Hanoi and Yangon

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It’s been a long time since I was at Hanoi last time.  Now I am here again for two reasons: to move for YES (Young Engineers and Scientists) Award (Ref.1, 2) of Honda foundation 
and to have an informal talk with the officials of government of Vietnam on its Science and Technology policies.

As I always say in every opportunity, it is my deep conviction that the most fundamental goal of education in Japan is to produce human asset that is ready to cope with this speeding global age and it should be done through promotion of active multi layered international exchanges.  I am sure that those of you who are frequent visitors of my blog know this… 

For this purpose I am helping the Honda foundation on its YES program  that is supporting young generation of Vietnam, India, and other ASEAN countries.

While I was waiting for my colleagues to join me from Cambodia, Drs. Thang and Ann (photo1) came to see me at the hotel.  I have known them for more than 10 years, ever since I was councilor, and later President, of the International Society of Nephrology.  Now, they are leading figures in this field in Vietnam.  Dr. Ann has experience of spending 3 months at Tokai University by invitation.  I recall that it was 17 or 18 years ago when I first visited Hanoi and saw hospitals operating in unbelievably bad conditions.

Img_1878 Photo 1: From left, Dr. Thang and Dr. Ann.

Dr. Ca, whom I believe is the “number 2” in Science and Technology Department, organized my meeting with the government officials including two former ministers and we enjoyed heated discussions.  Dr. Ca and I are familiar with each other because we both participated in the Conference of the Science Council of Asia for these 7, 8 years.  Every time I see him, he is promoted to higher responsibilities.  I am happy to see this.

Img_1885_2 Photo 2: With Dr. Ca. From left, Dr. Ishihara of Honda foundation, Dr. Ca, myself, Dr. Sunami of GRIPS, local officer.

Img_1886 Photo 3: Electric wires in the town. So crowded!

In the evening, by chance, I was able to stop by at the wedding party of Dr. Thang’s daughter for 10 minutes before going to the airport.  So many guests were there.

I spent one night at Bangkok and left for Yangon, Myanmar. At Yangon, I visited the Yangon Technological University (Ref.1) located in a beautiful simple scene to exchange views with the professors and President on what the best possible YES program of Honda foundation would be.  After this, went to pay a visit to H.E. Nogawa at the Embassy of Japan, to JICA office, and Myanmar Association of Japan Alumni (MAJA) (approximately 800 alumni including short stays).

The President of MAJA, Dr. Kyaw was about the same generation as I.  He studied as research student at Department of Neurosurgery at School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo and earned his degree under the supervision of Professors Shimizu and Sano.  Good old memories!  This sort of relationship is even more necessary for tomorrow’s Japan, and I want even more young people go study abroad, to mix and compete with others, but even at this global age, the number of students studying abroad is decreasing in Japan for some reason.  In other words, “inward looking, secluding” mentality is spreading – a strange phenomenon.  I think this problem is more prominent in boys.

I also want more energy in professors.  If professors are “inward looking”, nothing much can be done about it, but at least they should put young students at the top priority because they are going to handle this nation in the future.  This is really a problem.  Same problems exist in companies, too.

I left Yangon in the evening for Japan.  It was a busy trip, but there were lots to see and hear, and many nice people to meet.

I arrived at Narita next morning, spent some time at GRIPS, and in the evening went to the recording of “Prime News”, a television program of BS Fuji channel.  The topic of that night was “Davos meeting, the world, and Japan”.  The guests were Mr. Motohisa Furukara, “secretary-genral” of National Strategy Bureau of Cabinet headed by Deputy Prime Minister Kan and Ms. Kumi Fujisawa of Sofia Bank, and myself.  By any chance have you seen it?

Asia Innovation Forum; Eyes to see Japan from “outside”

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As I introduced to you in my recent column, the “Asia Innovation Forum” opened at Roppongi Hills for two days on September 14th  and 15th under the initiative of Mr. Idei, the former CEO of SONY. By looking at the program you may see that “Group 20” worked very hard to make this happen and I am proud with the result.  I was also delighted to see so many people coming.  We used Twitter and web cast to achieve more effect.

