speech – Page 15 – Kiyoshi Kurokawa.com

From Seoul

Posted on 2007/10/282014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

I went to Seoul from October 13th to 17tth.

Departing early morning from Tokyo on the 13th, this is to join the reunion I organized of Mr. Sadamu Sasaki, the first grandson of Dr. Gozo Sato who devoted his life to the modern time Korean medical education and Dr. Sato’s 3 students (ages 83-86), which took place in the evening of 13th. Exactly one century has passed since Dr. Sato went to the Korean Peninsula as a staff doctor of a hospital. It also marks the 100th anniversary of the Korean Medical Institution (now the Seoul National University College of Medicine). Mr. Sasaki was born and lived in Seoul with Dr. Sato for his initial 14 years. He returned to Japan in 1945 after the end of the world war and this was his first visit to Korea ever since then. What a surprise, what a centennial coincidence. We also visited the house where Mr. Sasaki used to live.

Photo1 from left Dr. Ishida, Mr. Sasaki, Dr. Ju, and myself

Photo2 With Dr. Ju （Vice Chairman of the Korean Academy of Sciences）

Photo3 At the Korean Medical Institution

Photo4 Keijo Imperial University School of Medicine (now the Seoul National University College of Medicine)

I hope that this visit helps to further our understanding of our history between the 2 closest countries and opens a new door to the future. The detail of this visit is reported in Mr. Deguchi’s mail magazine （Oct. 10 and 17 edition） who joined this trip: his background is a journalist, thus write much better and professionally. As he wrote properly of our encounter, the story is much real and very touching; I hope you have a look.

The following day, Mr. Sasaki, Dr. Ishida and I strolled around places associated with Dr. Sato. At night, we had a “luxurious” dinner where fresh fish were cooked in front of us at the fish market.

Photo5 At the fish market in Seoul

On the 15th, I met with a charming woman scientist, Dr. Narry Kim of the Seoul National University (Photo 6). I wanted to pay this visit because I recognize her outstanding achievement on micro RNA. I wanted to know how she could establish her independent research as an assistant professor while being a mother of 2 children. I will touch upon this on a different occasion. There are things that I can’t disclose at the moment, but please look forward to the story sometime later.

Photo6 With Dr. Narry Kim of the Seoul National University

On the 16th, I joined the World Knowledge Forum held at the Walkerhill Sheraton. The following day, on the 17th, there was a Keynote Lecture by Mr. Colin Powell, the former Secretary of State of USA. With no paper, no memo, he talked for 45 minutes right off the reel about Vietnam War, his stay in Korea, his visit to the former Soviet Union during the Cold War, his visit to China, his secret rendezvous with Gorbachev before the end of the Cold War, etc. He shared some specific episodes with us and talked about the current China and expectations for the future. It was such an outstanding well constructed and presented speech with full of grace.

As for me, I joined a panel with Dr. D. Bangalore who is playing an active role in India and Silicon Valley, and Yoko Ishikura who is my co-author of the book “How to build a world class career.”

After this panel, I went straight to the airport to catch a flight back to Haneda.

The young people and the leaders of the world, and Sir. David King of the British Embassy　～Issues and Expectations of Japan as seen from the world

Posted on 2007/10/152014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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This is an activity report from October 7th to 9th from the following day after I returned back Japan from the selection of UNESCO-L’Oreal prize in Paris. 8 o’clock in the morening on October 7th, I went the BioCamp. This is a “Camp” conducted once in a year by Novartis, the global company, for about 40 young Asian people since 2005 （Refer:1, 2）. The first camp was conducted in Taiwan, and the keynote was addressed by Dr. Yuan T Lee, the 1986 noble prize winner in chemistry. The second camp was conducted in Singapore, and the keynote address was given by the Science Minister Mr. Philip Yeo. And this time, Mr. R. Horwitz of MIT, the winner of medical student noble prize of 2002, and I made the keynote address. There were probably about 40 participants and the male : female ratio was 5 : 5. Amongst them, there were 15 participants from Japan and the ratio was 7 : 3 which shows the large number of male participants （this means that there were more female participants from other countries）. I was a bit sad as I had just selected a woman researcher in Paris the previous day.

I came to know later that the event was telecast in the "Mino-Monta’s" morning show on the following day for about 90 seconds, included some parts of my speech. The program reported this camp as an example of that the private enterprise’s contribution towards the growth of young people.

