From Davos – 3

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On 29th, the 3rd　ｄay at Davos, I spent the morning in private meeting with a few VIPs. In the afternoon, I participated as a ‘Discussion Leaders’  in ‘Prepared for a Pandemic?’- a full two hour session with specialists on pandemics, academics, business enterprises, and insurance companies.  It was a highly informative session with discussions covering wide range; lessons from H1V1 since last spring, role of government, arrangements/preparedness of the companies, risks to be considered, insurance, financial loss, employees and their family, impacts on economy etc., etc.  I was impressed to know that the width of some business leaders thinking and also making effort to prepare themselves to the expected risks.  It is such learning and knowledge sharings that makes this sort of discussions with the leaders of diverse sectors enjoyable and meaningful.

I came across Mr. Bill Gates and had an opportunity to talk with him for a minute on several things such as our encounter in Jakarta in 2008.  In the evening at the main hall, I went to watch ‘Business Leadership’, ans‘The US Economic Outlook’ hosted by Charlie Rose, with Lawrence Summers, Director of the White House’s National Economic Council for President Obama.  Charlie Rose, was wonderful in his soft ways of raising good focused questions in a very good timing and Summers’ response was also very persuasive and powerful. Please see them for yourself on the web.

In the evening, I stopped by at the reception of Harvard University and exchanged a few words with President Drew Gilpin Faust （President Faust is female – I suppose you know? ) I understand that she will be visiting Japan this March.  Since Minister Sengoku and three other Ministers were scheduled to arrive after midnight, Dr. Heizo Takenaka, Mr. Yoichi Funabashi of Asahi Newspaper, myself, with several others, had an opportunity to get together at a Chinese restaurant and talk about the new Administration, an opportunity we haven’t have had among ourselves for some time.  When I returned to the hotel, I came across Dr. Yunus of Grameen Bank at the lobby –just like we did last year.  I talked about the group of Japanese students who went to Bangladesh (Ref.1, 2, 3) (Ref.2 and 3 are in Japanese) this January and last year. They also had an opportunity to see Dr. Yunus several times at Bangladesh.  This year, Professor Seichiro Yonekura (Ref.1 in Japanese) of Hitotsubashi University, a leading expert on innovation, accompanied them to Bangladesh.  Dr. Yonekura is a wonderful role model as mentor/teacher and I admire his activities as Innovator (=Entrepreneur, Change Agent or ‘a nail that sticks out’) ; the way he supports young people, and make things happen.

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Photo 1-3: ‘Toward an East Asia Community?’ Panel.

Next morning on the 30th, I checked out from the hotel to be at ‘Toward an East Asia Community?’  where Minister of Trade, Economy and Industry (METI), Mr. Naoshima were among the panelists.  The panel was moderated by Dr. Kishore Mahbubani (Ref.1), Dean of Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Singapore.  I was seated at the front raw with my friends, Hiroshi Tasaka-san and President Ninami-san of Lawson (Photo).

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Photo 4: From left, Mr. Ninami, Dr. Tasaka, and myself

Then, after listening to the former half of ‘Global Economic Outlook’ in which Minister Sengoku participated as a panelist, I left the venue and headed to Zurich airport to catch my return flight.  Please see this session on the web.  A well known columnist of Financial Times, Mr. Martin Wolf moderated the panel in his keen and insightful style.  In the afternoon, NHK hosted ‘The Great Shift East in the Global Agenda’ moderated by Ms. Aiko Doden, with Vice Minister Furukawa as a panelist.  Report on web  is available, and also TV broadcasts are scheduled on February 6 (Sat), and 13 (Sat) in Tokyo and elsewhere in Japan.

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Photo 5: With Dr. Takenaka

From Zurich, I returned to Narita via Paris.  I was able to sleep only a bit during the flight, thus  a bit tired.  Somehow a feeling of concern about the future of Japan made me awake.  This theme appears repeatedly in my web-site, and I hear that‘Japan in Transition’ in the afternoon of 30th wrapped up the session in a comment like my view.

The web-site of Davos meeting is apparently quite packed with good information.  Please enjoy according to your interest.  Tons of information, backgrounds, interpretations, and thoughts are introduced and I am sure that they will open up your minds to the world.