From the beginning we planned this year’s forum mainly for Japanese so there were only a few non-Japanese participants.  I was unfortunately unable to attend the start of the first day due to other obligations, but the sessions seemed to have run pretty well.  The speakers were all very qualified as well as good debaters with so much to say that the moderators had hard time trying to spare enough length of time for each of them.  The moderators all did wonderful job.

I managed to attend whole day on the 2nd day.  I saw Mr. Ken Okuyama (Ref.1) after a long time at lunch.  He has a wonderful talent to speak of big views and to take actions.  President Fukutake of Benesse Co. gave an attractive speech on the world famous “Naoshima” island.  A warm, gentle style of Dr. Yonekura in moderating the succeeding panel was also nice.  The last panel by “Group 20” ran a bit short of time unfortunately.  Dr. Sadako Ogata delivered a closing remark. There was also a session by people aiming to be social entrepreneurs.  It was a remarkable close-up.

We used “Twitter” for something new and Webcast was also available.  Thanks to staffs for their hard work.

The “Group20” might appear strangely different for traditional Japanese business people.  Its members are comprised of young leaders that possess high ability to challenge the global age, a completely different type compared to traditional “elites”.  On the other hand, however, I saw a weakness in their words because their views were only from the standpoint of home country ? not being able to look at the world affairs apart from Japanese point of view.  I have the impression that they are not really being able to see or feel Japan “from international point of view”.  But this is precisely the point how people of the world see Japan.  Maybe it is because these young Japanese people have no experience of living abroad for a long period as an individual, free from Japanese organizations or companies.  If you are working for a Japanese company, no matter how long you have lived abroad it is nothing but a “long business trip” because you would be acting in accordance to the instructions of the management.  You would not be free from Japanese society or culture of Japanese business.  I saw this problem being expressed in many questions raised by non-Japaneses who participated in the panels.  It is important to understand your “strength” and “weakness”.  You are all our precious human asset with whom we entrust the future of Japan.

My closing comment was structured around this “lack of overseas experience” in Japanese young people.  I also pointed out that talents of women are being wasted which was another big problem.  The latter issue was discussed in an article next day in “Newsweek International” (Sept.21 edition) featuring “the Female Factor” (see the picture at the top) titled “The Real Emerging Market”.  Such discussion is not only my view (you will find this theme repeatedly in my blog), but also a world trend.  Thinking of Japan as a different, special country is a terrible mistake.  So I made the tone of my comment stronger than usual.  Let me remind you that the theme of this year “The Earth’s Limits. Asia’s Growth and Japan’s Role” was selected because people expect a lot from Japan.  There are so many things that we can and must do.  Action is everthing.

Summer Davos-2 Japanese women shine

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I would like to write about my impression on this year’s Summer Davos.  In short, China, not only because it was the host country, demonstrated great energy, presence, and commitment of government through speeches by Premier Wen Jiabao and the Mayor of Tianjin and so on.  The details of this meeting are reported at the website (webcast  １, ２ , photos ).  Dr. Ishikura also writes many columns in her blog （Sept.12, 15, 16）. These reports are very lively and informative so please take a look.

Many people participated from Japan and I was happy about it.  There were many interesting sessions taking places in parallel in more than one venue, personal net workings to do and consultations to attend…so I was quite busy.  At the reception on the 2nd day, I enjoyed encounters with many old and new friends.

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Photos 1-4: 3 scenes from the receiption, President of the China Daily and his staffs, Prof. Moon of Yonsei University (left end).

At the IdeasLab session Keio University and the University of Tokyo participated.  This was also good.  Dr. Yoko Ishikura took lead of these sessions.  I did not fully listen or discuss in these sessions but Drs. Murai, Natsuno, etc. at Keio University gave a nice exciting presentation on IT field, focusing on Internet and cell phones.  Especially, the high-tech cell phone presented by Dr. Natsuno surprised the audience. But why is it that the Japanese people do not try to develop a targeted market for such first class technology?  Why don’t we make effort to present it?  This issue is discussed also at “Cho (literally meaning ‘surpass’) Galapagos study group” where I participate with Drs. Natsuno and Murai and we are planning to announce policy recommendations shortly.  The University of Tokyo gave presentation on sustainable human society, with focus on ecology, particularly ‘water’ problems. This was also a very interesting session led by Dr. Hashimoto, a specialist on photocatalyst and Dr. Oki doing research on global balance of water resource but unfortunately the time was not enough..  Details of these sessions are available on the web (Ref.1 2), so if you have time visit the sites and enjoy.

