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From New Delhi part 1

Posted on 2008/03/042014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

After successfully ending the 3-day Global Health Conference on February 17th, flew to New Delhi the following morning. Upon arrival at New Delhi Airport on time at 17:30, I went directly to the city of Noida in the suburbs. The objective of my visit was to attend the commendation ceremony of YES（Young Engineers and Scientists） by The Honda Foundation. This is to recognize the top 5 outstanding students atIndian Institute of Technology（IIT）, now well known to the world as one of leading technology institutions. It is a wonderful project. That is Honda, or so to say the spirit of Mr. Soichiro Honda. There was one other guest aside from myself who just appeared at the last moment of the commendation ceremony, and that was Dr. R K Pachauri. I have known him very well through the SCA (Science Council of Asia) and other conferences that we have attended in the past few years. Even 3 years ago in Bangkok, we did the keynote speech together at the AGS-Global Alliance for Sustainability conference. Last year in 2007, as IPCC was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize together with Mr. Al Gore, we can say that Dr. Pachauri became globally known as being the Chairman of IPCC. But he was already widely reputed as the leader of global warming issues among scientists.

Photo1　At the commendation ceremony. From left Mr. Takedagawa, President & CEO of Honda Siel Cars India Ltd., myself, Dr. Pachauri(**）, Mr. Ban from The Honda Foundation

Photo2　From left Dr. Pachauri, one of the awarded students and myself

**Dr. R K Pachauri arrived from America the day before and is wearing a hat to cover his blotch on his head.

After the commendation ceremony, Dr. Pachauri and myself each gave 20 minutes’ speech to congratulate and encourage the award winning students. I touched upon Mr. Soichiro Honda’s sprit and wished the students to inherit his spirit to contribute and play an important role in the global agenda we all face. I will introduce my speech on another occasion. People from The Honda Foundation, executives and members from local Honda and the families of the award winners were also present and they all looked very happy. Also, Mr. Brijmohan Lall Munjal, the Chairman of Hero Honda Motors Ltd. was attending this ceremony. Hero Honda is a joint venture with Honda since 1982 doing production and sales of motorcycles. Mr. Lall’s son, Mr. Sunil Kant Munjal is leading the Hero Group and we both serve as a member of the President Council of the University of Tokyo.

Photo3　this is me giving speech

Photo4　With the award winners and staff （5th from left is Mr. Brijmohan Lall Munjal, Chairman of the Hero group）

At night I had a drink with Dr. Sunami of the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, and Ban-san and Ishihara-san of The Honda Foundation. Meeting bright young people, it was a pleasant and wonderful evening.

Global Health part 2

Posted on 2008/02/292014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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In the morning of February 16th, our NPO Health Policy Institute (HPI) held the annual “Medical Policy Summit” with our directors, advisors and members. The half-day meeting includes four panels focused on various issues on Japan’s health system.

Based on our 3-year activity at HPI, it may be time to expand our scope to go global, thus this year, we held an international conference in the afternoon, “Global Health Summit: Advancing our promises for TICAD/G8 and Beyond”. The MC was NHK’s Ms. Doden.

Former Prime Minister, Mr. Jun-ichiro Koizumi addressed the key note speech about “Food and Environment”. As may be expected, his speech was vibrant and fully attracted the audience. He talked for exactly 30 minutes without a manuscript or memo. His speech covered from beriberi, change of eating habits, longevity in Japan, the Japanese word “HENJIN” meaning “extraordinary” and not “eccentric, crazy”, his knowledge about Anjin Miura (William Adams) and scurvy, his visit to Miyako Island 2 days ago to see the process of sugar cane being produced into bioethanol and the resistance of the oil industry etc. Half of the participants came from overseas, but it was a wonderful opening.

