Alexandria Library, Global Health and Patient University

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Bibliotheca Alexandria is said to be the oldest library in the world (B.C. 300 to 400 era).  It was an open academy which gathered various acquaintances and scholars from across the world (of those days) and made them interact with each other (What an insight to recognize it’s true value!).  Having been reconstructed six years ago, it is now rapidly growing as digital library including wonderful activities.  Nowadays, young generation is making full use of it under the excellent leadership of Mr. Ismail Serageldin.

Lectures and panels were held at the United Nations University at Aoyama on October 4th in memory of the 1st anniversary of the set up of the library’s Japanese Web site.  Dr. Helal, Minister of Higher Education and Science of Egypt, Mr. Serageldin and the Ambassador His Excellency Abdelnasser were present for the ceremony.  Since I was acting as a director, I addressed the ceremony.  Dr. Takahashi, the first director had also participated in the panel.

In the afternoon, there was a follow up meeting of the Health Systems of Global Health, proposed by Japan in the Lake Toya G8 summit.  Excellent members gathered with Mr. Keizo Takemi as the head, and we will work to shape the system’s foundation before handing it over to Italy which will be acting as the host of G8 summit to be conducted next year.

In the midcourse, there was a session called "Patient University" (the link is in Japanese) organized by our NPO, Health Policy Institute, Japan, focusing on GE HealthCare and NGOs assisting the patients.  I also expressed my greetings and talked about "Why NGO has grown?"  Such a common process will support "civil activities."  Thank you all for your hard work.

It was a long Saturday.

Ferrari California Japan Premiere

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The Italian embassy in Tokyo hosted an event to introduce the new Ferrari California.

Why was I invited?  Well, I think it’s because I had a chance to speak at the "Auto Innovation" symposium the other day.  I talked about the strength of Japanese and Italian cars there.  I spoke not only about the importance of the manufacturing systems that pay attention to user satisfaction, but also about how the cars tell a story, by design, that grabs people’s hearts.  The symposium was organized by Mr. Ken Okuyama who is a well-known designer of Ferraris and other autos.  He mentioned then that he would invite me at the next opportunity.  That’s probably why I got an invitation.

The reception comes just in time for the Formula One race in Japan.  Drivers of the Ferrari team, Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) and Felipe Massa (Brazil) were also at hand. What a great promotional event.

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Photo With Mr. Watanabe of METI

A new business model, Intellectual Ventures

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The firm that’s recently been generating a lot of talk in the United States and Japan, Intellectual Ventures, has rolled out its new office here.  On September 30 it hosted a launch reception.  The founders of this new business model are Microsoft’s former chief technology officer, Nathan Myhrvold, Edward Jung and others.  They established the company several years ago.  It seems to be America’s strength that there are incredibly innovative people like this at the forefront, paving the way for new opportunities.  It’s what I may call a frontier mentality.  A Google search on Intellectual Ventures will give many results, including lots of interesting blogs and articles.  Some apparently say the firm is "patent trolling."  I think their business model is really interesting.

Working with university ventures I’ve noticed that scientists and engineers are unable to see where they stand in the big picture.  And for managers, it is often difficult to clearly see what is happening in their company.  That’s why many patents end up just sitting on shelves, and organizations are unable to make use of them.

It is extremely important to identify the patents that are sitting around and match them with the emerging needs of society and companies.  The core of Mr. Myhrvold’s new business is to do this and create "inventior capital," which means adding value to inventors and patents.

I attended the opening event for the Japan branch of Intellectual Ventures on the evening of September 30.  Mr. Myhrvold is a man of multiple genius.  He went to UCLA at age 14 and studied physics.  He loves dinosaurs and apparently has made many of his own findings.  It is very impressive that Bill Gates can recruit people like this.  I also had the opportunity to meet Mr. Jung the other day.  They are both very nice and passionate about education too.

Design and Innovation

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A day after my returning back from Tianjin, there was a lecture session hosted by Hakuhodo Innovation Lab （Director Awata. Link of the Lab is in Japanese）.

Lecturers were myself, Dr. Komiyama, President of the University of Tokyo, and Mr. Tim Brown, President of IDEO.  Mr. Brown and I were in the same panel at Davos conference this January, and I saw him at Tianjin also.  We each had one hour to speak, so there was an ample amount of time.  Dr. Komiyama, busy as always, arrived just in time to the conference hall, made his speech on "Japan as a front runner of global challenges (Kadai Senshinkoku, Japan)" and left immediately.  It’s a pity though, that only few people raised their hands to ask questions even on this good opportunity of listening to inspiring lectures.

