Despite being the world’s third largest market, many businesses struggle to break into Japan. The “Growing your Business in Japan” free webinar, organized by the SCI’s Science and Enterprise Group and powered by LabLinks, will provide valuable insights into the challenges of growing a chemistry-facing business in the Japanese market, and how they can be overcome. The host, Dr Alan Steven – Chief Scientist at CatSci Ltd and Co-founder of LabLinks, will be joined by:
Featuring speakers with pharma, intellectual property and entrepreneurship backgrounds, this webinar is a great opportunity to learn about the potential strategic pitfalls when entering the Japanese market and how Japanese culture can affect how a business performs in Japan. The free webinar will be held on Tuesday 31st January 2023 at 09:00 – 11:00 GMT
Do not miss the opportunity to meet the speakers, network, participate in open discussions, and gain first hand knowledge on how to successfully enter the Japanese market.
Hermann Hauser in a recent article on Project Syndicate, entitled “The Struggle for Technology Sovereignty in Europe” argues for “the UK and EU to jointly establish a €100 billion ($120 billion) Technology Sovereignty Fund to counter the $100 billion that the US is spending on its technology sovereignty and the even larger amounts China is mobilizing”. I argue here, that we should be thinking that 27+1 countries could create much larger funds in a world where single individuals like Masayoshi Son can create funds of that order.
Hermann Hauser became an entrepreneur right after finishing his PhD in the Cavendish Lab (Cambridge University, UK) around 1978 – on the same lab bench in the Cavendish as myself – and is arguably Europe’s first and most important technology venture investor. Hermann Hauser can be seen as the initiator of Europe’s VC industry. Hermann Hauser is also one of the co-founders of ARM and many other high-tech companies. For a discussion with Hermann see:
The thought of a €100 billion Technology Sovereignty Fund is of course a fantastic plan. As a starting point, thats of course a great idea, however in my opinion, much much more is needed. My thought would be that for European Technology Sovereignty, five or ten, or even more funds of that €100 billion size will be needed. In my opinion, better not only by governments, but by private individuals like European versions of Masayoshi Son.
Three thoughts, which I will illustrate below
a €100 billion fund for 27+1 countries is a lot smaller than the US$ 391 billion the single man Masayoshi Son is estimated to control (Vision funds plus three companies)
a €100 billion fund for 27+1 countries is much smaller than the sovereign funds of very much smaller countries:
Singapore (5.7 million people), sovereign funds: US$ 715 billion
Norway (5.3 million people), sovereign funds: US$ 1327 billion
My third point is that the assets in question (ARM) in Hermann Hauser’s Project Syndicate article would already use a large part of the proposed €100 billion fund.
To put a €100 billion fund for 27 EU Countries + UK into context:
Just one single man (Masayoshi Son, from a Korean immigrant family to Japan) controls at least two funds + and to some extent several companies, worth in total on the order of US$ 391 billion as follows:
the current “fair value” of the first + second Vision Funds is reported as US$ 154 Billion.
In addition, Masayoshi Son also controls (to some extent) the listed companies, which he often uses as acquisition and finance vehicles:
SoftBank Group Corp [TSE: 9984]: market cap = US$ 130 billion
SoftBank Corp [TSE: 9434]: market cap = US$ 67 billion
Z Holdings Corp [TSE:4689]: market cap = US$ 40 billion (includes Yahoo Japan Corp + LINE)
That is just one single man, who created all this from zero, not 27+1 countries.
Or as another comparison, Singapore has built at least two sovereign funds in total estimated to be worth US$ 715 billion. Singapore is one single relatively small country compared to 27+1 European countries (population of Singapore is about 5 million, about the same as Norway, and about the same as the Berlin region)
Singapore Sovereign Wealth Fund GIC estimated value US$ 488 billion
Temasec Holdings US$ 227 billion
Norway’s sovereign funds (population about 5 million):
Sovereign Pension Fund – Foreign US$ 1300 billion assets
Sovereign Pension Fund – Norway US$ 27 billion assets
My third point is that a single €100 billion fund is of comparable size of developed assets in question. eg. ARM’s current value would be a substantial part of a potential €100 billion fund. This means that after acquiring two or three companies of the value of ARM this fund would already be exhausted.
As another example, the strategic German mRNA company BioNTech (which among other therapies developed the BioNTech Covid Vaccine in cooperation with Pfizer) has a current market cap of US$ 51 billion. If a situation would arise that such a Sovereign fund would acquire a company such as BioNTech, that would again use up a large fraction – if not almost all of this fund. In my opinion, although of course a €100 billion fund investing in European technology companies in addition to existing substantial VC and investment funds would be great, this is not huge – even relatively small – compared both to the value of many assets in question, and also to the funds some private individuals (eg Masayoshi Son) or 5 million people countries (like Singapore or Norway) manage to build.
So I think many more than a single €100 billion fund would be needed for Technology Sovereignty – I hope circumstances will develop where even more can be invested in European ventures than today. Hermann Hauser’s proposal is certainly a great step in the right direction- many more such steps would be great!
Japan’s banking system. Number of banks via the Ministry of Finance registration and the Japanese Bankers Association
We are often asked, how many banks there are in Japan, when discussing possibilities for obtaining finance. Here we answer this question via two methods:
registration with the Ministry of Finance: 198 as of July 1, 2013
membership of the Japanese Bankers Association: 251 as of Sept 1, 2020
Banks in Japan need a license, therefore all Banks are registered, and details are published, there is a straight answer to this question: 198 + 1 (as of July 1, 2013).
Note that Japan’s banking sector is consolidating, especially regional banks, so there is some change over time.
Via registration with the Ministry of Finance (as of July 1, 2013):
Total number of banks in Japan = 198 (as of July 1, 2013) (not including The Bank of Japan)
Since a banking license is required, the number, names, addresses etc of all banks of Japan are easy to find.
For historic reasons the number of banks in Japan is quite large, and the Bank of Japan and the Government of Japan have mentioned recently, that they consider the number of banks too large, and consolidation of local banks is under consideration.
Bank of Japan
Not included in the listing above is the Bank of Japan.
The Bank of Japan is the central Bank of Japan, and has three main responsibilities:
issue bank notes (not the yen coins, the coins are minted by the Mint of Japan)
carry out currency and monetary control
act as settlement banks between all Japanese banks: “to ensure smooth settlement of funds among banks and other financial institutions, thereby contributing to the maintenance of stability of the financial system.”
Via membership of the Japanese Bankers Association (251)
Full members (117)
City Banks (5)
Regional Banks (64)
Members of the Second Association of Regional Banks (38)
Trust Banks (4)
Foreign Banks (2)
Other Banks (4)
Bank Holding Company Members (3)
Associate Members (72)
Trust Banks (9)
Foreign Banks (51)
Other Banks (10)
Bank Holding Company (2)
Special Members (58) (regionally based bankers associations)
Sub-associate members (1)
Japan Post Bank
Total: 251
Trends and consolidation
As a consequence of the Japanese banking crisis following the “crash of the bubble”, many Japanese banks were in difficulties resulting in a wave of mergers of Japan’s mega-banks – as a consequence, three top banks were created:
Mizuho Financial Group (blue)
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) (red)
Mitsui Sumitomo Financial Group (green)
Regional banks are increasingly under pressure as local economies stagnate and contract, winners and losers emerge, and we expect waves of mergers among mid-sized and small-sized local banks.
Emerging new banks
With the development of fintech and online banks we see new giants emerge, examples are Rakuten Bank, 7-Bank, Jibun-Bank and many others.
For period of several weeks there were frequent and strong after quakes, and great uncertainty over the nuclear fallout situation. Companies were faced with the decision whether to relocate away from Tokyo for business continuity reasons and care for employees, or to remain in Tokyo to continue business and customer service – we here at Eurotechnology stayed in Tokyo for our customers, and signed a contract with a Swiss customer (market entry into Japan for mobile phone base station high precision components) a few days after March 11. Based on deep expert physics knowledge we analyzed the radiation load in Tokyo, and we heard that many companies used our analysis as input for their relocation decision making. Some of our newsletters and analysis is summarized here:
Understanding the causes for the Fukushima nuclear disaster:
The Fukushima nuclear disaster was caused by a large number of contributing factors, starting with the preparations for the piece of land where the Fukushima Dai Ichi nuclear plant was built. Some of these factors are listed here:
Fukushima Nuclear Accident Investigation Commission of the Japanese Parliament NAIIC
For the first and only time so far the Japanese Parliament created an investigation commission, which investigated the Fukushima Dai Ichi nuclear disaster. The commission was headed by Kiyoshi Kurakawa, read a summary of his talk at the 6th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum conference here:
US Integrated Government and NRC efforts in Japan during the nuclear Fukushima accident
A few days after March 11, 2011, US President Barak Obama sent a team of over 100 US nuclear experts for 11 months to Japan to work with Japan’s Prime Minister, Ministers and TEPCO leaders and on location at Fukushima Dai Ichi to assist with managing the nuclear disaster. Leader of this US integrated team was Dr Chuck Casto. Read summaries of Dr Chuck Casto’s talks on his conclusions here:
Restarting or not the world’s largest nuclear power station complex – Kashiwazaki Kariwa in Niigata (Japan)
The world’s largest nuclear power station complex, Kashiwazaki Kariwa in Niigata-ken (Japan) is sitting idle. Niigata-ken’s Governor is elected by the people of Niigata, and without his/her agreement, the nuclear power plants at Kashiwazaki Kariwa cannot restart. Read what former Niigata-ken’s Governor Hirohiko Izumida says about restarting the nuclear power station in his prefecture:
joint event with the alumni organizations of HEC, École Polytechnique, Sciences Po, Edhec, Essec and Trinity College/ Cambridge University. Thursday 7 March 2019 19:00 in Tokyo
Everyone of us who wants Japanese companies to take major decisions, e.g. in major sales, M&A, as investor, or executive or employee benefits from understanding how Japanese companies take decisions at top level. Corporate governance is about how companies take decisions, and how this decision making is controlled. Reforms were initiated by PM Abe and Japan’s Parliament since 2015, mainly driven by the very low returns on capital by Japanese companies compared to Europe and US, and by a long series of scandals.
As the major shareholder of Nissan, Renault shares responsibility for corporate governance at Nissan, and governance of Nissan directly impacts employment in France. Thus interest in Japan’s corporate governance has suddenly shot up in France.The speaker has several years experience as Board Director and Member of the Supervisory & Audit Committee of a stock market listed Japanese SaaS, cloud and cybersecurity group, and will give a practician view of governance at Japanese companies.
Speaker: Dr Gerhard Fasol
Dr. Gerhard Fasol, graduated with a PhD in Physics of Cambridge University. He first came to Japan in 1984 to help build a research cooperation with NTT. In 1997 he founded the company Eurotechnology Japan KK and has been working with hundreds of Japanese and foreign companies on cross-border business development and M&A projects. For four years he served as Board Director of a Japanese stock market listed company. He is also Guest-Professor at Kyushu University and was tenured faculty in Physics at Cambridge University, Fellow and Director of Studies at Trinity College Cambridge, Associate Professor at Tokyo University’s Dept of Electrical Engineering, and also Guest Professor in Physics at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. In recent years he has been focusing also on questions of Corporate Governance at Japanese companies, a topic about which he is frequently presenting at a wide range of organizations in and outside Japan.
Japan’s corporate governance reforms: Joint event with the alumni of HEC, École Polytechnique, Sciences Po, Edhec, Essec and Trinity College/Cambridge University.
Event details and registration
Date: Thursday 7 March at 19:00 (Please try to be on time).
Registration: Please register using contact form below, no later than Friday 1 March 2019.
Please note that the last HEC event was booked out early, and some late registrations had to be turned away. So to avoid disappointment, make sure you register early!
Japan’s corporate governance reforms: Joint event with the alumni of HEC, École Polytechnique, Sciences Po, Edhec, Essec and Trinity College/Cambridge University. Japan’s corporate governance reforms: Joint event with the alumni of HEC, École Polytechnique, Sciences Po, Edhec, Essec and Trinity College/Cambridge University. Japan’s corporate governance reforms: Joint event with the alumni of HEC, École Polytechnique, Sciences Po, Edhec, Essec and Trinity College/Cambridge University. Japan’s corporate governance reforms: Joint event with the alumni of HEC, École Polytechnique, Sciences Po, Edhec, Essec and Trinity College/Cambridge University. Japan’s corporate governance reforms: Joint event with the alumni of HEC, École Polytechnique, Sciences Po, Edhec, Essec and Trinity College/Cambridge University. Japan’s corporate governance reforms: Joint event with the alumni of HEC, École Polytechnique, Sciences Po, Edhec, Essec and Trinity College/Cambridge University. Japan’s corporate governance reforms: Joint event with the alumni of HEC, École Polytechnique, Sciences Po, Edhec, Essec and Trinity College/Cambridge University.
Purpose of the International Nanotechnology Symposium in Tokyo
Exchange of views on results and future development of different nanotechnology fields between 21 Cambridge University nano-technology researchers and PhD students, researchers and nanotechnology companies. Explore common interests, and potential cooperation.
