Yamaguchi, Kurokawa in New Year Dialogue
January 1 , 2013
Dr. Kiyoshi Kurokawa (right) and New Komeito’s Natsuo Yamaguchi
January 1, 2013: Dr. Kiyoshi Kurokawa, a leading authority on internal medicine and healthcare policy advisor in Japan, recently spoke with New Komeito Chief Representative Natsuo Yamaguchi on a broad range of challenges that the nation must meet and overcome today.
Dr. Kurokawa opened the discussion by stating that the “nuclear accident at Fukushima remains unresolved” and that real political leadership was imperative to bringing closure for the victims of the disaster. He added that Japan can expect a brighter future only if she can reshape many of the conventions, particularly those applying to organizations and individuals, that currently hamstring society.
Yamaguchi agreed that the newly elected government led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which New Komeito is a partner, assigns the highest priority to the rebuilding the disaster-stricken areas in the Tohoku region, reversing deflation, reenergizing the economy, and upgrading social infrastructure. But he warned that economic stimulus initiatives alone were not enough to redirect the nation toward a fundamental recovery. He said it was crucial for the government to target such high-risk, yet high-growth areas as renewable energy, healthcare and agricultural technologies not only to drive future economic growth on a strategic basis but also to create jobs, especially for young people.
To this, Dr. Kurokawa explained that Japan must take a broader view of the term “innovation.” Rather than limiting it to merely scientific and technological advances, he said that it must be understood as “the creation of new social value” and driven by unique ideas and individuals. “If Japan is to change,” he concluded, “it must happen now.”
Dr. Kurokawa headed the Japanese Diet’s nonpartisan inquiry into the Fukushima nuclear accident that occurred after the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011—the first fully independent board ever to be established by the parliament in Japanese history. His report, dubbed the “Kurokawa Report,” concluded that the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant meltdown was the result of human error, rather than an act of nature as maintained by the Japanese government and plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO). The report also found serious flaws underlying the government’s management of the nuclear industry, calling it a case of “the regulators being regulated by those supposed to be regulated.”
