politics – Page 26 – Kiyoshi Kurokawa.com

From London

Posted on 2007/12/182014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

Well, its just 3 weeks before year end. I left for London on December 13. From 14 to 17th, there was the Carnegie meeting where G8 Scientific advisors and Ministers gather.

As soon as I arrived in London, I took some rest and headed towards Royal Society. I visited the chairman, Lord Martin Rees（ Photograph 1）. Ever since the 2005 Gleneagles G8 Summit, there is a close cooperation between the Royal Society and the Science council of Japan. Some activity is expected from the Science Council of Japan in the next G8.

Photograph 1　 At the Royal Society with Lord Martin Rees, Mr. Matsuura, the First Secretary of the Embassy

Photograph 2　With Mr. Barnie Jones, Lord Rees in the balcony of the Royal Society
（It is bit hazy but the orange colored “Eyeball like thing” behind me at the right is Big Ben. The thing seen on the left is the Ferris wheel.）

I had dinner (I also had dinner in January this year) on the 13th with His Excellency Nogami at his hotel. Mr. Nishigahiro, the Secretary General of Science Council of Japan up to beginning of this year, Mr.Takaoka, the Minister, Mr. Matsuura the First Secretary, Mr. Itakura, Counselor and Mr. Nomura from the Venture Capital who specialized in “Clean energy” at London base , who also participated in Abu Dhabi in November were with me. Mr. Nogami, the Ambassador is not just in politics but is also familiar with economics as well. He also participates in events such as the annual meetings of British (POW) who were Japanese captives during the World War II and if anybody expires, attends their funeral services at any cost. This may not look very spectacular but such inconspicuous action is the basis of diplomacy. It is after all human beings who connect to each other.

At any rate, the GDP of England has grown up to 40% in 10 years. It is mainly centered on the service industry but the financial power is also formidable. Lately the transaction amount of the City has exceeded the NYSE. In addition, due to subprime crisis in the USA, investment and people both are coming towards City. I came to know later that the investment including entire bonus of the City this year is enormous (one trillion yen!) which reflects the prosperity of the business conditions. The information related to this, policies, sudden drop in the popularity of the Prime Minister Gordon Brown etc. Analysis of the Ambassador Mr. Nogami is quite something.

The talk just went on and the dinner meeting continued till midnight. Thanks to Ambassador Nogami and to all of whom I had pleasure to meet.

‘Japan Specials’ in recent issues of leading international business journals

Posted on 2007/12/132014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

Recent issues in two leading business weekly journals have highlighted Japan. One is The Economist and another is Newsweek of its international version.

Cover Page of The Economist

The Economist, December 1st, states in the cover, ‘A 14-pages special report on business in Japan’ and the title is ‘Going Hybrid’ http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displayStory.cfm?story_id=10169956, consisting of five reports; they are；1）Message in a bottle of sauce； 2）Still work to be done； 3）Not invented here； 4）No country if an island； and 5）JapAnglo-Saxon capitalism（no spell error!）.

Though the title of reports may look attractive, the special issue as a while emphasizes as might be expected, that business in Japan is moving perhaps toward to right track, but the speed is the issue. If you see the subtitles of each, the message may be a bit clearer even without reading it.

1）Message in a bottle of sauce; Japan’s corporate governance is changing, but it’s risky to rush things;
2）Still work to be done; Japan’s labour market is becoming more flexible, but also more unequal;
3）Not invented here; Entrepreneurs have had a hard time, but things are slowly improving;
4）No country is an island; Japan is reluctantly embracing globalization; and
5）JapAnglo-Saxon capitalism; Have Japan business practices changed enough?

Cover Page of Newsweek

The special in the Newsweek, December 10th issues, is more straight. The caption in the cover reads ‘How Japan Lost Its Groove; The Asian powerhouse struggles to explain its stumbles in hot technology’ and the title of the report is ‘Why Apple Isn’t Japanese’ .

My friend, Yoko Ishikura, was one of interviewees and her comments can be read in the On-line version as stated in her blog.

The world is watching what Japanese business will do, is trying to become of, and what it will act upon.

Japan-Arab conference at the Alexandria library

Posted on 2007/11/262014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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I arrived the Kansai airport from Haneda on the evening of Nov. 19th. Then I flew to Dubai and now arrived at Alexandria, Egypt. This was my 3rd visit to the Dubai airport in last 4 weeks. I arrived at Alexandria on the 20th at 11:30 and headed directly to the Alexandria Library. This about 2300 year’s old library is the world’s first scientific academy, and the magnificient buliding was reconstructed 5 years ago. The contents have also been reinforced under the leadership of Dr. Serageldin, the library chief. He is also my friend and has developed several excellent programs. I am also a member of the Board of Trustees of the library for past 3 years and I visit this place for the meeting conducted in spring.