University of Cambridge, founded 1209 AD
107 Nobel Prize winners
around University of Cambridge: 4700 knowledge intensive companies, 560 high-tech manufacturing firms, 3000 IT and communication based companies
2019 THE Times Higher Education Global University Ranking: Place 2 globally
2019 ARWU Global University Ranking: Place 3 globally
2019 QS Global University Ranking: Place 6 globally
Program
15:00 – 19:00
presentations by Cambridge nanotechnology researchers:
Session 1: Nanotechnology for Energy & Sustainability
TU – Plastic waste as a feedstock for solar-driven hydrogen generation
TL – Fibre-based optofluidics for sustainable photocatalysis
AG – Ultrafast charging Li-ion batteries
JM – Battery material degradation at the nanoscale studied by analytical electron microscopy
MJ – Understanding the nature of oxygen redox in Li-excess cation disordered rocksalts as cathode materials for Li-ion batteries
JT – Structure and ionic conductivity of metal-organic framework composites
TP – Light-induced patterning of structural colour
TB – Triboelectric textile for wearable energy harvesting
Session 2: Nanomaterials & Nano-biotechnologies
RM – In-operando SEM to Develop Manufacturing of Nanomaterials
KS – Hierarchical carbon nanotube structures
BS – DNA origami for enzyme biomimicry
RRS – Force-sensing artificial cells and tissues with synthetic DNA mechanotransducers
RG – The role of viscoelasticity in axon guidance during development
TN – Implantable electrophoretic devices for spatially controlled administration of nanoscopic drug carriers for brain cancer therapy
Session 3: Nanoelectronics & Photonics
BD – Photophysics of thermally activated delayed fluorescent emitters
TG – Quantifying disorder in hybrid perovskites for optoelectronics
JO – Gold nanorod – MOF core-shell composites as advanced surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy sensors
EW – Transition edge sensors for far-infrared space science
SM – 3D structured carbon nanotube infrared detectors
LS – 3D magnetic nanostructures for spintronics
TL – Manipulating single electron spins in silicon CMOS spin qubits
NTT Basic Research Laboratories
Hideki Gotoh: Overview of NTT R&D and Basic Research Laboratories
International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019International Nanotechnology Symposium: 21 University of Cambridge nanotechnology researchers meeting Japanese companies, 16 September 2019
Contact, registration and enquiries
please contact us via the form below to enquire about registration and fees
(c) 2019 Eurotechnology Japan KK. All Rights Reserved
Corporate Governance Reforms: How the Way Japanese Corporations Take Decisions is Changing
SJCC Swiss-Japanese Chamber of Commerce Friday 12 October 2018, 18:30-19:45, JETRO Office Geneva
Prime Minister Abe’s corporate governance reforms are arguably one of the biggest success stories of his reform program to promote Japan’s economic growth. Japan’s Government in coordination with the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the Financial Services Agency changed the legal and regulatory framework for the supervision of management for stock market-traded companies, faster than many thought this could be done.
Japanese corporations are changing their governance structure, bring in independent Board Directors with fresh ideas and independent views and experience. The share of foreigners on Japan’s Board of Directors is still low (0.5%) but increasing as they bring global expertise to the top level of increasingly globalizing Japanese companies.
The presentation is based on Gerhard Fasol’s experience as Board Director and Member of the Supervisory and Audit Committee of a stock market listed Japanese group. It will explain some details of how Japanese stock market listed corporations take decisions, the different models for management supervision available under Japanese law, and how this works in daily practice.
Understanding how Japanese corporations take decisions, is a key success factor for companies seeking to achieve agreements with Japanese corporations that need Board approval, e.g. for investments, M&A, partnerships or large purchases, as well as for investors in listed Japanese company stock, and employees of Japanese companies. Knowledge about Japanese Corporate Governance is also crucial for the success of Foreign subsidiaries in Japan.
About the speaker – Gerhard Fasol
Dr. Gerhard Fasol, of Austrian origin living in Tokyo, graduated with a PhD in Physics of Cambridge University. He first came to Japan in 1984 to help build a research cooperation with NTT. In 1997 he founded the company Eurotechnology Japan KK and has been working with hundreds of Japanese and foreign companies on cross-border business development and M&A projects. For four years he served as Board Director of a Japanese stock market listed company.
He is also Guest-Professor at Kyushu University and was tenured faculty at Cambridge University, Fellow and Director of Studies at Trinity College Cambridge, and also Guest Professor in Physics at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. In recent years he has been focusing on questions of Corporate Governance at Japanese companies, a topic about which he is frequently presenting at a wide range of organizations in and outside Japan. He served on the Advisory Board to the former Chairman of JETRO Mr Noboru Hatakeyama.
SJCC Swiss-Japanese Chamber of Commerce Friday 12 October 2018, 18:30-19:45, JETRO Office Geneva
Date Friday 12 October 2018 Time From 18:45 to 19:45 (registration opens 18:30)
Venue JETRO Office Geneva, Rue de Lausanne 80, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland Fee SJCC/JETRO/JCG Members and Guests: CHF 20, Non-Members: CHF 30
Organization SJCC Swiss-Japanese Chamber of Commerce
Winding veils round their heads, the women walked on deck. They were now moving steadily down the river, passing the dark shapes of ships at anchor, and London was a swarm of lights with a pale yellow canopy drooping above it. There were the lights of the great theatres, the lights of the long streets, lights that indicated huge squares of domestic comfort, lights that hung high in air.
No darkness would ever settle upon those lamps, as no darkness had settled upon them for hundreds of years. It seemed dreadful that the town should blaze for ever in the same spot; dreadful at least to people going away to adventure upon the sea, and beholding it as a circumscribed mound, eternally burnt, eternally scarred. From the deck of the ship the great city appeared a crouched and cowardly figure, a sedentary miser.
Corporate governance reforms: making Japanese corporations great again?
Understanding how Japanese Boards of Directors function helps you close deals Monday, May 28, 2018, 19:00-21:00 at CCIFJ
Stimulating Japanese companies’ growth is a key element of Prime Minister Abe’s economic growth policies. For companies to grow, management needs to be improved, Boards of Directors need to bring in diverse experiences and new ideas, and Boards need to control executive management effectively. Corporate governance is important for investors, and also for those aiming to achieve major decisions from Japanese companies. If you want to make a major sale, an M&A transaction or create a partnership with a Japanese company, you need to understand how Japanese companies take decisions at Board of Directors level.
The speaker is one of a limited number of foreigners with several years experience as Board Director and member of the Supervisory & Audit committee of a Japanese stock market listed company. His presentation will aim to give you a hands-on understanding of Japanese Board of Directors work from an insider with several years Japanese Board experience. He will illustrate this with an example, where he helped a European industrial group achieve agreement to cooperate from a large Japanese industrial group within 12 hours, by applying his Japanese Board Director experience.
He addresses C-level executives aiming to close deals with Japanese corporations, and to fund managers who have new duties to interact more closely with Japanese Boards under the new stewardship code of the FSA. He will also prepare you for coming changes to these rules.
About the speaker
Gerhard Fasol graduated with a PhD in Physics of Cambridge University, Cavendish Laboratory, and Trinity College. He founded the company Eurotechnology Japan KK in 1997 and has been working with hundreds of Japanese and foreign companies on cross-border business development and M&A projects. He first came to Japan in 1984 to help build a research cooperation with NTT. For four years he served as Board Director of the Japanese stock market listed cybersecurity group GMO Cloud KK.
He is also Guest-Professor at Kyushu University. He was tenured faculty at Cambridge University, Fellow and Director of Studies at Trinity College Cambridge, and also Guest Professor in Physics at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris.
Date Monday, May 28, 2018
Time From 19:00 to 21:00 (doors open at 18:30)
Venue CCI France Japon, 1F Meeting room
Admission Fee (to be paid in cash at the door or online via PayPal)
JPY 4 000 for members of the French Chamber
JPY 6 000 for non-members
Language English
Deadline for registration/cancellation Thursday, May 24, 2018, 17:00
Registration: please click on the button “S’inscrire” at the bottom of this page.
Former President of the EFTA Court, Carl Baudenbacher
Former President of the EFTA Court, Carl Baudenbacher
Gerhard Fasol: Professor Baudenbacher, could you explain in simple terms, what the EFTA Court and your work leading the EFTA Court for many years, means for businesses in Europe, and also businesses in Japan.
Carl Baudenbacher: The EFTA Court is the second tribunal in the European Economic Area (EEA) next to the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ). The EEA consists of the EU and its 28 (soon 27) Member States which form one pillar and the three EFTA States Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway which form the other pillar. Businesses from these countries have access to the EFTA Court. That includes Japanese companies which are active in Europe. I should add that a group of leading Japanese professors from the universities of Waseda, Tokyo and Kyoto have for many years been doing research concerning the EFTA Court.
Gerhard Fasol: Can you illustrate the impact of the EFTA Court with an example? What do you consider your most important case?
Carl Baudenbacher: In Fosen-Linjen (E-16/16), we decided that a public authority which awards a public contract to the wrong bidder, may be liable for a simple breach of public procurement rules and not only for a serious breach. This judgment may have an impact on the jurisprudence of the ECJ, but also of the highest courts, say, in the U.K., Sweden, Norway, Denmark. It could also be that it influences a Japanese court.
Our most important case was probably Icesave (E-16/11) where we held that in a systemic financial crisis a State is not liable for the incapability of its banks’ deposit guarantee scheme to compensate depositors in other countries.
Gerhard Fasol: Do I understand correctly, that the EFTA Court is focused on the relationship between Governments and business. Surely the impact is bigger and beyond Government and business only?
Carl Baudenbacher: The EFTA Court decides cases involving the relationship between Governments and business, for example concerning ownership in energy companies or concerning taxation but also between businesses, for example conflicts between banks and insurance companies and consumers.
Former President of the EFTA Court, Carl Baudenbacher
Gerhard Fasol: Professor Baudenbacher, you devoted your life to lead the development of international business law, which is at the core of the post WW2 rule based global system, which is now faced with stronger nationalism, in particular the Trump presidency.
Can you explain us what you see as your main achievements, and do you feel these achievements are now in danger in view of recent political developments?
Carl Baudenbacher: I have been a university professor in Switzerland, Germany, the US and Iceland, an author, arbitrator, corporate and political consultant, and a European judge. As a professor, I have founded the post graduate program Executive Master of International Business Law of the University of St. Gallen. This autonomous global program entertains cooperations with American and Asian universities. In Japan, Waseda is our partner. My main achievement has probably been the positioning of the EFTA Court as a voice to be heard. The establishment of international courts, such as the ECJ, the EFTA Court or the WTO Appellate Body has been called the “judicialisation” of international law. This has been beneficial for businesses. With the Trump presidency, there is the risk that the rule based global system will be replaced by archaic mechanisms such as retaliation. Free trade has already suffered and will further suffer.
Gerhard Fasol: While we do see this emergence of nationalism, important major trade agreements between the EU and Japan, between the EU and Canada and many others have been agreed. From your experience leading the EFTA Court, do you think we will see a future of several ECJ or EFTA-type courts for different regional trade groups? Or will we go back to national courts, driven by renewed nationalism?
Carl Baudenbacher: What we are seeing is in all likelihood more than a crisis of the post WW2 global trade system. The former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer speaks of the end of the Pax Americana. I leave the question open whether the EU has done its homework as regards its trade balance. A natural reaction to the American move would be that Europe and Asia move closer together. If global trade is in peril, regional trade agreements come to the fore. In my experience, regional courts such as the ECJ and the EFTA Court offer a lot of advantages. But the judges must be aware that they cannot interfere excessively with the sovereignty of the Member States. At the same time, going back to national courts is in my view no solution.
Former President of the EFTA Court, Carl Baudenbacher
Gerhard Fasol: You often refer to judicial dialogue. Why do you think judicial dialogue is so defining for your work at the EFTA Court, what is its importance beyond? How do you see criticism?
Carl Baudenbacher: What I mean with judicial dialogue is the dialogue between high courts. In Europe, we see such interaction between the ECJ, the EFTA Court and the European Court of Human Rights. National Supreme Courts may also be involved. Let me give you an example. In many countries around the globe dockers have been able to impose collective agreements on ship owners that give them a priority right to load and unload ships. In 2016, the EFTA Court ruled in the landmark case Holship (E-14/15) that such a system is incompatible with competition law. The Supreme Court of Norway has followed the EFTA Court. The Norwegian unions have now brought the matter before the European Court of Human Rights. At stake is, inter alia, the right of businesses to employ non-organised dockers. Sooner or later, this question will also arise in the ECJ. Obviously it could also end up before any other high court in the world. Then it would be natural for that court to look into how other courts have resolved the problem.
Gerhard Fasol: How do you see the developments between EU, UK, EFTA and Switzerland? You are actively promoting the EFTA court, and by extension EFTA for a possible future home for the UK. Where do you see the advantages for EFTA and UK – keeping in mind that EFTA was co-founded by UK.
Carl Baudenbacher: The UK intends to leave the EU because it wants to limit integration to economic matters; it doesn’t want to be part of a political Union. EFTA which was founded under British leadership is an intergovernmental club which focuses on trade. The EFTA Court has in its case law upheld EFTA values such as free trade, open markets, efficiency, a modern image of man.