Photo_5_ishikurasanPhoto 5: Panel on Global Competitiveness report

The World Economic Forum, organizer of Davos meeting also announces “The Global Competitiveness report” every year.  Dr. Ishikura participated from Japan to help analyze, evaluate and make reports.  For the year of 2009-2010, Japan scored 8th among 133countries (8/133).  Not bad – but this does not entitle us to sit back and relax.  There are yet so many things that can be done.  Lift your spirits high and keep on working.  Find out what you are good at or unique, and make it better, utilize it, see the world trend, broaden your horizon and go out to take action.

Nick Gowing, a famous anchor of BBC, hosted the panel on this report .The panelists were vice minister of Vietnam (75/133), minister of trade of Costa Rica 855/133), vice minister of Mauritius (57/133) and Dr. Ishikura.  Dr. Ishikura first explained the report and then comments and remarks by each panelists followed, ending with a question from Nik (isn’t it a bit impolite?) to minister of Zimbabwe (132/133) who was in the audience.  The minister responded by explaining his thoughts on the issues, plans, and promises to the world and then Nik turned to Ms. Ishikura for a comment.  Her comment was good, actually.

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Photos 6-9: Panel hosted by Ms. Kuniya (6.7) and Ms. Doden (8,9)

On the last day, we had a heated panel on global economy “Asia’s New Role in Managing the Global Economy” . Ms. Hiroko Kuniya, host of a popular interview program “Today’s Close Up” at NHK, did a good job handling discussions on difficult issues such as the role of IMF with five outstanding panelists.  One of the last panels just before the wrap-up session of all panels was “China, Japan and South Korea; Shifting the Power Equation Together?” hosted by Ms. Aiko Doden who is also a reporter of NHK. They must have had only a little time to discuss in advance with the panelists, but they both did very well.  I believe the panels will be broadcasted in Japan shortly.

These three Japanese ladies that I introduced to you are very good English speakers, but not just that.  They are also wonderful hosts; handling the flow of discussions smoothly by stepping aside, but not missing the chance to draw good comments from the panelists at a good timing, not afraid to challenge them if necessary.  It is a hard work, calling for a very different type of skills than the panelists.  I guess they learn how to do this by seeing good examples, experiencing, and getting feedbacks.  In anything we do, we improve by studying, seeing examples of the world, copying good examples, trying, experiencing, getting feedbacks, and by reviewing..  This kind of skill is what we might call “Tacit Knowing”- an ability that cannot be learned from manuals or user’s guide.

This year many Japanese came to participate and were active but I have an impression that Japanese women’s work as host, taking charge of the flow of panels, was particularly noticeable and therefore shining.  In all of the 4 sessions which I wrote about, including IdeasLab, Japanese women served as hosts but the panelists and speakers of the presentations were all men.  Were these women even more prominent because of this?  It might be so because their role was to cast a spotlight to each of these men, one after another, and they were all in established positions.  Am I being a bit prejudiced?  Anyway, it is good for Japanese to attract attentions.

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Photos 10-11: At dinner together

In the evening of the final day, I had a nice dinner with Ms.Kuniya, Ms. Doden and other Japanese people, about 12 people altogether. (Photo 11).  I fully enjoyed this opportunity and appreciated it.  By the way, the attendants were half men and half women.

Summer Davos at Dalian: ‘D.Light’ and other flourishing Social Entrepreneurs

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As at elsewhere, ‘Social Entrepreneurs’ is in the spotlight at Summer Davos also.  Japan as a high tech country tends to see the world just from her perspective making international contribution with philosophy or products that lack ‘knowledge or sensitivity to the local situation’ or having ‘too much focus on cutting -edge technology’ – both being the ‘weakness’ that Japanese must recognize.

The D-Lab of MIT which I have introduced to you in my blog is a good example of the project that started with consideration to these points.