As for myself, I started my speech by showing a red "iPod nano" which I borrowed on the spot and, as always, talked about how "story telling (monogatari)" is important as well as "making things (monozukuri)", how "concepts"and "designs" should have diversity and surprises, importance of being involved in a project from the start, what "Melting Pot vs Salad Bowl" in this global era means, etc.

Dsc00119Photo1 　Mr. Tim Brown and myself at the conference hallp>

Mr. Brown’s lecture was also very interesting.  He talked about design, process, and speed with many good specific examples, confirming and supplementing what I have said in my lecture.  Please refer to his HBR article of this year for more information.  Hakuhodo is also collaborating with IDEO.

The New Champions, From Tianjin

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The second New Champions conference was held in Tianjin.  It’s a new annual meeting organized by the World Economic Forum, known as the Davos conference.  It started last year in Dalian.  The event mainly brings together young leaders of new emerging companies in the world.  I was very pleased that many young entrepreneurs from Japan were taking part.  Out of the nearly 1,500 participants from around the world, about 60 were from Japan.

At 6 am on September 26th, I boarded a shinkansen bullet train to Nagoya.  There’s a direct flight to Tianjin from Nagoya International Airport.  How convenient, I made it to the conference in time for 2 pm, at the risk management workshop moderated by INSEAD’s Dr. Soumitra Dutta.  Apparently a high-speed train service between Beijing and Tianjin started ahead of the Olympics last month, but flying directly to Tianjin seems to be a more reliable and quicker way.

The venue of the international conference is of excellent quality.  China’s vibrancy is similar to the atmosphere in Japan 40 years ago.  Hosting the Tokyo Olympics back then inspired the construction of new infrastructure like the shinkansen bullet train and the Tomei expressway.  Of course, the speed and scale of building are of a different magnitude in today’s world of globalization.

Many of the Japanese participants were also at last year’s conference.  Mr. John Ehara from Unison Capital hosted a "Japan Sushi Dinner."  It was a smash hit.  Japanese-cuisine really has a worldwide appeal.  A dinner like this is a company’s intangible asset because people will surely talk to friends about the experience.  Word of mouth will eventually spread around the world and boost the company’s credibility, resulting in new opportunities.  Mr. Ehara remained very low-key throughout the event.  I’m very grateful for his efforts.  It became such a wonderful gift to our country too.

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Photo1  Dr. Dutta from INSEAD(middle), Dr. Probst of WEF

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Photo2  Yokohama Mayor Nakada

In the afternoon of September 27th, I served as a member of a panel session.  It was quite an interesting experience.  Because I naturally tend to speak fast, I always consciously try to slow down.  But this time I found myself talking even faster than usual.  That’s because each panelist was given only 2 to 3 minutes for an introductory comment.  We also needed to end the session on time since Premier Wen Jiabao was to make his appearance afterwards.  It was a difficult task to highlight my differences with other panelists and make sure that the audience understood the key points.  I need more practice.

Premier Wen Jiabao flew in to Tianjin directly from New York where he was attending the UN general assembly.  He delivered a powerful speech and answered questions very well.  He provided clear answers on some difficult questions involving the earthquake, food safety, and environmental problems.

A gala dinner was held in the evening.  I was a little disappointed that the music and dancing was mostly Western, and not Chinese.

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Photo3, 4  images from the gala dinner

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Crans Montana, Swiss

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Crans Montana is a beautiful small town in a valley two hours drive from Geneva.  Here, I came on September 10th, from London to participate World Knowledge Dialogue.  This was its second, the first was in 2006 in the same town as you see in my earlier (sorry, but only in Japanese, but many pictures), and indeed, my third time to Swiss this year, Davos in January, and St. Gallen in May.

The meeting was for four days and this time I was honored to meet with Prof. Edward O Wilson of Harvard University, one of the most respected scholars of our time, who wrote many epoch-making, sometime controversial books such as ‘Sociobiology’, ‘On Human Nature’, ‘The Ants’ with the latter two received the Pulitzer award.  He is a cheerful and admirable person and we share a good time together over his thoughts including ‘fairy fly’.  By the way, you could see his lectures at Harvard on the web, too.

It was very good that quite a number from Japan including Prof. Hiroyuki Yoshikawa, participated and our contributions were thought significant.

The details of the program can be seen thru its websites for 2006 (I appear at a panel) and for 2008.  And you see many pictures and if you find me, let me know.

This year, I appeared in Day 1 at the Opening with Dame Julia Higgins (we know each other well since her days as Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society), and as Chair of the entire Day 4, thus you could see my commentaries and interactions through the webcasts.  In particular, the Day 4 is tough, the number of participants are less, everyone getting tired, some have to leave before the end, etc, thus I tried to make the entire session more interesting but casual.  I thought it went well and stayed on time and in fact ended 9 minutes earlier than the schedule.  Enjoy the website and webcasts.