I arrived to the Library just in time. I had an interview from 1:00 pm with Mr. Helal, the Education Minister of Science and Technology. I have met him several times in past few years. He is a scholar and a splendid person. There is a considerable support from Japan. It is delightful to hear that an opera house is being constructed recently in addition to the plans of establishing a science and technology institute with the support of Japan. I mainly discussed about the academic exchange with Minister Helal.

Photo1 On the library terrace

There were about 120 people from Japan and 150 people from Arab countries participated in the Japan-Arab conference. The conference had various sessions and sub-sessions and a full discussions were conducted about a wide range of topics, such as politics, economics, science, technology, environment, health care, culture, and art, etc.. From Japan, the group was headed by honorable former MInister Mr. Taro Nakayama besides honorable former Ministers, Mr. Koji Omi, Ms. Yuriko Koike. From the business sector Mr. Jiro Nemoto of honorary chairman of Nippon Yusen, Mr. Sadao Umeda of chairman of Kajima Corporation. Dr. Masahisa Yamauchi, a professor of Middle East politics, Mr. Daisuke Nishimura, a foreign ministry environment personnel, and Mr. Youji Yamada, a film director who directed "The Twilight Samurai" was also present since this film was to be shown there. I chaired the environment and water panel and went to several panels. I was happy that several people I know had come as representatives from the Arab world.

Also I have a good time with former Ambassador Mr. Arima Tatsuo, the busy Japanese government representative on the MIddle East Affairs. We had planed to meet up before but our timelines never matched until this time. Needless to say that Mr. Ishikawa, an ambassador to Egypt, and from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Katakura and Mr. Sudou, the former ambassadors to the embassy of Egypt, participated. This kind of gathering of three ambassodor was extremely rare as I was told. Also, an ambassador to Morocco, Ms. Haruko Hirose(Also introduced in the blog of Ms. Mayumi Moriyama, a member and worked as No.2 in UNIDO) had come over there. Since she is working with the United Nations for a long time, even a minor opinion she say shows a fine taste on international relations.

Photo2 In the Hernan Palestine Hotel. From right, Mr. Kaoru Ishikawa, Mr.Takaya Sudo(Chairman of Research Institute of International Affairs Disarmament Center, Former Ambassador to Egypt), Dr. Masayuki Yamauchi(a professor at The University of Tokyo), Ms. Aiko Douden(NHK Commentator), myself, Mr. Numata Sadaaki(Chairman of Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership, Former Ambassador to Canada), Mr. Shinsaku Sugiyama(Councilor of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Middle East Africa Bureau)

Historically, there has been little religious conflicts between the Middle East and Japan. Since good relations are built from the past, it is a region in which mutual exchanges need to be continued.and strengthened The basic understanding with both parties is that current exchange with Japan is solely in relation to petroleum, and Arabs are not very aware of Japan and vice versa. It was agreed that there should be more and more exchanges in various fields. In addition to this, it was also agreed that the contribution of Japan towards environment, clean energy and water problems was immeasurable.

A congress member, Ms. Yuriko Koike, appeared live-broadcasting on the Cairo T.V. on the night of 21st about an hour. There was one to one interview in Arabic and the theme was about “global warming” and “CoolBiz” in fluent Arabic language which actually was quite something. A tree plantation is going on in the deserts from past 10 years and currently there seem to be 14,000 trees now. This year, the Cairo University is celebrating its 100th anniversary. Ms. Koike, a graduate of Cairo University, is quite admirable that she has many friends and influential people over here.

On the afternoon of 22nd, I left Cairo. Since I had a time at Dubai about 5 hours for transit, I had dinner with Ms. Lama Farsakh(Photo3). She is from Palestine and her husband is from Egypt. They have two daughters. We mostly talked about the Israel-Palestine issues.

Photo3 With Ms. Lama Farsakh

From Abu Dhabi－3; Dubai, and the Japanese environment technology.

Posted on 2007/11/222014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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On Oct. 26th, I was in Abu Dhabi and then stayed in Beijing and arrived at Narita late at night. The following day, there was a meeting presided by Dr. Uzawa and I enjoyed this Saturday event. The next week Monday to Friday was very busy. Then I once again departed to Abu Dhabi in the early morning on Saturday.

This time it was a very different task. At both Abu Dhabi and Dubai about twelve Japanese companies collaborated under the leadership of Nikken Sekkei Ltd. to display and introduce the environmental techniques which are pride of Japan. I gave a speech from the point of view of a scientist.