Photo1 Former Prime Minister Jun-ichiro Koizumi

Photo2 The World Bank Vice President Dr. Joy Phumaphi

Ms. Sadako Ogata was traveling to Africa, so she addressed her greetings via video. Then followed a speech from one of the Vice Presidents at The World Bank, Dr. Joy Phumaphi. Panel participants were Mr. Jay Naidoo, Chairman of the Board of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) and Development Bank of South Africa (whom I met in Davos during this year’s session with Bono), Dr. Tachi Yamada from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation whom I have referred to many times in my blog, Mr.Hiromasa Yonekura, President of Sumitomo Chemical which is globally well known for their outstanding effect of Olyset Net against malaria, Mr. Tadashi Yamamoto, President of Japan Center for International Exchange, known as the pioneer who started a real NPO in Japan and Ms. Akiko Maeda of The World Bank headquarters in Washington DC. With such distinguished members, we had a lot of fruitful discussion. For many of the Japanese audience, Japan’s contribution to Africa may have sounded something new. Mr. Koji Tsuruoka, Director-General of Ministry of Foreign Affairs made a speech on Japanese government’s view for TICAD, G8 Summit etc. To wrap up the conference, Mr. Yukio Hatoyama, Secretary General of The Democratic Party whose local is Toyako, where the next Summit will be held, addressed a message via video.

Photo3 Dr. Naidoo, Dr. Yamada, Mr.Yonekura from right during panel

Photo4 Ms. Doden, Ms.Maeda, Mr.Yamamoto from left during panel

They are all the global leaders of initiating Global Health. Dr. Naidoo’s 13 year-old daughter, who is a big fan of Japan, accompanied him to Japan for the first time.
The reception was also very successful and I felt the high expectation towards Japan, being the hosting country for the upcoming TICAD and G8 Summit.

The following day, on Sunday February 17th, there was a discussion session with people working for Global Health related NGO in Japan which was hosted by G8 NGO Forum. This also turned out to be very fruitful.

As I repeatedly say, Japan is hosting big events this year; TICAD in May and G8 Summit in July which will attract great deal of attention worldwide. Most probably, it will be the last chance for Japan to host a G8 Summit. In that respect, this conference was held very timely and the output was successful.

For an independent think tank like HPI to hold a conference with the support of The World Bank, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation etc. is a very open policy discussing process that is not necessarily led by the officials. I felt that it was a conference that showed a glimpse of Japan’s direction in the global era.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude for the people who attended this conference. Also, many thanks to the staff that help organize this event!

(photography by Tetsu Kudo)

Global Health part 1

Posted on 2008/02/292014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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In this global world, as super-rich emerge, the poor become even poorer. Currently, out of the 6.6 billion world population, about 20% are the so-called “extreme poverty” class and face high death rates for mothers giving birth, infants and children under age of 5.

Every year, millions of people die from hunger, malnutrition and diseases related to that. Especially poverty in Africa and South Asia is miserable. As our awareness towards global warming changes, production of bio fuel has increased, leading to the raise of corn and wheat prices. The world is moving to a critical direction. “2C”＝”Climate Change” and “3Ｆ”＝”Fuel, Food, and Feed” has a big impact to the people suffering from poverty. This is effecting heavily to the changes in global human society.

On February 15th, we held a conference on “Global Health: Under-nutrition” with the support of The World Bank, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other organizations. Dr. Tachi Yamada, President of Global Health Initiative at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, made the closing remark and I did the welcome remark. During lunch, there was a wonderful speech from the Ghanaian Minister of Health and Welfare.

In addition, the world’s leading medical journal “The Lancet” started to feature on world nutrition since this January. The article is based on data from vast evidence and finds issues, some what like building up data for what can be done. The real challenge is what we can really do to make a change.

Japan is doing grass-roots ODA activities such as distributing iodine salt to Mongolia, something that is unique to Japan.

School meals are good, but babies up to 1-2 years’ nutrition and supplying necessary elements (like iodine, iron etc.) is what is important. Especially breast-feeding should be the key nutrition for babies up to 6 months and if nutrition is not enough up to 1-2 years old, it will influence their lives later on like poor grades in school, and allowing themselves to be in a social level of facing unemployment and low wages. As this leads to unfortunate future for the children and gives great impact on the nation’s productivity, nutrition is indeed a big issue.