Korea wins the Nuclear Power Plant bid of the United Arab Emirates – Part5; Active Academic Exchanges of Universities

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This month I have written 4 reports on this site focusing on the competitiveness of Korea in nuclear power in Abu Dhabi.  The reason why I did this is that there are so many lessons to be learned from this case.

Here, we are able to learn lessons on the importance of strategic approach to the target, to fully understand the needs of the customers.  And of course, lessons on decisions and actions with speed.

As I have written in ‘Part 2’, collaborative research in nuclear power and capacity development are important components of the proposals of Korea.  It was clearly stated in the Request For Proposal by the Emirates Government.  KAIST (Ref.1) and KUSTAR agreed on overall cooperation in education and research in science and technology including nuclear power.　

KAIST has a history of 40 years, but in the last decade, it is quickly transformed itself into a highly competitiveness, world premier institute to meet the challenges of the global world. The institution invited Nobel laureate physician Professor Laughlin from Stanford University as President, and in 2006, has welcomed Professor Shu Nam Pyo (Ref.1) from MIT as his successor. Indeed, KAIST is changing rapidly, and of course, all courses are given in English.

If you think of the rapid change this world is going through, drastic transformation is absolutely needed in every sector of the society, which includes university education, It is obvious that such daring appointments as above are sometimes necessary and indeed more effective and more ‘telling’.  More than a few universities （Cambridge、Princeton、 Harvard、 MIT、 University of  Pennsylvania、Brown, Princeton, etc.） welcomed women as their Presidents.   I am sorry to say that in Japan, this kind of appointment is hard even to imagine.  The world is making great effort to invest in education for capacity building of their people  capable of taking challenges of competing in the global world.  I am quite impressed with the number and eagerness of Korean students going overseas to pursue higher education as, for example, my comments in The Time magazine

Exampl such as this clearly indicates how badly Japan is closed to the outside world compared to other nations.  I have been pointing this out again and again in this site also.  I urge not only Universities (please refer to article by Dr. Glen S. Fukushima (in Japanese)), but also Professors to buckle up!  Don’t forget that students are our future human resource and our future heavily depend on them.  Nothing can be done if their mentors are closed minded.

Difference between ‘Manufacturing (‘Mono-zukuri’)’and ‘Story Telling (‘Mono-gatari’)’ for Customers

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What is the ‘strength’ of Japan?  When asked many people say that it is ‘Manufacturing (‘Mono-zukuri’)’, ‘Technology’, or ‘Takumi no Waza (‘the Great Craftsmanship’).  However, I would say that they are important, but may not be enough to create needs, capture the hearts of customers to make them open their wallets, or develop new markets.  Here is where ‘The Creation of New Social Values’, in other words, exactly ‘Innovation’ of the global age is urgently needed as global competition.  This is the theme which I write about frequently and repeatedly in this site as well as elsewhere. (Ref.1; in Japanese) 

In addition, as Asia continues to grow, I don’t think that it is difficult or impossible for Asian people to catch up with and become competent in the skills of ‘Mono-zukuri’ or ‘Technologies’

Then, I ask you, what is the ‘weakness’ of Japan?

From my point of view it is, most of all, the drastic shift to Global World.  The world has transformed from ‘Trilateral Japan, U.S.A., and Europe’ to Global Market Economy in the last 20 years.  In such circumstance in the face of rapidly rising Asian economies in ever flattening world, is Japan able to build a great mid to long term vision, draft core missions with strategies, negotiate, and act?

It is also the power to understand customers and deliver them ‘stories’. (Ref.1; in Japanese)  In other words,  an ability to grasp the needs of the customers, to know them well, and feel as they feel (Ref.1).

Compare Japan with western countries or Asia, or Latin Americas in this growing global society.  How good is our organizations – are Japanese ‘leaders’ capable of creating good strategies, make quick decisions and act?  We must admit that these aspects are the ‘weaknesses’ in current Japan.  You have to think why? So, let us work hard and collaborate with our partners to move forward with speed to reach our common goals.