I had to go Kyoto just after the address. There was the 4th STS Forum. There was a short greeting by Prime Minister Fukuda in the morning session. I could not reach in time for his speech and so I participated from the afternoon session. This year, the event attendees have considerably increased to about 4 times. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet the leaders, friends and have new acquaintances （Picture1～4）. The discussion, such as about problems and policies of the world, have progressed quite well since the last year’s conference. After all, there is no doubt that the climate changes or sustainable society are the main issues of the world, from the last year’s conference. In this world’s issues, there are huge expectations to Japan, I think・・・.

Picture1　From left myself, Dr. Yuan T Lee, Dr. Yoshikawa and Dr. Waldvogel

Picture2　From left myself, Mr. Charles Vest and Mr. Youngsuk Chi

Picture3　From left myself and Dr. Serageldin, Egyptian ambassador and Alexandria library superintendent

Picture4 Mr. George Atkinson and Ms. Nina V. Fedoroff, the science advisor of Ms. Rice Secretary of U.S State Department

After the STS Forum, I came back to Tokyo on the 9th and I headed towards the University of Tokyo, Institute of Medical Science, from the Shinagawa station. I participated in the speech about the vaccine development with Mr. Seth Berkley, a founder of International AIDS Vaccine Promotion Plan （IAVI）. （We know each other since the Davos Economic Forum in 2 years ago, and we both participated in this STS Forum）

In this evening, I went dinner with the Science Advisor of British Prime Minister, Sir. David King. Of course the topic was mainly about the G8 summit in July 2008 in Japan. 4 of my staff （member from the Cabinet Secretariat, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, General Council on Science and Technology and Science Council of Japan） were also participate.

Japan is the host country for the G8 summit, and deals with the problems of the world, How are we trying to solve the climate changes and the problems in Africa? How about Japan’s leadership in Asia? I feel this might be a crucial moment for Japan at the beginning of the 21st century・・・.

In the G8 summit in Germany, Japan’s contribution was very high though （comparatively I do not think the evaluation within and outside of Japan was good. It is as usual because of lack of communication strategy）, then what can Japan do about the climate change, now? In addition to this, TICAD will be held in May 2008 in Yokohama. In spite of the marvelous opportunity for taking leadership about the Africa issue, it is irritating that "intention of the nation (National Policy)" was not conveyed to the world in any of the themes.

I feel this is common sence of the world that Japan cannot be seen in the "rapidly moving world." This can be said that because of the unexpected change of the cabinet, though.

Well, what do you think about this? It’s tiring, isn’t it?

Am I “out of box”? “A stereotype breaker”?

Posted on 2007/09/202014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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In the morning of September 19th, I made a keynote speech at「BioJapan 2007-World Business Forum」 held at Pan Pacific Yokohama. The CEO of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Dｒ. Maraganore from USA (whom I’ve met 3 years ago at his company) started by talking about "Progress in development of a new class of innovative medicines." His speech was followed by the CEO of Novozymes, Denmark, Mr. Riisgaard who talked about "Bioethanol – A sustainable contribution to the future energy supply," then I talked about "Innovation of bio technology: where is it heading to?".

There were people from OECD and the 6 of us had a pleasant talk over dinner the previous night. There were 2 people whom I have known for a while. It’s quite a small world.

By the way, Newsweek Japan (September 19 edition) published a cover story titled "Confession of a Tokyo Correspondent." In this report, David McNeil writes his hope to tell about "the true Japan." He is a Tokyo correspondent of the British Independent newspaper, but also contributes articles to other foreign newspapers. He is also a coordinator of "Japan Focus."

In the headline "Japanese authorities prefer to introduce their exotic character," there is a phrase as follows:
"・・・And they like to introduce people who destroy the stereotype of a no face Japanese working like a working drone in Japan, a giant machine. There are a lot of unique and talented people in Japan like Kenji Kawakami who presides Japan’s Unuseless Invention Society, Special Advisor to the Cabinet Kiyoshi Kurokawa, designer Jun Takahashi, composer Kazue Mizushima, Japanese Taiko drummer Eitetsu Hayashi etc. I’m lucky that I get paid by writing about them. ・・・."

So am I different from ordinary Japanese? I don’t care that much, but I’m honored that they see me "decently."

At night I had dinner with the British healthcare authorities and people from the British media like "Independent."