At IdeasLab, the session on social entrepreneurs, many examples were introduced but I would say Ned Tozan of ‘D.Light’ (Ref.1) caught most attention.  In India and Africa, many places are without electricity so some people burn kerosene at night.  This is apparently dangerous, unhealthy, and costly for poor people.  What can we do about it?  Their work starts from this question.  Their enthusiasm was felt to all who listened.

Other examples included:  1) Activities to provide modest education and skill training to migrant workers for their possible career opportunity after their return to homeland. 2) Helping people with only small land to be financially independent 3) Helping young women forced in prostitution in Cambodia and other lands to become financially independent.

I asked Mr. Tozan ‘Did your project stem out from D-Lab (Ref.1) ?’ and his answer was ‘Yes’.  Recently I posted a column on D-Lab, a wonderful new course that started at MIT.  I was told that this activity spread through the alumni and heard about a successful example of a Stanford student.  I had a feeling that D.Light was it, and correctly so.  Just looking at the background of Sam Goldman (Ref.1), CEO and founder of D.Light, you will see how American youth are aware about the world affairs, have energy and vitality to do something about them.  I also admire from the bottom of my heart the innovative ways elite universities of America treat the students and their ambitions.

I think that more social entrepreneurs would emerge from Japan if more Japanese business people or youth see global issues through their own personal experience. Letting them pass time in ‘Hikikomori (Social Withdrawal)’ is ‘mottainai’.  I wonder whether young people in Japan find it difficult to draw a bright picture of future when they see people 20-30 years older and think to themselves that those kind of life are their only options.  But they are so wrong!

In order to open up Japan to the world, it is crucial to ‘let young people experience and see more of the outside world’ (Ref.1, 2, 3).  It is now almost my mantra, but once again, I confirmed its importance.  The world is big.  As Steve Jobs puts it, ‘Don’t Settle, Keep Looking’(Ref.1)

World Economic Forum Japan meeting in commemoration of the opening of Tokyo Office, then to New Dheli, Taipei, and Summer Davos in Dalian

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WEF annual meeting in Davos may be described as the world famous place for the so-called “Track II” dialogue by members of the global society.  On the year of its 39th anniversary WEF opened Japan Office in Tokyo.  I understand that the Tokyo office is the fourth office of WEF in the world.  How exciting!  But then, why?  Might it be because of their high expectations for Japan?  Then, we certainly must do our best.

On September 4th and 5th, a meeting to announce the opening of Japan office  was held in Tokyo.  Large number of people gathered making this meeting very lively.  As the election of the Shugi-in (i.e. House of Representatives) just ended with the implication of the possibility of establishment of historical new administration, Mr. Hatoyama, the head of Democratic Party of Japan (and Davos meeting caucus)  joined to deliver a reassuring message.  I also participated in the panel afterwards.

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In the afternoon of the opening day of this meeting I left for New Delhi.  Arriving early next morning via Singapore I went straight to the meeting titled “India and Japan of Clean Energy Technology”(Ref.1, 2).  The conference opened with the keynote lectures of Dr. Pachauri of IPCC (it’s been a year)  and myself followed by a number of presentations from Japan introducing ecological technologies through which they seek “Win-Win” partnership of India and Japan. Ambassador Domichi also came to greet, and we had an honor of having him at the reception party in the evening.

India has a population of 10 million with expectation of annual 6-8% growth in economy for many years to come, but to my regret, Japanese business people residing in India are only 3,300 in total.  Isn’t this sad?  Although high potentials for establishing “Win-win” partnerships exist, we have such few Japanese doing business in India.  I think this is such a waste of opportunity, as I always say. (Ref.1)  Chinese and Korean industries are making quick moves into India.  I did point this out clearly to people participating from Japan.

Img_1815_2 At Sotokufu, the office of governor-general of Taiwan. The bust behind us is Sun Yat-sen.

Next day, I went to Taipei to join in with my colleague at GRIPS, Dr. Sunami and others.  Here again, the topic is “Japanese clean energy technologies” but it seems that the world does not know how good Japan is in this field.  Japan’s existence is not prominent.  Why?  I discussed on this, too.  In this global age, it is important to recognize your advantage or weakness about global issues and collaborate with others so that you can quickly spread into the society or the world.  This “Creation of new social values.” is what the innovation of the 21st century is all about. 

