Design Thinking ? A New Movement of the New Age

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A Happy New Year!

I wish for a more active mood to emerge in Japan for the year of 2011. I strongly expect it to happen….

Over the past two to three years, I’ve noticed the phrase, ‘Design Thinking’ has spread gradually through the world.  How people interpret this word may differ according to each individual, but basically I think it stands for the essence of wisdom for how to address the very complicated issues of the world.

As I have mentioned several times in my blog, today, the word ‘Design’ is not confined to the dimension of objects or shapes only. It also refers to the act of presenting practical solutions to complex problems by taking into account various ideas from diverse viewpoints.  In other words, we should understand it as a process of ‘Design Thinking’.

I feel that this phenomenon is observed in many areas.  For instance; a scientific approach by the Open Systems Science of Dr. Mario Tokoro of Sony , Graduate School of Design at Harvard, the D School at Stanford, or the i.School  at the University of Tokyo

Design Thinking often uses the process of presenting figures to summarize and clarify issues.  The IdeasLab of the World Economic Forum may be one of such examples that are based on these concepts.  I recently had an opportunity to participate in meetings at WEF in Dubai; Global Redesign Summit (Ref.1) and Global Risk Response Network  (Ref.1). Nice visual demonstrations were prepared by Design, Innovation Council and the like, meant to clearly suggest the importance of showing and visualizing complex ideas and issues for better understanding.

Recently, designers have more opportunity to work in business sectors.  I think this is partly because of the trend I described above, combined with various technologies to present information in visual ways based on the rapid progress of digital technologies.  Examples of such designers would include Mr. Ken Okuyama (Ref.1 in Japanese), Mr. Issey Miyake (Ref.1 in Japanese), and Mr. Kashiwa Sato　(Ref.1 in Japanese).
　
Because they are all international designers, always thinking about the essences of the human mind, they naturally acquire visions to respond to today’s need to create ‘Open and Demand-driven Innovation’.

We have been organizing the Global Entrepreneurship Week （GEW） since 2009, and bearing in mind the trend described above, for 2010, we invited a group of youths to do a workshop under the theme ‘ Impact Japan : Design Thinking’ (Ref.1).  This triggered the foundation of our institution, Impact Japan.  Nikkei newspaper put an advertisement article on its December 29th morning issue about the Design Thinking activities that originated in GEW Japan.

I feel the wisdoms of the world working to adapt to the new age.  Now, how will Japan do this year?

Qatar Foundation Annual Research Forum

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After finishing the panel at Tunis, I left the hotel in late afternoon.  Arriving at Doha, Qatar via Dubai at 6:30 am, I checked in at Sheraton again.  I was here this past June (Ref.1), too.  This time, it was right when Qatar won the 2022 World Cup Bid.

My travel was by the invitation of Qatar Foundation Annual Research Forum which will be held for two days.  The Qatar Foundation  (Ref.1) is one of the major institutions of Qatar focused on development of good education. Her Highness herself is the devoted driver of its activities, some of which have already produced great results. For example,  the research laboratories of Cornell University, Carnegie Mellon University, Texas A&M University are all built on the huge premise of the Foundation.
 
Because this was their first Forum, the main purpose was to introduce the Qatar Foundation to the world.  The Foundation attracted many participants this year.  This country is very young, to begin with.  And the nation is also very dedicated to human resource development, with the initiatives of the Qatar University.  They are keen to education because they know that, although they are rapidly accumulating wealth as one of the major energy exporting nations of the world of gas and oil, the final resource this small island nation will be able to depend on for its future is the human resource.

Qatar is also a nation that protects and supports culture and art.  A good example of this is the Museum of Islamic Art, which I have spoken about before on this site.

The Forum opened at 9am with the speech of Her Highness, the Queen.  Between the programs, I enjoyed reading posters (especially those by the students).  I was also a jury member that presided over the presentations of Biomedical Science researches. Dr. Elias Zerhouni （former Director of NIH）, Dr. Peter Agre (a Nobel laureate of chemistry for his discovery of water channel) and Dr. Monsef Saloui（the head of GSK, RD）were also part of this jury. Elias and Moncef are my good friends, but I have not worked with Dr. Agre before. I did, however, know about his work, and had listened to several of his lectures. The forum was full of young energy.  I was particularly impressed by the existence of many active women.