To the World Chinese Entrepreneur’s convention from Kobe

Posted on 2007/09/202014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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The World Chinese Entrepreneur’s convention was held for the first time in Japan in Kobe, and I was invited for a panel about healthcare.

Participants were Dr. Ba Denian, Medical President of Zhe Jiang University from Hangzhou, China (he has studied at Hokkaido University and also a member of Institute of Medicine), Dr. Edmund Lee, Professor of National University of Singapore and the leader of clinical pharmacology from Singapore, Dr. Maggie Ng from Hong Kong of the Juliana Chan Program who ran the RENNAL with me and the MC was Professor Masanori Fukushima of Kyoto University. Time may not have been enough, but the discussion was good. Regarding nation’s competitiveness, if I may say, it is a pity that Japan lags far behind from other countries. What is most important is not only researchers but for each and everyone to act based on an "entrepreneur spirit." As I keep saying, this is the core message of "innovation."

Well, in what language should I speak in this panel? I was a little concerned, so I attended the reception the previous day and asked for advice to the organizer of the panel, and decided to speak in Japanese with English slides. Of course there was simultaneous interpretation in Mandarin, English and Japanese. One of the participants, Dr.Ryuichi Morishita has quickly updated his blog about the Convention.

In the reception held the previous day, I met Mr. Yoichi Funabashi, former executive of the Nikkei Newspaper; Mr. Akira Kojima, former President of Philippines; Mr. Ramos; and friends and people related to Genron NPO. Ms. Kanae Yamamoto, Ministerial aid of Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry also showed up. I also met with First Secretary Mr. Liu from the Chinese Embassy who is temporarily transferred from the Chinese Health Office. Mr.Ramos wears glasses since he was President, but it doesn’t have lenses, it’s just fashion. Also, he says that he always has cigars with him although he doesn’t use it recently. This is not to actually smoke, but to give an "impression." Quite a man.

Photo In Kobe with friends. From left, Mr.Kojima, myself, next to one is Mr.Ramos

Next morning, I met with the mayor of Kobe, Mr.Yada and listened to Kobe’s future bio plans. They have built the groundwork, but how to make full use of it, that is the issue. I would like to extend my gratitude for President Yan Hao and Executive Director Kyo of EPS which is becoming one of Japan’s largest clinical service provider. Thank you very much.

I am leaving for Hangzhou from the 20th.

Am I afterall ‘Henjin (out-of-box)’, ‘a breaker of stereotype of Japan’?

Posted on 2007/09/202014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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In the morning of September 19th at Pacifico Yokohama Convention Center, I delivered a keynote speech at ‘BioJapan 2007-World Business Forum.’ The first speaker was Dr. Maraganore, CEO of Alanylam Pharmaceuticals (I met him about 3 years ago), the title of his speech was ‘Progress in development of a new class of innovative medicines.’ Next speaker was from Denmark, Mr. Riisgaard, Novozymes CEO, who talked on ‘Bioethanol-A sustainable contribution to the future energy supply’ and then I spoke under the title of ‘Innovation in Biotechnology: where is it headed to?’

People from OECD were also there and I had dinner with five of them at the night before. I knew two of them from long time ago. It’s a small world, isn’t it?

By the way, the latest Newsweek Japanese edition (September 19, 2007) is published with its cover story, ‘A Confession of Foreign Correspondent in Tokyo.’ Mr. David McNeill wrote an article, ‘I want to tell about Japan as it truly is.’ Mr. McNeill is an English correspondent of ‘The Independent’ at Tokyo but also writes for several other newspapers around the world. He is also the coordinator of ‘Japan Focus.’

Under the subtitle of the article, ‘Although Japanese officials prefer stories of exotic Japan,’ I found a statement as below.

“・・・I also like to find and introduce such individuals who breaks the stereotype of Japan as a huge machine and that Japanese people are working there like honeybees without faces. There are many original and talented individuals in Japan such as Kenji Kawakami who presides ‘the Society of Chindogu (a unique instrument)’; Kiyoshi Kurokawa, a special advisor to the cabinet; Jun Takahashi, a designer; Kazue Mizushima, a composer; Eitetsu Hayashi, solo Taiko drummer, and so on. I feel very lucky that I am paid for writing about their works in articles.”

Am I different from average Japanese after all? It doesn’t particularly bother me, rather flattered to be seen so ‘properly.’