However, to visit Dubai Airport and Abu Dhabi twice within ten days was something I never would imagine, despite the fact that there were many coincidences that led this to happen.

After arriving in Dubai, a reception at the official residence of the consulate took place. After staying there overnight, I went to Abu Dhabi again after a gap of "10 days." I met the Ambassador His Excellency Hatano, some businessmen, and the Director General of INSEAD Abu Dhabi School. I brought Japanese sweets for the students of the Japanese school as I promised at my previous visit and handed them through Mr. Yoshimura, the principal. At night there was an excellent Japanese display of the environmental techniques and a video introduction of a proposal of new urban development. There was also an interview with His Highness the Prince in between and after that I addressed to the gathering. The speech given by His Highness the Prince was very earnest and made us aware that more efforts were needed for education. A part of his thoughts now in action is to enroll the local students in the Japanese school and he seemed to be very thankful to Ambassador Hatano for sharing the same view.

The climate in Abu Dhabi in this time of the year is very pleasant. It is somewhat like Los Angeles.

Photo1: At the Abu Dhabi Golf Club, from left myself, His Excellency Hatano, Director General of INSEAD Abu Dhabi school Mr. Peter Jadersten, my friends Mr. Nomura, Mr. Saito

Photo2: At the Abu Dhabi Golf Club, myself and Mr. Saito

Photo3: In front of the residence of the consulate, from left Mr. Saito, Mr. Nomura, myself

Photo4: Having omelet rice at the terrace of the consulate residence. From left, Mr. Korenaga, myself, Ms. Yoro, His Excellency Hatano, Mr. Saito, Mr. Nomura

25% of Japan’s petroleum imports are from Abu Dhabi. On the other hand, there is a future urban development plan called MASDAR over here which in the long run does not emit CO2 by using clean energy. It is incorporated very ambitiously. This ambitious project was also reffered to in the speech.

※A copy of the speech
"Planet in Peril: Nation with Clear Vision as a New Global Leader of Sustainable Urban Development, Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates"

The following day, I gave another speech which was slightly different and referred to the recent ambitious project "Enpark."

I arrived at Narita at night on the 6th.

From Abu Dhabi-1, To Japanese school

Posted on 2007/10/292014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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I returned from Seoul on 17th, and after spending a few busy days in Japan, I came to Abu Dhabi, the capital of United Arab Emirates（UAE）on 22nd in the afternoon. Approximately 15 Nobel laureates have participated in a conference called "Festival of Thinkers." I have been at the Dubai airport many times but this is the first time I am coming outside the airport. Coordinator of Japan delegation was Dr. Cassim, President of the Asian Pacific University.

On 21st late afternoon, I moved from Haneda to Kansai International Airport. In the lounge, I met Dr. Nassrine Azimi, who is joining us this time and we departed by a midnight flight. She is the director of UNITAR in Hiroshima. She is an intellectual cosmopolitan of many accomplishments, a native of Iran, and has completed her education in Switzerland. 3 years ago, soon after she assumed the office, I went to Hiroshima to attend a seminar (blog: Oct. 21, 2004). A storm was approaching then and there were a big earthquakes known as Chuetsu Earthquake in mid Nigata prefecture.

So it was nice to meet her after a long time and I really enjoyed talking with her about various topics. We also discussed about the panel at the conference and I introduced Professor Miyagawa of MIT by e-mail. Dr. Miyagawa is a member of the team which planned the Open Course Ware of MIT, and recently he has started a fantastic program called Visualizing Cultures with Professor John Dowers, a Pulitzer Prizes winner and the author of "Embracing defeat." I have a feeling that something wonderful will come out from the collaboration of Professor Miyagawa and Dr. Azimi. By the way, Professor Miyagawa is staying in Japan this year so I invited him to the National Institute for Policy Studies to give a speech to high school students of Musashi Gakuen. I will write about it in some other occasion(blog: Jan. 4, 2005）.

After arriving Dubai airport I traveled towards Abu Dhabi by car for about 90 minutes. There were many new constructions springing out from desert, and everything was very energetic. There was a feeling of "money can do anything." I heard that 60% of the cranes from all over the world were brought here. Leaving the suburbs behind, the car ran and ran through the highway in desert, and as we approached towards Abu Dhabi, trees and greens increased. So I was relaxed. It was also because some of the views reminded me of southern California. The green view s a result of the efforts of Zeid, late great emperor of Abu Dhabi who has taken initiative in tree plantation campaign of "green desert, green country." This is a great achievement.