Today’s conference was very enlightening for me and I thought is was good.
Tomorrow will be the second day of the conference.

from Davos, Part4 (The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2008)

Posted on 2008/02/062014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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Attached here (photo 1), you’ll see the view from my hotel window this morning. The sharp edged mountain in the middle at the far back is Tinzenhorn, looking rather similar to Matterhorn.

photo 1

Here I am at the last day of the annual meeting. The Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda arrived this morning to join the prominent others such as William Gates, Microsoft Corporation, USA; Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1997-2007), Bono the famous musician, and so forth. Fukuda’s plenary speech began at 1130 am in the main hall, co-hosted by professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum, and Tony Blair.

Myself sat in the very front row, together with Bono and his team. Our Prime Minister appeared understandably nervous, which made him talk a little faster than he had probably planned (photo 2). I was listening the simultaneous interpretation, one in English ? as is often the case, the interpreter appeared to be relying on the translated document in hand with some lapsed delivery rather than being simultaneous. The content of the speech was quality I thought though it had the room to be refined as a politician’s speech.

Both Tony Blair and Klaus Schwab asked several questions at him (photo 3). It was broadcasted on NHK so my friends emailed. I wonder what you have made of today’s event ? any reflections?

photo 2

photo 3

Prior to the speech made by our Prime Minister, the main hall held a plenary seminar on the world economy, fully packed. The panel included Laurence Sommers, the former Treasury Secretary during the Clinton era, who is an extremely talented economist though also known for jeopardising his career as the President at Harvard University through failing to accord his public comment to the gender-equal matter. Anyhow, the economic outlook projected was bleak. The theme of this seminar spilled onto the session with our Prime Minister whereby he was asked a question on the world economic trend. It was felt that his response could have better embraced the mood of the speaker panel though I must say the support team was perhaps already operating at the capacity more than expected. I must acknowledge that facilitating the Japanese Prime Minister to join the forum is already a remarkable achievement; the last was with then the Prime Minister Mori several years ago. I’d like to pay respect and send my warm regards both to the Prime Minister Fukuda and the support team, and in fact also wish all the best for affirmed efforts around the TICAD and G8 in coming May and July respectively, ultimately for all people concerned including the general public in Japan.

After the forum, our Prime Minister joined a luncheon with the various business leaders. Having dealt with interviews for CNN, and so forth, he was quickly on his return home.

photo 4: with Mr Okuda of Toyota

photo 5: from left ? Mr Ujiie of Nomura Holdings, Mr & Ms Shibata of NGK Insulators, Mr Okuda, myself, and Mr Takenaka

photo 6: me working hard at the conference!

My evening began at the ‘Tokyo reception’ at a hotel. The Governor of Tokyo Shintaro Ishihara was unable to join thus the Vice Governor Naoki Inose replaced his place as the host. Then, the official Forum closing evening began with the concert, featuring the world reknowned violinist Ms Akiko Suwanai ? Bruch’s ‘Concert No. 1’, – the second piece was Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’. It was the first time for me to hear this latter piece right through to the end. Suwanai san, it was truly wonderful.

It confirms my view that it tends to be women rather than men who tend to be ones radiant at the world stage among the Japanese. At an individual or personal level, the presence of Japanese female tends to be more defined compared to what Japanese male in general is able to exercise. At the back of my mind here is the strong tendency of Japanese men to acquire the viable self through organisational affiliations. As always indeed, the radiant Japanese face of the Davos Forum was our honourable Madame Sadako Ogata. Soiree followed the concert ? this year, it featured Turkey with Turkish cuisine, which we enjoy very much.

photo 7: Mr Idei, formerly of SONY, Mr & Ms Takeuchi of Hitotsubashi University Business School, Professor Schwab

photo 8: Mr Idei、Mr & Ms Takeuchi, Professor John Maeda of MIT

Professor Maeda holds a place at MIT, and is a prominent professor at MIT’s famous Media Lab, though he is apparently venturing out to take up a presidency at Rhode Island School of Design from June. I do like that spirit. We much need a persona like him in the Japanese academia ? to stimulate the research, and initiatives of universities, students, and young people in general. As I always say, among the crucial social resources is ‘Kojin Ryoku’ or indivisual power and uniqueness, a creative synthesis of the self exercised at the personal level.