I really enjoyed the conference itself and meeting with many interesting people, old and new friends.  Nonetheless, the format required as we discussed, certain strategic goals, participatory processes, and some outreach deliverables and actions.

There is a great champion golf course here and the Omega European Masters was played one week earlier.  I managed to play a round of 18 holes starting 7am finishing 10am.  I enjoyed it very, very much.

In the afternoon of Day 4, we moved to Geneva, visited some historical sites.  One was University of Geneva campus where John Calvin founded in 1559; he was the one who converted the city to Catholic to Protestant community in mid-16th century, and we wondered in front of a large Reformation Wall of Calvin and other three (see at ‘Reformed Geneva’ at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Calvin).

This visit gave me quite a moving feeling since in the Opening speech I mentioned on ‘Incunabula’ and commented Internet is the incunabula of today, that is to lead an unexpected consequence which may change the world. In fact, I said to the audience, because of incunabula of printed Bibles since Gutenberg of mid-15th century to year 1501, the religious revolution ensued almost 100 years later.  This message has been my recurring theme of some of my keynote speeches of ‘flattening and connected world’ as you may see in my blogs (refer 1 , 2 , 3 ) and elsewhere.

By a mere co-incidence, I was just standing there in front of such a consequence of major magnitude by John Calvin.

To London, for the GLOBE planning committee

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2 weeks ago, I received a FAX from Mr. Morley, the Minister of Environment of Mr. Blair’s regime, whom I have introduced before.  He wanted me to participate in the planning meeting of GLOBE, to be held in London on September 8.

I therefore reached London on the 8th morning via Paris, went to the hotel, changed in just 30 minutes and left for the meeting.  I was a bit late and joined the conference at 10:20.  The meeting was held in the Thatcher Room of Portcullis House, House of Commons which is a part of British parliament.  After the announcement of resignation by the Prime Minister, the representative of Japan and Member of the House, Mr. Yoshio Yatsu decided not to participate in the meeting.

Img_1333Photo 1  Photograph of participants, Mr. Morley, Member of the house in white shirt (in the center), to his right Mr. Gardiner, Member of the house. Some participants returned to their countries in the half way.

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Photo 2  The venue of meeting, a new building immediate right to Big Ben (It is not seen here)

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Photo 3  Mr. Tokumaru from the Ministry of the Environment

It is necessary to investigate the policies as well as approach to the "Land utilization, Forest conservation, Biodiversity, Ecosystem" which is actually very difficult.  As Mr. Barry Gardiner, a member of the House of Great Britain, was in-charge and delivered a speech in the beginning followed by a series of serious discussions by about 15 participants.  I think it will be a significant step if we find out the way to focus the policy from domestic to global. It may take a while, but it is very good if such discussions go ahead in a meaningful form in years to come. It is a global and very important subject but does not move forward easily.

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Photo 4  At  the reception, Mr. Gardiner, Member of the House, Mr. Nishigahiro, Minister to Great Britain.

The reception was organized at "The Goring Hotel", a small but sophisticated hotel which is common in London.

After staying for 24 hours in London, next morning, I am leaving for Swiss.  I will send next column from there.

Again from “Asian Youth Exchange Program”, High Motivation and Power of Japanese Women

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Recently, I have talked about "L’Oreal and women in science", and "Asian Youth Exchange Program", which started in Okinawa.

In the column of "L’Oreal and women in science", I wrote how Japanese women players came out demonstratively different than Japanese men in the sports activities such as softball, baseball, soccer, Judo and wrestling in Beijing Olympics.

"Asian Youth Exchange program" is an excellent policy planned and newly started by the Former Prime Minister Mr. Abe and cabinet minister Ms. Takaichi as part of "Innovation 25" policy which I was also involved.  It would be nice if it expands and gets carried over nationwide.  The funds for this program do not necessarily have to be the public funds but can be collected through different schemes such as tax systems.  I hope that the schools, local communities and enterprises will make spontaneous contributions and participate actively.  That is  what I call "Society Innovation" and "Talent Innovation".

By the way, you can see various photos at http://flickr.com/.  Have fun! Thanks to Mr. Ivannanto, an international student from Indonesia who had participated from Asia Pacific University, for creating this site.

As I was searching the data of this "Asian Youth Exchange Program", I realized that out of the 30 participants from overseas, there were 15 men participants and 15 women participants.  Of the 45 persons who participated from Japan, there were 30 women and 15 men.  Oh!, I thought, and when I inquired about the number of applications to the secretariat, the number of applications from women was overwhelmingly more and as a result the female participants were having higher competitive rate. The points related to the qualification, considering the competency to some extent, are written on the application form but still the motivations towards the participation is fairly different.  Isn’t it?  Why is it so?

