2010 ACCJ Person of the Year honoree Dr. Kiyoshi Kurokawa has an extremely broad world view that extends far beyond nephrology (the branch of medicine that deals with the kidneys). In fact, his visions span continents.
Kurokawa, 74, has spent fifteen years in various top-class medical institutions around the U.S., and this has given him a unique perspective for Japanese of his generation. He points out that he was not following the orders of a company or any other institution by going to the U.S. “I was certain that Japanese institutions would not accept me on my return, because I am completely alien,” says Kurokawa. In fact, his career since his return has been marked by success, which has been recognized both internationally—as shown by his selection as the ACCJ Person of the Year for 2010—as well as within Japan.
Single-track Careers Kill Initiative
Photography by Irwin Wong
Kurokawa has little doubt that his independence from major institutions is one of the main reasons for his success in influencing Japanese thought. He has little time for the one-company careerist who can only answer “I work for [insert name of company]” when asked how they make their living. “When I came back to Japan and I saw these smart kids in Tokyo University, and I thought to myself ‘these kids are bright,’ you then have to ask yourself why after ten years in a large company are they so dumb.”
He once gave a lecture where he asked his audience of Bank of Japan staffers about their opinion on whether or not the Japanese economy was stagnating. The vast majority of the audience did not want to commit themselves to an answer. His saddened answer to them: “You must have been working here since graduation, so you can’t ask questions. I see no hope for your male-based society—but you are not out of the ordinary.” He adds, “I have been fairly outspoken since I came back, but if I talk to a group, and they don’t ask questions, they’re just a masochistic bunch of men.”
He is equally critical when it comes to Japanese academia. He references “the four-line résumé,” where academics are content to gradually progress from graduate, senior staff, associate professor, and finally to professor at the same university until they retire. “It says nothing about you or your achievements, just about the positions you held.”
How to Turn a Sinecure into a Real Job
Of course Kurokawa has held many positions of his own, but he has refused to regard them as mere sinecures. One of the most prestigious posts he has held was President of the Science Council of Japan. Founded after the Second World War, the group has been compared by some to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and the UK’s present-day Royal Society, but in point of fact serves various functions that are not directly similar to the afore-mentioned institutions.
However, Kurokawa was not content to treat this as a ceremonial post. Seeing the decision-making capabilities of the U.S. and UK bodies, he was keen to expand the practical uses of these assemblies of talent and worked to found the InterAcademy Council (IAC), which is composed of members of leading nations’ scientific advisory bodies. The IAC has produced reports and provided recommendations to the world’s leaders, including then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the Gleneagles G8 summit. As Kurokawa explains, “[The idea was] to provide policy recommendations based on the best available science, with funding secured from independent foundations, such as the [Alfred P.] Sloan Foundation.”
Founding the IAC has given Kurokawa personal links and ties to top scientists outside Japan. He explains, “Because I spent 15 years in the U.S., I am reasonably trusted by the U.S. science community.” He has also built up close links with the Science Advisors to Presidents and Prime Ministers of G8 countries who meet twice a year—without secretaries or bureaucrats—to hold discussions.
Kurokawa also served a term as President of the International Society of Nephrology (1997-1999) where he pushed hard to move away from the usual round of seminars and conferences towards outreach to the developing world and bringing nephrology to such regions.
Advice to the Politicians
Kurokawa also served for two years as an unofficial science advisor to Japanese Prime Ministers, as well as a member of the Committee on Science and Technology Policy. With the Prime Minister consulting him on a regular basis without the presence of bureaucrats, he laughs that he is upsetting civil servants by bypassing them.
However, he feels that most Japanese politicians have little to say, and what they do say, they say badly. One exception is former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, whom he compares to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair for his ability to listen to long explanations, understand them and communicate them competently. “I worked briefly with Tony Blair’s team on the Breaking Climate Deadlock initiative two years ago and I told him: ‘Even CO2 reduction by 50 percent by the year 2050 is irrelevant. That is the reason everything has to happen 10 years ahead of that to reach the goal. You are one of the few political leaders in this world who can say it, and people tend to listen.’”
As far as the current U.S. Administration is concerned, Kurokawa says, “Obama has so many issues like health care, Lehman’s, and jobs and Pakistan and Taliban, Iraq and Gaza, he’s not sending a lot of strong messages to Asia-Pacific compared to other issues, creating a vacuum…I think the Chinese see this as a great opportunity.”
He regards the current Japanese government as being inexperienced. Indeed, the inexperience applies not just to the DPJ but to Japanese political decision-making as a whole. “You can replace a minister each day, and nothing will change,” he says, referring to the way the LDP held power for roughly five decades while decisions were made by the civil servants.
Kurokawa also attributes the current impasse between civil servants and the DPJ to a lack of prior experience. Though Japan has been a nominal democracy for some time, the multi-party system has only just started to work. The fact that few in the ruling party have had experience in developing policies, making decisions or negotiating with the Cabinet Office, etc., is a drawback, but not an insuperable one. “They’re smart, and they have knowledge,” he says, “but they lack experience.” He also feels that current Prime Minister Naoto Kan sometimes lacks the ability to delegate his powers and enforce a sense of discipline within the Cabinet. “And,” he adds, “they have to go through failure before they learn.”
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