At the night, I had dinner with some British people involved in health policy and from media such as ‘the Independent.’

Speech at a wonderful young people’s meeting “Project 13%”

Posted on 2007/09/192014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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Ken Shibusawa is one of my friends. He is a businessman who studied at UCLA Andersen Business School and is recently popular known as Eiichi Shibusawa’s 5th generation. The amount of information he sends out is substantial as in his blog "Alternative investment diary" (Japanese title:「オルタナティブ投資日記」) and "Thinking of Eiichi Shibusawa’s 『Analects and abacus』" (Japanese title:「渋沢栄一の『論語と算盤』を今、考える」). Also he has recently published several books related to Eiichi Shibusawa’s philosophy. Please look it up at Amazon.

A while ago, in the afternoon of Sunday, September 9th, I was invited to talk at "Project 13%" which is run by Mr. Shibusawa and went to International House of Japan, a historic building in Roppongi. About 150 people gathered mostly young people at a glance, and a lot of women. Most of them were entrepreneurs which is something unique for a lecture in Japan. I found it a different society from the Red Herring which I recently introduced, but most of them seemed to share the same spirit.

The lecture began with my keynote speech. I started by asking "Please raise your hand if you are 40 and above." Around 30% of the participants raised their hand and about 40% were women. I began to talk about innovation referring to this point.

Photo1: My speech. Casual Sunday afternoon.

After my speech was Kaoru Iokibe (University of Tokyo) followed by Naoko Nishizawa (Keio University) and Masakazu Shimada (Bunkyo Gakuin University). It was a panel by young energetic 3 scholars. Dr. Iokibe talked about "Shigenobu Okuma", Dr. Nishizawa talked about "Yukichi Fukuzawa" and Dr. Shimada talked about "Eiichi Shibusawa." They each introduced the great predecessors, shared their opinion and went into panel discussion (photo2). It is very encouraging to see such young and passionate scholars. Dr. Iokibe who talked about Shigenobu Okuma turned out to be the son of Dr. Makoto Iokibe, Professor of Kobe University who later became the President of National Defense Academy in Japan whom I introduced in my blog in August. No wonder, they have an uncommon surname and their academic field is similar. They were all wonderful, but time was not enough.

Photo2: Panel. From left, Dr. Iokibe, Dr. Nishizawa and Dr. Shimada. MC was Mr. Shunichi Ozasa (Bloomberg TV)

The last part of the lecture was a talk session between Mr. Shibusawa and Dr.Hiroshi Tasaka, Professor of Tama University Graduate School whom I have recently introduced on several occasions.

Photo3: Dr. Tasaka (left) and Mr. Shibusawa

It was a wonderful sunny Sunday afternoon. It’s been a while since I had a nice meeting, seeing a garden surrounded by shiny sunlight and refreshing nature. I met a lot of people. They all seem to have spent a happy afternoon.

There are a lot of blogs introducing this seminar of Project 13%, so let me introduce some of them (in Japanese only).

　「クロスワイズ代表取締役です☆」 (I am company executive of Crosswise corp.)
　「港区ではたらく女社長のblog」 (A blog of a female CEO in Minato-ku)
　「Capriのゆる～い日記」 (A loooooose diary by Capri)
　「team_yama with Toshi」 etc.

It’s exciting to see a lot of people full of energy.

Take care, to all the participants!

See you again!

From Dalian – attending New World Champions

Posted on 2007/09/142014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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I’d been to Dalian from 5th to 8th September.

It was a conference of “New World Champions" that the so-called Davos Forum (World Economic Forum－WEF) over. I have attended 7 consecutive years of Davos Forum that is held every year in January and I have also attended other conferences that the WEF preside over. I think they are considerably familiar for the readers of my blog. Davos Forum of this January and conference at Singapore in June etc are as I have reported. The conference hall in Dalian was a very big one.

The conference was a large successful meeting where about 1,700 people had gathered from 90 countries mainly from Asia. Especially, the participation of young people and new enterprises was great, and was very much crowded. From Japan, politicians like Jyunko Kawaguchi, Motohisa Furukawa and Keiichiro Asao, university people like Heizo Takenaka, Director Nagata of Ritsumeikan University, and Yoko Ishikura etc. were present. Also, stakeholders from wide range of society, mainly business people such as Yoichi Funabashi, chief editor of Asahi Newspaper and Tamura, Administrative Vice Minister of the Ministry of Environment were there. I also met Hiroshi Tasaka and Kumi Fujisawa whom I have introduced on this site recently.