Gerhard Fasol: Finally, here in Japan many business people are concerned with Brexit – especially Japanese manufacturing and financial companies have a strong presence in the UK. How do you see Brexit – from your neutral Swiss viewpoint, and from your EFTA Court viewpoint – both outside the EU. How do you see Europe develop?
Carl Baudenbacher: The Brexit decision of June 2016 was obviously a shock for Japanese businesses which had used the UK as a gateway to the EU. I have already elaborated on this at Keidanren on 1 September 2016 and then again in September 2017 at RIETI. But the British people have spoken. In my view it would be crucial for Britain to retain access to the EU single market. This would also be important for Japanese investors. The countries which are members of the EFTA Court do have this access. If Britain would subject itself to the EFTA Court, Switzerland might do the same. We would then have two structures in Europe and consequently a certain systemic competition.
Former President of the EFTA Court, Carl Baudenbacher
Carl Baudenbacher – Profile
Professor Dr. iur. Dr. rer. pol. h.c. Carl Baudenbacher has served as a judge on the EFTA Court in Luxembourg from September 1995 to 9 April 2018. From 2003 to 2017 he was the Court’s President. Baudenbacher was the Judge Rapporteur in many of the Court’s landmark cases.
From 1987 to 2013, Carl Baudenbacher was the Chair of Private, Commercial and Economic Law at the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland). Between 1993 and 2004, he was a permanent visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1996 he founded the global autonomous program Executive M.B.L.-HSG of St. Gallen University which has a foot in Japan.
On 9 April 2018, Baudenbacher stepped down from the EFTA Court bench. He will open his own firm focusing on arbitration and corporate and government consulting. His special fields are EU and EEA law, Brexit and the relationship Switzerland – EU.
Monday, March 12, 2018, 12:00 – 13:30 at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Japan FCCJ
While many Japanese corporations are still admired around the world, too many have for years suffered sluggish growth and low profitability. A string of corporate scandals and failures have shocked the pubic and corroded confidence in Japanese business.
The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has spearheaded reforms. A corporate governance code has been introduced to improve supervision of management and increase the number of independent outside directors. Change is happening faster than many expected and the reforms are generally regarded as successful. Yet, much still needs to be done to bring more diversity into Japanese boardrooms.
Gerhard Fasol is one of a tiny number of foreigners in the boardrooms of listed Japanese corporations. A physicist and entrepreneur, he has been in Tokyo for quarter of a century. For four years he has been Board Director, and since last year additionally a member of the Supervisory and Audit Committee of the Japanese cybersecurity group GMO Cloud KK, which is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
With years of experience of mergers and acquisitions and cross-border business development projects in Tokyo, Fasol is well placed to explain what’s happening inside Japan Inc. He will come to the FCCJ to discuss what we might expect from Japan’s corporate governance reforms.
7 years and many lessons learnt since the Tohoku earth quake and Tsunami and Fukushima-Dai-Ichi nuclear disasters
Tohoku disaster and Fukushima nuclear disaster lead to Japan’s energy market liberalization
Tohoku disaster: On Friday March 11, 2011 at 14:46:24, the magnitude 9.0 “Great East Japan earthquake” caused a tsunami, reaching up to 40.4 meters high inland in Tohoku.
Japan’s National Police Agency registers 15,894 deaths and 2,562 missing people.
TEPCO’s Fukushima Dai-1 nuclear power plant vs Tohoku Electric Power Corporation’s Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant
One of the world’s worst nuclear disasters started at Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) Fukushima Dai-1 Nuclear Power Plant.
The Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant, owned and operated by Tohoku Electric Power Company, and built under Yanosuke Hirai, was closest to the 2011/3/11 earthquake’s epicenter, and survived the quake without major damage and was successfully shut down, and served as a refuge for 300 people from the neighborhood who had lost their homes. There were radiation alarm signals at Onagawa Power Station, but these alarms were caused by radioactive fallout blown from Fukushima-Dai-Ichi by winds, and did not originate from Onagawa.
The Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant was the only nuclear power plant in the region of the Tohoku Earthquake that survived the earthquake without any major damage.
On Yanosuke Hirai’s insistence, Tohoku Electric Power Company built Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant at 13.8 meters above sea level, while during the construction of TEPCO’s Fukushima Dai-1 plant the natural ground elevation was reduced from 35 meters to 10 meters. The Tsunami reached 13 meters height in both locations.
In 1990 Tohoku Electric Power Company (Onagawa Nuclear Power Station Construction Office) published a detailed analysis of the Great Jogan Tsunami of AD 869
Yanosuke Hirai had researched the Great Jogan Tsunami of July 13, 869, which was caused by the 869 Sanriku Earthquake (貞観地震). The results were taken into account in planning the Onagawa Nuclear Power Station, and published in 1990:
Fukushima nuclear disaster mitigation. US sends 150 nuclear experts headed by Chuck Casto to work with the Japanese Prime Minister and top leaders for 11 months to help deal with the Fukushima disaster
The USA sent a team of about 150 nuclear experts for 11 months to Japan to assist TEPCO and the Japanese Government in mastering the nuclear crisis. This team was headed by Chuck Casto – read some of his conclusions here:
Japan’s Parliament for the first time ever created an Independent Parliamentary Commission to analyze the nuclear disaster, headed by Kiyoshi Kurokawa, read the summary of his talk “Groupthink can kill” here (including videos describing the Commissions results in simple easy to understand terms).
Three former TEPCO executives have now been indicted by a citizen’s prosecution committee.
Nuclear disaster leads to energy market liberalization in Japan
Japan’s faith in nuclear power was shaken, leading to development of renewable energy, liberalization and long overdue reforms of Japan’s energy sector.
Quakes and after-quakes
The figures show that more than 300 earthquakes of magnitude 5 or larger occurred since the major quake on March 11, 2011 at 14:46. The epicenters of quakes lie mostly where the Pacific Plate moves under the North American Plate on which Tohoku lies.
According to our knowledge earth quakes are mathematically speaking a “chaotic” phenomenon, and scientific arguments are, that it is difficult if not impossible to predict earth quakes with precision. (Figure: Wolfram Alpha LLC)
Earth quakes of magnitude 5 and greater in Japan (March-April 2011) (Figure: Wolfram Alpha LLC)Earth quakes of magnitude 5 and greater in Japan (March-April 2011) on logarithmic magnitude scale (Figure: Wolfram Alpha LLC)
Nuclear fallout on Tokyo: radiation levels in Tokyo/Shinjuku
Starting with Tuesday 15 March 2011, radioactive fallout came down on Tokyo as shown in the figures below.
Radiation in Tokyo/Shinjuku (until April 13, 2011) compared to Austria
Radiation levels in Tokyo (Shinjuku and Shibuya) and Tsukuba:
Radiation in Tsukuba (until April 13, 2011) compared to Austria
The blue curve above shows the radiation levels in Tokyo/Shinjuku as measured and published by the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute for Public Health here:
each hour for the last 24 hours
daily starting March 1
The red curves show maximum and minimum data as measured by TEPCO in Tokyo-Shibuya, and published here: TEPCO radiation data
The green curves show radiation data measured by Japan’s highly respected AIST Laboratory in Tsukuba (Ibaraki-ken, about 60 km north of Tokyo in direction of Fukushima) and published here: AIST radiation data.
Radiation levels in Tsukuba
The green curves show radiation data measured by AIST Laboratory in Tsukuba (Ibaraki-ken, about 60 km north of Tokyo in direction of Fukushima) and published here: AIST radiation data.
The radiation measurement results in Tsukuba are considerably higher than found in Tokyo, but have decreased close to the top levels found naturally in Austria and in many other countries.
The differences in the data between Tokyo and Tsukuba could be because Tsukuba is 60km closer to Fukushima, could be caused by weather conditions, but they could also be caused by differences in the measurement equipment or a combination of these factors.
Eurotechnology-Japan newsletters in March/April 2011
In a series of newsletters, our company informed our customers, and friends about the nuclear disaster impact on Tokyo. Our newsletters were reposted by our readers to 100s of friends, and in some cases influenced the decisions by foreign subsidiaries here in Tokyo. In the days following the nuclear disaster, it was difficult for non-phycists to understand the true situation, and what the radioactive fallout really meant.
While many Japanese corporations are greatly admired around the world, certain aspects of Japanese management style are believed to be holding back Japan’s economic growth. The media focus mainly on extreme cases and fraud, but the responsibilities of Directors go far beyond these defensive, compliance-type duties. Preventing fraud alone is not sufficient to ensure growth and long-term success; it is just the baseline!
Based on several years of direct experience as a non-Japanese Director of a Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed Japanese company, Gerhard Fasol will discuss the reforms to Japanese corporate governance made in recent years, and what, in his view, still needs to be done. He will also discuss issues of diversity and its importance for the quality of management in Japanese corporations.
About the contributors
Gerhard Fasol
Gerhard Fasol founded the M&A and cross-border advisory firm Eurotechnology Japan in 1997, and has worked on a large number of M&A and cross-border projects in Tokyo over the last 20 years. Since 2014 he has been a Board Director and Member of the Supervisory & Audit Committee of the Japanese cybersecurity group GMO Cloud KK, listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and since April 2017 he has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Kyushu. He gained a PhD in Physics at Trinity College, Cambridge, and then became a Lecturer at Cambridge University, based at the Cavendish Laboratory, while also being a Research Fellow, Teaching Fellow and Director of Studies at Trinity College. He has worked as a research scientist at the Max Planck Institute, Stuttgart, on semiconductor and solid state physics research, as Manager of the Hitachi Research Laboratory in Cambridge, and as an Associate Professor in Electrical Engineering at Tokyo University.
Sir Stephen Gomersall
Sir Stephen Gomersall studied at Cambridge and Stanford University, and joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1970. He served in Japan as Political Officer (1972-1977), Economic Counsellor (1986-1990), and Ambassador (1999-2004), and also in the United States as Political Officer in Washington and as Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York. From 2004 he became Chief Executive for Europe in Hitachi, and was the first non-Japanese to serve on the company’s main Board from 2011-2014. He is currently a Director of Hitachi Europe and Hitachi’s main UK subsidiaries investing in railway manufacturing and nuclear power development. He was knighted by the British Government in 2000, and in 2015 received the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun from Japan for services to UK-Japan economic relations.
More on the topic of corporate governance reforms in Japan
The wealth and welfare of everyone living in Japan is based on the success of Japanese companies, how well companies are managed, and how managers are encouraged, supported and controlled.
Therefore corporate governance reforms are an important part of the “Abenomics” economic reform program. Many think that the corporate governance reforms of recent years have been the most successful part of Abenomics, and the former Chairman of the Tokyo Stock Exchange even said that these reforms happened much faster than he had thought.
Corporate governance mainly refers to the responsibilities of Board Directors who take part in the major decision making of every company, who supervise and support the executive management including the CEO/President of the company, and this make essential contributions to the success of companies.
Another aspect of corporate governance is the “stewardship code”, which refers to the influence of investors on company’s executive management.
Understanding decision making and the control of management, the way Japanese companies reach decisions and how this decision making is supervised, is essential knowledge for everyone who works to persuade Japanese corporations to take desired decisions, e.g. to achieve sales, partnerships, investments, or even Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A), who invests in Japanese corporations. Employees should also understand how the companies they work for are run.
This talk will explain the major components and fundamentals of corporate governance and its reforms in Japan based on several years of practical hands-on experience on the Board of Directors and on the Supervisory & Audit Committee of a stock market listed Japanese corporation.
Speaker: Gerhard Fasol
Gerhard Fasol graduated with a PhD in Physics from Cambridge University and Trinity College. He worked as research scientist at the Max-Planck-Institute Stuttgart on semiconductor and solid state physics research. He was tenured Faculty in Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory of the University of Cambridge, and he was Research Fellow, then Teaching Fellow and Director of Studies in Natural Sciences at Trinity College Cambridge. He was Manager of the Hitachi Research Laboratory in Cambridge, Associate Professor in Electrical Engineering at Tokyo University, and is founder of the advisory firm Eurotechnology Japan. He is Board Director of GMO Cloud KK, and since April 2017 he is Visiting Professor at the University of Kyushu.
Gerhard Fasol: Corporate governance reforms in Japan: hands-on insights as Board Director of a Japanese groupGerhard Fasol: Corporate governance reforms in Japan: hands-on insights as Board Director of a Japanese groupGerhard Fasol: Corporate governance reforms in Japan: hands-on insights as Board Director of a Japanese groupGerhard Fasol: Corporate governance reforms in Japan: hands-on insights as Board Director of a Japanese group
Copyright (c) 2017 by Eurotechnology Japan. All Rights Reserved.
EU-Japan Free Trade Agreement and Economic Partnership Agreement nearing conclusion, maybe this summer.
EU and Japan started to prepare for Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and the political framework Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) at the 20th EU-Japan Summit in May 2011, three years after Japan and USA had jointed the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations.