I reached Abu Dhabi early in the afternoon and stayed at the Emirates Palace Hotel (for details, refer http://virtual-emiratespalace-uk.com/). The hotel was huge just like a Palace, with beautiful private beach. I hear that former Prime Minister Abe and many people from the business world had stayed here in the beginning of this year. I heard some stories about it, too. During my stay of three days, I could not understand the structural design of the hotel. I was tired just by walking inside the hotel.

Photo1-2: Hall and ceiling in Emirates Palace（There are many halls like this）

Photo3: Dr. Cassim and Dr. Ishikura

Photo4: Dr. Tayeb A Kamali, Vice Chancellor of HCT (Higher College of Technology), organizer of the conference and Dr. Ishikura.

On the same day, I went to the Japanese school in the afternoon, as His Excellency Hatano, the Ambassador invited me. There were approximately 50 to 60 students from kindergarten to 9th grade. I would like to express my appreciation to Principal Mr.Yoshizaki, teachers from Japan and all local assistants for their hard work. Under the suggestion of His Excellency Hatano, four local children were also admitted in the kindergarten. I was told that the school plans to increase the number of local children in each class and the children’s parents appreciate the disciplinary rules, same meals being provided to every children etc. in Japanese school. Such kind of small things will become foundation of building goodwill, exchange of ideas and mutual understanding.

My speech was for about half an hour and mothers of many students were there also. It is very difficult to interact with an audience consisting students from 3years old to the students in 9th grade. However, I told them that I think the Japanese schools are very much blessed as compared to times when I was in Los Angeles when the Japanese School system (a supplementary school which opened only on Saturdays) began to take shape and the returnee student admission system several years later. I also told them that to experience things that people usually can not experience could be very helpful in future global era and my expectations to the children who will live in global era.

Photo5: Japanese school in Abu Dhabi

"Among the schools you’ve seen, which school was good?" was a very difficult question. Therefore, I told an experience when I had visited last year to Olympic Primary School in Kibera Slum (Reference 1) of Nairobi (blog: Jun. 27, 2006). Children in this slum area face a very hard life, where there is no toilet in their narrow houses, no kitchen, no electricity, dirtiness all around and they are struggling to stay alive every day. All the classrooms overflowed with the students and everyday they commute to school by walking for more than 1 hour. However, I saw a spark in their eyes, they were studying sincerely even in such hard conditions and the teachers were confident too. This school is from grade 1 to 8 and is the top school in Kenya. I told them about my comment "The most moving experience in my life, I see the future of the nation" which I wrote in the guest book. I hope someone will read this comment in the future. I do not know when it will happen but I am waiting for the news.

I was happy to answer the wonderful questions from the students. Problems senior students were facing were, naturally, mainly about career options. They were worried about their future like whether to go to Japanese school or about career objectives. It is very difficult for the children and their parents also. There might be some problems specifically because it is a full time Japanese school and not an International School.

For example, a girl in ninth grade who came from Egypt. She has a good command on Japanese as well as Arabic; however, she was not sure about her future career options. I recommended that, thinking about the future world, unless she has a definite reason or objectives to go to Japan, she aim at English speaking countries or perhaps the schools having English as the main language.

I understood by looking into the eyes of those children that they have a great potential and fighting with the uncertainties/anxiety of being between Japan and foreign countries. I was impressed. I wish everyone a great future and great dreams.

Photo6: At the ambassador’s residence, with the Ambassador His Excellency Hatano and Ms. Maria Yogo, Assistant Director of Japanese kindergarten (Maria Yogo is a Japanese name. She has many doctors in her family.)

Photo7: Dr. Ishikura, Professor of Lindqvist and Director of Nobel Museum with his wife.

Photo8: Dr. Kary Mullis, the famous Nobel laureate in chemistry, inventor of common Gene amplification methods PCR and his friend; Dr. J Barbour, a "Physicist and Author" who writes books on light etc.

In the evening, I had dinner at ambassador’s residence and it was a beautiful moment to meet old friends, be acquainted with new people at the assembly reception.

The young people and the leaders of the world, and Sir. David King of the British Embassy　～Issues and Expectations of Japan as seen from the world

Posted on 2007/10/152014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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This is an activity report from October 7th to 9th from the following day after I returned back Japan from the selection of UNESCO-L’Oreal prize in Paris. 8 o’clock in the morening on October 7th, I went the BioCamp. This is a “Camp” conducted once in a year by Novartis, the global company, for about 40 young Asian people since 2005 （Refer:1, 2）. The first camp was conducted in Taiwan, and the keynote was addressed by Dr. Yuan T Lee, the 1986 noble prize winner in chemistry. The second camp was conducted in Singapore, and the keynote address was given by the Science Minister Mr. Philip Yeo. And this time, Mr. R. Horwitz of MIT, the winner of medical student noble prize of 2002, and I made the keynote address. There were probably about 40 participants and the male : female ratio was 5 : 5. Amongst them, there were 15 participants from Japan and the ratio was 7 : 3 which shows the large number of male participants （this means that there were more female participants from other countries）. I was a bit sad as I had just selected a woman researcher in Paris the previous day.