From Davos, part3

Posted on 2008/01/262014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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The morning of the 25th was busy. I had an early morning meeting with Dr. Tachi Yamada from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to discuss about the upcoming February conference in Tokyo and other meetings that I had arranged. In the afternoon, I attended a session related to innovation and joined the beginning of plenary session “New Drivers of Development” chaired by Ms. Indra K Nooyi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pepsi Co. Participants were Mr. Bill Gates, Mr. Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Mr. Robert B Zoellick, President of World Bank, Mr. Michael Treschow, Chairman of Unilever and Mr.Trevor Manuel, Minister of Finance of South Africa (photo1,2).

photo1 From left: Mr. Gates, Mr. Brown, Ms. Nooyi, Mr. Zoellick, Mr. Manuel and Mr. Treschow

photo2 Ms. Nooyi

The reason for attending only the beginning was because I had a session with Ms. Sadako Ogata, Bono(photo3) and some big figures who represent Japan. We discussed how Japan can show their initiative globally to make a move on development in Africa, TICAD and G8 summit and respond to the expectation from the world. Other participants were Mr. Okuda, former Chairman of Toyota Motor Corp, Mr. Yasuhisa Shiozaki, Ms. Yoriko Kawaguchi, Mr. Matsuura, Director General of UNESCO and Dr. Komiyama, President of the University of Tokyo. I met with Bono and his staff yesterday and I think we will continue to work together in the future. Bono respects Ms. Ogata very much. He is well aware of Japan’s successful and long ODA history in Africa which is different to that from Europe and America. This year is an important year for Japan and he is seriously considering how Japan can show its presence. I was surprised at how much we can do. I learned a lot. He also said that during the 3-day concert in Japan, 120,000 fans gathered, which I later heard that he tried several attempts to send his message to the world through the crowd. He feels the passion that everybody is considering what they can do to make a change, but with the current political level, it is not well communicated inside and out.

photo3 With Bono before the meeting

Also, John Gage from Sun Microsystems joined. He supports Bono and Al Gore’s activities and I’ve been meeting him every year in Davos for 4 years. I hope my blog readers give consideration to what we can do and expand our will to the vast world to realize it. Then, I ran into Larry Page(who is very interested in climate change and global health and established the Google Foundation), the founder of Google which I introduced in last year’s report with some photos and Steve Grove from YouTube (photo4,5).

photo4　With Larry Page and Steve Grove

photo5　With Dr. Hirotaka Takeuchi from Hitotsubashi Univ, Mr. Tsuchiya from the World Economy Forum Secretariat, Larry Page and Steve Grove

（Mr. Tsuchiya studied with Steve Grove at Harvard Kennedy School. Isn’t that interesting, it’s the value of each individual in this global era.）

Tonight, Prime Minister Fukuda will arrive at Zurich. He will arrive at Davos the following morning and meet with Tony Blair, Mr Bono, Bill Gates and will deliver a speech. After that, I heard his schedule is full with luncheon meetings with the business community. I wonder whether the Prime Minister is really satisfied with his speech draft, but the speech writer must have worked hard to prepare it. The world’s opinion will show us the result. How will Japan be reported? How do the foreign media see Japan? What is the real opinion that doesn’t show up? At night, I met a lot of people at the ASEAN reception, but ended up with the usual members, Victor Chu (He is well known everywhere. He said that he travels 250 days a year for business. Wow, what an energy!) and John Gage. We had a drink at a bar at the hotel next door. Dr. Michael Porter from Harvard Business School joined and we had a great time together. This is the excitement of Davos.