For several years, TPP was catching headlines, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe saw TPP as a core component of his Abenomics program to restarted Japan’s economy from 20 years of stagnation. The EU-Japan FTA and EPA negotiations always seemed to be in the shadow of TPP.
In the meantime, President Trump has decided to withdraw from TPP, and the UK seems to be on the way to BREXIT.
The EU-Japan FTA and EPA negotiations have moved to the center of attention, and seem to near conclusion.
Trade in goods is only one of 14 different working groups – a modern FTA is very complex
Trade in goods (including Market Access, General Rules and Trade Remedies)
Non-Tariff Measures and Technical Barriers to Trade
Other issues (General and Regulatory Cooperation, Business Environment, Animal Welfare)
Trade and Sustainable Development
Dispute Settlement
General, Institutional and Final Provisions and Transparency
Don’t be blinded: Free Trade Agreements reduce business costs and risks and create access – but they don’t guarantee business success
the Free Trade Agreement will open new sectors previously closed to any foreign company in Japan, e.g. railways procurement, and reduce many barriers, however, top-class leadership, deep Japan knowledge at all levels of management, sufficient investments, and products or services with a large competitive advantage remain crucial to success in Japan.
Free Trade Agreements reduce business costs and risks, but do not eliminate them.
More about the EU-Japan Free Trade (FTA) and Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA):
Energy costs in Japan: A presentation to diplomats from the 28 EU countries (+ Norway and Switzerland) given at the EU Delegation in Tokyo on Thursday 18 May 2017
How can you reduce your energy bills?
Energy costs in Japan, how to reduce energy costs, and the current energy situation in Japan post-Fukushima are inherently linked and are the topics of this talk given by Gerhard Fasol at the EU Delegation (EU Embassy) in Tokyo on Thursday 19 May 2017.
Electricity prices in Japan compared to EU countries. Electricity charges in Japan are about 40% cheaper than in Germany.
Energy costs in Japan: Even now, post-Fukushima, electricity costs in Japan are not particularly high, if Japan was a EU country, Japan’s electricity costs would be ranked at about 15th or 16th rank.
Japan’s electricity charges are about 40% cheaper than in Germany, and on a similar level as in France or UK.
Ireland c€59.01
Germany c€40.28
Spain c€37.26
Sweden c€36.11
Portugal c€33.41
Denmark c€32.78
Czech Republic c€31.92
Cyprus c€31.79
Austria c€29.88
Finland c€29.20
Italy c€26.61
Slovakia c€26.30
France c€25.09
Luxembourg c€24.29
Croatia c€23.10
Japan c€23
Slovenia c€22.68
UK c€20.19
Poland c€18.80
Hungary c€18.35
….
(source: Eurostat as of July 2013, energy costs in Japan: electricity costs for Japan are typical Tokyo household electricity charges)
Paradigm shift: redesign the electricity grid
We see a paradigm shift: we need to change how we think about energy. Our electricity supply system has been built over the last more than 100 years and many design principles have been decided 100 years and have then been frozen in, although they might not be the best choices any more in today’s world.
Traditional electricity grids are designed top-down, with large centralized power stations at the top, and a distribution system down to the end users.
This traditional hierarchical top->down integrated grid structure is globally in the process of reinvention. The different services:
generation
transport
grid frequency stabilization
distribution
are being split into separate businesses, and each one is being deregulated. In addition, the top-down structure is changed: renewable energy sources, micro-hydropower station and other sources feed electricity into the grid from the bottom-up, requiring changes in the design and management of power grids.
In Japan the traditional electricity grid has three hierarchical layers:
Special high voltage (特別高圧)
500kV, 270kV, 140kV
60kV
20kV
High voltage (高圧) 6kV
Low voltage (低圧) 200V, 100V
These three markets (1) Special high voltage, (2) High Voltage, (3) Low voltage, are approximately of equal size in Japan, and represent each about 1/3 of Japan’s electricity market. The (3) Low voltage market was deregulated on April 1, 2016, and the other two market sectors earlier. Up to March 31, 2016, 10 regional electricity operators had the monopoly in the retail (low voltage) sector of their regions. Since April 1, 2016, all markets are liberated and low voltage segment consumers are free to buy their electricity from a number of suppliers.
50Hz/60Hz
Electricity started in Japan in 1893:
The first generator in Tokyo was from the German firm AEG, and therefore 50Hz
The first generator in Osaka was from the US firm General Electric, and therefore 60Hz
Event today the west of Japan has 60Hz, while the east has 50Hz. Since semiconductor electronics enables frequency conversion, and since long distance transport is frequently DC anyway, this 50Hz/60Hz split is very unlikely to change.
AC/DC
For historic reasons, most electricity is delivered to end customers as AC (alternating current), however most consumption today is increasingly DC (direct current). e.g. LED lighting, computers and most IT equipment including data centers require DC electricity. Solar power plants also produce DC electricity. Battery storage also requires and delivers DC electricity. So we might see an increasing shift to DC electricity supplies.
How to reduce your energy bill
Energy costs in Japan: in the past urban design typically maximized electricity sales:
“All Denka” was a long-term campaign by Japan’s electricity industry to maximize the consumption of electricity
design model:
build the town in order to sell as much electricity/air-conditioners/gas as possible
top-down: huge nuclear power stations far away + top-down distribution system
single windows, save money on insulation
heating in winter, air conditioning in summer
In the future
communities, companies and household take responsibility of energy locally
“positive energy buildings”: buildings generate and sell electricity instead of consuming. Example: MORI-Roppongi Hills
THINK: Marunouchi & MORI Buildings: “we want to be so well prepared for disasters, that people don’t run from our buildings, but that people come to our buildings for safety”
take responsibility!
How to reduce your energy bill > earn money selling electricity
cut consumption
Insulate
buy low-energy equipment, e.g. air-conditioner, washing machine
fuel cells (e.g. Bloom (gas), or Enefarm, Panasonic) > off-grid
negotiate supply contracts, combine gas & electricity & phone/internet to get discounts
e.g. all three major phone companies (KDDI, Docomo, SoftBank) sell electricity, internet access etc + electricity. Combine: phone, internet, electricity to get discounts.
Nature governs energy – nature cannot be fooled
Today’s energy situation in Japan is directly a function of the outcome of the Fukushima-Dai-Ichi disaster.
To understand the reasons for why the Fukushima-Dai-Ichi disaster happened, it is necessary to go back in history, there is not one single reason for this nuclear disaster but many starting at the design decisions taken even before the construction started.
It is instructive to compare the situation of TEPCO’s Fukushima-Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant with Tohoku Electric Power’s Onagawa nuclear power plant:
TEPCO’s Fukushima-Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant: tsunami height = 13 meters, one of the worst nuclear disasters
Tohoku Electric Power’s Onagawa nuclear power plant: tsunami height = 13 meters: successful shut down without damage, served as a refuge for about 300 people from the neighborhood who had lost their homes in the tsunami and earthquake disasters
Why the difference?
TEPCO’s Fukushima-Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant: ground elevation was reduced from 35 meters to 10 meters to save cooling water pumping costs
Tohoku Electric Power’s Onagawa nuclear power plant: Yanosuke Hirai carefully research previous tsunamis, especially the Great Jogan Tsunami of July 13, AD 869, built 13.8 meters above sea level
A few days after the Fukushima-Dai-Ichi disaster, US President Obama sent 150 top nuclear engineers to Japan for 11 months to assist directly the Japanese Prime Minister and the Japanese Government and TEPCO to mitigate the nuclear disaster. The Leader of this team of 150 US nuclear experts was Chuck Casto, who I invited two times to talk at the Ludwig Boltzmann Forum events. Read Chuck Casto’s explanations of the Fukushima Disaster here:
I also invited the Kiyoshi Kurokawa, the former Chairman of Japan’s Parliamentary Commission into the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, to speak at the Ludwig Boltzmann Forum:
Kiyoshi Kurokawa: “Groupthink can kill” (6th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum 20 February 2014)
Summary
Nature governs energy, and nature cannot be fooled (Richard Feynman)
Global trend: reengineering the grid. Localize, democratize, liberalize, deregulate
Renewable energy: wind power can cover all of Japan’s energy needs (in principle)
Energy, electricity and gas market liberalization is going ahead
Japan’s economy grows five quarters in a row, and Japan Post books losses of YEN 400.33 billion (US$ 3.6 billion) for an acquisition in Australia
Japan GDP growth, growth of 2%/year. Still, Japan’s economy is the same size as in 2000, while countries like France, Germany, UK today are double the size as in the year 2000
Japan GDP growth: We have seen 5 quarters of economic growth in Japan, for the January-March 2017 quarter the consensus is that the Japanese Government is likely to announce economic growth corresponding to an annual growth rate of around 2%/year (update: Japan’s Government announced an annual growth rate of 2.2%/year).
Generally the business mood in Japan is optimistic now, personal consumption and industrial orders are growing. We see investments in preparation for the 2020 Olympics. Venture start-ups and venture investments are growing, while still at a low level, we see venture businesses developing not only in Tokyo, but also in regional centers around Japan.
One mid-term risk to Japan GDP growth is the potential implementation of the postponed consumption tax rate increase.
The big picture however is, Japan’s economy today is approximately the same size as 17 years ago in 2000. During the same 17 years most major economies, e.g. France, Germany, UK have doubled in size. France, Germany, UK’s economies today are about twice the size as in 2000, while Japan’s economy today is about the same size as in 2000. Quarterly GDP figures just measure the short term fluctuations of this long term behavior.
Rico Hizon: so what would Japan have to do to restart long term growth?
Gerhard Fasol’s answer
Japan would have to do three things to restart economic growth long term:
Population: Implement policies to make it easier for families to have children, shift spending from the aged to children, improve eduction, shorter work hours, build children’s day care centers, gender equality
Implement Prime Minister Abe’s “third arrow”, the reforms. Deregulation not just in a few “special zones” but nation wide.
Improve corporate governance to improve company’s growth, globalization and management.
Japan Post trips up on globalization: books YEN 400.33 (US$ 3.6 billion) losses due to an acquisition in Australia – with a Toshiba connection
Japan Post announced a loss of YEN 400.33 (US$ 3.6 billion), and a resulting net loss of YEN 28.98 billion (US$ 260 million) for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017.
Japan Post Holdings was launched on the Tokyo Stock Exchange with the IPO on Nov 4, 2015.
Investors expect major growth of Japan Post Holdings into a global business, such as Deutsche Post has with privatization and later the acquisition and merger with the global logistics group DH about 20 years ago.
Around the time of the IPO Japan Post announced the acquisition of the Australian logistics group Toll for about YEN 620 billion (US$ 5.5 billion), while Toll’s market cap previous to the acquisition was about YEN 410 billion (US$ 3.7 billion).
Japan Post’s recent write-down at Toll is about equal its pre-acquisition market cap, or about 65% of the acquisition prize.
The deep problem of Japan Post’s steep write-downs at the Australian acquisition Toll, is that this casts doubts on Japan Post’s developments into a global business.
The Toshiba connection: Japan Post’s former CEO, Taizo Nishimuro (西室 泰三), previously served as CEO and Chairman of Toshiba
CEO of Japan Post at the time of the questionable Toll acquisition was no other than Mr Taizo Nishimuro (西室 泰三), former CEO and Chairman of Toshiba, now honorary advisor of Toshiba, who spent all his career at Toshiba, working at Toshiba since 1961. Toshiba is currently in severe difficulties caused primarily by Toshiba’s acquisitions of US nuclear construction firms, however Toshiba’s fundamental problems go back much much longer.
Japan Post Holding [6178]
Japan Post Holdings was founded on 23 January 2006, following the path to privatization of Japan’s national Post Office initiated by Prime Minister Koizumi.
Japan Post Holdings is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (No. 6178), IPO was on 4 November 2015, and has five divisions (since October 2012 three divisions):
Japan Post Service (日本郵便株式会社): mail delivery. Merged on October 1, 2012 with Japan Post Network to form Japan Post Co. Ltd.(日本郵便株式会社). Japan Post Co. Ltd is a 100% subsidiary of Japan Post Holdings (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 6178)
(Japan Post Network (郵便局株式会社): Post Offices = retail and real estate. Merged with Japan Post Service to form Japan Post Co., Ltd. on October 1, 2012).
Bill Emmott is an independent writer and consultant on international affairs, board director, and from 1993 until 2006 was editor of The Economist. http://www.billemmott.com
Gerhard Fasol is physicist, board director, entrepreneur, M&A advisor in Tokyo. http://fasol.com/
A conversation about Japan’s future
Bill Emmott:
I came first to Japan in 1983 as Economist Tokyo Bureau Chief, staying until 1986. Then in 1988 I came back on sabbatical leave and wrote “The sun also sets: why Japan will not be number one”, which against my expectation when it was published in 1989 found big resonance in Japan. The stock market was plunging, and mine was the most immediately available explanation. Ever since, journalists have constantly asked me what the sun is doing now! It also meant that even when I became editor in chief of The Economist in 1993 I spent much more time focused on Japan than I had expected, visiting as often as I could to keep track of the post-bubble developments, and wrote a book that appeared only in Japanese translation called “Kanrio no Taizai”, or the bureaucrats’ deadly sins. But later, with Prime Minister Koizumi consolidating reforms, and the banking system at last getting cleared up, I sent myself back in 2005 to research and wrote a much more optimistic special supplement for The Economist which became a book, “The sun also rises”.
