speech – Page 13 – Kiyoshi Kurokawa.com

Design and Innovation

Posted on 2008/10/072014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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.

Photo1 　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.

Creative Capitalism

Posted on 2008/09/052014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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As you may note, I have been invited this year to a few, but very special occasions to speak on global issues and the fundamental changes underlying such social movements toward ‘One Inclusive Society’ (Reference 1 , 2 , 3 ).

One of a major focus In these speeches is changing faces of capitalism, thus CSR or ‘corporate social responsibility’ and I quoted Mr. Bill Gates for his phrase ‘Creative Capitalism’. You may wonder what he means by the words.

In a recent issues of TIME magazine, it features a special interview of Mr. Bill Gates ‘How to Fix Capitalism’ where he discuss his concept of creative capitalism as he sees the status of the world reflecting the past century. It is a very interesting personal, yet powerful argument for business leaders, consistent I believe with what I tried to convey in my speeches.

I would appreciate your giving some thoughts on such a concept and activity reflecting your business or whatever you do and plan to do.

Mr. Bill Gates will be in Tokyo in November.

To medical students from Asia: Cheers for young people and 3 speeches

Posted on 2008/08/012014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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There is a gathering of medical students from Asia known as AMSC (Asian Medical Students Conference). This conference is held annually, and I was invited for the last 3 years. I enjoy this event every time. I like to be a part of such conference of youth organizations since they are pillars of the future human resource. This was the 29th year and the conference was held at Tokyo. I talked in the closing ceremony. I heared that about 400 students have participated. The point of my speech was the tremendous change that had occurred in these 29 years and about the globalization era. I also talked about on "3 speeches."

The 3 speeches were, the speech given by Steve Jobs at commencement ceremony of Stanford University in the year 2005 (I told the students that "I hope and look forward that this 1 week conference become a "dot" of your career."), speech given by Bill Gates at commencement ceremony of Harvard University in 2007 (It was about recognition of and consciousness for "Inequality" in the world and society.) and the "Last Lecture" of Randy Pausch at Carnegie Mellon University (About the childhood "Dream." Even if you face many problems, do not forget that you all had a "Dream" to become doctors. Refer 1, 2 ).

You can have a look at these speeches on YouTube. Each one of them is a wonderful speech. The "Last Lecture" of Professor Pausch became a book and Japanese translation was published just a few days ago.

It must have been a lot of work for staff students who organized this conference. It was really a wonderful conference.

“GLOBE Tokyo G8+5 Legislators Forum,” a movement initiated by politicians throughout the world

Posted on 2008/07/012014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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"GLOBE Tokyo G8+5 Legislators Forum" was held in Tokyo on June 28th and 29th. Japan was represented by Mr. Yatsu, the former Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan. Mr. Morley, the Minister of Environment of Mr. Blair’s regime, presided the 1st session on day 1 (I saw him at the G8 Environment Ministers meeting also), which started off with the greetings by Mr. Fukuda followed by key note speeches by Mr. Blair, the former Prime Minister of England, and Mr. Abe, the former Prime Minister of Japan. Everybody spoke very well.

Photo1　Greetings by Mr. Fukuda with Mr. Blair and Mr. Abe

Photo2　Key note speech by Mr. Blair

Photo3　Mr. Abe

Though this forum was founded in 1989, since after the Earth Summit held in Rio in 1992 it constituted mainly of the nonpartisan congress members of all the countries. Framework for "G8 Gleneagles Climate Change Dialogue" was formed during the Gleneagles Summit held in 2005.

Video messages from the U.S. senators, Mr. McCain, Mr. Obama, Mr. Kerry, and Mr. Snowe were also played. A common theme that their messages held was that "With the new U.S. President, the Parliament, the large-size U.S. corporations, more than 500 U.S. Mayors and U.S. State Governors participating, America will make a historic transformation towards ‘Cap and Trade’ and formation of a ‘Low-carbon Society’." Japan, it seems, is the only country adopting a wait-and-watch policy. It is vital that politics, the government, the corporations as well as the citizens be well-prepared.

Discussions during the forum were highly dynamic.

I had a speech on day 2 (photo4), though it was a bit difficult for me since the session was on forests and biodiversity. I heard the request for a lecture a week before, and considering the fact that my speech was to be interpreted simultaneously in 9 languages so I decided to use the lecture that I had delivered at Kobe as a basic document, prepared a manuscript by including the above mentioned themes and circulated its copies among the interpreters as well the participants (the manuscript contained many errors since I was unable to proofread it sufficiently) before I spoke.

Photo4　My speech on Day 2

Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize

Posted on 2008/05/302014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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The inaugural ceremony of "Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize" was held in the evening of May 28th, the first day of TICAD 4, in the presence of Emperor and Empress.