The Asahi Shinbun sends this message out clearly in its January 8th morning edition on 1st and 3rd pages, in an article titled ‘Excellent Technologies of Japan and the Problems They Face’.  My interview also appears in page 3 at the left bottom as a column. What I am saying in this column is basically the same as what I repeatedly write in my blog postings, but to have it printed in such a major newspaper makes me happy.  Compared to my site, newspapers can reach incomparably broader readers.

Korea wins the Nuclear power plant bid at United Arab Emirates – Part3

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As a follow up of my report on the victory of Korea which I have been writing about in a series of Part 1 and Part 2, below are some interesting reactions of Korea, France and other countries

By the way, the person in charge of this project in Abu Dhabi referred to in my previous column (Part 2) is ‘Prince Mohammad’, correctly ‘The Crown Prince Mohammad’.  I have had the honor of seeing him twice in person sometime ago and just by listening to him I could clearly see his wisdom and intelligence.  This Crown Prince Mohammad is the person who is mentioned as the ‘top management’ in the comment #1 which I have quoted in my report Part 2.

As always,The Economist or Chuo Nippo of Korea (Japanese site) provide us with some movements.  How shocking it was for the French, the top of the world, is described in the report of ‘France 24’ titled ‘UAE nuclear deal: a French flop?’.  France has already started planning the next strategy  based on the analysis of this defeat.

Chosen Nippo continues to send us vivid reports and follow ups.  Here are some titles of the articles which I have quoted from the site.  I think Japan can learn much from this kind of information

●Exporting nuclear power: Reversal after reversal, behind the scene of negotiation (Part 1); in Japanese
●Exporting nuclear power: Reversal after reversal, behind the scene of negotiation (Part 2); in Japanese

●Exporting nuclear power: Search for target after UAE, total war in opening doors of overseas nuclear market. (Part 1); in Japanese
●Exporting nuclear power: Search for target after UAE, total war in opening doors of overseas nuclear market. (Part ２); in Japanese

●Exporting nuclear power: ‘This contract makes Korea brother of UAE for 70 years’; in Japanese
●Exporting nuclear power: ‘Impressed by Korean spirit of “let’s try and see”.’; in Japanese

A Glowing Achievement for Korea

KEPCO Clinches Mega Nuclear Plant Deal with UAE

Then, what are the reactions of Japan?  I have written on it in my earlier reports (1 and 2).  My advice is to learn from the contents in this Part 3 or elsewhere, compare and think hard.  Winning and losing is a part of competition, so reflecting and humbly learning from the experience would be the first step to next move.

I think that difference of top management of the organization; whether the leader is a ‘winner in tournament’ (basically, one who avoid mistakes will make it through) or one who ‘won in league’ (one who learn lessons from his/her defeats will climb up the ladder) will be clear and causes effects at situations like this.  Refer to books by Kazuhiko Toyama, ‘Yubi ippon no syunen ga shyobu wo kimeru (A finger-tip of obsession decides the winner), ‘Kaishya wa atama kara kusaru (A company will rot from the head)’ or Ref.1 .  People without any personal experience of fighting hard in their young age tend to lack spirit of learning lessons from defeat, or seeing chances for growth in defeat ? in other words, these people lack adventurous sprit, spirit of entrepreneur, value of‘nails that stick out’ (Ref.1, in Japanese)

For Japan that failed to grow and now suffered ‘lost 20 years’ after the bubbles, 2010 will without doubt be the crucial year.

Korea wins the Nuclear power plant bid at United Arab Emirates – Part2

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What were the reactions to the victory of Korea in the international bidding on nuclear plant contract?  Here are some examples which I have gathered through my local sources.

1.  ‘The result was no surprise, but certainly was shocking.  Nuclear power project is accumulation of SYSTEM in every sense, and that Korea proposed a lower price by 10% and has won the trust of UAE suggests the reality of decline in competitiveness of Japanese industry.  Japanese industries stressed in their presentation only its high techs and quality of appliances, without any comments on the safety control of government or how capable Tokyo Electric Company (giant electric producing house of Japan) is in running the system, which was a sharp contrast to the overall aggressive presentation of Frenh team. The difference of their view (an ‘easy way’ of thinking based on the faith on their technologies) apparently caused a miss-match between Japan and the expectations of the customer (Japan has neglected the importance of building network of ‘personal connections’, which takes time).  This sort of difference was such that I hear some leaders of UAE have actually given advice to Japanese top leaders about it.’