Throughout the 35 years since I first came to Japan, I have both been fascinated and struck by the fact that although this is in so many ways an inward-looking self-contained nation, foreign observers are listened to and even have a chance of having a positive impact.
One element that had featured consistently in my writings ever since the 1980s had been observations and expectations for a growing role for women in employment and power. This seemed logical given that, at least before the bubble burst, Japan was heading for a labour shortage, but also the Equal Employment Law of 1986 had led to more females being recruited by major organisations. Japan’s excellent education surely meant that the underused half (= women) of the adult population would soon be used more productively.
Of course, this has developed a lot more slowly than I expected or hoped, partly for cultural reasons but also because Japan has not in fact had a labour shortage, until now.
I wanted to meet you, Gerhard tonight because we both are fascinated by the role Japanese women have in making Japan such a fascinating country, and how the many really strong Japanese women could have key roles in bringing growth and dynamic change back to Japan.
Could Japanese women have bigger roles for the development of Japan?
What is holding women back in Japan?
Who are the role models?
I am making interviews with high-achieving Japanese women to try to find answers, and plan to compile them into a book later this year. What would you say, Gerhard? And anyway, how did you end up here?
Gerhard Fasol:
My path to Japan is quite different than yours, Bill. I came to Japan first in 1984 as Fellow of Trinity College Cambridge, and scientist at the Max-Planck-Institute in Stuttgart, part of a project to build a research cooperation with NTT’s R&D labs. I saw that Japan was very important in technology and weakly linked to the outside – and still is today, I think. So in 1984 I decided to make Japan my second professional focus in addition to physics and electronics. Like you – the deeper I get into Japan, the more I learn about Japan, the greater my fascination, and my motivation to contribute.
Now I am working on many different projects, working on international technology M&A projects, and I am also one of a microscopic number of foreigners on the Board of Directors of a stock market listed Japanese corporation – reforming Japanese corporate governance hands-on.
Could Japanese women have bigger roles for the development of Japan?
Gerhard Fasol:
I think that the equal participation of women in leadership is directly linked to the population issue, ie the number of children born.
while in Sweden 44% of Members of Parliament are women,
37% in Germany and
26% in France –
the world average is 23% women in Parliaments.
In Japan the ratio of women in Parliament has increased from 1% in 1990 to 10% in 2016, so there is progress. If we extrapolate, and if the trend continues, then it might take another 30 years or so until Japan reaches world average in terms of women bringing women’s views into Parliament, and taking part in making the laws. And it might take Japan 100 years to reach Scandinavian standards of women’s participation in making the laws of the land – unless there is some acceleration in Japan.
Japan’s most powerful Ministry, the Ministry of Finance, did not hire any women into career positions for a period of about 10 years!
At the 2015 New Year event of Kyoto Bank, Keidanren Chairman Mr Sadayuki Sakakibara showed that Japan’s spending on aged people is dramatically higher than spending on children, and that this ratio is increasing with time, Japan spends more and more on aged people and less and less on children. There are two ways to look at this situation:
one way is to say: we have an aging society, therefore its only natural to spend more on
the aged, and less for children
the opposite way to look at the same situation is to say: we are spending less and less for children, no wonder we have fewer and fewer children. If we did more for young people, maybe people will have more children….
Actually most Japanese women I talk to want 2-3 children, but many cannot for financial reasons.
By nature, women give birth to children, not men, so more women in decision making positions including Government and Parliament will bring children’s issues into decision making.
As an example, child birth costs in Japan are not covered by health insurance, while they are everywhere in Europe. There are many other open and hidden costs of having children in Japan compared to Europe.
The most important factor are mindsets. The key to give more power to women in Japan is to change mindsets, to change the way of thinking.
As an example, the Prefecture of Kanagawa in 2015 created the “woman act” committee, under the slogan “women, step by step, take more responsibility”, however this committee both in 2015 and also in 2016 consisted of 11 men – not one single woman leader: http://www.pref.kanagawa.jp/osirase/0050/womanact/
here archived with photographs on the wayback-machine/ internet archive
Why not create a committee of 11 women leaders to lead efforts on gender equality in Kanagawa Prefecture? Why not promote women to leadership positions in Kanagawa Prefecture?
Another factor holding women back are the very long working hours common in Japan. As an example, at a recent EU-Japan gender equality conference, the Danish polician Astrid Krag, who was Minister for Health and Prevention at the age of 29 – 32 years, and who has two children, explaned that in the Parliament of Denmark the decision was taken not to take any vote after 4pm, so that Members of Parliament can be back home by 5pm, collect children from daycare centers in time etc. So in the Parliament of Denmark it is guaranteed that Members of Parliament can leave at 4pm. In today’s Japan such action is unthinkable, age 29 – with young children – would be unbelievably young for a Government Minister in Japan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrid_Krag
Late-night or overnight sessions at work, including Parliament, makes life incredibly difficult in Japan for parents with young children, doubtlessly contributing to the small number of women in top positions in Japan.
Who are the role models?
Gerhard Fasol:
Despite these difficulties, there is a substantial number of very strong women in Japan, who have worked their way up into leadership positions.
Examples are the Mayor of Yokohama, Ms Fumiko Hayashi, who succeeded in a very distinguished business career, and the Governor of Tokyo, Ms Yuriko Koike, who won the election on her own as an independent candidate, because she did not receive the backing of her party.
Bill Emmott:
That is great, as I have now interviewed Koike-san and plan to interview Hayashi-san during my next visit. Personally, as well as admiring women who have made it to the top in the tough political world I also admire and am interested in women succeeding as entrepreneurs and as executives in entrepreneurial companies. By starting and building their own companies, women can really create new realities, showing that new organisational cultures are possible in a Japanese context. Do you agree?
Science is also an interesting area. We have women leaders in Japanese medicine, I invited some for the Ludwig Boltzmann Forum on women’s development and leadership http://www.boltzmann.com/forum/2016-womens-leadership/
The tantalizing issue is that the key is to change mindsets, and thats at the same time superficially easy, but at the same time incredibly hard. Thus outstanding strong Japanese women – and there are many of them – have a choice either to work their way up to the top in Japan, start their own company in Japan, or on the other hand to move to Europe, elsewhere in Asia, or to the USA – I know several strong Japanese women, including several Japanese medical doctors, who have moved to Europe or USA. They might of course come back to Japan at a later stage bringing global views and experiences to leadership positions in Japan in the future. I am very optimistic for the future of Japan – sometimes I wish things were moving faster.
Bill Emmott:
I agree entirely. I see Japanese women as both victims of the slow speed of change and as solutions to it. They really could make the Japan of 2030 look quite different, in all sorts of ways. It will be fascinating to watch.
Bill Emmott and Gerhard Fasol met at the restaurant MusMus in Tokyo
left to right: Gerhard Fasol, Ms Atsuko Konta (Manager of the restaurant MusMus), Bill Emmott
Copyright (c) 2017 by Bill Emmott and Gerhard Fasol. All Rights Reserved.
6 years and many lessons learnt since the Tohoku earth quake and Tsunami and Fukushima-Dai-Ichi nuclear disasters
Tohoku disaster and Fukushima nuclear disaster lead to Japan’s energy market liberalization
Tohoku disaster: On Friday March 11, 2011 at 14:46:24, the magnitude 9.0 “Great East Japan earthquake” caused a tsunami, reaching up to 40.4 meters high inland in Tohoku.
Japan’s National Police Agency registers 15,894 deaths and 2,562 missing people.
TEPCO’s Fukushima Dai-1 nuclear power plant vs Tohoku Electric Power Corporation’s Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant
One of the world’s worst nuclear disasters started at Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) Fukushima Dai-1 Nuclear Power Plant.
The Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant, owned and operated by Tohoku Electric Power Company, and built under Yanosuke Hirai, was closest to the 2011/3/11 earthquake’s epicenter, and survived the quake without major damage and was successfully shut down, and served as a refuge for 300 people from the neighborhood who had lost their homes. There were radiation alarm signals at Onagawa Power Station, but these alarms were caused by radioactive fallout blown from Fukushima-Dai-Ichi by winds, and did not originate from Onagawa.
The Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant was the only nuclear power plant in the region of the Tohoku Earthquake that survived the earthquake without any major damage.
On Yanosuke Hirai’s insistence, Tohoku Electric Power Company built Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant at 13.8 meters above sea level, while during the construction of TEPCO’s Fukushima Dai-1 plant the natural ground elevation was reduced from 35 meters to 10 meters. The Tsunami reached 13 meters height in both locations.
In 1990 Tohoku Electric Power Company (Onagawa Nuclear Power Station Construction Office) published a detailed analysis of the Great Jogan Tsunami of AD 869
Yanosuke Hirai had researched the Great Jogan Tsunami of July 13, 869, which was caused by the 869 Sanriku Earthquake (貞観地震). The results were taken into account in planning the Onagawa Nuclear Power Station, and published in 1990:
Fukushima nuclear disaster mitigation. US sends 150 nuclear experts headed by Chuck Casto to work with the Japanese Prime Minister and top leaders for 11 months to help deal with the Fukushima disaster
The USA sent a team of about 150 nuclear experts for 11 months to Japan to assist TEPCO and the Japanese Government in mastering the nuclear crisis. This team was headed by Chuck Casto – read some of his conclusions here:
Japan’s Parliament for the first time ever created an Independent Parliamentary Commission to analyze the nuclear disaster, headed by Kiyoshi Kurokawa, read the summary of his talk “Groupthink can kill” here (including videos describing the Commissions results in simple easy to understand terms).
Three former TEPCO executives have now been indicted by a citizen’s prosecution committee.
Nuclear disaster leads to energy market liberalization in Japan
Japan’s faith in nuclear power was shaken, leading to development of renewable energy, liberalization and long overdue reforms of Japan’s energy sector.
Quakes and after-quakes
The figures show that more than 300 earthquakes of magnitude 5 or larger occurred since the major quake on March 11, 2011 at 14:46. The epicenters of quakes lie mostly where the Pacific Plate moves under the North American Plate on which Tohoku lies.
According to our knowledge earth quakes are mathematically speaking a “chaotic” phenomenon, and scientific arguments are, that it is difficult if not impossible to predict earth quakes with precision. (Figure: Wolfram Alpha LLC)
Earth quakes of magnitude 5 and greater in Japan (March-April 2011) (Figure: Wolfram Alpha LLC)Earth quakes of magnitude 5 and greater in Japan (March-April 2011) on logarithmic magnitude scale (Figure: Wolfram Alpha LLC)
Nuclear fallout on Tokyo: radiation levels in Tokyo/Shinjuku
Starting with Tuesday 15 March 2011, radioactive fallout came down on Tokyo as shown in the figures below.
Radiation in Tokyo/Shinjuku (until April 13, 2011) compared to Austria
Radiation levels in Tokyo (Shinjuku and Shibuya) and Tsukuba:
Radiation in Tsukuba (until April 13, 2011) compared to Austria
The blue curve above shows the radiation levels in Tokyo/Shinjuku as measured and published by the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute for Public Health here:
each hour for the last 24 hours
daily starting March 1
The red curves show maximum and minimum data as measured by TEPCO in Tokyo-Shibuya, and published here: TEPCO radiation data
The green curves show radiation data measured by Japan’s highly respected AIST Laboratory in Tsukuba (Ibaraki-ken, about 60 km north of Tokyo in direction of Fukushima) and published here: AIST radiation data.
Radiation levels in Tsukuba
The green curves show radiation data measured by AIST Laboratory in Tsukuba (Ibaraki-ken, about 60 km north of Tokyo in direction of Fukushima) and published here: AIST radiation data.
The radiation measurement results in Tsukuba are considerably higher than found in Tokyo, but have decreased close to the top levels found naturally in Austria and in many other countries.
The differences in the data between Tokyo and Tsukuba could be because Tsukuba is 60km closer to Fukushima, could be caused by weather conditions, but they could also be caused by differences in the measurement equipment or a combination of these factors.
Eurotechnology-Japan newsletters in March/April 2011
In a series of newsletters, our company informed our customers, and friends about the nuclear disaster impact on Tokyo. Our newsletters were reposted by our readers to 100s of friends, and in some cases influenced the decisions by foreign subsidiaries here in Tokyo. In the days following the nuclear disaster, it was difficult for non-phycists to understand the true situation, and what the radioactive fallout really meant.
NTT Docomo announced the start of i-Mode on February 22, 1999 at a press conference in Tokyo
Today, 18 years ago, on February 22, 1999, Mari Matsunaga, Takeshi Natsuno, and Keiichi Enoki announced the start of the world’s first successful mobile internet service to a small number of people who made it to NTT Docomo’s press conference in Tokyo.
For many years, Japan was the global hotspot for mobile internet, mobile broadband, fixed net broadband (FTTH), there is a very long list of inventions, innovation, new services and products which were successfully brought to market in Japan, and in some cases it took 10 years or longer for these same services to succeed elsewhere in the world.
