN Nexus’ early in the morning to join the 10am meeting on ‘Science, Technologies and Innovation for Development’ with Mr. Al Watkins and his colleagues of the World Bank at the World Bank Tokyo Office.

I have been involved in this World Bank project since January 2008 which connected us to other ‘places’ such as  TICAD4 in Yokohama,  Toyako G8 Summit, and G8 Science Advisors’ Conferences (Ref.1,2),  moving us forward to ‘vertical and horizontal’ domains..

I have been to Washington DC to give speeches at the World Bank twice since January 2008 (April, 2009 (Ref.1)  andDecember 2009) and participated also in the discussions and workshops.

Details of these 3 meetings can be seen also at the web site ‘Science, Technology, and Innovation’ of the World Bank.

January, 2008 (Presentation)

April, 2009 (Meeting)

December, 2009 (Forum)

As you can see, the web site of the World Bank is getting better also.

In the meanwhile, Japanese science and technology policies are developing nicely, too.  ‘Building bridge of Japan-Africa’ under the ‘Science and Technology Diplomacy’ policy is one example of such efforts.  I think this is very good since the world is changing fast, too.

Bilateral supports (ODA) and supports through multi-national organizations such as the World Bank face a big challenge in adjustments and collaboration – how they adjust and cooperate with each other.

One of the goals of this year’s meeting was to find ways to match the policies of the World Bank and the government of Japan through such process.   I think our meeting was quite worthwhile, but challenging, and Mr. Iwase, Vice-Minister for Policy Coordination (he also participated in the World Bank Forum last December), Mr. Goto of JICA, and many delegates from ministries in charge were present.  You might be interested to know that the ODA policies of Japan are being highly evaluated by the World Bank.  It is truly something very wonderful.  I think we should let people in Japan as well as the world know more about goods things Japanese government does..

It is a well known fact, on the other hand, that Japanese staffs in World Bank are too few in comparison to the proportion of funds Japan contributes to the World Bank.  However, I heard that about 400 Japanese people applied recently to the 4 or 5 posts offered for Japan.  It is a good trend.  I would like to see more Japanese people participating actively not only in such opportunities but in general; at ‘outside’ of Japanese establishments and at various ‘International Organizations’.  It is not only for their own careers’ sake for many Japanese, but also for the sake of the future of Japan.

This world is huge and broad.  Countless opportunities and future friends and partners are waiting for you to work together.

‘Let Us Take Leave of Absence from School’ -1: My Message to the Freshman of Keio University SFC

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Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC) organized a series of events to welcome 1,000 freshmen and on April 6th, I was invited to deliver a special lecture for this new class which is a great honor.  After having a brief conversation with Professor Jun Murai (Ref.1) (Dean, Faculty of Environment and Information Studies) and Professor Jiro Kokuryo (Ref.1) (Dean, Faculty of Policy Management), I talked for about 80 minutes at the θ Hall (I was told that the lecture was relay broadcasted at a separate room for people who were unable to be seated at the Hall.) 

SFC is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.  On April 4th they had a number of events (in Japanese) with alumni and faculty to commemorate its history.  I am very close to several alumni through my work.  Each and all one them are out of ‘Japanese common sense’ and has global careers….  And what makes it unique about SFC is that being ‘out-of-box’ does not seem so strange. I had an opportunity to hear about their future plans as well.

Their home page introduces the history of SFC, how it is like today, its campus, etc. and I am sure you can easily imagine how nice this university is.

I understand that about 18% of the newcomers are from overseas and a high percentage (about 40 to 50%) of the Japanese students have experience of having lived abroad.   The students are encouraged to study abroad while they are enrolled at SFC and they are also planning to make it possible for students to graduate by finishing all courses in English starting from next year.

My lecture will be uploaded in their web site, too.  In the latter half of my lecture, I showed in my back a series of views that were relevant to the content of my talk.  

By the way, I am making it a rule for these couple of years not to use power point slides at lectures (with 2 or 3 exceptions).  Why?  Well, it depends on what you are talking about, but to begin with, policy makers don’t use slides.  Have you ever seen President Obama or former Prime Minister Koizumi giving speech using slides?  I assume not.  So this is why.  The point is how you communicate the core message effectively.  After all, I am not presenting the outcomes of my research, so that is most important for me.

In my speech, I focused on the globalization of the world and the challenges that Japan face today along with background information such as Japan in 1992, the year most of the newcomers were born, and the overview of the changes of the world during these years.  This is the theme that repeatedly appears in various ways under different titles in my web site. 

Especially, most of the (Japanese) men used to be caught in the common thinking that ‘a Single Track’ career is authentic.  Women, on the other hand, were free to take ‘multiple tracks’ because the single track system did not benefit them ? they cannot go higher, especially in the latter part of career.  So, in recent 20 years, i.e. since about the time when these new students were born, we saw many women who succeeded in making most of their own ‘personal talents’ at overseas.  Men have more difficulty in spreading horizontally because their thinking and actions tend to go inside even they felt (or maybe they don’t feel so….) that something is wrong about their ‘Single Track’ career in our ‘Tate shakai (Hierarchical society)’.  

‘An Encouragement of Learning (Gakumon no Susume)’ (1876) by Yukichi Fukuzawa, the founder of Keio University was apparently the standard in modern Japan after the Meiji Restoration (Meiji Ishin).  Today in this global age, however, I don’t think it necessary for undergraduates to graduate in 4 years.  Take 5 years, and spend total 1 year (could be divided) doing social activities, studying abroad, getting involved in activities at overseas, living in various countries, travelling.  Go ‘Out’, feel and sense from ‘Outside’ and look at your ‘self’, see and learn the many aspects of the world, feel the difference, and hence see and feel Japan from ‘Outside’.  Through such experience students will make friends, relationships at multiple layers of the society, internationally.  Through such experience they will acquire sensibility to feel ‘difference, diversity’ that exists in this world. It is such sensibility, ability, human networks that enables youth to find their mission, their value to address to this global world.  It is for this reason that I propose “Taking Leave of Absence from School in College or Undergraduate”.  

To begin with, I don’t see much promising future in any enterprise that seeks to ‘informally hire students at their 3rd year of undergraduate school.’  Judging from global standard, Japanese society that gives higher evaluation to such universities and companies is very exceptional.  I honestly want people at ‘higher ranks’ in the Japanese society to wake up.  It’s about time.

In the end of my speech, I introduced just a part of‘my favorite 14 minutes speech’, by Steve Jobs, the icon of IT who brought about drastic changes to the world through invention and production of Mcintosh, iTune, iPod, iPhone, iPad, etc., which was delivered at the commencement of Stanford. I then I wrapped up my speech.

After the lecture, I had a wonderful time talking with many, many students who gathered around me.

I also received many powerful messages responding to my 3 tweets in twitter http://twitter.com/ which I have sent out during my rail travel from home to the campus.  This was a nice surprise, too.