I am expressing my opinions in this blogs frequently but please think about it.

Brilliant Female Researchers with Red Roses

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As I had introduced before, the well-known cosmetics company, L’Oreal, presides over a program called "For Women in Science" (As this website is very pretty, browse it) in collaboration with the UNESCO and appeals its existence to the world.  This year the program has celebrated its 10th anniversary at Paris in the spring.  The prizewinners until now were invited and Congratulatory meeting was held.

3 years ago, Japan has also launched a program to award young female researchers living in Japan.  I attended the commending ceremony and congratulatory party last year.  Also this year, wonderful people were commended and their family members, teachers and fellow researchers attended the ceremony.  It was a very splendid gathering and I was glad to see it.

4 brilliant people were selected for this year. We shared a cheerful, pleasent time together.

A women’s magazine, Marie Claire, has also participated in this activity and presented red roses (Photo) to all the winners.  I met Dr. Noriko Osumi, whom I worked with 2 days ago in Okinawa and her mother who is also a famous scientist.

Lorealjapan200801Photo Ms. Bando and 4 winners

Ms. Bando, a chief of gender equality bureau of cabinet office, mentioning that percentage of female scientist in Japan is the lowest among OECD countries, encouraged the audience for further effort.  I was responsible to propose a toast and spoke on various topics like, though, Gender Development Index of woman in Japan is within top 10 in the world, Gender Empowerment Index of woman is as low as about 40th in 70 countries in the world.  This difference is due to the male oriented society which is not competency based.  There may be some hint in understanding the basic difference between male and female in Japan, in what we saw of (male) baseball and (female) softball at this year’s Beijing Olympic. In that sense soccer, wrestling and judo, etc. as well. Please think about it.  I think actually here lies the problems of Japanese society.

I would like to express my appreciation to all the winners, family members, fellow researchers, people involved in the selections and all related people for their hard work.

At any rate, we can see a strategy of a world class enterprises when such prizes are awarded.  Each winner, over a period of years, will act as an ambassador of L’Oreal and will fulfill wonderful duty of moving the mind of men and catching the hearts of women in the world and act as advertising tower of the sponsor enterprise.  I think there is no such a splendid and beautiful advertising media as this.  I expect Japanese enterprises to think more strongly about social contribution from this viewpoint.  This is what social responsibility (CSR) of the enterprises is all about.

Students from India

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I reported earlier in my blog that I went to New Delhi in relation to the YES program of Honda Foundation in February this year.

In that YES program five students were awarded.  They were students from IIT which is a prestigious university in India.  Out of these students, four studied in Japan for 6~8 weeks from the end of May.  Mr. Jain participated in the research of robots at Honda, Mr. Goyal did research at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Mr. Tomar did the research for 4 weeks at the Okazaki Laboratory and Tsukuba University respectively, and Mr. Agarwal participated in research at JVC.  All of them gathered at GRIPS (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies) to participate in the round table talk before going back to the home country the next day.  I have heard that one person did his training in Google as there was some problem for acquiring Japan visa.  It is very unfortunate as it is such a trivial thing.

I asked everyone to talk about the awarding ceremony of Honda YES Award, their conversation with Mr. Pachauri, and about their personal experiences in these several weeks in Japan.  All four talked about how they enjoyed the study and doing the research in Japan, how everybody helped them very kindly, how they could do the exchange with many young people and how wonderful the teachers were who gave them splendid guidance.  Mr. Agarwal stayed with a host family who treated him very well.  It seems that everyone had a wonderful experience.  During the talk, everyone commented on the differences between India and Japan which they often experienced.  Hands-on experiences like these at young age are very important.  I am confident that they will all become precious "ambassadors of Japan" with wonderful memories of Japan in their mind.  I said so to the students, too.

We had dinner together in the evening.  I am thankful to many people including those from Honda Foundation who helped us.  International exchange of young people like this is inconspicuous but it is an extremely important activity which would increase the fans of Honda in India as well as the world.  It is a delightful thing.  I would like to see such type of activities expand more and more.  I would be happy if this kind of efforts arise more from civil and/or private sector.  Expanding personal relationships from the young age is the basis of making friends internationally and also to nurture the diversified human talents (resource) in this global era.  It is most important for the future of Japan.

Furthermore, to encourage youth of Japan to have actual experiences overseas is even more important. Knowledge only is not useful.  Activating the bilateral exchange is an important policy through which big effects towards the future of Japan in the global era can be expected.  After all, nowadays, there are too many extremely introvert Japanese.