I came to know later that the event was telecast in the "Mino-Monta’s" morning show on the following day for about 90 seconds, included some parts of my speech. The program reported this camp as an example of that the private enterprise’s contribution towards the growth of young people.

I had to go Kyoto just after the address. There was the 4th STS Forum. There was a short greeting by Prime Minister Fukuda in the morning session. I could not reach in time for his speech and so I participated from the afternoon session. This year, the event attendees have considerably increased to about 4 times. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet the leaders, friends and have new acquaintances （Picture1～4）. The discussion, such as about problems and policies of the world, have progressed quite well since the last year’s conference. After all, there is no doubt that the climate changes or sustainable society are the main issues of the world, from the last year’s conference. In this world’s issues, there are huge expectations to Japan, I think・・・.

Picture1　From left myself, Dr. Yuan T Lee, Dr. Yoshikawa and Dr. Waldvogel

Picture2　From left myself, Mr. Charles Vest and Mr. Youngsuk Chi

Picture3　From left myself and Dr. Serageldin, Egyptian ambassador and Alexandria library superintendent

Picture4 Mr. George Atkinson and Ms. Nina V. Fedoroff, the science advisor of Ms. Rice Secretary of U.S State Department

After the STS Forum, I came back to Tokyo on the 9th and I headed towards the University of Tokyo, Institute of Medical Science, from the Shinagawa station. I participated in the speech about the vaccine development with Mr. Seth Berkley, a founder of International AIDS Vaccine Promotion Plan （IAVI）. （We know each other since the Davos Economic Forum in 2 years ago, and we both participated in this STS Forum）

In this evening, I went dinner with the Science Advisor of British Prime Minister, Sir. David King. Of course the topic was mainly about the G8 summit in July 2008 in Japan. 4 of my staff （member from the Cabinet Secretariat, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, General Council on Science and Technology and Science Council of Japan） were also participate.

Japan is the host country for the G8 summit, and deals with the problems of the world, How are we trying to solve the climate changes and the problems in Africa? How about Japan’s leadership in Asia? I feel this might be a crucial moment for Japan at the beginning of the 21st century・・・.

In the G8 summit in Germany, Japan’s contribution was very high though （comparatively I do not think the evaluation within and outside of Japan was good. It is as usual because of lack of communication strategy）, then what can Japan do about the climate change, now? In addition to this, TICAD will be held in May 2008 in Yokohama. In spite of the marvelous opportunity for taking leadership about the Africa issue, it is irritating that "intention of the nation (National Policy)" was not conveyed to the world in any of the themes.

I feel this is common sence of the world that Japan cannot be seen in the "rapidly moving world." This can be said that because of the unexpected change of the cabinet, though.

Well, what do you think about this? It’s tiring, isn’t it?

From beautiful Hangzhou, city of West Lake

Posted on 2007/09/252014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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From 20th to 22nd, I came to Hangzhou, which Marco Polo had described to be "The most beautiful city" in his book, "The Travels of Marco Polo" also known as Oriente Poliano (Reference: "About Hangzhou," "Culture of Hangzhou" and "How to make things enjoyable in Hangzhou"). The streets around the West Lake are marvelous with full of greens everywhere. When I walked around the West Lake town (about 12 km), there were many willow, camphor and platanus trees. The streets lined up with willow trees were very beautiful. I was impressed with the affluent greenery of this city (Reference: Hangzhou flower garden ).

You might have seen on television etc. but a very rare phenomenon of high tides with the height of 2 to 3 meters running several hundred kilometers up from wide river mouth gradually till it becomes narrow is seen in Sentoko at around 15th August as per old calendar (end of September as per new calendar). This phenomenon is also seen in the Amazon river. The timing is only a week from now; It is a pity that I have to return back immediately.

This time, I came for a keynote lecture ("Social policy for the aged society") at the annual conference of the Society of Internal Medicine in China. I met many old friends and we renewed our old friendship. There were Prof. Thomson from Department of Medicine, Monach university, Melborne, Prof. Drazen, editor-in-chief of New England Journal of Medicine, Prof. Kohler, director general of Secretariat of International Society of Internal Medicine of Bern (Switzerland), Prof. K.N. Lai, director of kidney, Department of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong and Pro. Zhaori, chief editor of a Chinese science magazine "Chinese Medical Journal." The host was Prof. Wang Haiyan (lady professor), president of Chinese Society of Internal Medicine, one of my old friends (Photo1). I felt reformation and international developments for global era in progress everywhere and its dynamisms were great. It is just wonderful and inspiring.

