professional – Page 25 – Kiyoshi Kurokawa.com

Washington-2: Atlantic Council

Posted on 2009/05/052014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

There are many think-tanks in Washington. Among them CSIS, Brookings are well known in Japan also. Some Japanese go to these think-tanks to study, but I think their number is too small for a nation of the 2nd largest economy in the world. It is important to be in those think-tanks not only to gain knowledge but also to make connections in Washington, to understand how the politic works and how policies are made. We should be more seriously involved in this.

Atlantic Council is another example of those think-tanks. Its works are very closely related to politics. Mr. Kempe, after a long and prominent career at Wall Street Journal, has become President and Chief Executive Officer of the Atlantic Council and its activities are expanding ever since.

National Security Advisor is known to be the most important post in the White House and General James Jones, the former Chairman of Atlantic Council, was appointed to take this position.

As you may see from the website of Atlantic Council, the organization was established in recognition of the importance of relations of Atlantic community of both sides. To meet the challenges of this global age, the Council is actively working and reporting on U.S.-China relations, new energy, etc. as well as on Asia. Here again, I must say that Japan’s presence is extremely weak.

I attended 2009 Leadership Award Dinner by invitation from Mr. Kempe. About 900 people were there. Please visit the website by all means. Since this year was the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, awards were given to the top of the United States and West Germany of the time; former President Bush (the father) and Prime Minister Kohl as well as IBM Chairman of the Board Mr. Palmisano, General Petraeus, and Thomas Hampson (a singer).

Former Secretary of State Mr. Colin Powell, Secretary of Defence Robert Gates and many government high officials, legislators, Ambassadors from 46 countries, etc. were there at the party. It was truly a fantastic gathering. My seat was next to Ambassador Fujisaki.

Speeches by the recipients were nice too – they all looked very comfortable in giving speeches. General Petraeus’ "joke" was fun. I invite you to listen to them on the web.

I also saw several friends from China. They were all at one table inviting Chinese connections.

Gairdner Award – Dr. Yamanaka, Dr. Mori and their wonderful predecessors

Posted on 2009/04/172014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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There are awards given in recognition of outstanding achievements in academic research. Variety of awards in the field of medicine or bioscience also exist, but I would count Gairdner Award, Lasker Award, and Nobel Prize as the most distinguished of them.

The Nobel Prize was founded in the dawn of the 20th century, 1901, and is well known throughout the world. Announcement of the recipients in October every year creates big news that are covered in full by mass media. It can be said that the list of award winners represent the history and progress of 100 years of science from the end of 19th century throughout the 20th century. Last year four Japanese (I will leave it to each one of you to ponder on the definition of "Japanese".), Drs. Nanbu, Kobayashi, Masukawa, and Shimomura were awarded this prize in the field of natural science and it was a big topic that allowed us to restore confidence in ourselves.

Lasker Award was founded in 1945. Its main awards are clinical medical research awards and basic medical research awards. Basic medical research awards were given to Hidesaburo Hanafusa in 1982, Susumu Tonegawa in 1987, Yasutomi Nishizuka in 1989, and Yoshio Masui in 1998. Clinical medical research award was given to Akira Endo in 2008. Among those recipients, Dr. Nishizuka and Dr. Endo were the only persons whose work in Japan were recognized as the major basis for the prize.

Gairdner Awards is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year. This year two scientist from Kyoto University – Shinya Yamanaka and Kazutoshi Mori – won the prize. Dr. Yamanaka is famous in and out of Japan for his research on “iPS”, but the work of Dr. Mori is also wonderful though it is not as conspicuous.

As you can see from the article in Asahi Shinbun (2009/4/10), the winner of Gairdner Awards in Japan are – besides Tonegawa, Masui, and Nishizuka who are also Lasker Award winners – Kiminari Ishizuka, his spouse Teruko Ishizaka, and Seiji Ogawa. Dr. Nishizuka and the two (Yamanaka and Mori) of this year are the only people who was awarded basically for their research in Japan.

It looks as though both Lasker Award and Gairdner Award are sensitive about how many Nobel Prize winners will emerge from their award recipients. There also seems to be subtle difference in criteria of selections so it would be interesting to imagine what kind of arguments have taken place at the occasions. Especially, a number of discussions appeared in Nature etc. on why Dr. Masui was not included in the 2001 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.