After Taipei, I went to Dalian via Shanghai to participate in the “New World Champions”, the so called ‘Summer Davos’ organized by WEF.  It’s a bit busy travel, but this is diplomacy, making friends world wide.  The first New World Champions took place in Dalian,   the second in Tensin. Participants included many young business people so naturally the event was quite energetic.

From the very first day I attended 3 sessions.  I was happy to hear that as many as 80 people came from Japan and was participating actively.  I saw many friends from the day 1.  Dr. Yoko Ishikura’s Blog  also reports on this event so please take a look.  Premier Wen Jiabao of the People’s Republic of China delivered a speech as in the first and second meetings.  He talked about the policies China took to respond to this global economic crisis, explaining how their outcomes were, how the current status is, and sent out strong confident message that China is ready and willing to continue taking up responsibilities.

In the evening, I attended several receptions including Japan dinner hosted by Taiyokeizai no Kai.

Sony’s magic lab ? a place where geniuses and super-talents pop up

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This is a title of a book that was recently published. (in Japanese)

The book was written by “Mario Tokoro and Nobuko Yuri”, and on the Obi (a belt like sheet of paper over the cover of the book) it reads: “A secret of the ‘wonder lab’- The Sony Computer Science Laboratories Ltd. – home to Hiroaki Kitano, Kenichiro Mogi, Hideki Takayasu, and Jyunichi Rekimoto ”, “Haven’t you heard those names somewhere before?”

“Hiroaki Kitano is….. one of the inventors of pet dog AIBO…..founder and top scientist of the new field of “system biology” …. Kenichiro Mogi is known for analysis of the function of brains such as “Qualia”, “Aha experience”…..original point of view and keen observations, fluffy hair, calm baby-face…….idol of media, books, TVs, games…..Hideki Takayasu is…..a best-seller author by his book “Fractal”…. started “Econophysics”, a field that is currently spreading throughout the world.  Junichi Rekimoto ……has developed a series of technologies that smoothly connect real world and the virtual world .. … these four were co-workers at one laboratory…. (Chapter one,  p.11)

This book is describing the 20 years of “Sony Computer Science Lab. (SONY CSL)”
since its foundation.  It is also a story about Mario Tokoro who devoted himself to the opening of the lab that produced number of geniuses and great talents.  Dr. Tokoro is by himself a “great talent, out of box type” but he is also a wonderful manager and a very attractive person.  His “out of box (henjin)” character was clear even from his childhood that his friends used to call him “Tokoro-henjin-Mariops”  (Chapter one, p.78)

SONY CSL – a laboratory that produced so many “henjins” who helped starting of a number of epoch making new fields, presenting new concepts to the world-, is but a small institute with only a little over than 30 members including administrative staff. And those 5 described above are not the only unique people that this lab produced.  There are many others.

I have had the privilege of working with Drs. Tokoro and Kitano in many ways for these several years (Ref.1, 2, 3)

Although the topics we talk about are quite serious, I always enjoy talking with them.  This book tells us that there are so many young people with great possibilities (including Tokoro and Kitano), the importance of setting up a “place” to nurture their talents, that in such place one can find the essence in things, create true values, and feel the excitement and challenges that are accompanied with discoveries.  The stories in the book are wonderful – it is truly an attractive book.  Partly this is due to the deep philosophy Dr. Tokoro and the extraordinary quality of his management skills.  Also Yuri, the co-author, contributes by her splendid talent on story telling and writing.

The content of the book is as follows:
1. It all began with a draft written in one day.
2. Working at the cutting edge of computer science
3. What is the essence of research management?
4. Escape from computer science
5. Broader, deeper
6. What the SONY CSL means to me
7. The future of science and SONY CSL

Chapter 2: “Tokoro says; ‘There are only two things that I do.  One is to decide the direction this lab must go.  Another is to manage human resources; hire those who fit in, help those who graduate, and ask anyone who seems to be a mismatch to leave.’” (p.62)

Chapter 3: “Most important is to open a new field of science, make a new culture.  If we succeed in this, it would not just skyrocket the brand value of Sony but will be without doubt an immeasurable contribution to humanity.” (p.75)

“The management that Mario Tokoro put into practice was clearly out of the “Japanese Standard”…..often we heard people saying “it’s insane”…..but “that insanity started to shine as they went on for years.  Oh, it was such a unique lab that they made.  Was it only possible because it was a private enterprise?  No, a private company will not have a way for such thing.  Well done!”