Dr. Greenwood and Dr. Were, the winners of the award, are great people who have embodied the spirit of Hideyo Noguchi. They are both very modest and friendly. Such a great work performed by husbands and wives, supporting and helping each other in Africa for a period of more than 30 years is very respectable. As a selection committee chairman, I am happy from the bottom of my heart that we are able to present to the world with great pride this excellent selection result.

Photograph 1

The head of states and chief of government of more than 40 countries from Africa have participated in this celemony and it was really a refreshing and pleasant reception that reflected the personality of both of them.

Photograph 2

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Former Prime Minister Mr. Koizumi, as a founder of this award, greeted everyone and said, "It seems that, today the spirit of Dr. Noguchi has come down over all the people in this assembly hall." We came to know afterwards that this was an improvisation and was not in the original draft. It’s a good expression, isn’t it? There really was that sort of an atmosphere in the entire assembly hall.

Next day in the afternoon, Dr. Greenwood and Dr. Were both gave speech at the United Nations University at Aoyama. Ms. Doden of NHK led panel of three (myself and the two) which was also good. After that, they went to visit Inawashiro, the birthplace of Hideyo Noguchi. There was a grand welcome in Inawashiro. Details are written in the Blog of Mr. Kanke, Mayor of Aizu Wakamatsu city (29th May, 30th May). I imagine that they learned something new about Hideyo Noguchi at the actual place of his upbringing. The winners and their family enjoyed the visit, I hear. For a moment, I felt much closer to Africa again.

Week of Africa: A day with Jeffrey Sachs, Bono and Tony Blair.

Posted on 2008/05/292014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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The public relations of "Table For Two" activity which I am also involved was held in Diet Member’s office welcoming Dr. Jeffrey Sachs.

It is a wonderful thing that social entrepreneurial activity like this originated in Japan and is spreading to the world into a movement that works on problems of scarcity of food on one side of the world and overeating on the other. I encourage you to participate.

I went to Keio University in the afternoon. Various events are being held on its 150th anniversary this year. There was a presentation of a degree of "Doctor of Law" to Mr. Bono of Rock band U2 (Photograph 1 to 3) followed by commemorative speech. The award presentation ceremony was held at the auditorium, a prestigious place for Keio University, which was built by the initiative of Yukichi Fukuzawa, the founder of Keio. I was invited to this ceremony by Mr. Bono. Ever since our meeting in the Davos Forum this year I am helping him along with Dr. Sadako Ogata and others.

Photo1 Mr. Bono, at the presentation of ‘Doctor of Law’, and Dr. Anzai, the President of Keio University.

Photo2 With Mr. Bono.

Photo3 Jeffrey Sachs also participated.

The speech was a series of lectures on Shibusawa Ei’ichi memorial lectureship of Keio University that promotes the movements of "Civil Society."

Then, I went to a meeting with the staffs of Mr. Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister of UK, whom I have reported to you in my past column.

These are all related to Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) that will start in Yokohama this week and Toyako G8 Summit in July (Reference 1 TICAD, 2 Toyako Summit). Attention and expectations for Japan are very high.

Opening Keynote at the G8 Environment Ministers’ Meeting

Posted on 2008/05/262014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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I was invited to deliver Opening Keynote to the G8 Environment Ministers’ Meeting in Kobe , May 24th. What an honor and privilege! But then a headache. I was told simultaneous translations to Japanese, English, French, Chinese and Spanish was scheduled. So, I decided to prepare my speech in English and deliver it in English.

When you listen to any speech through simultaneous translation, simply it is difficult and frustrating because translation is always, by its very process, a bit behind the actual speech, sometimes few words are obviously missing, thus you are not sure to what extent the translation is correct. But of course unless you understand many languages almost perfectly, this process is unavoidable in international meetings.

Thus, I prepared my entire speech after a few editing and reading myself, I sent my text to translators assuring in a memo that I will read the text so that you just follow in the language you are supposed to translate. No power-point slides, of course.

Photo 1 and 2　　ambience of the conference site

I felt really good after I finished my speech, when UK Minister Honorable Hilary Benn came to me at the podium and told me it was very well thought-out, constructed, and well delivered, and he was very impressed. Wow! such comments by a British political leader, a real native English speaker. We chatted for a few minutes at the podium.

Thank you, Honorable Minister Kamoshita giving me this honor and privilege. But three days must have been very hard for you all.

I left Kobe immediately and back to Tokyo to see Dr. Pachauri , Chair of IPCC, you know who he is. We met in New Delhi this February.

G8 Dialogue at United Nations University

Posted on 2008/05/202014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

United Nations University(UNU) with its Institute for Advanced Studies(IAS) hosts a series of lectures "G8 Dialogue" in support of the role of Japan, that hosts 4th TICAD(Tokyo International Conference on African Development) in later this month in Yokohama and G8 Summit in Toyako, Hokkaido, early July.