The only Japanese Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine is Dr. Tonegawa for the time being, but I look forward to see more winners in the future.

Dr. Seiji Ogawa is the only Japanese appearing on the list of 125 scientists who has contributed to the progress of science in the history of mankind. The list is in the "in binding" (if you by any chance find this on the web, please let me know…) of July 1st edition of 125th anniversary issues of "Science". He discovered fMRA theory which is now widely used in the research of human brain functions.

From La Jolla – Entrepreneurship meeting

Posted on 2009/03/272014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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Kauffman Foundation is a group focusing on "Entrepreneurship" (so to say "Entrepreneurial mind" or "Spirit of enterprise" (as in the book "5 propsitions of Web age" by Mochio Umeda.) ? since it is not just about businesses・・・.) that held Global Entrepreneurship Week around the world and as I have reported to you in this blog, several programs were carried out in Japan also at National Graduate Institute of Policy Studies (GRIPS) where I work and at Kyoto with cooperation from Honda foundation.

Kauffman foundation and UCSD (University of California San Diego) jointly opened a 2 day conference hosted by U.S.A. inviting Great Britain, Japan, and Canada under the theme of "What Industry Wants from Universities." Several attendee from each country (naturally people from U.S.A. were dominant because they were from the host country.) gathered to have great discussions over various topics including policies. The program was nicely planned and contents were very good. It was truly a worthy meeting. Especially, I would like to point out that British people contributed much in keeping the discussion in good mood by their witty comments. Their sense of humor is outstanding.

I will write about the meeting once the report is posted on the web.

Photo1: With participants from Japan
(more photos are uploaded on Picasa)

Participants from Japan were Dr.Sunami from GRIPS, Dr.Harayama from Tohoku University, Dr.Kneller from RCAST, University of Tokyo, and Dr.William Saito. They are unusual members, I would say. All are working in Japan for these few years, but their main education or career path were at overseas.

Nice weather and campus, jolly fellows. I was very much in a refreshed mood. After the conference we had a tour at Calit2. We saw only a few people around though brobably because it was Saturday.

In San Diego, WBC which Japan also participated was about to start. Wasn’t it great that Japan won the championship?

Anyway, after all, California is a bright sunshine state. It’s so nice.

Again from New Delhi

Posted on 2009/02/102014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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I arrived at New Delhi from Davos via Munchen early in the morning of February 2nd. This is my 3rd visit during this past 12 months.

Many of you might feel that India is difficult to understand or mysterious. Let me introduce you an interesting blog (in Japanese only). It is quite fun with lots of humor.

Now, like last summer, I am here this time as a team member of Jeffery Sachs to participate in the meeting of international advisory council organized by the Minister of Health and Welfare of India which is held twice a year (I did not attend last February) (Ref. 1, 2). Main topic is "Rural Health".

Right after checking in at the Taj Mahal Hotel were briefings from Indian researchers and people from NGOs on current status, analysis, issues, etc. followed by discussions. After a short break in the afternoon was a reception.

Next morning, we worked for about five hours straight (even lunch was during the meeting) listening to the reports by government officials, discussing, exchanging views. Same as last time, the Minister had very clear understandings on almost all issues and was able to further explain or join in the discussions. He is a specialist of this field ? Rural health (medicine). He has an excellent understanding of the situation. I could clearly see even from the data that the project has developed remarkably (though yet much more to go) within this one year. It is truly amazing.

Photo1: The advisory meeting. Indian side in front row, fifth person from left is Minister Rmadoss.

Photo2: Likewise, the advisory meeting committee side. From right, Prime Minister Dr Tore Godal of Norway, myself, Health Minister of Kenya, Dr. Sachs, Health Minister of Malawi, Health Minister of Rwanda etc.

Although background of the situation in India may be different and there could be many parts where even India might be better in comparison, Ministers of Health and Welfare from Kenya (Professor Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o, Minister of Medical Services), Rwanda (Dr Richard Sezibera), and Malawi (Minister Khumbo Kachali) also came to join in the meeting in hope to find some issues or references that apply also to Africa. The content of the meeting was very useful for them, so it seemed, that here again we succeeded in having active and constructive discussions.

I left the hotel in late afternoon for airport to return to Narita.

From Davos-3

Posted on 2009/02/042014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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Photo1

A new session of "IdeasLab with・・・" started this year, so I adjusted my schedule to create time to join in this session with Yale University.