photo6　With Mr. Chu and Mr. Gage

I am invited to a “Bollywood Party” hosted by India from 23:00, let’s see…

From Davos, part2

Posted on 2008/01/252014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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The last keynote speech on the first day was by the US Secretary of State, Ms. Rice. She delivered a clear and firm message about the current role of the US and the responsibility for the US and the world. Then, the political and business leaders from the world, such as Mr. Blair, Mr. Kissinger, Mr. J Dimon(JP Morgan and Chase), Mr. KV Kamath(ICICI Bank, India), Ms. IK Nooyi(CEO of Pepsi Co, she graduated from the famous IIT in India…. Can you imagine this in any Japanese company?!), Mr. DJ O’Reilly(CEO, Chevrons), Mr. Wan Jianzhou(China Mobile Communications Corporation) etc, went up the podium for a Q&A session. Ms. Rice handled this session very nicely. This is indeed world class. Answering to tough questions in front of a big crowd.

This year, there were especially a large number of participants including 20 or more Presidents and Prime Ministers. Even only on the first and second day, Mr. Karzai(Afghanistan), Mr. Musharraf(Pakistan), Mr. Yushchenko(Ukraine), Mr. Simon Perez(Israel), Al Gore and Bill Gates were there.

From Japan, ever since Prime Minister Mori attended in 2001, Prime Minister Fukuda will attend. As a hosting country for TICAD and G8 Summit, the world is watching Japan’s leadership of global agenda. What kind of message will he give to the world? Let’s hope it will be a high toned, powerful speech that reflects as a Prime Minister of the second largest economic power, not something drafted by bureaucrats. Regardless of domestic circumstances, ‘it’s spoken message that counts as politician.’ It is important to strategically communicate to the overseas press.

Needless to say, Ms. Sadako Ogata, President of JICA, is a global figure representing Japan, but also the global minded professors from Hitotsubashi University School of Business Administration, Hirotaka Takeuchi and Yoko Ishikura as well as Heizo Takenaka of Keio University are taking an active role in various panels and acting as session leader. In a brainstorming session called WorkSpace, Prof. Takeuchi showed his amazing ability as moderator by entertaining the participants while pursuing the subject on track. Wow, this is something inimitable.

Photo1 With Mr. Hatoyama and Ambassador Fujisaki at the conference room

At night, there was Japan Sushi Reception jointly hosted by University of Tokyo and Keio University, supported by Teijin Limited and Sojitz Corporation. Many guests from the political, academic and business world attended. I would think this kind of party should be led by the business community. In fact, it’s the World “Economic” Forum.

Photo2 At Japan Reception with Mr. Hasegawa from Takeda Chemical, my friend and famous Indian political scientist, Mr. Challaney, Mr. Sakurai from Japan Association of Corporate Executives or Keizai-Doyu-kai

Photo3 With Ms. Kuniya of NHK, moderator of ‘Today’s Close-Up’

Photo4 With the President of Peking University

Just to list a few of the big names that attended from the political world, Mr. Hidenao Nakagawa, Mr. Koji Omi, Mr. Yukio Hatoyama(to substitute Mr. Ichiro Ozawa, the leader of DPJ who could not make it), Mr. Yasuhisa Shiozaki, Mr. Motohisa Furukawa, Ms. Kuniko Inoguchi etc. From the business world we had Presidents, CEO’s and Chairmen from various companies like Mr. Okuda of Toyota Motors, Mr. Yonekura of Sumitomo Chemical, Mr. Sakurai of Ricoh and Japan Association of Corporate Executives, Mr. Nagashima from Teijin, and Mr. Hasegawa from Takeda Chemical, etc. Ambassador Fujisaki, Mr. Kono the G8 Summit Sherpa and Councilor to the Foreign Ministry, Imai-san and Kuniya-san from NHK, Mr. Xu Zhihong, President of Peking University, Dr. Tachi Yamada of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Global Health Initiative also joined and we discussed about Japan’s contribution. Mr. S Brim, Founder of Google also showed up briefly. Also Dr. Yamanaka from Kyoto University, who is gaining fame by his research in iPS cells, was also there.