“Tokoro is known for being flexible and straight….  Even the editor in charge said, as Tokoro recalls, ‘Dr. Tokoro throws only straight balls’”

In Chapters 4-6 interesting episodes are introduced about how Tokoro met researchers such as Kitano, their backgrounds, and thoughts.  Tokoro sees their essence.  I recommend this book as reference to young researchers, or even non-researchers, for some lessons on life.

Kitano says “Synergy between fields that appear at first to be so irrelevant will not enhance unless we understand the fundamental idea that lies within each field.  However, that broadness is the only way to access to a new area or deep understanding of nature.”….”With the progress of computer technology, we are now able to handle sophisticated systems that involve many elements.  This opened the door to a new framework of science by breaking the walls between fields of information science, bio, sociology, economy, and so on and connecting them by new perspectives or methods.”  These words of Kitano become very convincing as we read through the works of seven (footnote 1) scientists that are introduced later.

Footnote 1; Junichi Rekimoto、Luc Steels、Hideki Takayasu、Kenichiro Mogi、Kazuhiro Sakurada、Franc Nielsen、Francois Pachet .

Two women helping them as staffs comment in the book: “I go to the presentations of researchers… and their way of thinking or ideas astonishes me quite frequently.”  “I am stimulated…… by the small words that the researchers utter in every day life”, “The researchers are all gentle and kind….of course there are many aspects in them that do not fit in to the standard value of company or ordinary life, but for matters outside research, they are basically nice people.” (p.226-227)

It seems that Dr. Tokoro’s philosophy is about finding unbelievably out of box “henjins” that have high potentials and creating a “place” to enable them grow freely. Maybe it has to do with his experience of being at several western laboratories working together with first class researchers.  Because of this experience SONY CSL is able to say that “…fresh PhDs…young inexperienced researchers are treated as colleagues, fairly, openly, and also with strictness….this atmosphere…. is a manifestation of very pure spirits that has nothing to do with disguise or connivance……” “….even in the presence of the most distinguished professors, no matter what they may say, SONY CSL researchers will not flinch” (p.216-217)

In Chapter 7, Dr. Tokoro proposed an “open system science”  as one possibility in facing future challenges and has published a book by this title  early this year in celebration of the 20th anniversary.

Anyway, I recommend this book strongly to anyone who is interested in research or anything fun, and to students in universities or graduate schools.

And as I repeatedly point out in this site also (please ‘Search’ by keywords such as ‘out of box (henjin)’, ‘nails that stick out’ or ‘common sense’),  it is these “out of box (henjin)”, “nails that stick out” “non-common sense” that go beyond the frontier, create new values, and change the world.  My conviction is even stronger after reading the stories of many scientists introduced in this book.

Escape from “Garapagosnization (Garapagos-ka) of industry”

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A word "Galapagosnization (Garapagos-ka)" widely spread to refer to Japanese industry that possesses high technology but do not seek to go out to the world; cell phone industry, for instance, being a typical example.

What are the problems of “Garapagos-nization” and how do we fix them?  To answer this question Dr. Takeshi Natsuno, the father of “iMode”, and his friends launched “Cho Garapagos Kenkyu-kai (Overcoming Garapagos study team)”  (the site is in Japanese).  I participate as one of the members of the cheer group.  The goal is to find ways to conquer “Garapagos”.  Discussion was heated from the very beginning (Ref. in Japanese 1, 2)

We want to liberate the technologies of Japan from secluded management and have them go out to the world.

Dr. Natsuno is known as the true Entrepreneur, “Nail that sticks out”, man of ability, a challenger who overcomes failures.  He is one of the leaders recognized by the whole world.  Dr. Natsuno is also a person who makes you feel good.  I sincerely think that we must cheer and support such people..

This is his recent interview (in Japanese). “Uh-huh”, I nod as I read. It is precisely what I think.