Dalien20070908001_2 Photo1 With Ms.Tsubouchi in charge of Geneva headquarters of WEF Japan at hall entrance.

Dalien20070908002 Photo2 From left, Director Lee of WEF Asia meeting, Tsuchiya in charge of Geneva headquarters Japan, Ishikura, I and Takenaka.

Dalien20070908003 Photo3 From left, Toru Takanarita the editor of Asahi Newspaper, I and Yoichi Funabashi the editor in chief.

I participated in two panels as a panel member. First panel was “The Transformative Potential of Science and Technology in Asia”. Mr. Graves, the chairperson of this session is related to the production of the program that used as its anchor Ms. Nonaka who later became Chairman of Sanyo electric and was a topic and Ms. Yoriko Koike, one of the star politicians of today. I exchange E-mails with him even after the meeting. Wan Gang, the Minister of Science and Technology of China, is originally a scientist and also was the president of a university. His opinion was also excellent. Look it up on the site of weforum.org.

Moreover, the PR activity for “Table for Two” project which was planned by James Kondo our colleague, Furukawa a Democratic Party congress member, Nakata the Mayor of Yokohama, Chino of Itochu corporation and Young Global Leaders of WEF of Japan is also active and during this meeting Press Release to the world was also conducted. Excellent! It is a practical program based on groundbreaking idea of offering the surplus of the intake of nutrition which cause the obesity and diabetes in advanced countries to the malnourished children in developing countries through WFP (World Food Program). I would encourage all domestic companies as well as international companies to participate and please introduce us to any interested companies. Please read also my support message of this program.

Dalien20070908004 Photo4 Furukawa the congress member of Democratic Party and I in front of a “Table for Two” poster.

On the second night of reception, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao came to greet and then excellent shows with good tempo in large numbers were performed one after another.

Dalien20070908005 Photo5 “Thousand Armed Avalokiteshwara” by deaf young people in reception. Really excellent! Some of you may have seen it on television in Japan.

Dalien20070908006 Photo6 A scene from the reception shows.

The second panel during dinner, in which I participated, was a session on Energy. It was so nice. I met Lady Barbara Thomas Judge, former Commissioner of (Unites States) Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), who had visited Tokyo Stock Exchange many times about 20 years ago and who strongly supported my opinion related to nuclear energy, almost after one year. I participated with her in BusinessWeek CEO Forum performed in Beijing last November in the same panel.

Dalien20070908007 Photo7 Lady Judge, I and Ishikura.

Dalien20070908008 Photo8 Prof. So (From Dalian. He used to teach in the Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University), Director Nagata, I and Tsukamoto the Director of JETRO.

There were various new encounters and reunions. Friend’s circle extended and I also got dynamic energy, it really was stimulating three days. Gained much more encouragement. Our involvement in these activities also seems to have stimulated young people who participated from Japan which is very good. As I always say, future is in the hands of young people.

Dalien20070908009 Photo9 Dr. and Ms.Professor Schwab, Chairman of WEF and I at Japan reception.

Dalian is a very beautiful city. Japan has constructed its infrastructure which is maybe the reason for the hearty welcome. They show us the headquarters of Manchuria Railways, the laboratory of Manchuria Railways, and so on. They are maintained beautifully and are located at the center of city. About 4,000 Japanese enterprises are now operating in Dalian, and I think the contribution of Japan to expand its economy, employment etc. is considerable. Most local staffs speak Japanese in the hotels etc.

I woke up at 5:30 in the morning on 8th and went to Chubu International Airport by 8:00 a.m. flight. From Chubu International Airport travelled to Nagoya railway station by Meitetsu railway and then again travelled to Tokyo by Shinkansen. I arrived at the assembly hall of Japanese Society of Nephrology at 3 o’clock and did the memorial speech for its 50th anniversary. After that, I immediately headed to Science Council of Japan and participated to the 2nd day of international conference “Sustainable Society” held every year. I gave the last (closing) speech from 6 o’clock.

Whew, I am hopping here and there busily.