In the evening, I visited Ambassador Moji at the Japan embassy in Qatar with President Tsuciya and several people of Tsuchiya Corporation (Mr. Nishida, a very good Arabic speaker whom I saw at the embassy in Abu Dhabi was there also.)  Then, we visited the residence of former Ambassador of Qatar to Japan, H.E. Reyad Ali Al-Ansari who recently returned to Qatar after 9 years of service in Japan and invited us for dinner.  It is nice to experience expansion of human networks like this.  H.E. Al-Ansari said that his son studied in the U.S. and is currently working in the oil business in Qatar.  However, he seemed to be not so approving of his daughter’s studying abroad.

We paid a brief visit to the president of administration of Her Highness the next day at the head office of Qatar Foundation. It was unfortunately brief because our schedule was packed in the afternoon with many sessions on science policy etc.  We need to have more Japanese researchers and youths participate in such occasions. It is important to promote the exchange of young people.

The result of the selection was announced at the evening reception.  From our group, the award was given to a study done on defective hearing that identified the responsible DNA and showed that the deficiency was caused by the malfunctioning of its hair cells.  The project was very nicely  researched and the researcher answered each question with confidence.  Her boss, the head of the administrative office at her hospital (who also happened to be a women), looked very happy.  This head was also a very gifted and able person whom I truly enjoyed talking for some time with.  I was seated at the same table as the professors of MIT, UCLA, and the Dean of the local Texas A&M research laboratory.  We quite enjoyed the conversation over dinner because we had so many common topics to talk about.  I had to leave during the dinner to catch the 22:50 airplane for Abu Dhabi, a forty minute flight.
 
Whenever I am exposed to the energy and motivation of young people, I always become eager to help.  I also look forward to seeing more exchanges carried out between Japan and Qatar.

To Tunis: Japan-Arab Economic Conference

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In the evening of December10th, I left Narita via Dubai to Tunis in order to attend the 2nd Japan-Arab Economic Conference held in Tunis on the 11th and 12th.  The arrival time at Tunis was shortly after noontime.

I felt a cool breeze as I left the airport, and I thought that Tunis was a nice place.  Since I had seen H.E. Hatano, former ambassador to UAE, in Dubai, I headed directly to the Carthage remains from the airport.  I enjoyed a nice tour with Mr. Ohashi, a long time expert of middle eastern business of Mitsui & Co. He kindly guided me around with a full explanation of the sites (he is quite informed about this area, and said that he recently stayed in Tunis for a week…)

Here, we encountered Mr. Ohata, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, and delegates.

After stopping by at several sight seeing spots, we arrived at Sidi Bou Said (Ref.1), our final destination.  It was a lovely old town with white walls and beautiful blue windows and doors.  We had tea at the so called oldest coffee shop in the world, relaxing, as the time went slowly by.  Tunis is in the Mediterranean Culture zone, both geographically and historically.  Time pass slowly here.  I must admit that a workaholic lifestyle, competing only for higher GDPs, has some problems.  Here, you can feel the long history of culture.

The reception was held at Ramada Hotel, the venue of the conference and our accommodation.  About 300 people came for this conference from Japan.  The head of the Japanese delegation was Mr. Okuda of Toyota, and I had the honor of seeing and greeting many leaders of Japanese business.  Mr. Maehara, Minister of Foreign Affairs, also participated this year.  I had an impression that many Japanese from business sector came to the reception.

The conference hall was packed the next day.  It must have been hard to keep on schedule since there were many different sorts of people who gave speeches.  It started with the Japanese Ministers Maehara and Ohata, and then the Ministers of Arabian countries and many important people gave speeches.  I imagine that it was hard work for the secretariat. There were a number of collaborative projects were signed and announced, giving hope for a series of of good outcomes in coming years.

I tried to illustrate Japanese activities to the participants by briefly explaining relationships of Japan and Arabs. In these illustrations I included an introduction of the STS Forum, the panels on education, human resource development, science, and technology.  After having a slightly late lunch, I packed my things and headed for the airport.  I arrived at Doha via Dubai early in the morning of 12th.