2. ‘Whole Korea worked on this, by contrast.  I feel that we have to send young people to overseas and invite foreign talents to Japan ? this is, in my view, the only way for Japanese to recognize how fast the world is changing.  In fact my company also lost a competition for a mega project at Abu Dhabi to a Korean company.  We absolutely have to make people more international minded- which I believe that this is the key to the success of management in the future.’

3. ‘This success was not only good for strengthening ties between Abu Dhabi and Korean electric company but also in other fields (semiconductors, ICT, energy (Masdar), education, etc.)’

4. ‘People say that Korea was outstanding in following 3 ways on this bidding of nuclear plant agreement, that in fact the proposal was the State of Art; 1) Competitive price, 2) Shortest construction period, 3) Offer of support for education and human resource development in nuclear energy field at UAE ‘

5. The President of Korea, worried about the situation, sent a large mission to UAE, including the President of KAIST as the core member. KUSTAR (Ref.1), was designated as the only university in UAE to offer courses in nuclear energy.  This opened the way for Korean Professors on nuclear energy to visit UAE, and students from UAE to study at KAIST.’

6. ‘Korea was trying to see things as Abu Dhabi would see: it perceived the needs of Abu Dhabi, what kind of cooperation it was looking for.  Korea understood that human resource development was the key to survival for Abu Dhabi.  This is why Korea won the heart of the Crown Prince.  I understand that the Crown Prince and the Korean President became close enough to have direct conversation by cell phone (reference is available on Chosun online, as I have introduced to you in my column, part1)’

7. ‘Also, responding to a remark that ‘Korea is unable to produce all necessary parts or components of the nuclear power plants, so it must order them to other countries’, Dr. Myung Seung Yang, President of Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) commented that ‘In shipbuilding and semiconductors also, we don’t make them 100% domestically, but import necessary technologies from overseas.  What is important is the fact that Korea possesses the ability to design, run, and maintain those systems as a whole and export them’.’

8. ‘In contrast, Japan was dwelling too much on the special performance of parts, praising self as the ‘excellence in manufacturing (‘monozukuri’) giant.’

9. ‘I see clearly how Korea attacked Abu Dhabi as one nation.  Korea, confident after winning this bid in UAE, is now moving forward to other markets such as Turkey or Southeast Asia.  President Lee has experience of working for a construction company, so he seems to have giving advices in makings of the plan presentation to be submitted to Abu Dhabi and helping staffs to polish it.’

In contrast, the leaders of Japan was busy with the domestic issues following the Administration change to new political party, so there may have been a huge difference in the level of support by the government.  You can use this as an excuse, if you would….PM Hatoyama visited India at the end of the year and announced that ‘Japan will support nuclear plants in India’ (who advised to say so?), but obviously it was a bit late to notice the trend.  I wonder what sort of outcomes this comment is going to produce in the future

In India also, Korean business people (in Japanese) (Ref.1 in English) are known for their hard work, so even if we do have some technologies on clean energies, this does not necessarily allow us to feel safe.

To share this experience at UAE among government and industries, analyze the reason for defeat (Dr. Ikujiro Nonaka is also point this out repeatedly,learning from failures…), make good plans for the next step, and act ? this is most important.  I am writing this column precisely for this reason.

Basically, current age is not of ‘just manufacturing ability (‘monozukuri’)’, but of‘the entire story telling (‘monogatari’)’. (in Japanese).  Also, the time has changed to ‘Demand ? driven’ innovation.

Korea wins the Nuclear power plant bid at United Arab Emirates – Part1

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In the end of last year, news that surprised the world came in.  There were some reports on newspapers about this international call for building and operating 4 nuclear reactors for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and this had been quite a topic of the time.  Japan, France, U.S.A., and Korea raised hand.  Two joint teams of Japan and the United States; Toshiba –Westinghouse and Hitachi - GE.  From France, Areva, the strongest  in the world (I think Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is in collaboration).  Korea was a new member in this Big Business.  Toshiba team retired early so there remained only 3 for competition.