Photo5 With Takenaka-san, Dr. Yamada and 2 of Bono’s staff

Photo6 With Dr. Yamada, Prof. Yoko Ishikura and Prof. Anzai, President of Keio University

As Prime Minister Fukuda will participate this year, there is a mixed emotion of expectation and anxiety among us, as to how much he can communicate a high vision and powerful political messages expected of as one of the world’s political leaders.

From Davos, part1

Posted on 2008/01/242014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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The annual World Economic Forum will be held in Davos at the end of January. This will be my 8th attendance in a row. Please refer to some of my past blog in January.

Last year and this year, too, there is not much snow even around this area known for its snow and for skiing. Yesterday we had some snow fall, but today the weather is crystal clear.

Prime Minister Fukuda will give a speech on the 26th, so I heard that there are many people from the business society of Japan this year. It’s a good thing. Mr. Okuda, Chairman of Toyota Motor Corp., will also be arriving on the 24th. On my way to Davos, I was on the same flight with Ms. Sadako Ogata, President of JICA, Mr. Yonekura, President of Sumitomo Chemical (both were accompanied by their spouses) and Imai-san from NHK.

I was one of the panelists of the first session on the first day, 23rd, “Update 2008: Defining Innovation.” Participants were the CEO and Partner from IDEO, TPG Growth, Doblin (all from U.S.A.), CEO of Index（NPO, Denmark） and myself. Mr. Nussbaum(Business Week) was the session leader. The main topic was about investment into clean energy, relief for the socially vulnerable, open innovation etc. It was very encouraging to hear issues centered on these global agenda. It was indeed a bit surprising. Mr. McGlashan from TPG referred to my friend Steven Chu saying that “He is a wonderful man. I know him very well and support him. I’m also investing in his project.”

As for me, I talked about “the decade for Google”, “the decade for Apple and its revival with the creation of iPod and iPhone”, “the big success of Nintendo ‘Wii’ by creating a new model of non-videogame users (e.g., grandpas playing with their grandchildren”, “Negroponte’s ‘One laptop per child’ being a breakthrough of software concept” etc. I showed some examples of innovation from the recent global society that is becoming ‘flat’ and pointed out that people’s awareness to contribute to global issues are expanding throughout the world. In addition, I mentioned that the 2006 and 2007 Nobel Peace Prizes sending messages to potential answers and policy-making processes to the global issues, which is an epiphanic to the goals for innovation and I think they agreed to my point. I have pointed out these issues in my blog on January 3rd and 10th, so I hope that my blog readers also understand my point as well.

After that, there was a session where we had to come up with new proposals by discussing with the person seated next to you. There were a number of interesting ideas. I was quite impressed by the process and some of ideas!

I was very grateful to hear later some positive feedbacks that my arguments were clear and stimulating. Let’s offer compliments on good outcome on global issues, especially to our children!

In this year’s Davos meetings, there are “28” sessions related to Climate Change. This shows the huge and wide awareness in the business sector of the world. It looks as if Japanese industries are the only ones staying in their own shell.

In a later session, I met Dr. RK Pachauri, the Chairman of IPCC who has been awarded last year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Let’s look forward to his visit to Tokyo next month (note: this was later cancelled, but I was with him later in New Delhi).

My interviews

Posted on 2008/01/232014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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In a recent interview 2050: The Odyssey Begins （The Japan Journal　January, 2008）, I made my view crystal clear of the challenges of Japan and its responsibility as a global citizen nation. Otherwise, Japan may be buried as a forgotten quiet and retracted islands.

Another quotation of my comments by Mr David Dickson also appeared in Science and Developoment Network almost a few days ago.

Yes, Japan has to face the reality of the globalization and share its fare responsibility despite of her own huge internal resistance and problems. Yes, we can do a lot more, if the policy frameworks are set just right and with good leaderships in every sector of the society.

