Thursday 18 February 2016, Embassy of Austria in Tokyo
Dr Bernhard Zimburg (Ambassador of Austria to Japan), Her Imperial Highness, The Princess Takamado, Gerhard Fasol (from left to right)
14:00-14:10 Dr. Bernhard Zimburg (Ambassador of Austria to Japan) Welcome address
14:10-14:30 Gerhard Fasol (CEO , Eurotechnology Japan KK, Board Director, GMO Cloud KK. former faculty Cambridge University and past Fellow, Trinity College Cambridge) Ludwig Boltzmann
16:10-16:40 Gerhard Fasol (CEO , Eurotechnology Japan KK, Board Director, GMO Cloud KK. former faculty Cambridge University and past Fellow, Trinity College Cambridge) Entropy and information and Ludwig Boltzmann
16:50-17:20 Kyoko Nomura (Director, Support Center for women physicians and researchers, Associate professor, Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Teikyo University, School of Medicine, Associate professor, Teikyo School of Public Health) Gender inequality in Japan: a case report of women doctors
Gerhard Fasol
CEO , Eurotechnology Japan KK,
Board Director, GMO Cloud KK.
former faculty Cambridge University and
past Fellow, Trinity College Cambridge
Michinari Hamaguchi
President, Japan Science and Technology Agency and
President emeritus, Nagoya University
Michinari Hamaguchi President, Japan Science and Technology Agency and President emeritus, Nagoya University
Gerhard Fasol: Entropy and information and Ludwig Boltzmann
Gerhard Fasol
CEO , Eurotechnology Japan KK,
Board Director, GMO Cloud KK.
former faculty Cambridge University and
past Fellow, Trinity College Cambridge
Kyoko Nomura
Director, Support Center for women physicians and researchers,
Associate professor, Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Teikyo University, School of Medicine,
Associate professor, Teikyo School of Public Health
Kyoko Nomura Director, Support Center for women physicians and researchers, Associate professor, Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Teikyo University, School of Medicine, Associate professor, Teikyo School of Public Health
Makoto Suematsu
President, Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development AMED
Makoto Suematsu President, Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development AMED 8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum, Tokyo 18 February 20168th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum, Tokyo 18 February 20168th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum, Tokyo 18 February 2016
He graduated from High School, passing the Austrian High School examination “Matura” in 1863, at the age of 19 years.
Two years later, in 1865, Ludwig Boltzmann published his first scientific publication at the age of 21:
“Über die Bewegung der Elektrizität in krummen Flächen” (Electricity on curved surfaces), Wien. Ber. 52, p214-221 (1865).
About 20% of Ludwig Boltzmann’s work was about electro-magnetism, Maxwell had developed the Maxwell’s equations just a few years earlier, 1861-1962. (In Japan’s context, Tokyo Dentou KK received the license to build the first electricity generation and distribution system in Tokyo on February 15, 1883, it was the time when electrical lighting was starting to replace gas lighting, and in parallel scientific work on electricity and magnetism advanced).
Ludwig Boltzmann built mechanical models to understand, visualize and teach Maxwell’s equations. These models have recently been rebuilt and can be seen for example at the University of Graz.
Ludwig Boltzmann’s teachers include:
Josef Loschmidt:
proposed structures for 300 chemical compounds, including benzene
determined the number of gas molecules in a given volume
the Loschmidt constant is named after Josef Loschmidt
Jozef Stefan
created the Stefan-Boltzmann Radiation Law together with Ludwig Boltzmann
was the first to determine the temperature of the sun
Ludwig Boltzmann: timeline
1865, age 21: first publication: “Electricity on curved surfaces”
1867-1869, age 23-25: Privat-Dozent
1869, age 25: Full Professor in Graz “Mathematical Physics”
1873, age 29: Full Professor in Wien “Mathematics”
1875, age 31: declined offer of Professorship in Zurich and Freiburg
1876, age 32: marriage, Full Professor Graz, Head of Physics Institute
1887-1888, age 43-44: Rektor (President) University Graz
1888, age 44: March: offered Professorship in Berlin, June: declined Professorship
1890, age 46: Professor in München (students include the later First President of the University of Osaka, Hantaro)
1894, age 50: Professor in Wien
1900-1902, age 56-58: Professor of Theoretical Physics in Leipzig
1902, age 58: Professor in Wien
September 5, 1906, age 62, died in Duino, Italy
Ludwig Boltzmann visited the USA three times:
1899
1904
1905
Ludwig Boltzmann’s support for women professionals and scientists
1872 Ludwig Boltzmann met Henriette von Aigentler. She was refused permission to unofficially audit lectures at Graz University.