And Korea won.

I wonder how shocking this was for Japanese industries.  France must have had strong confidence since President Sarkozy was involved actively in campaigning.  Naturally the result must have been quite a shock to France.  Some articles said that there is a chance for Korea because ‘Korea offers lower price’.  But this was not the only reason as you will see in sites which I quote to you below.

In Japanese:
Nikkei, Mainichi,Sankei, Reuter,


Asahi writes about Hitachi on its New Year issue.

On the other hand, let us see what is going on at the field, and how things are reported in Korea.  After all  it is a big news that calls for attention.

In English:
Reuters, Wall Street Journal, Korea Times

Japanese translation of Korean Newspapers:
The Chosen Nippo  (English version is The Chosun Ilbo)  offers a lively report in ‘Part1 and Part 2’ (both in Japanese.  For Japanese text in PDF, please refer to Japanese site of this posting.)
　　

Chuo Nippo (English version is JoongAng Daily ) has several (Ref.1, 2)  (in Japanese) (Ref.3 ) (in English)

Editorial shows that Korea is not just rejoicing over the victory (in Japanese)  (Ref.1) (in English)

The point is how to handle and move this kind of National-level highly competitive projects.  There is much to learn from Korea.

Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi

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From Washington DC I took a flight to Dubai.  I was on the same flight 6 weeks ago, and flew to Dubai 3 weeks ago as well.  In total I flew to Dubai airport 3 times, once to visit Dubai and  twice to visit Abu Dhabi in the past 6 weeks.  Two of the return flights were from Dubai to Kansai Airport and another was to Singapore.

The purpose of visit is the same as my some previous ones; to support Khalifa University.  Dr. Elias Zerhouni, the former director of the National Institutes of Health joined our team starting from this meeting and his participation stimulated the discussion.  Dr. Zerhouni, originally from Algeria, moved to the United States after graduating from Medical School, worked at Johns Hopkins Univesity, then was appointed to the Directorship of NIH, the most distinguished and responsible position in medical research of US government.  I have had the privilege of knowing him for these years (in Japanese) and am quite impressed by his wonderful personality.

Khalifa University, which I have been helping, is one of important Projects of the government of Abu Dhabi. I have contacted Dr Zerhouni for his support since I thought that advice from a person at higher position, a person with distinguished and international reputation, who understands Arabic civilization and culture personally, would be very helpful.  It was a great joy when I received his immediate affirmative answer.

The meeting itself took place for only one day, but the discussion was very active and fruitful.  I firmly believe that participation of someone who is familiar with both Western values and Arabic values, who knows how to communicate with both sides is so very important and necessary for this kind of project.

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Photo; At the lobby of the Emirate Palace, with Dr Zerhouni. 

Recently, The U.S. Department of State announced the appointment of Science Envoy for Middle East, and Dr Zerhouni was among the three, with Dr. Bruce Alberts, Editor-in-Chief of ‘Science’ and Dr. Zuweil, a Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry, originally from Egypt.  This is another significant step forward of US Science Diplomacy.

Such rich variety of human resource (Ref.1) without doubt serves as one of the strong core assets of a nation in this global era.  I met Dr. Zuweil several times in the past, and deepened relationship with Dr. Alberts during these 10 years, since he was the President of the National Academy of Science of USA, through many international scientific community works or events, often related to SCJ (Science Council of Japan).

Toyota Cup (FIFA Club World Cup 2009) was being held at Abu Dhabi during my visit.  As I watched in TV later in Tokyo, it was again Lionel Messi (Ref.1) that brought triumph to his team, as you all may know.

‘Cartels of the Mind: Japan’s Intellectual Closed Shop’ and ‘Jigyo Shiwake (sorting out operations)’ related to Science Research

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‘Cartels of the Mind: Japan’s Intellectual Closed Shop’, 1997, provides critical insights into the insular mind-set of intellectual establishments of Japanese society. The book was written by Dr. Ivan Hall, an American scholar widely considered as one of the leading ‘expert on Japan’ who studied about Japan (B.A. and M.A. at Princeton University, and Ph.D. at Harvard University) and have stayed in Japan for more than 20 years under various titles, including Professor (as well as correspondent, cultural diplomat, professor at Gakusyuin University and a few other universities).  Its Japanese translation (1998) carries a short and straight title, ‘Chi No Sakoku’ or ‘Closed Mind of the Intellectuals’.