WHO commission, WHO Kobe Center and Global health

Posted on 2008/01/172014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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I am attending the WHO Commission for Social Determinents of Health（CSDH） held at WHO Kobe Center from the 16th. Kobe Center serves as one of the hub of CSDH and 16 Commissioners are participating this time. As I have reported in my blog about the CSDH that started in March, 2005 （Beijing、Vanacouver、Geneva、Nairobi etc.） this is the 10th and will be the last conference and the final report is due in June.

Thanks to Dr.Iwao, former Chief of Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare who headed the WHO Kobe Center until December 2007, just until 2 weeks ago, for this meeting in Kobe. I’m happy that this was Dr. Kumaresan’s first big task after he newly took office in January. Former Director Dr. Iwao, new Director Dr. Kumaresan, the Governor of Hyogo Prefecture and the Mayor of Kobe attended the reception held at the night of 16th. And today, January 17th marks the 13th year of the Kobe earthquake. WHO Kobe Center was established the following year after suffering from the damage.

This is the last conference of CSDH and will be the only one held in Japan. This year, Japan will host conferences that will attract the world’s attention like the TICAD and G8 summit. Also, it is the mid year of the United Nation’s MDG（Millennium Development Goals）. “Global Health” is one of the major global agenda. Last November, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Koumura addressed its importance in his speech and the content was published in Lancet.

This year, Japan will attract a lot of attention from the world which will also mean that it is a year of heavy responsibility as well. Nevertheless, stock prices are dropping in the year-end through the new year and sentiments are inward-focused in a stagnant mood as usual, don’t you think? To cope with this environment, Prime Minister Fukuda will attend the World Economic Forum in Davos in the end of this month and make a speech. There will be a policy speech tomorrow (18th), and the Davos Meeting speech will follow, so the staff at the Prime Minister’s office will be very busy.

With the understanding said above, we asked the Commissioners of CSDH to come to Tokyo in the morning of the 15th to pay a courtesy call to Prime Minister Fukuda and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr.Koumura. In the afternoon, we held a global conference on “Global Health as Global Agenda” with the presence of Mr. Masuzoe, Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare.

It was our attempt to urge the domestically focused Japanese to look at more global issues. It turned out to be very successful with about 200 enthusiastic participants. Keynote speeches and the panels were all wonderful. The Commissioners were also very happy about it. As being a member of the Commissioner myself, I was also very satisfied. Thanks to you all who have participated, the success is to your credit.

From New York City

Posted on 2008/01/112014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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Here I am in New York City. I came to visit The New York Academy of Sciences which is the first Academy of Sciences established in the United States. I have been working with this organization for several years now and decided to visit their new office which was moved to a new site last year. The office of the President and CEO, Mr. Ellis Rubinstein (photo 1), is located at the 40th floor of a building that stands next to Ground Zero of September 11. I did an interview with him for 45 minutes from 8:30 am. From 10:00am, attended a board meeting of a new project called “Scientists Without Borders” (photo 2). Sounds familiar? Yes, the naming comes from “Doctors Without Borders.” Its mission is about the same. Twelve (12) people are working as its Advisory members including myself.

Photo1　President Rubinstein and myself at his office
(Today, his wife, Dr Joanna Rubinstein is in Ethiopia with Dr Jeffery Sachs. She works as Executive Director of a program run by Dr Sachs )

Photo2　Together with Advisory members and NYAS staffs

Dr. Wakhungu from Kenya is also an Advisory member. Kenya has just gone through a presidential election and now is in great confusion because of the doubt of injustice. Especially I was concerned about Kibera slum which was reported to be in terrible chaos, and Dr. Wakhungu told me that the situation is really bad. Olympic Primary School which I mentioned in my blog of June 2006 and October 2007 was burned. I hope the school will be rebuilt somehow quickly.

