Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies (ICAS) Temple University, Japan Campus
“Regulating Nuclear Energy in Japan”
Date & Time: February 20, 2015(Fri) 19:00-
Vanue: Azabu Hall, Temple University, Japan Campus 2F (2-8-12, Minami-Azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo)
For details: https://www.tuj.ac.jp/icas/event/regulating-nuclear-energy-in-japan/
I flew to Bangkok on January 28th for the conference that is convened along with the Prince Mahidol Award (1) for Medicine and Public Health. One of the recipients this year was Dr. Akira Endo, whose research led to the development of statin drugs to treat high cholesterol. Dr. Endo has also been awarded the Japan Prize and Lasker Award. I had been unable to attend the award ceremony day and missed the opportunity to congratulate him.
The Prince Mahidol Award Conference (PMAC2015) followed the award ceremony day and this year’s topic was “Global Health Post-2015, Accelerating Equity”. Our Member of the House of Councilors, Keizo Takemi spoke on universal health coverage, very rich in content and powerful in delivery.
On the second day, I was a panelist on the last panel of the conference, Plenary Panel 3 “Global Health Financing- What Lies Ahead?” along with Tim Evans of the World Bank, Mai Oanh Global of Vietnam, Health Sciences Senior Fellow Dean Jamison of UCSF and Ariel Pablos-Mendes of the Rockefeller Foundation, who was the moderator.
The discussion at the conference tended to center on ODA, WHO, the UN and World Bank. I pointed out the fact that although “global” is the key word, the discussion was still focused on the nation as the unit and being international as the framework, in this time of great change around the ‘global’ world. Similarly, though “innovation” is on everyone’s lips, how it is to be defined remains unclear. I touched upon the Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund, which is co-sponsored by Japanese companies, the Gates Foundation and the Japanese government and it was well received.
In the evening, I had dinner with the leading nephrologists in Thailand. Afterwards, I met with Dr. Sugimoto, Ms. Hayashi, with a few from JICA, was joined by people from JICA and later headed to the Red Sky rooftop bar at the Centara Grand Hotel, where the conference had been held.
I have visited Bangkok many times over the past twenty years, for the International Society of Nephrology and JICA related missions. Some things have changed in Bakgkok while others have remained the same, but all in all, it is full of vitality.
On the 22nd of January, the ‘Japan Start-up Prize/Nippon Venture Prize; ‘New Business’ Conference and Connect’ (in Japanese) was organized by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).
The morning session started with a presentation by Tom Kelley (of IDEO fame) and Christian Bason. It was followed by a discussion between the two presenters, with Naohiro Nishiguchi moderating.
In the afternoon, we had a section that was organized by Hal Morimoto of Astoria Consulting and me. Focusing on corporate venture capital (CVC), this 140 min. section detailed how the scene has been dramatically changing over the past couple of years (Japanese).
Part 1 was titled ‘To seek return on investment, or to seek strategic profits? The way of CVC’ along with ‘CVC best practices’, with an expert panel composed of Erik Vermeulen, Hiroki Saito (in Japanese), Akimichi Degawa, Tomotaka Torin (in Japanese), and moderated by Moriyoshi Matsumoto.
Part 2 was titled ‘The CVC Market and Ecosystem’ with Jessica Archibald, Alastair Breward, Chris Erickson, and George Arnold, with Kari Andersen as moderator. Between these experts, they presented the audience with numerous, practicable, pragmatic and sensible advice. I felt that it is really important to heed the advice of these people. Building up trust, perseverance, creating a presence on a global stage, showcasing the technical skills of Japan were some of such points raised.
I was only able to be there for part 2, delayed because of an important matter that had suddenly cropped up. I was very impressed by the discussion, and as the panel wrapped up, I made my way onto the stage and thanked the participants for their insights. During the discussion, the prevalence of ‘groupthink’ as a characteristic of many Japanese corporations was mentioned, and I took the opportunity to elaborate on this a little further. All in all, the response to this event was very positive.
Finally, the awards for the first ‘Japan Start-up Prize’ / Nippon Venture Prize were handed out by Prime Minister Abe, who had just come back from the Middle East. Awardees included Mitsuru Izumo for Euglena, Yoshiyuki Sankai for Cyberdyne, Takeo Higuchi (CEO of Daiwa House), Naoko Samata for Coiney, Kazuhide Sekiyama for Spiber, and Koichiro Yoshida for Crowdworks. It was a night where young entrepreneurs stood out. Well done!
It was an event that energized and delighted.