Ludwig Boltzmann advised her to appeal, and in 1874 Henriette passes the exam as high-school teacher.
On July 17, 1876, Ludwig Boltzmann and Henriette von Aigentler marry. They have four children:
1880: Henriette
1881: Arthur Ludwig (my grand-father)
1891: Else
1884: Ida
Lise Meitner (Nov 1878 – 27 October 1968)
Ludwig Boltzmann’s student Lise Meitner was later part of the team that discovered nuclear fission, for which Otto Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize.
Lise Meitner was the 2nd woman ever to earn a Doctorate in Physics from the University of Vienna.
Element 109 is named Meitnerium to honor Lise Meitner.
Nagaoka Hantaro, Ludwig Boltzmann’s pupil in München (1892-1893)
Nagaoka Hantaro (1865-1950) was Ludwig Boltzmann’s pupil in München around 1892-1893.
Nagaoka Hantaro was Professor at the University of Tokyo 1901-1925, and among his pupils was Hideki Yukawa.
1931-1934, Nagaoka Hantaro was the first President of the University of Osaka.
Ludwig Boltzmann as angel investor: supported aviation
Ludwig Boltzmann was a frequent traveler, usually by train, and to the USA by ship, so he understood the market for transportation, and supported several ventures to develop aircraft. He wrote an article “Über Luftschifffahrt” in 1894. He supported:
Otto Lilienthal, Berlin
Wilhelm Kreis, Wien
Hiram S Maxim, an American engineer in the UK
Ludwig Boltzmann countered the view that engines heavier than air cannot fly, and argued for funding of applied research.
Ludwig Boltzmann traveled widely, was in intense scientific interaction with most major scientists of his time, both at conferences, as well as by exchanging letters.
Ludwig Boltzmann moved frequently between positions, motivated both by increased responsibilities, close interaction with colleagues, e.g. Ostwald in Leipzig, and also in the interest of increasing his income for the benefit of his family.
So much for a short overview of Ludwig Boltzmann’s life as an introduction to the 8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum in Tokyo, to illustrate Ludwig Boltzmann’s wide range of interests, his frequent travels, and his actions beyond his fields of Physics, Philosophy and Mathematics.
8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum 20168th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum, Embassy of Austria in Tokyo, 18 March 2016
Shuji Nakamura, Nobel Prize in Physics 2014, Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara and Co-founder of Soraa
Shuji Nakamura: bottom-up innovation, not top-down innovation.
keynote talk given at the 8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum at the Embassy of Austria, Tokyo, Thursday 18 February 2016
(summary of Shuji Nakamura’s talk – including some comments – by Gerhard Fasol)
Shuji Nakamura boltzmann.com
by Shuji Nakamura, Nobel Prize in Physics 2014, Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara and Co-founder of Soraa
Shuji Nakamura is born on 22 May 1954 in Ohku, part of the village Yotsuhamamura (四ツ浜村, 4290 inhabitants) (日本 愛媛県西宇和郡四ツ浜村大久) on the Western side of Shikoku Island (四国, 4.2 million inhabitants), went to Elementary School and High School in Ozu (大洲), not far away, also on the Western side of Shikoku, studied at Tokushima University, which at that time did not have a Physics Department (Shuji Nakamura later won the Nobel Prize in Physics!), and then entered Nichia Chemical Industries in 1979 after graduating from the University of Tokushima. Nichia Chemical Industries is located in Anan, about 20 km south of Tokushima.
Until moving to the University of California in Santa Barbara, Shuji Nakamura spent his whole life, education, University, and professional work as researcher at Nichia entirely on the Island of Shikoku, with no connection to Tokyo, to Government, or Japan’s establishment, or research establishment.
Shuji Nakamura’s lack of connections to Japan’s establishment, industrial establishment, academic establishment or government establishment maybe at the origin of the many misunderstandings which have developed between Shuji Nakamura and Japan’s media, and some of Japan’s establishment.
Thus Shuji Nakamura is the perfect example of bottom-up innovation. Not planned from the top. Therefore maybe its hard for people at the top to grasp and accept.