Examples of services and products which saw their invention, or first successful global mass market introduction in Japan include:
first successful mobile internet services (i-Mode, EZweb, and JSky)
Inventing the mobile internet vs capturing global value
Undoubtedly the biggest success story emerging from Japan’s pioneering mobile internet days is SoftBank
After Vodafone acquired a controlling stake in Japan Telecom, it took Vodafone at least one year to realize that instead of a far east backwater waiting for Vodafone, Japan’s mobile market was actually years ahead of Europe at that time. By the time Vodafone realized that instead of sailing into an easy market, they had actually entered the world’s most ferociously competitive market, it was too late, Vodafone sold its Japan operations to SoftBank, which turned out the failing Vodafone-Japan within a few months of intense efforts. SoftBank’s acquisition of Vodafone-Japan and the successful turn-round became the basis for SoftBank to implement Masayoshi Son’s plan to create one of the world’s most important companies.
Other Japanese success stories resulting from pioneering the mobile internet
Beyond games, Japan has created a vibrant sector of internet and mobile ventures, founded in the wave of Japan’s mobile internet and FTTH broadband adoption. However, because of Japan’s well known Galapagos syndrome, few have made it into global success stories yet. However, its not too late.
eMoji made it into MoMa, and the iPhone.
QR codes are all over China, however not monetized by Denso Wave, the Toyota family company which invented QR codes for automotive parts management.
This morning 7:30am I was interviewed on BBC TV Asia Business Report about an update of Toshiba’s ongoing crisis, which has been 20 years in the making.
Here some notes in preparation for my interview.
What is Toshiba’s situation now?
Toshiba’s market cap today is YEN 1024 billion = US$ 9.6 billion.
Toshiba is expected today to announce write-off provisions on the order of US$ 6 billion.
Toshiba owes about US$ 5 billion to main banks as follows:
Mizuho YEN 183.4 billion
SMBC YEN 176.8 billion
Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings YEN 131.0 billion
BTMU YEN 111.2 billion
Total YEN 602.4 billion = US$ 5.3 billion
Toshiba is on notice for delisting by the Tokyo and Nagoya Stock Exchanges, and faces the risk of being delisted by March 15, 2017, i.e. in about 4 weeks from now.
Toshiba is trying to raise capital e.g. by seeking investment in the IC/flash memory division, however, Toshiba seeks to keep control, so Toshiba is trying to raise a minority share, or non-voting shares or similar, in order not to lose control.
How did Toshiba get into a situation to potentially need to write off US$ 6 billion?
Toshiba acquired 87% of the US nuclear equipment manufacturer Westinghouse.
While Westinghouse is a famous name, what Toshiba actually acquired seems to have gone through a period of restructuring.
In 2015 Toshiba acquired the construction company SHAW’s assets from the Chicago Bridge & Iron Company CB&I for US$ 229 million plus assumed liabilities. CB&I had acquired SHAW for US$ 3.3 billion in July 2012, and SHAW has on the order of US$ 2 billion annual sales.
Why did Toshiba acquire a company for US$229 million, which has US$ 2 billion annual sales, and which was in 2012 acquired for US$ 3.3 billion? Which factors reduced the value of this company from US$ 3.3 billion to US$ 229 million within the 3 years from 2012 to 2015?
Presumably because there are large liabilities arising from nuclear construction, which Toshiba now seems to have to assume.
What is likely to happen now with Toshiba? Is Toshiba too big to fail?
Difficult to say what will happen. Toshiba is a huge corporate group with about 200,000 employees and many factories in many countries, so clearly Toshiba is not going to disappear without trace.
The immediate risk is that Tokyo Stock Exchange carries out its warning, and delists Toshiba, which will further increase Toshiba’s ability to raise capital. In the case of a delisting, private equity, and/or government might invest and restructure, and Toshiba might be split up. For example, Toshiba’s nuclear Westinghouse division is totally separate from its very successful flash memory division, there is not much business logic in having both under one holding company.
Impact on UK
Toshiba acquired 60% of UK based NuGeneration with the view to build nuclear power stations in the UK. This project requires Toshiba to contribute to the funding of the nuclear project, for which Toshiba would probably need a financially healthy partner.
What is the big picture? How did Toshiba get into this crisis?
Toshiba’s crisis has been building up for 20 years, and is in my view a consequence of corporate governance issues over a long time.
Essentially, Toshiba should have been reformed 20 years ago from the top down.
Japan’s 8 electronics giants have had essentially no growth and no profits for 20 years. This tragedy has been obvious for many years now, and was a big contributing factor for Japan’s government to reform Japan’s corporate governance laws and regulations, see:
Toshiba’s Board of Directors was exchanged in September 2015, and now includes several very capable and experienced Japanese independent Board Directors, but unlike Hitachi, even today neither Toshiba’s Board of Directors, nor Toshiba’s Executive Board include one single foreigner.
One might think that a huge global group like Toshiba with complex businesses around the globe might benefit from a variety of view points and experiences from different countries at Supervisory Board and Executive Board level – not all just from one single country. Japanese corporations including Hitachi, SoftBank, Nissan and a small number of others are now recognizing the benefits of diversity of experience and viewpoints at Supervisory Board and Executive Board level.
We can only hope that Toshiba’s executives and Board Directors have the experience and ability to solve the extremely complex issues deep inside the bowels of the US nuclear construction industry – far away on the other side of the world.
Abstract: Changing the way Japanese corporations are managed
The Executive Management Board and the Supervisory Board are normally independent and composed of different people – except in Japan. In Japan traditionally Executive Management Board and the Supervisory Board are one and the same, ie the Executives of traditional Japanese companies supervise themselves – no surprise that the CEO seldom fires himself!
It is obvious that such self-supervision has big disadvantages, and may be one of the major reasons for Japan’s weak economic growth, and several recent corporate scandals. Companies in basically all other countries are managed by an Executive Management Board, which is supervised by a Supervisory Board, which approves or vetoes all major decisions of the company, and evaluates the performance of the Executive Manager, including the Chief Executive/CEO, and if necessary fires executives including the CEO, and selects and approves the new CEO.
To remedy this problem with the governance of Japanese corporations, Japan’s Government, the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and the Financial Services Agency have been changing the rules to improve the supervision of Japanese companies.
Speaker profile
Dr. Gerhard Fasol is one of a microscopic number of foreigners who is an independent Director on the Management and Supervisory Board, and also a Member of the Audit Board of a stock market listed Japanese corporation, and he will talk from several years of first-hand experience of how Japanese companies are supervised, which changes are on the way, and which further improvements are necessary to improve the management and supervision of Japanese corporations.
Date: Thursday October 6th, 2016, 18:30
Place: Alfred Nobel Auditorium, Embassy of Sweden, 10-3-400 Roppongi 1-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032
Gerhard Fasol “Corporate governance reforms in Japan” Embassy of Sweden on 6 October 2016Gerhard Fasol “Corporate governance reforms in Japan” Embassy of Sweden on 6 October 2016Gerhard Fasol “Corporate governance reforms in Japan” Embassy of Sweden on 6 October 2016Gerhard Fasol “Corporate governance reforms in Japan” Embassy of Sweden on 6 October 2016Gerhard Fasol “Corporate governance reforms in Japan” Embassy of Sweden on 6 October 2016Gerhard Fasol “Corporate governance reforms in Japan” Embassy of Sweden on 6 October 2016
On 18 July 2016 SoftBank announced to acquire ARM Holdings plc for £17 per share, corresponding to £24.0 billion (US$ 31.4 billion)
SoftBank acquires ARM: acquisition completed on 5 September 2016, following 10 years of “unreciprocated love” for ARM
On 18 July 2016 SoftBank announced a “Strategic Agreement”, that SoftBank plans to acquire ARM Holdings plc for £24.0 billion (US$ 31.4 billion, ¥ 3.3 trillion) paid as follows:
SoftBank’s start in telecoms via the acquisition of Tokyo Metallic, SoftBank’s acquisition of Vodafone Japan in combination with having developed YAHOO-Japan into the leading internet service company in Japan, were among the most important stepping stones for SoftBank to become a key global player in mobile communications.
Masayoshi Son: unreciprocated love for ARM for 10 years
In the Nikkei interview of 3 September 2016, Masayoshi Son explains that he had an “one-sided / unreciprocated love for ARM” for at least 10 years, but decided to acquire SPRINT first. After acquiring SPRINT he had to pay down debt before being able to acquire ARM now.
ARM was founded on 27 November 1990 as Advanced RISC Machines, however the abbreviation ARM was first used in 1983 and initially meant “Acorn RISC Machines”.
Acorn Computers Ltd was founded in 1978 in Cambridge (UK) by Hermann Hauser and Chris Curry to produce computers, and its most famous product was the BBC Micro Computer.
ARM has built an ecosystem of IC design systems and platforms which are at the core of low energy consumption ICs and CPUs for smartphones and many other electronic devices and cars. ARM may become or already is one of the core technology companies for the Internet of Things (IoT).
SoftBank’s ARM Business Department’s name changed to “New Business Department”
Pokemon Go is great – but will it bring another Nintendo boom as in 2009? or even exceed 2009?
Google spin-out Niantic Labs’ augmented reality smartphone game booms to the top of charts
Niantic Labs is specialized on augmented reality games. In a previous game, Ingress, players selected about 15 million memorable locations globally. Niantic picked about 5 million of these crowd source generated locations, placed characters out of 740 Pokémon characters at such Pokéstops. Using smartphones, GPS, cameras and their avatars, players hunt Pokémon characters placed at Pokéstops, bring them to arenas/gyms and let their Pokémon characters fight for arenas/gyms. Thats just the beginning, and we can imagine many ways to expand this basic game structure, for example Pokéstops and Gyms sponsored by stores or corporations.
Overcoming Galapagos
Pokémon Go’s success is also significant, because the fundamentally Japanese Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are overcoming the Japan-Only Galapagos Syndrome by cooperating with Google and San Francisco based Google spin-out Niantic.
At the same time, Pokémon Go is also an indication of the power Nintendo can achieve in the smart phone sector. Will Nintendo dethrone current smart phone game kings Mixi and Gung-Ho in Japan?
Everybody loves Pikachu… No. 25 of currently 740 Pokémon characters
For the open day at my older son’s high school, kids made posters introducing their country: the highest mountain, the most characteristic flower, and the most famous person.
One Japanese student writes: “The Prime Minister is the most famous person in Japan, because he decides everything”.
Another Japanese student writes: “Pikachu is Japan’s most famous person, because everybody loves Pikachu”. Which of the two Japanese students knows more about his own country?
Pikachu is No. 25 of currently 740 Pokémon characters, and represents electricity with his zig-zag lightening bolt tail, and bright yellow color.
Pokémon character developer The Pokémon Company estimates the global market for Pokémon characters to be US$ 48 billion.
Nintendo market cap increases from US$ 20.3 billion to US$ 31.5 billion from 6 to 13 July, 2016
Nintendo shares rise from ¥14,055 in the morning of July 6, 2016 to ¥21,830 at close on July 13, 2016
Nintendo market cap rises from ¥ 2.56 trillion (US$ 20.3 billion) in the morning of July 6, 2016 to ¥ 3.09 trillion (US$ 31.5 billion) at close on July 13, 2016
Nintendo boomed around 2009 by disrupting the game world with motion sensing Wii and two-screen handheld DS game consoles. Smartphone disruption reduced Nintendo to pre-2006 size in sales, and profits did not yet recover to pre-boom levels.
Nintendo revenues peaked in 2009, and are now back to where they were before 2006Nintendo income peaked in 2009, and just recently recovered from losses – has not yet reached pre-2006 levels
Unexpected consequences- The Bank of Kyoto booms, and Bank of Kyoto’s 4.5% holding in Nintendo is worth more than 1/2 of Bank of Kyotos market cap
The Bank of Kyoto owns 4.5% of Nintendo, at close on July 13, 2016, this holding is worth YEN 139 billion (US$ 1.4 billion).
The Bank of Kyoto (TSE Code 8369) at the close on July 13, 2016 has a market cap of YEN 274 billion (US$ 2.64 biliion)
Thus Bank of Kyoto’s holding in Nintendo corresponds to more than one half of its value. This also means that Nintendo is worth about 10 times as much as the Bank of Kyoto.
The Pokémon Company – global market size estimate for Pokémon characters estimate: US$ 48 billion
The Pokémon Company manages and develops the currently 740 Pokémon characters.
The Pokémon Company is a private company owned in equal 1/3 parts by Nintendo KK, KK Game Freek and KK Creatures. KK Game Freek and KK Creatures are both privately held game development companies
Niantic Labs, focused on augmented reality games, is a Google spin-out founded in 2010, headed by John Hanke, one of the founders of Keyhole, which is at the basis of Google Earth.
Niantic Labs had staged initial funding of US$ 90 million equally from Google (1/3), Nintendo (1/3) and The Pokémon Company (1/3), and since then an additional Series A round in February 2016, plus we assume that Founder John Hanke, maybe Google at spin-out, other founders likely also own equity. So its not clear to us how much exactly Nintendo owns of Niantec, either directly or via its holding in the Pokémon Company.