Four professors presented summary of issues, each for five minutes (Power Point could be used, so "visual" effect was important), after which followed group discussions on each theme so as to produce a number of conclusions. Very nice style. Davos meeting is creative in many ways. At the Yale session, presenters were two professors on economics, my friend Dr. Daniel Esty（a member of Obama’s transition team, specialist of environment）, and especially Dr. Robert Shiller’s presentation about the history of collapse of housing bubbles was extremely interesting. The last presenter was President Richard Levin who started with recent scientific topics in Yale. Everybody was good, but Dr. Levin was especially impressive in・・・so to say "performance." Indeed he is a cream of the crop.

Photo2: From right, Professor EZ Ponce de Leon of Yale University raising an issue, Professor Richard Pascale of Oxford University acting as Facilitator, Professor Robert Shiller and Daniel Esty of Yale.

Photo3: Professor Shiller at presentation.

Among the discussions that followed, I mainly participated in the group of Dr. Levin, which was very interesting. Admitting the strength of American/European Universities and research careers that develop individual talents by systematically supporting constant competition away from home ground, the argument followed that this is exactly the point where Asia, especially Japan, is weak. All participants quickly agreed on this point, and I also repeatedly point this problem out on many occasions. Especially, at this timing when progress and global competitions are inevitable, one of our conclusions was to recognize the mission of higher education for developing talents and potentials of the younger generation.

Photos4～5：　Presentation by President Levin.

In the evening of 30th, I accepted invitation to seated dinner hosted by UBS where David Cameron, Leader of Conservative Party, gave speech. British politicians are extremely good at speeches.

After dinner I left the place to participate in a meeting of Cambridge University starting from 10:30pm. It was a small gathering, but opening address by Vice-Chancellor Allison Richard(I have explained why the head of Cambridge University has this unusual title in my blog in 2006) was charming, starting with comment on the 800th anniversary Cambridge is celebrating this year. President Komiyama of Todai, President Susan Hockfield of MIT were also present. The meeting continued till late at night as we enjoyed conversation.

Presidents Richard and Hockfield represent epoch-making changes in global age which I stress repeatedly in my blog. Both of them were Provost of Yale University before being recruited to the presidency of Cambridge and MIT respectively. Dr. Hockfield was successor to Dr. Richard at Yale, both personnel transfers having been managed by President Levin whom I touched upon earlier in this column(Dr. Levin told me personally several years ago that Provost is appointed by President.) . I am amazed by Dr. Levin’s outstanding insight.

In any organization or institution- universities, companies, government offices, etc. -leaders must be likewise. After all, ultimately, the essence is education. It is all about bringing up talents.

From Davos-2

Posted on 2009/02/032014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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Photo1

Weather is beautiful again today.

Meeting as a whole is on the web site – from varieties of sessions to reports. Enjoy them with ‘clicks’ when you have time.

Participation of young Japanese people from industrial sector is increasing steadily and becoming notable. Their words and presence are positive and I am glad about that. Since people of the world thinks that industries of Japan are represented by "Keidanren," it would be even better if young people increased more to liven up the place and impress the presence of Japan.

This year’s meeting has very different atmosphere from previous meetings because of market meltdown and the prospect of economy’s continuing downfall. People argue a lot about why finance relations are not punished for creating problems, when other industries will, as a matter of course, be given penalties should they put defective products into market. "Greed," "Loss of Style" may be the keywords. I heard much talk of this sort going on at personal levels. In the Gaza issues panel (see Webcast), the prime minister of Turkey stood up before the panel was over and left for home protesting that he was treated unfairly compared to President Perez of Isreal in terms of the allocation of time for speech, and the (bad) timing of speech. I haven’t seen that scene in person, but naturally it was a hot topic and judging from media reports, people in Turkey are paying much attention as seen in the frantic welcome at the homecoming of the prime minister. After watching the Webcast, what is your impression and opinion?

Photos2~4: Breakfast meeting. You might know some of them.

On 30th from 7:30am, I was invited to a breakfast meeting of "friends who worry that Japan is vague to the eyes of people in the world because it sends too little information," as they called it (Photos2~4). It is so moving. I think many of Japanese participants were told something like this, at least in private situation.