Also, Prof. Victor Zhau at Duke University, whom I met yesterday at Washington DC and introduced in my blog is in the Advisory board. We are working together again. Dr. Seth Berkley of Int’l AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), whom I introduced in my blog in October 2007 is also with us and he gave us many suggestions based on his own experience. We did brainstorming for full 3 hours covering issues such as registration, potentials, management, funding, etc. There are many problems addressed and to be solved, but it certainly was a good learning opportunity. A MD-PhD candidate at Columbia University School of Medicine (moved from India with his/her parents) is joining our session, too. Developing a new project like this inviting such young people is nice. I certainly hope that this project will get started no matter how much time it may take.

Photo3　In front of the bust of Charles Darwin at the reception of NYAS with Ms Miura, vice consul of Consulate general in New York

In the afternoon, I went to the Council of Foreign Relations known by its outstanding journal “Foreign Affairs.” To my amazement, the day before, Dr. Tachi Yamada of Gates foundation, whom I wrote about in my blog was here to give lecture on “Global Health.” It is an interesting coincidence that I gave a lecture at The World Bank in Washington DC under the same theme. I quickly sent an e-mail to him about this. The purpose of my visit is to see Dr. Laurie Garrett, a Senior Fellow for Global Health, who wrote a great paper on “Foreign Affairs” Jan-Feb 2007, which pointed out that “the waste is seen so much in projects on AIDS.” I was impressed by this paper, and asked her to be a jury member to select the winner of Noguchi Hideyo Africa Prize, a prize established by the suggestion of former Prime Minister Mr. Koizumi, it’s first awarding ceremony scheduled during TICAD that will be held in Yokohama in May. I came to thank her for accepting our invitation and discussed our common interests, global health.

Photo4　With Dr. Laurie Garrett

Today, it is warm here New York City this winter. The city has unique and unexplainable charm.

Photo5　On the street of NYC

Then I went to the Rockefeller foundation to see Managing Director, Dr. Ariel Pablos-Mendez (Photo 6) to talk about the report on a meeting which he organized “Pocantico II: The Global Challenge of Health Systems.” Unfortunately, I received a message from the President Dr. Judith Rodin, saying that her schedule did not match mine this time. Maybe we will be able to see each other at the World Economic Forum at Davos, two weeks from now.

Photo6　Together with Dr. Ariel Pablos-Mendez

Dr. Rodin is the first woman to become the president of an Ivy League University in 1994. She became the president of the University of Pennsylvania, where I started my career in the US. But, now, four (Princeton, Pennsylvania, Brown, Harvard) among eight Ivy League Universities have female presidents. How about Japan? I mention this so many times, but….

Dr. Rodin was the Provost at Yale University before becoming the President of the U. Penn., and as I pointed out several times, Dr. Allison Richard, top (it is called Vice Chancellor because Chancellor is HRH Duke of Edinburgh) of Cambridge University and Dr. Suzan Hockfield, President of MIT, both were recruited to head these top universities when they were the Provost at Yale. Is this a sheer coincidence? Or does this mean that Yale has an exceptional ability to choose right people?

This day was also a day of preliminary of the Presidential Election in New Hampshire, and Ms. Clinton won to make up the defeat in Iowa, making it a tie to Obama. Do you think US will have a first female president?

The main objective of this two day trip of visits and lectures was to prepare for the Global Health related meeting (under the auspices of WHO, World Bank, Gates Foundation, NPO, Government of Japan) and connecting it to preparation of and publicity for TICAD, G8 Summit.

In the evening, I had dinner in a restaurant in Soho with Dr. Rubinstein and Dr. Berkeley, whom I saw in the morning, and Mr. Nakasone, a student at the School of International and Public Affairs, Graduate School of Columbia University whom I met in Tokyo this summer. Mr Nakasone is a fascinating young man. I am looking forward to his future as a world level career holder. Maybe you have guessed by his name ? yes, he is a grandson of former prime minister Mr. Nakasone, and son of Mr. Hirofumi Nakasone, a member of the House of Councilors.

I left JFK Airport in the morning of January 9, to return to Japan.