There was a augmented reality company in Japan, Tonchi-Dot 頓智ドット株式会社（トンチドット） which created a augmented reality app called Sekai-Camera during i-Mode and Galake-Phones, but it ended all services on January 22nd, 2014.
(Summary of Professor Kiyoko Kato’s keynote written by Gerhard Fasol)
Kiyoko Kato, Professor
Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics
Graduate School of Medical Sciences
Kyushu University
Japanese Obstetrics and Gynecology: improving medical care requires gender equality – higher numbers and higher retention of women medical doctors
18% of medical doctors in Japan in 2008 are female, 82% are male. Back in 1976 only about 10% of medical doctors were female
Medical school: in 1976 about 13% of medical students were women, this ratio increased up to about 35% peaking around the year 2000, and subsequently decreases slowly to around 32% in 2008.
Thus the ratio of women medical doctors are slowly increasing in Japan.
The M-curve
About 90% medical doctors enter employment after graduation, remain employed at that level until about 35 years after graduation, when employment ratios slowly decrease due to retirement.
For women medical doctors, the employment ratio curve is M-shaped, with a minimum at about 76% employment approximately 11 years after graduation, at an age around 36 years, after this minimum many women medical doctors enter employment again, reaching similar employment ratio’s as men about 35 years after graduation.
62% of women medical doctors leaving their employment do this because of pregnancy, child birth or child care (80% in case of women younger than 45 years age).
Obstetrics and gynecology medical doctors older than 40 years are predominantly men, while doctors younger than 40 years are predominantly women
For medical doctors aged 40 years and over, obstetrics and gynecology specialists are predominantly men: women obstetricians and gynecology make up less than 10% of doctors at higher ages.
This ratio is reversed for obstetricians and gynecologists younger than 40 years of age: women outnumber male doctors, below 30 years age, women doctors outnumber men nearly by a factor of 2.
There is a clear trend: older medical doctors in the obstetrics and gynecology field are predominantly male, while below the age of 40 years, women dominate by an increasing ratio.
Kyushu University Hospital: Professor Kiyoko Kato is the one and only woman Full Professor of Medicine
Kyushu University has 135 female doctors, and 81.5% are on part-time contracts, only 18.5% have full time employment.
Ratio of women at different levels of the career pyramid:
Part-time intern doctors: 36.3% are women
Part-time doctors: 30.1% are women
Full-time doctors: 8.6% are women
Assistant Professors: 22 women vs 187 men (11.8% are women)
Lecturers: 1 single woman vs 48 men (2%)
Associate Professors: 1 single woman vs 31 men (3%)
Full Professors: 1 single woman vs 24 men = Professor Kiyoko Kato (4%)
Only one single woman has achieved promotion into each of the higher ranks of Lecturer, Associate Professor and Full Professor, indicating that any women at all in these higher academic medical Professor ranks are rare exceptions rather than the rule (no mention here of still higher ranks, such as Hospital Directors, Deans, Heads of Department, or University President).
Professor Kiyoko Kato then explained her own career, where she spent time studying in the USA, gave birth to her first child in the USA, and then to her second child after returning to Japan. She had to cope with several challenges, e.g where one of the hospitals she worked was shut down. Finally Professor Kiyoko Kato was appointed Full Professor at Kyushu University Medical School.
Professor Kiyoko Kato proposes that three issues need to be solved:
improve the work environment during pregnancy and child bearing
re-integration assistance: re-education and support after leave of absence
remove obstacles to career improvements
Improve the work environment during pregnancy and child bearing: the “Kyushu University Perinatal period cradle net project” 「周産期ゆりかごネットプロジェクト」
With support from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Kyushu University created the “Kyushu University Perinatal period cradle net project” (2013 – 2017). In Japanese 「周産期ゆりかごネットプロジェクト」, the website is here: http://www.med.kyushu-u.ac.jp/yurikago/
and an overview of the project can be found here: http://www.med.kyushu-u.ac.jp/yurikago/data.html
As the websites show, the “Kyushu University Perinatal period cradle net project” is carefully designed, structured and provides a depth of support for women medical doctors to give birth and pursue their career. Women doctors are given part-time positions in the out patient department after returning from leaves of absence.
So far seven women doctors have taken advantage of this program, and several have been assisted to return to full or part-time employment, two are still absent because of a second pregnancy. Part-time work in the outpatient department assisted them to return back to full time employment. Experiencing the hospital as a patient during birth also provided valuable experience.
Re-integration assistance: re-education and support after leave of absence. The Kyushu University Kirameki Project.
To support re-integration after absence, Kyushu University created the “Kirameki Project” (Kirameki = glitter, shine). The Kirameki Projekt is described on the website here: https://www.kyudai-kirameki.com/
2007-2009 the Kirameki Project helped female medical workers, female doctors, dentists and nurses to re-integrate after leave of absence.
From 2010 the program (“Kyushu University Hospital Kirameki Project”) was expanded to support continuation of the career for doctors, dental doctors, nurses for both men and women, because of delivery, child care, or disease / medical leave.
The aims of the project are to promote women doctors, dentists, and nurses who would have to resign their positions due to family reasons including marriage, children, husband’s job transfer etc, and to help them pursue their career after marriage.
Activities of the Kirameki Project are:
survey the problems of women doctors, dentists and nurses after marriage
recruit qualified but “hibernating” female medical personnel
learning programs
promote “high spirits”, encourage
on the job training in the out-patient department
Structured programs of the Kirameki Project:
Administrative: refresher program
Reestablishment: getting back to work program
Suspension/leave: web based education
Medical specialist: continuing specialist medical education
Marriage, child-care: continuing education
Residents, newcomer nurses: basic training
Students: gender equality education
Remove obstacles to career improvements
Assist women researchers after child birth and during child rearing: support attending international conferences, support system for hiring research assistants and technicians for research support.
Construct a support system:
Return support after child-care leave: day nursery, team medical care including emergency mutual help system, flexible working time, e.g. 9-5 work day
Improvement of career: system of supporting female researchers during child bearing and child rearing, grants for female researchers to support technicians
Professor Kiyoko Kato’s wishes and expectations for female doctors
responsibility and awareness
gratitude to all who helped
contribution to medical progress
Ludwig Boltzmann Forum on Women’s development and leadershipLudwig Boltzmann Forum on Women’s development and leadershipLudwig Boltzmann Forum on Women’s development and leadershipLudwig Boltzmann Forum on Women’s development and leadershipLudwig Boltzmann Forum on Women’s development and leadership
Dame Carol Black DBE FRCP FMedSci, Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge University, and Expert Adviser on Health and Work, Department of Health and Public Health England
(Summary of Dame Carol Black’s keynote written by Gerhard Fasol)
Dame Carol Black DBE FRCP FMedSci
Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge University.
Dame Carol Black has held top positions in medicine and now holds high-level policy advisory positions on health and work in the United Kingdom.
Women in healthcare – Women in the British National Health Service
The gender imbalance in the National Health Service is reflected by the facts that 77% of the total workforce is female, while only 7% of female staff are doctors or dentists, ie only 5.4% of total workforce are female doctors or dentists.
41% of Chief Executives are women.
81% of non-medical staff are women.
Alison Wolf and the XX Factor
Alison Margaret Wolf, Baroness Wolf of Dulwich CBE, is a British economist, and the Sir Roy Griffiths Professor of Public Sector Management at King’s College London, see:
In her book “The XX Factor: How Working Women Are Creating A New Society” (Profile Books 2013), Alison Wolf writes that women are split into two groups: one group sacrificing family for rapid professional advancements, while the other group of women opts for having children at a young age, and remain in low level positions. As a result, inequality is growing faster among women than among men, and low status and low paid jobs are predominantly done by women:
97% of secretaries are female
92% of registered nurses are female
89% of nursing, psychiatric and home health aides are female
90% of maids and housekeeping cleaners are female
The fundamentals: what are the essential characteristics of “good employment”?
Good work: is stable and safe, allows individual control, is flexible, gives opportunities, promotes wellbeing, reintegrates sick or disabled people if possible.
Good workplaces: have visible senior leadership and well trained managers, enable staff engagement, empower employees to care for their own health
Good news for medicine, less good news for academic medicine
Generally we have achieved a good situation regarding gender equality in medicine. We have achieved meritocracy, and their are no reports providing evidence for systematic barriers against women’s professional advancement. Both intake and retention for women in medicine is high, and the pay scales are the same.
A study (Royal College of Physicians (RCP) Working Party 2009), investigated the female share of Consultants (= established Senior Medical Professionals in the UK), and showed the ratio of women is highest (38% – 49%) in “more plan-able” and “more people oriented” specializations such as general practice or paediatrics, while women’s share is lowest (8% – 23%) in “more technology oriented” and “more unpredictable” specializations such as anaesthetics or surgical specializations.
There is far less progress in academic medicine, and cultural stereotypes and bias remain, see:
Women’s advance into top leadership positions suffers from “cultural” prejudices, e.g. prejudices that women too kind, too caring, not logical or strong enough, or otherwise unsuited to lead.
Prominent leadership roles for women, Prominent medical leadership
Prominent leadership roles need investment in the “extras”, leads leadership dimension in each speciality, and requires career single-mindedness.
Prominent medical leadership requires investment of time “over and above” the ordinary duties, requires professional “stewardship contributions”.
The top 200 leadership positions will naturally go to those who pursue their career goals with a high degree of single-mindedness.
Women choosing the route towards prominent leadership roles need encouragement and support, they need:
role models
mentors, and
sponsors
Role models: Prominent women leaders in UK medicine
Una O’Brien, Permanent Secretary, Department of Health
Professor Dame Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer
Dame Julie Moore, CEO, University Hospitals Birmingham, NHS FT
Claire Murdoch, CEO, Central and NW London NHS Foundation Trust
Professor Jane Dacre, PRC Physicans
Clare Marx CBE, PRC Surgeons
Dr Suzy Lishman, PRC Pathologists
Dr Maureen Baker, Chair, RC General Practitioners
Need to debunk leadership myths
Its important not to fall into the traps of common leadership myths, e.g. that leadership is inborn, that leadership is that of a lone genius, that they must inspire others to follow their vision, the leadership requires formal authority, or that all leaders have common personality features.
We need to avoid similar leadership myths in medicine, e.g. that men naturally make better leaders.
Dame Carol Black: From a shoe-making village in decline to Government Advisor
Dame Carol Black is born in the shoe-making village of Barwell, Leicestershire, went to Grammar School in Market Bosworth, were she became Head Girl, despite her working class background.
Dame Carol Black studied first History, then Medical Social Work and finally Medicine at the University of Bristol, specialized in Rheumatology research, focusing on Scleroderma. Later advanced to Medical Director, Royal Free Hospital, President of the Royal College of Physicians, Chairman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, Chair of the Nuffield Trust on Health Policy, then advising Government as National Director for Health and Work, and now Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge.
A major step was Dame Carol Black’s advancement to Medical Director of the Royal Free Hospital, since this meant not just responsibility for an institution or a group or a department, but also responsibility for the health of a population.
Leading the Royal College of Physicians
The Royal College of Physicians was founded by Royal Charter by Henry VIII on 23 September 1518 with the aim to promote the highest standards in medicine.
The skills required were: understanding a wide landscape, consensual leadership, standing ground when necessary, negotiating with Whitehall (= British Government) and building trust.
Chairing all the Medical Royal Colleges – The Academy, 2006-2009
Dame Carol Black from 2006-2009 chaired this group of 21 independent organizations. As Chair, Dame Carol Black had no executive powers, needed to lead by persuasion and with consensus.
Advising Government
Dame Carol Black shared several of her experiences advising Government and highest ranking Government officials and Ministers.
Key was to become valuable in the eyes of Government officials by giving independent advice based on scientific evidence, in combination with remaining totally unpolitical.
Dame Carol Black became a champion for the “cause” of health and work, and kept totally out of politics, never revealing any political views or opinion, and wrote three major reports.
The Confidence Code – forget perfection…Striving for perfection can waste women’s time, and hold back the best from reaching the top
Women tend to be held back by striving for perfection, while men tend to take more risks. Striving for perfection can waste women’s time, and hold back the best from reaching the top.
Women in healthcare, Women and careers, women in scientific careers
This UK House of Commons report finds some common traits which hold women back from reaching top leadership positions, including that women may perceive promotions as undesirable, wait until they meet all perceived criteria for promotion while men often take higher risks and may behave more speculatively, and women may think that “political” skills are required to reach the top.
Finally, to reach top leadership positions, we need:
self confidence
aspiration
risk taking
resilience
speaking out
staying motivated after failure
mentors, sponsors, role models
networks
personal values aligned to organisational values
Dame Carol Black DBE FRCP FMedSci: Advancing women in healthcareDame Carol Black DBE FRCP FMedSci: Advancing women in healthcareDame Carol Black DBE FRCP FMedSci, Principal of Newnham College Cambridge, and Professor Kyoko Nomura, Associate professor, Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Teikyo University, School of Medicine
View the full workshop program here, Gerhard Fasol’s keynote lays out the objectives of the workshop in the present article.