Somehow, this travel was quite a busy one.

From Dubai: Global Agenda Council

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On November 27th I headed for Dubai to participate in the Global Agenda Council (Ref.1,2) of the World Economic Forum.  Though a majority of the participants were in other Councils, about 20 people came from Japan including Drs. Heizo, Takenaka, Akihiko Tanaka, and Yoko Ishikura .  The program spanned 4 days, with 3 of those days having tightly packed schedules. Unlike past forums this was arranged with precise detail. The reason for this was because the objective was to recommend how to create networks for Global Risk Response for all kinds of anticipated risks in the world.

Since I was the Chair of the Japan Council, my schedule was packed.  Chairs were asked to arrive one day earlier to be present at the overall briefing.  There was no free time. I had to understand how everything worked, how to move the system, attend Briefing sessions, participate in other important Councils, etc.  My role was very demanding in a way.

The forum occurred at the same time that North Korea emerged as an issue. Because of this we had to be more sensitive about things, which made me feel more tired than usual.

However, this situation was also a good opportunity.  Particularly, being able to exchange views with Councils of China and Korea on political issues, economic climate, growth of China was a rewarding experience.  The Chinese Council Chair was Mr. He Yafei, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Korean Council Chair was Dr. Moon Chung-In (Ref.1), Professor of Politics at Yonsei University whom I have known for long time.  Having discussion not only with the Council members, but also with those two Chairs and hearing suggestive words and genuine thoughts and feelings was truly something I appreciated.

The reception in the evening of the second day was held at the terrace of Burj Khalifa Tower, the tallest building in the world.  Gazing at the soaring tower, seeing the view, meeting people…was quite a nice experience.

The third day of the meeting was BBC World News Debate, a wonderful 70 minutes discussion hosted by Mr. Nik Gowing, the well known anchor person of BBC.  I think you will have an opportunity to see this on television sometime in the future.  The participants included Mr. Kevin Rudd, former prime minister of Australia and minister of foreign affairs of current administration, Ambassador He of China, Ms. Malini　Mehra, Ms. Louise Arbour of International Crisis Group, and Mr. James Cameron of Climate Change Capital.  I was particularly impressed with Mr. Rudd’s 20 seconds spontaneous speech to people behind the television camera.  Ability to take such flexible actions is one of the qualities required of good politicians.

One of the lessons I learned during these 3 days is the importance of making visual as possible the problems we are discussing.  At the Design Council, I had a glimpse of the wonderful works of Professor Toshiko Mori of Harvard University Design School.  I understand that Design Council and Innovation Council members helped problem solving processes of other Councils, and the results were fantastic.

Now, we all have lots of homework to do and issues to be addressed for the coming year.

It was a full, packed 4 days with lots of learning.  I left Dubai and arrived safely at Narita on the evening of December 2nd.

Another Achievement by the Dragon Cherry Blossoms

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Dragon Cherry Blossoms  (Ref.1, 2, 3) (Ref.2 is in Japanese) is a project in Bangladesh that helps youth in poor villages pursue great dreams. Their goal is high, and thought to have been impossible to achieve.  Mr. Saisyo of Waseda University, who is currently taking a leave of absence from school, is leading this project.

His activities were reported in the November 30th issue of Nikkei newspaper as the special feature titled: ‘Challenge’.

I was in Dubai when the article appeared, but I had already been familiar with the story since Mr. Saisyo informed me.  People may congratulate Waseda University as having done a good job again.  But this is not the University’s work. This is the result of hard work by Mr. Saisyo and his friends.  It would seem that taking a leave of absence from school  (Ref.1) for and going through many struggles might have worked positively toward this achievement.

As you see, encouraging students to not be afraid to challenge is one of the great missions of the universities in this global age. Indeed, these are the future leaders of the world. Such individuals are those who possess the potential to become human capital. They will have great impacts on society and the world.
 
Upon my return to Japan, I received good news from Mr. Saisyo:

“Dear Dr. Kurokawa,

This is Dragon Cherry Blossoms.  I am pleased to report to you that Jellen Acter, an 18 years old female student was accepted to the second best national university in Bandladesh, Jagannath University!!  This is the first case where a female student has passed the exam! 