Trainings of Indian IIT students in Japan

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ASIMO Demonstration@Honda Aoyama Welcome Plaza from Kihoko Suda on Vimeo.

Indian Institute of Technology is well known as one of the top universities in India that produces world class leaders.

For these excellent undergraduate students of IIT, Honda Foundation is organizing Young Engineers and Scientists project since 2007.  5 winners are selected in India each year and Dr. Pachauri of IPCC and I delivered speech to congratulate the winners at the first awarding ceremony of last year as you may have read in this blog.

The Foundation then invited 4 winners to Japan for 2 months' research and trainings.  This way, young people of India will not only learn more about Japan but will come to like Japan, and will eventually act as "Ambassadors to Japan."  It is such a wonderful project.  I certainly would like to see Japanese students given more chances of the same experience.

This year, all of the 5 winners spent 2 months in Japan.  2 students at Okazaki National Institutes of Natural Science in the field of gene technology, two at the research institute of Honda (in Miyazaki city, Miyazaki prefecture and Asaka city of Saitama prefecture), and one at Shibaura Institute of Technology.  They apparently enjoyed the stay and told us enthusiastically about their experience in a different research environment of foreign country, different city environment, different values, about punctual train operations, hospitality of Japanese people, etc.

Upon their returning back to India, we arranged a farewell dinner with people from the Honda Foundation, Dr. Sunami of GRIPS, and students from IITN (it was a pity that one student could not make it).  3 people from the meeting of the other day, which included graduates of IIT, were also present making the gathering even more stimulating.

Encounter with foreign country or different culture at an early stage of life is an valuable asset.  It would broaden one's view, as well as one's alternatives of life.  It can also very possibly help "Connecting Dots" in the "Flat World."

Many thanks to people of the Honda Foundation, faculty members who were involved in the training of the students, and everyone who supported this project.

 

Innovation Courier Project

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Since the start of the "Innovation 25" policy, various measures and activities are being set up and started.  "Innovation Courier Project" is the one of such activities.

I have been helping this project from the start.  Its works include various projects, lectures, publishing and so on.

This time, on June 3rd, we had an exhibition and seminar (this web site is in Japanese only) under the theme of "water" at Yokohama.  At the exhibition, many items such as truck portable sea water purification system, simple water purifying device already in practical use at Bangladesh, etc. were on display.  They were all wonderful.  However, I very strongly felt that we need to develop more things that more meet the local needs.

Japanese inevitably are inclined to rely on technologies, and engineers are too much focused on development of technologies or improvement of their accuracies that they often come up with very high-priced items that would be unrealistic and costly.  Also, I always get the impression that they have tendency of depending on government for funding.  The items are altogether wonderful, but in order to have these items delivered to the destination ASAP, we should think different way and find new ways to build such systems and finances that make it possible.  For example, we could try to make products at local area that create local jobs and help people to relieve from poverty (even a little). I think that this kind of thought or viewpoint was missing.  Maybe it’s because many of us do not have any experience of living in those places.  Thus, we are not able to feel everyday life as the local people.  I think this is the weak point of Japan in this flat global age where "Demand-Driven Innovation" is very effective.

I had a lecture (this web-site is in Japanese only) and talked about the logic of Grameen Bank, introduced some of their examples, and also touched upon the wonderful NGO activities such as KickStart.  These are what I call the innovation, "Creation of New Values."

TED comes to Tokyo

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"TED comes to Tokyo."  And if your response to this news is "finally!" or "at last!," then you must be a kind of freak(?) in this area.  But believe it or not, it actually did.

On May 22, TEDxTokyo was held at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Odaiba.  The audience was limited to 200, language was English exclusively, and the percentage of Japanese participants was limited to maximum 40%.  I was involved in organizing this event, and we arranged to have each live speaker speak no more than 18 minutes.  We also sorted out several nice videos from TED and mixed them into the program.  It turned out to be a very exciting and inspiring day.

The two producers, Todd and Patrick, were nice combination and the way they hosted the event was in a good tempo and stylish.

Visit the TEDxTokyo website or the original TED site and have lots of fun.

Thanks to so many young volunteers who helped this happen.