Photo1: At the reception, from left, Professors Lai, Drazen, Kohler, Wang, Thomson and myself.

Next day, Prof. Lawrence Tierney of UCSF, who attended my clinical lecture 2, 3 times in my Todai era and chief editor of "Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment" whom I helped for chapter "Abnormalities in body fluid" arrived. As introduced also in "Learn in ‘Major leaguer’ "(Igaku-Shoin, 2002) by Dr. Matsumura Rishi, he is a wonderful teacher visiting Japan every year and traveling all over the world. He will be visiting Japan for about one month from next month.

Maybe the readers of my blog are aware that I go to various places in the world but usually don’t go for sightseeing. Regret to say I don’t have time for it. However, this time, all the lectures other than those by invited lecturers were in Chinese, so Dr. Zhangfei Shou (working in related hospitals of Zhejiang University, School of Medicine. Its Dean is Dr. Ba Denian whom I have introduced in my blog last week) took me to many places. I am very thankful.

We went to Ling Yin Temple (Photo2 and 3), Fei Lai Feng near it (Photo4) and then to Six Harmonies Pagoda (here, "Six" means heaven, earth, north, south, east and west ) (Photo5). Hangzhou is famous for producing tea and silk since long time ago. It is a sister city of Shizuoka city in Japan. We also visited museum of tea "Chinese tea museum." I felt relaxed in nature at this tea museum (Photo 6), it’s been a while since I had this feeling last time.

Photo2 and 3: At Ling Yin Temple with Dr. Shou (The frame "Ling Yin Temple" at the gate was written by Mr.Jiang Zemin)

Photo4: At Fei Lai Feng with Dr. Shou

Photo5: At Six Harmonies Pagoda with Dr. Shou

Photo6: Tea farm

Photo7: At West Lake with Dr. Shou

As like at Dalian last month, it is a pleasure to see an increasing level of exchange in academic and private sectors taking place between neighboring big countries.

The sites which I cited in my blog introduce many hands on blogs without limiting to official blogs. If you are interested, search for the sites which have good information.

I will be visiting Beijing again to participate in WHO meeting.

From Dalian – attending New World Champions

Posted on 2007/09/142014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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I’d been to Dalian from 5th to 8th September.

It was a conference of “New World Champions" that the so-called Davos Forum (World Economic Forum－WEF) over. I have attended 7 consecutive years of Davos Forum that is held every year in January and I have also attended other conferences that the WEF preside over. I think they are considerably familiar for the readers of my blog. Davos Forum of this January and conference at Singapore in June etc are as I have reported. The conference hall in Dalian was a very big one.

The conference was a large successful meeting where about 1,700 people had gathered from 90 countries mainly from Asia. Especially, the participation of young people and new enterprises was great, and was very much crowded. From Japan, politicians like Jyunko Kawaguchi, Motohisa Furukawa and Keiichiro Asao, university people like Heizo Takenaka, Director Nagata of Ritsumeikan University, and Yoko Ishikura etc. were present. Also, stakeholders from wide range of society, mainly business people such as Yoichi Funabashi, chief editor of Asahi Newspaper and Tamura, Administrative Vice Minister of the Ministry of Environment were there. I also met Hiroshi Tasaka and Kumi Fujisawa whom I have introduced on this site recently.

Dalien20070908001_2 Photo1 With Ms.Tsubouchi in charge of Geneva headquarters of WEF Japan at hall entrance.

Dalien20070908002 Photo2 From left, Director Lee of WEF Asia meeting, Tsuchiya in charge of Geneva headquarters Japan, Ishikura, I and Takenaka.

Dalien20070908003 Photo3 From left, Toru Takanarita the editor of Asahi Newspaper, I and Yoichi Funabashi the editor in chief.

I participated in two panels as a panel member. First panel was “The Transformative Potential of Science and Technology in Asia”. Mr. Graves, the chairperson of this session is related to the production of the program that used as its anchor Ms. Nonaka who later became Chairman of Sanyo electric and was a topic and Ms. Yoriko Koike, one of the star politicians of today. I exchange E-mails with him even after the meeting. Wan Gang, the Minister of Science and Technology of China, is originally a scientist and also was the president of a university. His opinion was also excellent. Look it up on the site of weforum.org.