METI New Business Creation Conference was held at Hotel New Otani on Jan 22.
https://www.techinasia.com/japan-cvc-startup-ecosystem/
https://www.techinasia.com/prime-minister-abe-favorite-startup/
The annual World Economic Forum Meeting at Davos will begin tomorrow. I am not attending the meeting again this year and you can read my views in a recent article in the Japan Times.
Other interviewees are here.
The Japan Night is likely to be festive again. Anything could happen anywhere tomorrow but one thing that is certain is there is much to discuss regarding the fragile state of the world.
Last year, on November 27th, I tweeted the following:
“This morning, I attended a conference with KPMG at Roppongi Midtown. The first day of the conference began with lectures by me and Ms. Mitsuru Chino of Itochu Corporation, followed by a dialogue by us two. It was very fun. I wonder what the audience thought of our talks and would love to get some feedback.”
The two-day KPMG conference had a wonderful program that began with my keynote speech and a talk by Ms. Mitsuru Chino, with whom I have been friends for many years, followed by our dialogue.
I was delighted to be invited to speak at such a conference, especially because the audience members were of completely different backgrounds. My talk was titled, “The changing world, the future path of Japan, your choices.”
Ms. Chino’s talk, “Thinking about creating your own value” was exceptional.
The conference was well summarized in this KPMG On-line newsletter.
http://www.kpmg.com/jp/ja/knowledge/article/documents/near-future-japan-20150115.pdf
Ms. Chino and I both lived in Los Angeles with our families at the same time (of course, Ms. Chino was a young school child at that time). We have also attended the World Economic Forum in Davos a couple of times.
It is a bit longer but the summary of the entire conference can also be viewed here.
http://www.kpmg.com/jp/ja/knowledge/article/kpmg-insight/documents/kpi_10.pdf
I thoroughly enjoyed the forum, thanks to Ms Chino and KPMG.
Happy New Year.
I hope you had a wonderful new year celebration. It seemed very cold around Japan but we were lucky to have sunny weather in Tokyo.
It has been a while since I have written. I have been quite busy with many things.
I did not do anything particularly special but on the morning of the 6th, similar to last year, I gave a lecture to around forty graduate students, brought by Professor Takeuchi from Harvard Business School. This year turned out to be a very fun seminar too.
After the lecture, I returned home once and then headed to Haneda Airport and flew to Toronto. I arrived in Toronto in the afternoon and then went to dinner. It was cold outside and the wind was very strong. With the wind-chill factor, it was about -20°C.
The following day, I met with the Canadian nuclear power and electricity leaders as well as Professor Shinya Nagasaki who moved to McMaster University from the University of Tokyo. Afterwards, we had a round table discussion from noon with around twenty people in total. I found this style of discussion to be very productive.
Everyone was very frank and we had an open discussion on energy policies, the role and processes of nuclear power, the importance of trust and transparency, the reprocessing of spent fuel. The participants were not held back by the lines of politics, industry and bureaucracy and their input reflected constructive and well-thought out views. Canada’s nuclear power plants are concentrated in Ontario, where Toronto is. Although political differences exist between the provincial and national levels, I felt that I was able to observe the good aspects of Canada.
Later in the afternoon, I visited Havergal College, a prestigious girls’ school in the middle of Toronto. It was established 120 years ago by Francis Ridley Havergal, in order to provide high level education to bright, young women.
The following day, I attended the advisory meeting of the Gairdner Foundation. The meeting went on for approximately six hours and many members had sharply contrasting opinions, with some being quite outspoken. But the meeting bore fruit as the discussion went on.
The merits of these meetings are that they are very constructive. Furthermore, the differences in opinions and interpretations provide an insight into other areas to study and it was a very good learning experience. Though, the role of the Chair seems very tough…
In the evening I had dinner at the residence of the consulate general of Japan, Mr. Nakayama, whom I would like to thank.
I flew back to Tokyo the next day. During the trip, I was fortunate enough to meet many people.
The first few days of this year ended up being similar to last year.
I will join the Chatham House Conferece “Ageing and Health: Policy and economics in an era of longevity” on Feb 9 at London.
For details→ http://www.chathamhouse.org/conferences/ageing
Date: January 16(Fri)～17(Sat), 2015
Venue: Okinawa Bankoku Shinryokan
For details → http://ac.nikkeibp.co.jp/bio/okinawa2015e/
I have always followed the work and activities of Ms. Yoko Ishikura.
As those of you who have visited my blog may know, Ms. Ishikura and I co-wrote the book, How to Build a World Class Career (in Japanese).