Keynote speech at Innovation Japan 2007 and surprising news of “resignation of the Prime Minister”

Posted on 2007/09/132014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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On September 12th, I made a keynote speech at 「Innovation Japan 2007」 held in Tokyo International Forum. I talked for 30 minutes from 13:00 and the content I covered is almost the same as "GIES2007"（link to my blog ） and Helsinki （click here to jump to my blog ） where I spoke in English and Japanese respectively and I used mostly the same slides. They are posted on each respective site, so I hope you read, see and listen to it.
When the panel for keynote speech started, it was the very moment when Prime Minister Abe announced his resignation. Mr. Masahiro Hashimoto from NEDO who was the MC for the panel handled it well and broke this news.

The panelists were Dr. Yuko Harayama from Council for Science and Technology Policy, Dr. Kazuhito Hashimoto who is the former Director of Research Center for Advanced Technology also known for photocatalyst research and is one of Japan’s leading, extremely talented and definitely a prominent innovator. Dr. Ryuichi Morishita who is a professor at Osaka University and Director of Anges, Mr. Hitoshi Sekita who is also known as an “out of the box” person who spun-out from NEC and founded Cyber-Laser with a wonderful laser technology. It was a great panel. As always, for detail of this panel and venue, please visit Deguchi san’s site which gives a good description.

I went around and saw mainly the exhibition of university ventures such as Japan Women’s University Dr. Kashiko Kodate’s female student group’s exhibition etc.
As I always say, women’s success is an issue at a global level as well as something we can look forward to. It is especially an important issue for Japan. There are lots of wonderful potentials hidden in the fruit of a research, but what is necessary to make them into businesses, are investors and businessmen with affluent entrepreneur spirits. Most researchers are not good at presentation to investors, needless to say about their experience or knowledge of business. This is the problem that Japan now faces. On this point, Mr.Kazuhiko Toyama’s recent book “Company rot from the top” (Japanese title:「会社は頭から腐る」) is based on a true story and you may sympathize deeply and would be of some reference to you. I recommend you to read it.

RedHerring and Steve Jobs

Posted on 2007/08/082014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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Have you heard of RedHerring?

It’s a famous media in Silicon Valley. They held a 2 day conference from July 22 to 24 in Kyoto, for the first time in Japan. Venture entrepreneurs and venture capitalists gathered. I was asked to make a speech on “Innovation” so I went to participate. You can see part of the program, speakers and panel in RedHerring Japan 2007 site. I was new to such kind of gatherings, so to get a grasp of what it was like, I took part from the first day. People like Mr. Semmoto formerly from KDDI (also met him in St.Petersburg in June) and Mr.Idei formerly from Sony (I introduced him in my blog in April “From Camarague”) were familiar to me, but to know the audience before I speak is very important, so thought that it was a good opportunity.

Approximately there were about 150 participants. Half were Japanese and the rest were diverse, but all young. 70% of the Japanese were from Silicon Valley. Half of the foreigners were based in Japan and there were a lot of Koreans from Silicon Valley. Most of them were ICT related ventures and not so many bio people.

Mr. Fredrick Haren from Sweden talked about “Creativity, Innovation” which was very unique and full of impacts. (Some people may say that he is an "out of box" type.) He introduced his book called “New Ideas” and later, as we got along so well, gave me the book saying he brought some with him. I seem to be compatible with queer people. Maybe because we share something like Don Qixote? Sounds odd, though.

Well, since it was like that, I listened to other people’s story and changed my slides back and forth. Eventually, I used the slides at GIES2000 and part of Prof. Jorgenson’s slides that was used at the Workshop in June. These were updated slides based on Prof. Jorgenson’s latest book, 「Productivity: Information Technology And the American Growth Resurgence」（MIT Press, 2005）. This is a perfect guide to learn about the growth in the US industry and IT related companies after the IT bubble burst in 2000. For everyone in the industry, policy, university related field, please read it thoroughly. This is another example of dynamism of United States that many such books are published from universities. I closed my speech referring to Steve Jobs’ 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University. It goes like this.

1） you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something…
2）　You’ve got to find what you love. Don’t settle.
3）　Death is Life’s change agent.
4）　STAY HUNGRY, STAY FOOLISH！

To grasp the meaning of these, you have to read his speech thoroughly. Go to the link that I cited above. I think it is a wonderful message. I envy the graduates for being given the chance to listen to his live speech. By the way, Bill Gates delivered a commencement speech this year at Harvard, and this is also a very touching speech. Their words are based on their true experience, therefore convincing more than anything else.