Moreover, the PR activity for “Table for Two” project which was planned by James Kondo our colleague, Furukawa a Democratic Party congress member, Nakata the Mayor of Yokohama, Chino of Itochu corporation and Young Global Leaders of WEF of Japan is also active and during this meeting Press Release to the world was also conducted. Excellent! It is a practical program based on groundbreaking idea of offering the surplus of the intake of nutrition which cause the obesity and diabetes in advanced countries to the malnourished children in developing countries through WFP (World Food Program). I would encourage all domestic companies as well as international companies to participate and please introduce us to any interested companies. Please read also my support message of this program.

Dalien20070908004 Photo4 Furukawa the congress member of Democratic Party and I in front of a “Table for Two” poster.

On the second night of reception, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao came to greet and then excellent shows with good tempo in large numbers were performed one after another.

Dalien20070908005 Photo5 “Thousand Armed Avalokiteshwara” by deaf young people in reception. Really excellent! Some of you may have seen it on television in Japan.

Dalien20070908006 Photo6 A scene from the reception shows.

The second panel during dinner, in which I participated, was a session on Energy. It was so nice. I met Lady Barbara Thomas Judge, former Commissioner of (Unites States) Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), who had visited Tokyo Stock Exchange many times about 20 years ago and who strongly supported my opinion related to nuclear energy, almost after one year. I participated with her in BusinessWeek CEO Forum performed in Beijing last November in the same panel.

Dalien20070908007 Photo7 Lady Judge, I and Ishikura.

Dalien20070908008 Photo8 Prof. So (From Dalian. He used to teach in the Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University), Director Nagata, I and Tsukamoto the Director of JETRO.

There were various new encounters and reunions. Friend’s circle extended and I also got dynamic energy, it really was stimulating three days. Gained much more encouragement. Our involvement in these activities also seems to have stimulated young people who participated from Japan which is very good. As I always say, future is in the hands of young people.

Dalien20070908009 Photo9 Dr. and Ms.Professor Schwab, Chairman of WEF and I at Japan reception.

Dalian is a very beautiful city. Japan has constructed its infrastructure which is maybe the reason for the hearty welcome. They show us the headquarters of Manchuria Railways, the laboratory of Manchuria Railways, and so on. They are maintained beautifully and are located at the center of city. About 4,000 Japanese enterprises are now operating in Dalian, and I think the contribution of Japan to expand its economy, employment etc. is considerable. Most local staffs speak Japanese in the hotels etc.

I woke up at 5:30 in the morning on 8th and went to Chubu International Airport by 8:00 a.m. flight. From Chubu International Airport travelled to Nagoya railway station by Meitetsu railway and then again travelled to Tokyo by Shinkansen. I arrived at the assembly hall of Japanese Society of Nephrology at 3 o’clock and did the memorial speech for its 50th anniversary. After that, I immediately headed to Science Council of Japan and participated to the 2nd day of international conference “Sustainable Society” held every year. I gave the last (closing) speech from 6 o’clock.

Whew, I am hopping here and there busily.

Keynote speech at Innovation Japan 2007 and surprising news of “resignation of the Prime Minister”

Posted on 2007/09/132014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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On September 12th, I made a keynote speech at 「Innovation Japan 2007」 held in Tokyo International Forum. I talked for 30 minutes from 13:00 and the content I covered is almost the same as "GIES2007"（link to my blog ） and Helsinki （click here to jump to my blog ） where I spoke in English and Japanese respectively and I used mostly the same slides. They are posted on each respective site, so I hope you read, see and listen to it.
When the panel for keynote speech started, it was the very moment when Prime Minister Abe announced his resignation. Mr. Masahiro Hashimoto from NEDO who was the MC for the panel handled it well and broke this news.

The panelists were Dr. Yuko Harayama from Council for Science and Technology Policy, Dr. Kazuhito Hashimoto who is the former Director of Research Center for Advanced Technology also known for photocatalyst research and is one of Japan’s leading, extremely talented and definitely a prominent innovator. Dr. Ryuichi Morishita who is a professor at Osaka University and Director of Anges, Mr. Hitoshi Sekita who is also known as an “out of the box” person who spun-out from NEC and founded Cyber-Laser with a wonderful laser technology. It was a great panel. As always, for detail of this panel and venue, please visit Deguchi san’s site which gives a good description.

I went around and saw mainly the exhibition of university ventures such as Japan Women’s University Dr. Kashiko Kodate’s female student group’s exhibition etc.
As I always say, women’s success is an issue at a global level as well as something we can look forward to. It is especially an important issue for Japan. There are lots of wonderful potentials hidden in the fruit of a research, but what is necessary to make them into businesses, are investors and businessmen with affluent entrepreneur spirits. Most researchers are not good at presentation to investors, needless to say about their experience or knowledge of business. This is the problem that Japan now faces. On this point, Mr.Kazuhiko Toyama’s recent book “Company rot from the top” (Japanese title:「会社は頭から腐る」) is based on a true story and you may sympathize deeply and would be of some reference to you. I recommend you to read it.