Gerhard Fasol CEO, Eurotechnology Japan KK, Board Director, GMO Cloud KK. former faculty Cambridge University, and Trinity College, and Tokyo University
Gerhard Fasol
CEO, Eurotechnology Japan KK,
Board Director, GMO Cloud KK.
former faculty Cambridge University, and Trinity College, and Tokyo University
Ludwig Boltzmann Forum on Women’s development and leadership: objectives
There are two immediate objectives for the Ludwig Boltzmann Forum on Women’s Development and Leadership:
empower women leaders with global leverage
lets change mind sets
I am building the Ludwig Boltzmann Forum as global leadership platform honoring my great-grandfather, and the Ludwig Boltzmann Forum on Women’s Development and Leadership is part if this initiative:
drive innovation based on science and technology
“there is no other forum for open discussions among leaders in Japan other than the Ludwig Boltzmann Forum” (said one of Japan’s top technology leaders, former Board Director of Japan’s largest Telecommunications Operator, former President of a large University, and former President of one of Japan’s most important technology organizations)
and as an additional bonus we will create new cooperations and new initiatives.
Ludwig Boltzmann Forum on Women’s development and leadership – my actions so far
Several confidential preparations with Japanese Ministry officials and foreign Embassies in Japan.
One key conclusion from preparations: top priority and most difficult is to change mindsets in Japan regarding empowering women and gender issues
Next step is today’s (16 May 2016) “Ludwig Boltzmann Forum on Women’s development and leadership”.
How to change mindsets? Expand the solution space and add new dimensions!
The basic issues, empowering women and men to combine child care and professional development, work towards greater equality and improving decision making by implementing diversity of decision makers are similar all over the world, especially in Europe and Japan.
Learning solutions from each other, expands the dimensionality of the solution space.
When we are looking for solutions to solve difficult problems, our search for solutions is limited by our experience, knowledge and imagination. Our search for solutions is in space of limited dimensionality. In many cases solutions exist outside the space we are considering.
Therefore to reach better solutions, its necessary to expand this solution space. Looking how other countries solve similar problems is one straight forward way to expand the dimensionality of the solution space, and that is where the Ludwig Boltzmann Forum aims to contribute.
As an example, many people in Japan do not know that most European countries have a Family Ministry (家族省), which represents Families at the Cabinet level. In fact, most Japanese people I have been discussing this issue with are perplexed by the possibility of a Family Ministry (家族省), and usually in response ask, what the tasks of a Family Ministry would be.
If your country does not have a Family Ministry, if you have never heard about a Family Ministry, its difficult to come up with the proposal to create a Family Ministry, and its difficult to imagine what a Family Ministry should do.
At the same time, in today’s internet age, its in theory only a click away to have a look at a Family Ministry: here is the webpage of Austria’s Family Ministry: Das Österreichische “Bundesministerium für Familien und Jugend” (The Austrian Federal Ministry for families and youth, オーストリア連邦家族・青年省)
And here is the current Austrian Minister for Family and Youth, Dr. Sophie Karmasin. 49 years old, with two children, Dr Sophie Karmasin has achieved a Doctorate in Psychology on “consumer behavior in the health market”, from 1993 to 2013, for 13 years she has pursued a very successful career in industry, most recently as Managing Director/CEO of a major market research company, before becoming party independent Minister of Family and Youth. She is not affiliated with any political party, but independent politician since 2013.
Expanding the solution space: wouldn’t it be better to have at least one woman on a committee promoting women’s empowerment?
Compare Family and Youth Minister Dr Sophie Karmasin with the all-male “woman act.” committee promoting women’s equality in Japan’s Kanagawa Prefecture, wouldn’t it be better to have at least one woman on a committee promoting women? But unless you are familiar on how this is done in other countries, your solution space is limited to what you know.
Why did today’s Ludwig Boltzmann Forum on Women’s development and leadership happen? Because of Trinity College Cambridge
At a recent event of Trinity College Cambridge in Hong Kong, I met with Dame Carol Black, and our meeting led to today’s Forum.
Trinity College was founded By King Henry VIII in 1546 by combining the two older colleges King’s Hall and Michael House and seven Hostels. Sir Isaac Newton worked at Trinity College and about 32 Nobel Prize winners are or were members of Trinity College. Trinity College is part of the University of Cambridge
More about Trinity College Cambridge, for example on the website of our Trinity in Japan Society.
Why Ludwig Boltzmann Forum? Who is Ludwig Boltzmann?
Ludwig Boltzmann is one of the world’s most important physicists and we use his results and tools every day. Here are some examples of his work:
S = k log W, linking macroscopic entropy to the microscopic statistics of molecules, and linking statistical mechanics with measuring information, and the arrow of time
the Stefan-Boltzmann radiation law
Boltzmann transport equations are used to design jet engines and aircraft and in semiconductor physics and many other areas
philosophy of nature
and much much more….
I am developing the Ludwig Boltzmann Forum a global leadership platform in honor of my great-grandfather.
Ludwig Boltzmann and women’s development and leadership
1872 Ludwig Boltzmann met Henriette von Aigentler (my great-grandmother), who was refused permission to unofficially audit lectures at Graz University, where Ludwig Boltzmann later became University President. Ludwig Boltzmann advised her to appeal, in 1874 Henriette passed the exam as high-school teacher, and on 17 July 1876, Ludwig Boltzmann and Henriette von Aigentler married.
One of Ludwig Boltzmann’s students is Lise Meitner (November 1878 – 27 October 1968). She was only the second woman to be awarded a PhD in Physics from the University of Vienna. Later she was part of the team that discovered nuclear fission, Otto Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize for this work. Element No. 109, Meitnerium, is named after Lise Meitner.
Ludwig Boltzmann Forum on Women’s development and leadership – outlook and next steps
Lets build the Ludwig Boltzmann Forum on women’s development and leadership together
Lets empower women leaders
Lets change mind sets
Lets build the Ludwig Boltzmann Forum into a global leadership platform based on science and logic
lets expand the solution space for important problems, and work towards implementing these solutions
Ludwig Boltzmann Forum on Women’s development and leadershipLudwig Boltzmann Forum on Women’s development and leadershipLudwig Boltzmann Forum on Women’s development and leadershipLudwig Boltzmann Forum on Women’s development and leadership
Ludwig Boltzmann Forum on Women’s development and leadership: Notes
Outside Japan there is a tendency to focus on one of the two co-founders, Akio Morita, however, as an engineer Masaru Ibuka was as least as important a co-founder.
Masaru Ibuka (井深大), co-founder
Masaru Ibuka (井深大) was a passionate engineer, and drove much of the technical product development, recruiting and leading some of the best engineers.
compound annual growth rate (CAGR) = 1.0% over the last 18 years
Essentially, over the last 18 years (FY ending March 31, 1998 – FY ending March 31, 2016), SONY’s revenues=sales have been stable, growing on average 1% per year.
SONY’s revenues/sales grow at an average compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 1.0% over the 18 years from FY1998-FY2016
net income/profit margin = 0.4% over the last 18 years
Back in the days of Trinitron vacuum tube TVs and mechanical Walkman tape recorders, SONY’s products could command relatively high profit margins, the falling edge can be seen in the Figure below: gross profit margins were as high as 8% back in 1998, and net profit margins as high as 3% of sales. However, averaged over the last 18 years, net profit margins average about 0.4%.
SONY’s average net income/profit margin over the last 18 years has been very close to zero.
SONY’s subsidiary “SONY Financial Holdings Inc” (60% owned by SONY) is by far the most profitable division of SONY
SONY publishes detailed reports of operating profits for its different divisions, showing that by far the most profitable division are Financial Services, which are not an integral part of the SONY Corporation (ソニー株式会社), but a partly (60%) owned and separately managed subsidiary SONY Financial Holdings Inc (ソニーフィナンシャルホールディングス株式会社).
In the latest financial report for the Financial Year ending March 31, 2016, SONY Finance has twice as much income/profit as the next most profitable divisions – SONY’s Financial Services (mainly offering credit card and banking services inside Japan) are and have been by far the most profitable division of SONY for many years.
SONY Financial Holdings Inc (ソニーフィナンシャルホールディングス株式会社) is a subsidiary of SONY, and is independently listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange [TSE Code 8729], was founded on April 1, 2004, and IPO was on Oct 11, 2007. SONY owns 60% of SONY Financial Holdings Inc’s shares.
Shuji Nakamura’s invention to save energy corresponding to about 60 nuclear power stations by 2020
2nd and 3rd Generation Solid State Lighting
For Shuji Nakamura’s invention of high-efficiency GaN double-heterostructure LEDs he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2014, while his employer sued him in the USA for leaking intellectual property – Shuji Nakamura won this court case, and his employer lost the case. To defend himself and his family, Shuji Nakamura countersued in Japan, and the Japanese court awarded Shuji a substantial award in a settlement. Shuji shared some insights into the comparison of IP lawsuits in US vs Japan with us at the 8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum.
Shuji moved to the University of California Santa Barbara, and is now building the company Soraa in Silicon Valley with investments from major US VC funds. Soraa may already be or is likely to be soon much bigger in value than Shuji’s previous Japanese employer. Soraa develops 2nd and 3rd Generation Solid State Lighting products.
Energy savings corresponding to 60 nuclear power stations by 2020
The global lighting revolution triggered by Shuji Nakamura’s inventions leads to energy savings corresponding to 60 nuclear power stations by 2020 – 60 nuclear power stations less will need to be built than without Shuji Nakamura’s inventions.
2nd Generation and 3rd Generation Solid State Lighting
With his venture company Soraa, Shuji is now working on 2nd Generation Solid State Lighting (GaN on GaN substrates) and 3rd Generation Solid State Lighting (laser lighting, which allows much higher light density), and which is already in use for car headlights.
Why squeeze Nobel Prize winner Shuji Nakamura into a top-down narrative?
Shuji Nakamura showed with a long list of newspaper clippings, TV show extracts, and Japanese Government agency announcements that he is being squeezed into a top-down innovation narrative, which is at odds with the findings of the Nobel Prize Committee of the Swedish Academy of Science.
Shuji Nakamura asks why he is being squeezed retrospectively into a top-down innovation narrative.
The truth is that most real innovation is bottom-up and disruptive, not government planned and top-down.
At the 8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum we had intense discussions between Her Imperial Highness, Princess Takamado, Professor Makoto Suematsu, Nobel Prize Winner Shuji Nakamura, Professor Nomura, JST-President Michinari Hamaguchi, and several other Japanese technology and R&D leaders.
Makoto Suematsu, Founding President of Japan’s new Agency for Medical Research and Development AMED: The situation in Japan is so crazy, but now I will stay in Japan because I have a mission
summary of Professor Makoto Suematsu’s talk by Gerhard Fasol
Medical research in Japan: Fast-tracking medical research and development in Japan
In April 2015 Japan created the new “Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, AMED” inspired by the US NIH (National Institutes of Health), “to promote integrated research and development in the field of medicine”.
Professor Makoto Suematsu was selected as the founding President of AMED, to build up this new Japanese national medical research agency.
Professor Makoto Suematsu is not only an outstanding medical professional and researcher, but he is also extremely outspoken about the many changes necessary to “fast-track” medical research in Japan, and particularly to overcome the fragmentation, “the Balkanization” of medical research in Japan, due to several different competing and overlapping supervising Government ministries and agencies in the past.
Professor Makoto Suematsu also explained the priorities he is setting to set out with relatively modest resources.
At the 8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum we had intense discussions between Her Imperial Highness, Princess Takamado, Professor Makoto Suematsu, Nobel Prize Winner Shuji Nakamura, Professor Nomura, JST-President Michinari Hamaguchi, and several other Japanese technology and R&D leaders.
Shuji Nakamura’s invention of high efficiency LEDs enable us to reduce global energy consumption by an amount corresponding to 60 nuclear power stations by 2020, for which he was awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Still, a poster child for bottom-up innovation, Shuji Nakamura was sued by his employer, left for the USA, and is now building a company in Silicon Valley which might soon become bigger than his former Japanese employer.
Why does Shuji Nakamura’s bottom-up innovation not fit into top-down innovation narratives?
Why does Shuji Nakamura’s bottom-up innovation not fit into top-down innovation narratives? Would Japan be a better and faster growing place with a better balance between bottom-up and top-down innovation? Does top-down innovation work at all?
Shuji Nakamura came specially from the USA to address many of Japan’s science and technology R&D leaders at the 8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum, and explain why it makes no sense to try squeezing his bottom-up inventions into a top-down narrative and why its better to overcome established top-down narratives.
The 8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum brought together Nobel Prize Winner Shuji Nakamura, the leaders of Japan’s two major research and technology R&D funding organizations, Professor Nomura, who is working to overcome gender inequality for Japan’s (too few) medical doctors, and several of Japan’s technology leaders to discuss how to accelerate innovation in Japan.
Her Imperial Highness, Princess Takamado honored us by taking a very active part, and asking thoughtful questions to Nobel Winner Shuji Nakamura and other speakers.
![Reduce your energy costs in Japan and Japan’s energy situation post-Fukushima [talk at EU Embassy Tokyo]](https://www.eurotechnology.com/b/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_7790_eu_2000_1000_HDR.jpg)