Since I closed my speech with this slide, President of RedHerring, Mr. Alex Vieux who acted as MC totally got happy and added his story after my speech. I was delighted.

The participants were obviously not the Japanese businessman type that I usually see. They enjoy their work, young, energetic, outspoken, and spoke out without caring whether their English was good or bad. It was quite interesting.

I met with Ms. Etsuko Okajima, a friend of Yoko Ishikura and met many other people. You can see photos of the party etc. at http://v.japan.cnet.com/blog/katsuya/2007/07/24/entry_27011214/. (My photo was posted too!)

Hideyo Noguchi Africa prize and a speech by former Prime Minister Mr. Junichiro Koizumi

Posted on 2007/07/102014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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In the blog of June 19 (“A few words about the low plublicity of Japan, from Paris”), I have quoted three cases as an actual example but all these three were about the large contribution of Japan in Africa. The contribution of Japan in Africa is not much recognized domestically or internationally as compared to its contribution in Asia. This may be due to geographical conditions. As I have mentioned in the above column, my article “Challenges for Japan’s Scientific Community in the 2008 G8 Summit” appeared in Business Daily Africa, one of the newspapers in Kenya, as “Analysis: G8 Summit will provide a major test for Japanese scientists”, “Comment: Challenges for Japan’s Scientific Community in the 2008 G8 Summit”. It is only at individual level but I want the world to know a little about the contribution made by Japan. World today is On-Line age, isn’t it?

After 8 years, Japan is hosting the next year’s G8 summit (which will be held at Toya Lake in July). Japan is going to play a leading role, and the fourth meeting of TICAD（Tokyo International Conference on African Development）(Ref. www.ticad-csf.net/eng/index.htm), a groundbreaking national undertaking that was started with the United Nations 15 years ago as a part of aid to Africa, which is held once in every 5 years, will be held in Yokohama in May. This conference is well recognized by various countries in Africa and the heads of more than 50 countries from Africa will gather in Tokyo for this conference. However, how many people in the world know about it? Recently, the media is only concentrating on the topic of China reaching to Africa…….

Last year, Prime Minister Koizumi visited Africa. He had been to Ethiopia and Ghana on this visit. Why Ethiopia and Ghana will be discussed later. Accra, the capital of Ghana, is the place where Dr. Hideyo Noguchi passed away due to the yellow fever and there is Hideyo Noguchi Memorial Institute. At this institute, Prime Minister Koizumi has declared the foundation of “Hideyo Noguchi Africa prize” by the government of Japan. This is an international award that acknowledges medical research and medical services that contribute to control the infectious disease in Africa. It will be given to an individual who has contributed in these two fields (It is introduced on Internet TV of the government also). The Awarding ceremony will be held once in every 5 years and we are planning to announce the first prize next year at TICAD. Currently, the selection is in process. As you know, issues like development in Africa, HIV/AIDS, poverty etc. are the serious problems of the world.

The other day, Mr. Koizumi, former prime minister went to the board meeting of "Japan Federation of Economic Organizations" to address the board for the fund-raising of this award. I heard that his speech was excellent. It was a short speech without any note, addressing about 200 business leaders including Chairman Mr. Mitarai. I heard that the atmosphere in that hall has changed dramatically after the speech. Please download and see the file, since the content of the speech is posted with the permission of former prime ministers’ office.

Down load the (PDF) “Introduction by Junichiro Koizumi, Member of Parliament, in standing committee meeting of Japan Federation of Economic Organization" (In Japanese only)

How do you feel about it? Isn’t it really an excellent speech? I think it was a very lively speech full of wit. I am thinking of translating this speech into English and transmitting it to the media in Africa.
If you think carefully, we can certainly say that the business people got hypnotized by “Koizumi magic”. This means Prime Minister Koizumi is very genius and “out of the box”. Actually, from the historical viewpoint, people who changed the world and the society through science and technology were all ”out of the box” , having imagination beyond the common sense of the people in that era. I have also mentioned this once in front of Prime Minister Mr. Koizumi at the meeting of Council for Science and Technology Policy that was held at his official residence. Everyone started laughing but I was quiet serious.

It is the same opinion as in the blog of June 4 ("St Petersburg, then from Mr. Deguchi to Don Quixote") as well as in the mail magazine of Mr. Deguchi （in Japanese only）that “Don Quixote" is very important in all-times.