I was invited to talk on Global Health and its excerpt is attached for your interest. The lecture can be viewed on the web.

　Global Health: What is Necessary to Make it Possible?（PDF）

From St. Gallen

Posted on 2008/05/192014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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Mt. Santis （2503m）located in south of St. Gallen

As you can see in my earlier column, I participated last year, and also this year at the St. Gallen Symposium. It is a project started by the students of St. Gallen 38 years ago, and even today the planning and administration is performed by the students. Isn’t it wonderful? About 200 students around the world and 400 persons (mostly from Europe) from various fields such as business, participateed. For the first time in its history, 20 students are participating from Japan this year and they were selected from nearly 500% of competitive ratio. They are not just Japanese students, 50% of them are international students. The selection was performed by reviewing English thesis.

This year’s topic is "Global Capitalism – Local Values." It is a very timely theme, isn’t it? The opening session started with the wonderful opening addresses of President Pascal Couchepin of Swiss and President Dr. Heinz Fischer of Austria.

Besides the regular members, this year, Mr. Yoshimasa Hayashi, a Diet member, participated in plenary of day one and Dr. Yoko Ishikura of Hitotsubashi University participated as a faculty and took lead in the workshop on the same day.

Photo1 Lord Griffiths (on the right), Martin Wolf of Financial Times (on the left).

Photo2 with the students participating from Japan. Mr. Suzuki (Credit Swiss Japan president, 3rd from the left) and Dr. Ishikura (right end).

Photo3 with Mr. Suzuki, Mr.Hara, my staff member (left end), Mr. Philipp Kuhn-Regnier of St. Gallen (right end).

I attended the workshop on the second day. Last year, when I participated in the first Plenary Panel, the speech and message I delivered to the students were very good (said Lord Griffiths of England), so this year they planned that I should act as a commentator, hosted by Mr. Peter Day of BBC, and comment to a South American student honored in the essay contest, Rhodes Scholar Mr. Cillier (will pursue studies in Oxford University from September), and Mr. Klaassen, student of St. Gallen who wrote contradicting opinions to the views of the former two. The topic is "Global Capitalism and Local Cultures of Innovation." It was fantastic. Please look on the conference site.

Photo4 with Mr. Hara and Mr. Philip.

Photo5 with Mr. Y.C. Deveshwar, a wonderful Social entrepreneur and Entrepreneur.

Photo6 with Mr. Owada, Ambassador Abe, Mr. Akashi, Energetic student Ms. Imai.

Photo7 with Mr. Cillier, Mr. Klaassen, Mr. Bay of the Panel.

The reception was held in the evening of 14th. On 15th, we went a dinner at Der Gupf, the same restaurant I came last year (this restaurant is known for its wine collection and wine cellar). It is a place that offers a view of Lake Bodensee and I was able to take a look at the surrounding scenery for the first time, since weather was good this year.

Photo8 with Dr. Ishikura in Gupf.

Photo9 with Mr. and Ms. Owada, Mr. Akashi, Ambassador Abe.

Higher Education in the Global era-Hitotsubashi Business School

Posted on 2008/05/102014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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As reported before, the first half of the Golden Week passed restlessly as always.

On the 6th, the Ambassador of Finland and I participated in Prof. Yoko Ishikura’s class on "competitiveness" held at Hitotsubashi University business school. In the beginning, Prof. Ishikura raised the key important issues and then we discussed the issues. The students were raising their hands and expressing their views enthusiastically. They were expressing their own variant opinions and it was really a constructive and good time.

All lectures here are in English and around 70% of students are from overseas. The faculties can view typical businesses in the world through the internet, by using "Harvard Business School" as a hub and the evaluations of the faculties are also done in common way. Given such open evaluation, it would be hard for the faculties but they can be motivated by referring to the lectures conducted by many faculties all over the world. Though challenging for the faculties they have no reasons to complain. It’s true, this is the scary part in the internet era, but it is also a pleasure to compete with global standards. Are there any such universities elsewhere? If not this way, universities in Japan cannot gather brilliant youngsters from all over the world since information is shared by everybody in this "flat" era. University faculties, I beg you all earnestly to work hard.

After the class, we spent time on lounge, enjoying wine happily and talking with the students of various countries, such as India, US, Bangladesh, Russia, Myanmar, Poland, Uzbekistan, Thailand, and Vietnam etc.. I wish to express my gratitude for the wonderful hospitality.

An article with full of suggestions and a recent comment by Prof. Ishikura about the ideal way and the evaluation of the higher education in the global age is available on her blog. Chairman of the institute, Mr. Takeuchi Hirotaka, his policy is very strict from the beginning, however it’s really remarkable.

By the way, a follow-up on this is available(in Japanese) in Prof. Ishikura’s blog. Please go through it.