From Helsinki

Posted on 2007/08/312014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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When it comes to Finland, I remember my friend Mr. Aho. He was the President when USSR dissolution took place in 1991 and the country was in its worst condition. In the springtime this year, I received a sudden unexpected phone call from him saying that he wanted me to participate in the annual conference of SITRA where he is acting as President. I accepted the invitation with pleasure. He is one of the leaders in the world, whom I have seen also at a conference at St. Petersburg in June. I came to Helsinki this time for the SITRA conference.

Photo1　The garden in front of hotel

My visit to Helsinki is after more than 10 years, since the conference of International Union of Physiological Sciences. At that time, Mr. Miyagawa was the ambassador of Finland and Mr. Matsuda was the ambassador of Denmark. I remember this because I have visited them after receiving their invitation. When I was working at UCLA, both of them were Consulate Generals of Los Angeles so I was quite acquainted with them. Helsinki is a beautiful calm town. There are big rocks around here. The population of Helsinki inner city is 5, 00,000 and one million including suburb. In the evening of the day I arrived, His Excellency Ambassador Honda invited me for a dinner with first secretary Mr. Sakamoto at his residence.

Next day I visited the University of Art and Design Helsinki and The Theatre Academy (photo3), where subjects such as art, design, drama are being taught, with Mr. Teppo Turkki (photo2) . Mr. Turkki has come to Tokyo in June with his family (his wife and two children. Mrs. Turkki is a professional ballet dancer and she seems to be busy in creative dance show along with her studies in the ethnic backgrounds) for one month to participate in the workshop of "Global Innovation Ecosystem" that was introduced in the Blog of June 29. The people in Finland are fond of activities such as design, drama and it seems to be a very important part of their life. They are very popular. I am told that tuition fees are exempted in the colleges, even for the International students. Isn’t it a nice environment? There are students from Japan, China, and South Korea also.

Photo2　With Mr. Turkki

Photo3　With the President of academy (Of course, poster behind was our topic.)

Mr. Turkki posts several reports on his visit to Japan to SITRA Website. Unfortunately, the current reports are still in Finnish, so I cannot read it. I have requested to convert them into English so that I can read them. He also wrote a book about Japanese culture such as latest magazine “Cool” but this is in Finnish, too.

In the late afternoon, we had a discussion about the next day’s conference. It’s theme this time is “Issues with Asia: India, China, Japan” and speakers are Dr. Ramasami (Secretary to the Government, Department of Science and Technology), Dr. Jun Yu（Beijing Genomics Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences）and myself.

In the evening, we had a very delightful dinner watching the sunset at a restaurant on an island that was at the distance of approximately 5 minutes by ship. (Photo 4 – 6). Boiled "Crayfish" which was approximate 10 centimeters in size were served, Mr. Aho taught me the way to handle it and so I was able to eat 8 of them by “cutting it into pieces”.
Dr. Erkki Ormala (Vice President of Technology Policy) of Nokia was also with us. In the business world of cell phones, Nokia holds 38% of the share while Motorola 14%, Samsung 13% and Sony-Ericson 11% respectively, and Japanese manufacturers having just one digit share even if 10 companies are combined. In addition, calling rate is the highest in Japan. Can you see where the problem is? Really one should think about it.

Photo4　With Mr. Aho at the restaurant

Photo5 and 6　The view and the twilight from the restaurant

Next day in the morning, I was taken to sightseeing in Helsinki (Photo7 -10). At the conference that started in the afternoon, I talked for 30 minutes first and then heard lectures of other two persons. Due to the departure time of my airplane, I was not able to hear the next panel and I went to the airport for my return journey. I think that everyone enjoyed my lecture.
Contents of the meeting can be seen on the website of SITRA. It is already posted on the web cast, isn’t it fast? Here, you can feel the impact of information era. Whether you use it or not determines your success. This is my message to you.

Photo7　In front of the statue of Nurmi, best-known long distance runner (He is the legend runner who received 9 gold and 3 silver medals in Olympic long distance)

Photo8　Sibelius statue and monument

Photo9　At the Rock Church

Photo10　In front of the cathedral at the plaza of the town central

Next morning I arrived at Haneda via Kansai airport and in the afternoon, participated in the hearing of "World Premier International Research Center (WPI) Initiative" organized by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. In the evening, there was a dinner at the German embassy with Ms. Merkel who was visiting Japan. The hearing of WPI will continue tomorrow.