I also had opportunities to have lively discussions with various people, such as Mr. Okabe, Editor in Chief of Nikkei, Mr. Hayashi, Chairman and CEO of JETRO. Unfortunately, it is difficult to see each other in Japan because everybody is busy.

Photo5: Mr. Okabe, Editor in Chief of Nikkei (right) and Mr. Hayashi, Chairman and CEO of JETRO

As for myself, I had panels on Day 2 and Day 3. I fully enjoyed them, making lots of new friends at the same time.

I think part of the panels may be viewed at the website of Davos Meeting (29th, 30th, and the final day).

From media, Mr. Funabashi, editor in chief of Asahi Shinbun newspaper, Mr. Okabe of Nikkei newspaper, Mr. Fujisawa of NHK television, etc. were present. Ms. Waki (residing in London) from Reuter is also working actively as reporter every year recently.

The National Vision of Japan-at the new year meeting of Japan Science and Technology Agency

Posted on 2009/01/202014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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Soon after returning back from Washington, on January 14th , I was at the new year meeting of JST (Japan Science and Technology Agency) where a large number of people from government, academia, and industry sectors related to science and technology gathered. The venue was full to its capacity, as is always the case.

I was appointed to give the keynote lecture for this year, so I talked about my impression of the new administration of the United States as well as about my two lectures in December where I drew a picture of the national vision of Japan as I see it ( please refer to my posting of January 1st etc.).

Photo1: Myself lecturing

Content of my lecture is also summarized and posted on internet sites (in Japanese) by former journalists Mr. Koiwai and Mr. Deguchi, who were also present at the meeting. Thanks to both of them for expanding my opinion. I truly appreciate it.

From Washington－Part2: A new cooperation between scientists

Posted on 2009/01/162014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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I spent almost all three days in Washington inside the US National Academies. I even asked some people to come see me here for meetings.

On January 8, I checked into my hotel room and first got some rest. Then in the afternoon I attended a press briefing on a new report from the National Research Council. Stanford University president John Hennessy and former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft (Ref.1 ) are co-chairs of the study committee that produced the report. Besides them, three others also appeared before reporters. All are impressive people. Study committees include not only Academy members but also experts necessary to deliberate specific topics.

I knew that Dr. John Gage and Dr. Norman Neureiter were also at the press conference as committee members. But since I slipped out in the middle I was unable to see them. But I was able to meet with Dr. John Gage the following day.

I saw him in the morning at a public lecture by Harvard professor Calestous Juma at the NAS.

Photo1-3: Prof. Juma during lecture; a girl with laptop from Negroponte’s One Laptop per Child, Dr. John Gage, Prof. Juma and myself

For the first two days, I locked myself up in the National Academies and met many people one after another.

I held meetings separately with the heads of the three organizations of the National Academies; Dr. Harvey Fineberg from the Institute of Medicine, Dr. Charles Vest from the National Academy of Engineering, and Dr. Ralph Cicerone from the Academy of Sciences. We discussed plans for cooperation between scientists of Japan and the US under the new administration. Most of the time I went around with Dr. John Boright, executive director of international affairs.

I also held various discussions with major figures from the World Bank and the Atlantic Council of the United States including Mr. Fred Kempe.

Photo4: With Dr. Vest

Photo5: STS Forum conference, (from left) myself, Dr. Rita Colwell, Dr. Yuan Tseh Lee (Ref.1)

On January 10th, I spent the day in heated discussions at a committee for the STS Forum that will be organized by Koji Omi, a member of Japan’s parliament. I look forward to seeing a lot of friends and acquaintances there too.

I think I had three very, very fruitful days to start the New Year.

A lot of the people that I mentioned in this column are those I have already introduced on this blog in the past. Please try to search for the articles.

From Washington－Part1: High hopes for Obama and his “outstanding” cabinet choices

Posted on 2009/01/132014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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I have spent New Year’s in Washington for the past three years. But the atmosphere this year is completely different. The wave of hope and expectations for the new president Barack Obama is growing even more in Washington as he has so far picked an extremely smart, top-notch team of cabinet members and advisors.