The content of this book is as follows:

Introduction: “NORMAL COUNTRY” –Foreign Intellectuals Need Not Apply
1. LEGAL LANDING –The Attorney’s Narrow Beachhead
2. SEGREGATED SCRIBES –The Foreign Correspondents
3. ACADEMIC APARTHEID –The Peripheral Professoriategr
4. PASSING PRESENCES –Scientific Researchers and Foreign Students
5. MANIPULATED DIALOGUE –Cowing the Critics
Conclusion: WAKE-UP CALL –Let the Daylight In

Each fact explained in this book is true, and I concur and support his sharp-eyed points.  Please refer to an article of interview with Dr. Hall, or book reviews (Ref.1(amazon.co.jp, in Japanese),  2 (Amazon.com)),    He also gave a lecture in Japan three yeas ago.(Ref.1 )

The opinion of Dr. Hall is essentially the same as what I have been pointing out repeatedly (Ref. 1, 2, 3 in Japanese) (Ref.4, 5 in English) in this blog posting and elsewhere for a long time. The people with ‘high intellectual levels’ in Japan, university professors are ‘Sakoku (‘closed shop’) (Ref.1 in Japanese, 2 in English ) So naturally universities become deprived of stimuli, thus drawing a wrong vision of future to the students in whose hands our future relies.  A society embracing so many graduates from such universities will suffer from the enhanced spread of ‘Sakoku mind’.  Is this what we want for the future of Japan?  I urge professors of the Japanese universities to be alert and do something about this.

The message of this book resonates with the analysis and opinion of Karel Von Wolfren, a journalist and another ‘expert on Japan’, as expressed in a series of his books such as ‘The Enigma of Japanese Power’ or ‘A False Realities of a Politicized Society (Japanese title: ‘Japan-a system that do not make people happy) ’.

DPJ (Democratic Party of Japan) that took over the administration recently went through ‘Jigyo Shiwake (sorting out programs)’, a very open and simple process of cutting budget off from variety of projects and this became a hot topic.  Doesn’t this remind us of ‘Cultural Revolution’ of China sometime ago?  Nobel laureates, Presidents of the universities, etc. from academia expressed deep concern and criticism about it, but people at large seemed to have evaluated this process positively as providing transparency in understanding the process of policy decision process.  There are, on the other hand, criticisms such as objectives not being clear enough, or the decisions being made in too short a time.  Regarding science and technology programs, there were also discussions about how the large-scale research, the Supercomputer project being a typical example, should be conducted.  What do you think?

I think that in a large-scale research we should include foreign specialists in the discussion right from the start of planning and open our large scale facilities to scientists of the world as part of the strategic collaboration of nurturing human resource (Ref.1) (both in Japanese). In many cases, I hear shallow excuses of secondary importance such as large scale facility projects that affect Japanese industry foundation must be run by Japanese only, or including foreigners is a risk to patent safety.

We need to consider more seriously about how the ideas that change the world (Ref.1) emerge and come into shape or who comes up with those great ideas.  In other words, we should do better on the ways we use our policy planning and funding by the public money.  In this context it was good that the new government made policy making process more open to the public.

Again and as always, I must say that scientific community is as ‘Sakoku minded’ as any other Japanese professional community.

‘Medicine and Art’ Exhibition Opens

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An exhibition‘Medicine and Art’ opened at Mori Art Museum. It is the fruit of nearly 2 years of planning, collaborating with Wellcome Trust  and will be exhibited until the end of next February.  Since I knew that Wellcome Trust is the largest foundation in the United Kingdom supporting medical research but is also making efforts to promote arts related to medicine, I was very happy to support this project – although there was not much that I could do to contribute.