I have worked with Ms. Ishikura at the World Economic Forum as well as the “Global Agenda Seminar”, which she directs. I have had the chance to participate in it a few times (1, 2) and have learned much every time.
Many of you who have visited my blog may have seen Ms. Ishikura’s activities and messages on her blog and twitter <@yokoishikura>.
Recently, Ms. Ishikura has written a column titled, Create a “Portfolio of Friends”- Reduce Risks in Life through Diversified Investments (in Japanese).
In her column, she mentioned me as one of the friends in her portfolio. I was a bit embarrassed as the other people she introduced are all super-incredible individuals but I write about it here in hopes of drawing more people’s attention to her message and philosophy.
I believe Ms. Ishikura’s message will be helpful in establishing a framework for thinking in this uncertain and ever changing world.
After returning from London, I gave a speech at the international conference for the Red Cross in Fukushima, met with Peter Piot, and participated in many lectures. It was November before I knew it.
I participated in the World Dementia Council’s Legacy Event Japan for the entire program on both November 5th and 6th. On the 7th, the OECD-HGPI held an event that focused on the activities of private sector companies and NGOs.
I have written in my previous entry up to this point.
On November 10th, I flew to London again. This time it was for a board meeting for the GHIT fund. It was held at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, of which Peter Piot is the President. It is a prestigious university with a long tradition. Dr Piot is from Belgium, this reflects the strength of the UK, where people in the top positions are recruited regardless of nationality.
Similarly, Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England is Canadian. This has received much attention around the world and is likely to increase global trust in the institution.
On the evening of my arrival, we had dinner at Bocca Di Lupo. The Vice President of the Royal Society, and a friend of mine, Anthony Cheetman also attended the dinner.
The next day, after finishing the board meeting, I attended a public event by GHIT Fund hosted by the Embassy of Japan as well as a reception at the Embassy in the afternoon.
I gave the closing remarks. It required much thought, as it had to convey to the audience and hosts the main message of the event as well as the remarks of the panelists and speakers. I decided to focus on two past winners of the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize, the only award given by the Japanese government: Brian Greenwood (1), the keynote speaker of the event and first person to receive the award, and Peter Piot, who was the chairperson of the panel at the event and the second person to receive the award. Both of their partners also made an appearance afterwards and I was happy to see Mrs. Greenwood again after six years.
After this evening event at the Embassy, GHIT board members were invited to dinner at the Ambassador’s residence. I am grateful to Ambassador and Mrs Hayashi as well as the people of the Embassy for the entire evening events
The Poppy Installation at the Tower of London was on at the time and it was a shame that I was unable to go see it.
Over these past two months, I have had the opportunity to be involved with the UK on several occasions.
At the beginning of October, I served as a panelist at a conference held by Chatham House and the Japan Foundation.
Chatham House is a world-renowned British think tank. I have visited and worked with them many times.
Last year, Chatham House launched a five-year seminar series in cooperation with the Japan Foundation. This year was the second conference, entitled, “The Role of the Nation State in Addressing Global Challenges: Japan-UK Perspectives.” I was invited to be a speaker on the “Fukushima” panel held on the second day. The panel chair was Sir David Warren, who was the British Ambassador to Japan at the time of the 3.11 earthquake and tsunami in 2011. I was also asked to write an essay for the conference and will introduce it here on my blog when it has been published.
In mid-October, I was in London, my last trip there having been in April. It was for the third meeting of the World Dementia Council (WDC) . Similar to the first meeting, it was held in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. I briefly touched upon documents provided by the Japanese government in preparation for the WDC Legacy Event Japan, which will be held in Japan in November. However, since I am not the representative of Japan, I focused on participating in the discussion as an independent board member.
Also in London, I had the chance to meet up with a few young people, whom I have worked with in the past.
After returning to Japan, I met with the Senior Partner of BLP, Mr Paisner, who has participated in the IBA Tokyo twice. He was well received at the GRIPS Forum, with a turnout of around 200 students and faculty members.
Before I knew it, it was the end of October and I welcomed Professor Peter Piot, the Director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (this is only comprised of a graduate school) to give a lecture at the GHIT.
Thirty-eight years ago, he discovered Ebola in the Congo and was awarded the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize (it is the only award given by the Japanese government and I am the Chairperson of the prize committee). It was very busy, with over seventy organizations at the press conference, countless questions asked on Ebola and many other lectures to give.
In my spare time, I had the opportunity to meet with people from British companies in London and in Tokyo.