She scored 2,038th among 70,000 students who sat for the exam!! 

A female student in this village who studied on e-Education qualified for a distinguished university equivalent to Hitotsubashi University in Japan!

This is the 2nd miracle after Heral!!  Wow, 2,038nd of 70,000!

Again, local people are in great excitement. “Unbelievable!” is their common reaction.

Today, a new role model is born in our Islam village, a new hope for the majority of female students whose options are very limited in planning their life.

After Heral, Jellen is the second case in this nation to pass the university entrance exam through study on the e-learning program. 

Jellen Acter, thank you for the revolution!

This is Saisyo reporting from Bangladesh.”

I sense great enthusiasm in his report…..  For more information, please look at his new web site. (in Japanese)

This is one of the great examples of how adults may support youth who are generally regarded as being inwardly focused.  The idea is to help youth see the desires hidden deep in their hearts (Ref.1),  and give encouragement and warm support as they pursue their dreams.

This is the essence of education.

My Views of the ‘Medical Care System’ Reform Issues. Recent Article in JBPress

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I am originally a medical doctor and have spent more than 10 years both in Japan and the United States practicing medicine. So naturally I am quite familiar with the health care system, think much about it, and am very concerned about the issue in Japan.

I am confident that I have been faithfully doing my job pointing out where the problems exist on this web site as well as in other forums, despite various complaints and criticisms thrown at me from authorities in Japan.  The effects of these discussions may not be easy to see, but I think they are starting to show.  A system reform is above all the development of human asset capable of adapting to a global era.

If you just search my web site by related key words, you will find many postings, and I have also published many books for common readers such as ‘University Hospital Reform (Daigaku Byoin Kakumei)’, ‘A Challenge to Japanese Healthcare Culture (Nihon no Iryo Fudo e no Chosen’, ‘Lessons for Medical Students (Igakusei no Obenkyo)’  (all books are in Japanese), to  name just a few, and I have introduced some more in my web site  (in Japanese).

The world has gone through a drastic change since the beginning of the 21st century.  Major issues of healthcare system today are: an aging society; increased chronic diseases, especially those related to lifestyle or adult diseases; expansion of the inequality of wealth particularly in the past 20 years due to the globalization of market and economy; and the rapid increase of country debt after the Lehman Shock.

What about Japan?  As the most rapidly aging society amongst the developed nations, we have many problems.

Although I intend to continue my effort to help promote the reforms of healthcare systems through activities and recommendations of our Health Policy Institute  or WHO there are lots of power politics occurring at the same time.  The many stakeholders (i.e. opposition powers) involved make reform a major political issue and this complicates how we address reform in developed countries.
 
Besides  reports and comments on my web site, my recent views are also presented in a book ‘E-Health Reform: IT to Change the Future of Japan’s Health and Healthcare (e-Health Kakumei:IT de Kawaru Nihon no Kenko to Iryo no Mirai)’ (in Japanese), an interview, and on-line publications such as JBPress.

Please take a look when you have time.

In this context, I think the Twelve Ideas developed at the Symposium by Swedish Medical Center (SMC) in Seattle in October are worth noting.

How do we implement these political process is the next question. The book I introduced to you before would be a good guide.

Unless we rename “Medical care system” (Japanese word for “Healthcare system”) by adopting something that more accurately describes the problem like, “Health and Healthcare policy” (Ref.1), I think executing good reform that addresses the actual needs of our society will be really difficult.

The naming of policies is important.

Recommendation for Taking a Leave of Absence from School, AIESEC: An International Internship Support Organization, Support from a High Official of the Ministry of Education

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Japan’s insularity or closed mindset is now becoming so evident that we can no longer wait for social structure reform to resolve this problem.   Many media reports as well as opinions from various fields in the society continuously point out the seriousness of the Japanese closed, insular mindset.  This problem, however, is not new at all.

This way of seeing refers not only to the youths, but as well as to the adults.  While many intellectuals point to the students as being inwardly focused, I believe that parents have a strong influence, and therefore should be held accountable for passing on these unprogressive mindsets.