He has assembled brilliant scientists to advise him on science policies. Steve Chu, a Nobel prize-winning physicist and Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, was chosen to be Secretary of Energy. Lawrence Summers who is currently the Charles W. Eliot University Professor at Harvard University was named to head the National Economic Council. Obama’s Science Advisors include Harvard physicist John Holdren, Harold Varmus, a Nobel laureate who ran the NIH and is now President of Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and MIT genome professor Eric Lander. The former president of the ICSU Jane Lubchencho will head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The team is made up of top academics who have actively been speaking out about climate change and other environmental issues. They are all highly respected and trusted people within scientific circles. It’s a very impressive roster.

Confirmation congressional hearings will begin one after another this week. I have heard that contacting the nominees is strictly forbidden as it could be viewed as government post hunting.

With these appointments the direction of the Obama administration’s energy and environmental policies seems pretty clear. Meanwhile, in Japan the only top-notch or great thing (?) seems to be technology. Nothing gets done in politics, finance, industry, government, media, and academia because of continual wrangling with vested interests or those resisting change. All you hear about are reasons why something can’t be done. If this continues, I am very worried that we will be left behind from the rest of the world. I am waiting for a new and different trend to emerge in Japan too.

Over the last couple of days Obama has announced parts of his economic policies. A feeling of pride seems to be spreading among the American people over having chosen a great leader at this difficult time and turning point in the world’s history (At least that’s the sense I get from talking to the people around me.) . They are gradually starting to feel confident that they can overcome problems together even though it will take time to realize the goals. The challenges are enormous, but I can sense the will of the nation or the American mind that is striving to be the leader of the world.

I wish a new trend like this would emerge in Japan. Do you feel it coming? It is so frustrating.

However, once the Obama administration is inaugurated it does have a mountain of problems to climb. The US economic woes, the war on terror in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the Gaza conflict etc. Not only are they extremely complex problems, but they also demand urgency.

Japan has its hands full with domestic problems. Maybe it is fortunate after all that it has less influence and faces lower expectations from the rest of the world? I am not sure if that is really okay.

Global Entrepreneurship Week, NPO nurturing young entrepreneurs

Posted on 2008/12/022014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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Kauffman foundation is a foundation devoted to Entrepreneurship.

From November 17 to 23, the foundation orgnaized “Global Entrepreneurship Week” involving about 80 countries of the world to promote global understanding of entrepreneurial spirit and actions. Japan hosted two meetings, each in Tokyo and Kyoto, under the initiatives of Honda Foundation, GRIPS where I belong, Asia Productivity Organization, etc. By the way, Honda prize awarding ceremony was held a day before the Tokyo meeting. Official language was English for all meetings.

The meeting in Tokyo was opened with a lecture, followed by a project named “Elevator Pitch”. Participants must “sell their idea(s) or project(s) to an angel investor in 30 seconds in an elevator which they happened to meet”. Three teams were selected from nearly 40 applications by screening of video presentations, and each presented as a team of three persons. The winners of the game were Asia Pacific University and Akita International University. Students from Akita were all females and no Japanese was included. Let me point out that those two universities are exceptionally internationalized compared to most of other universities in Japan.

To illustrate how "internationalized" they are, for example, 50% of 5000 Asia Pacific University undergraduates are from overseas and half of the courses are offered in English.

At Akita International University, T-score of students is over “80” at the time of admission, as I was told. It is a small university but with full liberal arts education. All students are required to reside in dormitory during their junior year, will study for one year at overseas universities during their enrollment, and 40% of the students in campus are international students because of this student exchange program. All courses are basically given in English with exceptions of elective language courses such as Japanese, French, etc.

In Kyoto, the venue was Ritsumeikan University. The lecturers here were also energetic and I enjoyed very much.

Photo: At Kyoto University. Kid entrepreneurs participated, too.

Next day, at Kyoto University clock tower in the midst of university festival, there were presentations and booth exhibition hosted by NPO Center for Entrepreneurship Education. It’s topic was businesses targeting on practical local ecology, and even primary school children were participating. Visit the Web site of the event (in Japanese but photos are nice) to catch the idea of its atmosphere. They were quite entertaining and also a good opportunity to understand the unique and interesting ideas those children and students have. I even thought that some of them already had potentials of flourshing just with a little help from existing corporations. Apparently, this kind of event provides a wonderful education and good experience for young people. I hope you will extend support for those activities.

Ms. Kikuko Harada, the leader of this NPO is doing a good job. Your support and personal or institutional donations are welcome here also. I urge you to visit its web site. The children looks nicely high spirited and motivated, don’t they?