Mr. and Mrs. Mori, the owner of Mori Art Museum, Mr. Nanjo, the Director of the Museum, and the museum staffs, His Excellency Warren, the Ambassador of UK to Japan, Mr. Kan Suzuki, Vice Minister of MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology), (in Japanese) attended the opening ceremony and reception.  I also gave a speech to congratulate the opening.

Among the exhibitions were several valuable drawings of anatomy by Da Vinci.  The words were written in ‘mirror writing’.  Also at display was a sketch by Michelangelo – a rare piece from the collection of The Royal Collection.  Since Michelangelo was a sculptor, he had a habit of burning sketches away one after another so only about 200 pieces are left, the fact which is unbelievable.  The paintings at the ceiling and the Last Judgment of Sistine Chapel in Vatican, are widely known as his masterpiece.  I remember having an opportunity of seeing some 90 of the sketches by Michelangelo in an exhibition 3 years ago (in Japanese).

A variety of special programs including lectures are offered at ‘Medicine and Art’.  I recommend you to visit this special exhibit.

Mentor Award of ‘Nature’: The Crazy Ones

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Nature is, of course, the premier science magazine that anyone in this field knows.

The magazine founded‘Mentor Award’ 4 years ago.  I fully agree and support the concept of Dr. Philip Campbell,the Editor-in-Chief.

I am sure you are able to find the same messages as this award in many of my columns (Here are some examples from this year) (Ref.1).  Repeatedly, I have pointed out that in Japan where the society is ‘vertically hierarchial’ structured it is often hard for individuals to go out to the wide world spontaneously therefore making it difficult for new human resource or new ‘buds’ of ‘somebody’ to emerge.  The essence is the importance for the mentors to encourage young students and fellows to get out to a wide world and compete and try to becoming independent even when young..

It appears to me that in general, the importance of ‘Mentors’ is not widely recognized in nurturing next generation of scientists, and the achievements of scientists (and in a vertical society this often means the boss of the organization) are valued based on their scientific achievements.  I am not blaming this though ? it is wonderful as it is.

For senior scientists it is extremely important to encourage their graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and young scientists to become independent standing on their own feet and to pursue new frontiers.  How much the research advisors succeed in these things of nurturing is as important as succeeding in their own research.

This year’s Mentor Award was given to two Japanese scientists in two categories; ‘Lifetime Achievement’ and ‘Mid Career Achievement’.  The awarding ceremony took place at the British Embassy in Tokyo on December 1st that opened with speeches by Ambassador Warren and Dr. Philip Campbell, Editor in Chief of ‘Nature’ who came to Japan for this occasion.  It was a very nice gathering and participants were handed lovely pamphlets.

I would like to congratulate from the bottom of my heart Dr. Fumio Osawa, the winner of ‘Lifetime Achievement’ andDr. Hiroaki Kitano, the winner of ‘ Mid Career Achievement’ (Sony Computer Science Laboratories Ltd. ); Many of their former students and fellows also gathered to celebrate and we all enjoyed a wonderful time.

About 60 candidates were nominated for this award and each of them was highly qualified.  It was my great honor to be invited to join the jury committee of 6 members chaired by Dr. Akiyoshi Wada.

The biggest surprise was the results of this jury committee.  It was almost a wonder that there was scarcely any difference in the evaluation result of those 6 judges in scoring of the top candidates.  When the discussion began, I realized how each jury read carefully through the application materials and shared common values about the meaning of ‘Mentors’.

Toast to these ‘out of box ‘Mentors’’ who draw out ‘extraordinary possibilities’ from the young scientists of next generation!  I think this element is manifested in the philosophy described by these two award winners (Ref.1), too.(in Japanese)

By the way, I found in the nomination form of Dr Kitano, the following ‘famous phrases’ among some people, as his motto..  This is apparently his core philosophy.

‘The Crazy Ones’ ;  Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Dr. Kitano says though that he is not ‘crazy enough’ yet!

Actually, just recently, I tried to include an one minute video of ‘The Crazy Ones’ in my keynote lecture ‘Entrepreneur = Change Agent’ which I wrote about in my column ‘GEW-1’, but the conditions of the stage, lighting, and other factors were not good enough for this and I had to give up the idea.