As Japan grew in economic strength and prosperity combined with the publication of  'Japan as Number One' , National pride also grew. The baby boomer and subsequent generations accustomed to this status had to adjust their attitudes into a more defensive stance as the Cold War ended in 1991 followed by the Japanese economic bubble bursting in 1999.  Not to mention the advent of the internet, globalization, a dynamic restructuring of 14 city banks, the bankruptcy of Yamaichi Securities, a skyrocketing national deficit and stagnating GDP.

Therefore, I suppose, current college students grew up without being given any sense about a positive economy. (in Japanese)

All of the things I’ve said so far are the same as what I have written here so many times.

For a change, let me introduce you to some examples of the wonderful activities of college students who took leave of absences from school (Ref.1,2,3,4,5). 

And here is my small report on AIESC, an international internship network run by college students.

However, I regret to say that there are millions of obstacles that must be overcome in order for these kinds of activities to flourish.  For example, in many private universities, they charge various fees of students even on leave.  From my point of view such conduct is deplorable.  Being supported while traveling and experiencing the world is taken for granted in other parts of the world. Such attitude makes Japan’s unwillingness to encourage international experience that much more evident. I ask all university related persons to be quick in crafting ways to stop these kind of disgraceful procedures.

Staggering economy is bad enough, but with high education fees combined, I must say that Japan is a nation that neglects future human assets.  We cannot expect any positive future for a nation like this.  Not only university administrations but Japanese government will also have to do a better job .

Just recently, I had an opportunity to see Japanese students from AIESEC Japan (sadly, this site is only in Japanese…), a Japanese branch of AIESEC the world wide student run organization working to promote international internships.  Now, we are trying to find how to empower their activities, make this organization known to people, to gain support.  Of course it goes without saying, companies will also gain a variety of great merits by providing support to such students’ activities.

If the website of AIESEC Japan is written in English as well as in Japanese, their activities will contain broader perspectives.  For instance, not only can they send students abroad, but they will also be able to offer international students internship opportunities at Japanese companies.  The problem is that the current system fails to take into account the needs of the counterparts.  We discussed this issue also in specific manners.

Recently a high official at the Ministry of Education (I won’t say the specific name) who I have once worked with started a blog (in Japanese).  From his blog I could see how he supported my ideas, or is helping students in his own way (Ref.1) ( both links are in Japanese).  I was thrilled to discover this.  He also gave a wonderful lecture (in English) at a recent meeting (in Japanese) that included much of his own thoughts. I was told that the lecture was well received by the audience for its originality and strong message, all very unlike typical government officials.  I would like to express my sincere gratitude to this official for supporting my views.

I am aware that there are many more people who understand and support my ideas besides people in the Ministry of Education, but on a whole, it seems that making policy takes more than understanding.  I do understand that there are many reasons and conditions particular to the posts they are in.

It must also be understood that another problem lies in the fact that educators in junior high schools, high schools, or universities are far from doing their best in nurturing talents for the global age(Ref.1,2, 3 in Japanese), (Ref.4,5 in English).  We must not forget that the trends of the world moves rapidly.

As for the argument on whether it is good or not that active officials write a blog, I think there is nothing wrong with it because the blog is a tool to express personal views.  It’s a way to interact with a diverse community, and besides, what they write on the blog is far from being a secret.

A Meeting With Dr. Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO)

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Dr. Margaret Chan (Ref.1) visited Tokyo after attending a meeting at the WHO Kobe Center.

For about thirty minutes 4 staff members of our Health Policy Institute who specialize in Global Health  joined me in exchanging opinions about Global Health with Dr. Chan. I’ve had many chances to see her in the past (Ref.1,2), but I was particularly thrilled to see her this time because it had been such a long while since the last time we had met. Dr. Nakatani, one of the Assistant Directors of WHO, accompanied by an official from the Ministry of Health, also joined us.

The topics of our discussion covered issues such as Global Health, the meeting at the Chatham House, the number of increasing patients suffering from chronic diseases, social determinants of health, the Davos Meeting that will be held next January, and so on.

I think this meeting with Dr. Chan, the top female leader of WHO, was an exciting experience for our young staff.
 
