Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, We Would Like to Begin the First Panel Discussion

MC(Ohto) Now, ladies and gentlemen, we would like to begin the first panel discussion. At this panel discussion, we will ask the panelists to speak on the East Asia Science and Innovation Area: Its Horizons and Hopes. The Moderator will be the young and spirited political scientist and also a member of the Committee for Strategy in Science and Technology, Professor Atsushi Sunami of the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies. To the right of Professor Sunami, we have a member of the House of Representatives, Chair of the Research Commission on Diplomacy and National Security, former Senior Vice Minister of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Mr. Masaharu Nakagawa. He has been a strong advocate of the Asia Research Area concept. Last May, together with members of our committee, he visited East Asia to solicit support for science and technology collaboration policies during the Golden Week holidays. I’m sure he will inform us about the DPJ policies concerning science and technology collaboration. Next to Mr. Nakagawa is Mr. Koichi Kato from the House of Representatives and a member of the Liberal Democratic Party. He has served as Secretary General, Director of the Defense Agency. He is a well-known figure in Japanese politics and has served as Policy Research Council Chairman. In 1995, when he was Chairman of the Policy Research Council, he was instrumental in drafting the Science and Technology Basic Law. He has also been instrumental in expanding the science and technology budget. He is currently serving on the LDP Parliamentarian League for Life Sciences. He is also passionate about the promotion of science and technology. Seated next to Mr. Kato is the former president of Ochanomizu University and current Executive Director of the Research Organization of Information Systems, Dr. Mitiko Go. Dr. Go is well known for her work in molecular evolution research where she has established methods to analyze the molecular evolution of proteins and genes based on three-dimensional structures. She was the Dean of the Nagahama Institute of Biosciences and Sciences, and has served as the Dean of Ochanomizu University, and also served as a member of the Council for Science and Technology Policy. She is an outstanding speaker on university education research in general, and she is passionate about international exchange among female scientists. Seated next to Dr. Go is an Advisory Member of ITOCHU Corporation, and Director of the ITOCHU Research Institute of Innovative Technology, Mr. Yoshi Matsumi. From 1997 until 2000, Mr. Matsumi was with ITOCHU New York. In 2004, he became Executive Officer 1 and General Manager of Innovative Technology Assistance Office of ITOCHU. He has served in several important positions including as a member of the Japanese Government’s Biomass Nippon Strategy Advisory Group, Intellectual Property Strategy Committee of Council for Science and Technology Policy. We also have with Mr. Tateo Arimoto, Director General of the Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society, JST. He also serves as Chair of the Committee for Strategy in Science and Technology. It would not be an overstatement to say that he is the mastermind behind the ARA concept. He has served as the Director General of the Science and Technology Policy Bureau of MEXT and also as an Executive Research Fellow of the Economic and Social Research Institute of the Cabinet Office. He has been serving his current position since 2006. Moderator (Mr. Atsushi Sunami) Thank you very much. I, too, would like to thank you all for joining us today. It is the end of the year. And to the panelists, thank you so much for taking time out from your very busy schedules. We appreciate your presence here. As time is limited, I’d like to start the panel discussion without further ado. I would like to ask each of the panelists to spend ten or fifteen minutes of the first round to give their thoughts. After the first round, we would like to hear some discussion and comments from the panel between themselves. Then as much as time allows, we would like to open the floor to comments and questions from members of the audience. So I would like to invite Mr. Nakagawa to speak. He has been very involved in promoting the East Asia Science and Innovation Area concept. When he was the Senior Vice Minister, he was the driving force in promoting this concept. So I would like Mr. Nakagawa, a member of the House of Representatives, to talk about the present situation. Mr. Masaharu Nakagawa Thank you very much for the kind introduction. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Last year, I served as the Senior Vice Minister of MEXT. I devoted myself last year, and this year I wished to continue with this profile. However, I was fired from the job, so to speak, and currently I am serving as the Chair of the Research Commission on Diplomacy and National Security, but I am also Director of the Budget Committee as well. So the challenge for me is how to 2 survive the current Diet Session. Of course, I need to seek advice from Mr. Kato later. That is the challenge that confronts me. To begin with, the DPJ after the change in government has been exercising our policies. The basic concept that we have upheld is that of the East Asia Community, and based on this concept, we have to open our doors to the rest of the world so that we drive change from within our national borders and place our emphasis on Asia. But, of course, this should not invite misunderstanding. What is the relationship between Japan and the United States? Of course there is an alliance relationship regarding security. Apart from security, there is other cooperation. Reflect on the past history of Japan. The collaboration with the United States serves as a core pillar. Of course, this is not to undermine the bilateral relations. There have been various issues along the way, for example, the relocation of the Futenma Base. This has been set back, unfortunately. There has been criticism that the DPJ has shifted its focus away into Asia, but this is not the case. We still place emphasis on relations with the United States as a core pillar of our foreign policy. We also wish to deepen and develop our relations with the United States, but, at the same time, we also look to Asia since as we look toward the future of Japan, our relations with Asia will also serve as an important pillar of our strategy as we open our doors to the outside world. Under the current Prime Minister, we have established a council to discuss what specific science and technology policy measures we should take to contribute to the regional integration in Asia. I believe that Mr. Shiraishi was also a member of this council. There have been many discussions, and I have also attended council meetings from time to time. I have shared my aspirations, and have talked about the necessity of developing mid- and long-term strategies for cooperation. The concepts of the East Asian Science and Innovation Area were a timely result of the discussion of the council. As mentioned earlier, I have visited Southeast Asian nations to explain the mindset of Japan, and to sound out their responses. In addition, there was a trilateral summit held on Cheju Island involving Japan, China, and South Korea at which a concrete proposal was made about the collaboration in science and technology. We proposed the creation of a common fund with which researchers can conduct collaborative research among Japan, China, and South Korea. Both China and South Korea have endorsed this proposal, and an agreement has been explicitly expressed in writing. 3 There have been discussions along the way on how to build on this agreement. Dr. Komiyama participated in the discussion along with young researchers from Japan and also South Korea and China to talk about their vision for collaboration in science and technology. This was a very interesting discussion, and what evolved was that Japanese researchers expressed an interest in basic research, and when asked why they were engaging in research today, the answer was that it was because they are passionate, they are interested, and they want to find a fulfilling life. However, the Chinese researchers said that they had a very clear objective: to contribute to the development of the nation, and they had very tangible ideas about the types of research that would be required. These ideas would translate into innovation that can be applied. Lying between these views were the South Korean researchers, which was interesting to note. I found out that even in the collaborative research conducted by researchers from public institutes there exist sensitive problems of competition and cooperation that can usually be observed in the collaborative research among private companies. I see that China’s areas of interest usually lie in extracting or utilizing expertise from Japan, and then applying this expertise in collaborative research that will result in immediate innovation. This tells us the issues we need to address when we conduct collaborative research with Asian countries. When Japan conducts collaborative research with Southeast Asian countries, regional problems would be taken up and the research would be conducted with a grant from Japanese ODA. This has been the general procedure in the past. However, when we conduct trilateral research among Japan, China, and South Korea according to the agreement, we share the cost for the collaborative research as equal partners. There is a model for this kind of collaborative research.

Load more