Providing opportunities for young professionals to interface with the leaders of the world in person is very important and meaningful.  It is a very stimulating experience, one that will encourage our young generation to set higher goals for themselves.
Asking questions such as ‘What’s the point in trying to become the best?’ is irrelevant here.  People work harder when they see higher goals.

These important interactions serve as the seeds of ASPIRATION within the hearts of youth. 

Welcoming Mr. Ryoji Noritake to My Keio SFC Class

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My Keio SFC class.:  On October 27th we welcomed Mr. Ryoji Noritake, a wonderful individual doing a great job at the Health Policy Institute, an NPO in which I serve as Chairman.
 
Mr. Noritake is an alumni of SFC, class of 2007.  After graduating, he joined our Health Policy Institute Think Tank and has since been working actively in fields like, measures for cancer, cancer and brain stroke patient support ,  programs to nurture leaders of patients, and so on.  These programs have produced many results that will positively affect the health care industry.  As he persists in leading these diverse activities, he is gaining invaluable experience as a great leader.  He has become one of the most indispensable members of our institute.

Because he is an SFC alumi, I think Mr. Noritake was able to connect with the students even better. The students related with him more because he was their senior and because of his sharing of many moving stories.  

Among those stories, I was impressed especially by the one regarding the World Trade Center terrorist attack on September 11, 2001.  He was studying at Oklahoma University at the time.  He spoke about the reactions he observed of the people around him, and how he was moved to witness for the first time the power of words beyond his imagination.

In this course I aim to have students understand the importance of moving towards the global age, and to provide them opportunities to listen to the real world stories of people who are qualified enough to be their role models.  Such inspirational narratives, because they are true experiences, have power to move youth, to make them want to emulate or pursue similar careers .

Jiro Shirasu (in Japanese), is one of my favorite historical characters. He was a politician, whose career covered the early Showa era.  I wrote several articles (Ref.1,2,3,4 in Japanese) (Ref.5,6 in English) on him on this web site.   

Mr. Shirasu’s post-World War II work in Japan is just remarkable.  He studied at Cambridge University, and became a true ‘English Gentlemen’.  There are several books about Mr. Shirasu published, but he is more generally known for his philosophy of Principle (the fundamentals, essence, of things…) as well as for his countless piquant episodes.  I haven’t seen many true gentlemen like him around recently …
 
There is one collection of the essays by Jiro Shirasu titled,  ‘Japan: A Nation Without Principle’.  I purchased it at ‘Buaiso’ (in Japanese), his former residence.  In this book, there is a line that says something like ‘Education is about whether the teachers are practicing in real life what they teach…’  This is, in my view, an important ‘Principle’, especially in higher educations.  I remember nodding here and there as I went on reading.

Similarly, the stories that Mr. Noritake told in class clearly illustrated the importance of experiencing the world at an early stage in one’s life.

Thank you, Mr. Noritake, for giving us such an inspirational lecture.  I am confident that many of your juniors learned and sensed something important from your stories.

Dr. Muto’s Challenge: Building Ageing Community Healthcare

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In Japan and other developed countries, the conventional healthcare system is facing its limit because of continuing expansion of the aging society, chronic diseases, and the limited public funding for healthcare(ref.1). 

I have been speaking on this issue for some time (the most recent articles  (ref.1:in Japanese)include), I’ve made policy recommendations, urging people to take action, but things are not moving as I hoped, because, I suspect, of oppositions from the conventional interest groups.

However, there are some people who are starting to take action in their own way to make change.  One example is Dr. Yu Muto.

Dr. Muto spent 10 years or so as an established medical doctor. But he left his career in hopes of achieving higher goals. During this departure, he worked outside medical practice for a couple years.
After this experience, he launched an innovative, urban-style community medical practice.

I was deeply impressed to hear Dr. Muto after he started this clinic.  He said, “I left medical practice to search and explore my life work.  As I resumed my work as a doctor in this city of an aging population, I now feel from the bottom of my heart that this is truly what I have wanted to do.” 

Dr. Muto and I had a dialogue (in Japanese) recently, and it is on his website. 

His words reflect his truest feelings. He is following his dream. This is the beginning of something wonderful.  I congratulate him wholeheartedly and will support him in anyway possible.