Shuji Nakamura and his inventions have huge impact on the world, it is hard for Government and main stream media to accept, that Shuji Nakamura does not fit at all into planned top-down innovation, but has created his own independent path.
The contrast between Shuji Nakamura’s bottom-up innovation – recognized and rewarded by the Nobel Prize in Physics – and the official views of top-down innovation seems to have led to many misunderstandings. Shuji Nakamura is making much effort, including today’s talk at the 8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum, to clear up these misunderstandings.
Invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes vs. development of manufacturing technologies
In an interview for the Japanese Mainichi-Shinbun, the Chairman of the Nobel Prize Committee in Physics, Professor Per Delsing summarized the key discoveries of each Nobel Laureate from the point of view of the Nobel Prize Committee in Physics:
Isamu Akasaki: High quality GaN with AlN buffer
Hiroshi Amano: Demonstration of GaN pn junction
Shuji Nakamura: Many contributions to achieve a practical level of high efficient blue LEDs
The discovery of blue GaN LEDs is a discovery in the field of Physics achieved by three people, their contributions are:
Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano
AlN buffer (to grow AlN of sufficient quality on a substrate of a different material)
p-GaN by electron beam irradiation
realization of GaN pn homo-junction
Shuji Nakamura
GaN buffer (to grow GaN of sufficient quality on a substrate of a different material)
p-GaN by thermal annealing and the theoretical clarification of the mechanism for p-type conductivity
the invention of InGaN-based high brightness double-heterostructure blue LEDs (the Nobel Prize was given to the invention of this LED)
The Nobel Prize Committee awarded the Nobel Prize to Shuji Nakamura for many contributions and inventions to achieve a practical level of high efficient blue LEDs
In his will, Alfred Nobel writes:
“The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: the capital, invested in safe securities by my executors, shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind. The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics;…”
It is perfectly clear from Alfred Nobel’s will, the Nobel Prize Committee awards Nobel Prizes in Physics for “the most important discoveries or inventions within the field of physics” – not for the development of manufacturing technologies.
Why is it that Japan’s major Government Organizations and media present a narrative of the LED invention which is opposite to the views of the Nobel Prize Committee and the scientific community outside Japan?
Shuji Nakamura expresses his frustration that the clear explanations of the Nobel Prize Committee’s reasons are not understood by Japanese Media, and many others.
It appears to Shuji Nakamura that there seems to be a widespread misunderstanding of who invented what, and who was awarded the Nobel Prize for what.
Japanese media (Yomiuri Shinbun and others), NHK (e.g. in the Science ZERO program), Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization NEDO in their publications, Japan’s Science and Technology Agency JST, Japan’s Science Council JSC, Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, all present a picture of the LED inventions which is opposite to the clear statements by the Nobel Prize Committee.
They all write that Professor Akasaka and Amano developed the blue LED in 1989 at Nagoya University, while Shuji Nakamura developed the manufacturing technology in 1993. Such a narrative fits well with a top-down picture, where Professors at Nagoya University make the scientific breakthrough, which is then transferred to industry, where an industrial researcher develops the manufacturing applications, which then the company commercializes.
This top-down narrative would fit well the top-down view of innovation, however this is not how the breakthrough invention of GaN LEDs and lasers, which are now leading to the global lighting revolution actually happened.
Shuji Nakamura explains the essential steps leading to the invention and development of high intensity GaN LEDs
Professor Akasaka and Amano developed homo-junction LEDs, which are very inefficient and show very dim light emission
Professors Akasaki and Amano developed methods to produced n-type and p-type GaN and grew homo-junction GaN LEDs, which emit light, but which are highly inefficient, and the light emission is very dim. Still, this discovery was a crucial step forward, and Akasaka and Amano were awarded shares of the Nobel Prize for these important developments.
For tunable colors, high output power an efficient device structure, and many other developments were necessary, which Shuji Nakamura achieved.
A crucial step forward was the development of heterostructure LEDs, where electrons and holes are confined in quantum wells formed by hetero-junctions, yielding higher efficiencies. Double heterostructures were invented by Z I Alferov and H Kroemer, who were awarded shares of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics for these and other inventions.
A series of inventions led to efficient blue LEDs:
p-type GaN activated by electron beam irradiation (Akasaki & Amano, 1989)
AlN buffer (Akasaki & Amano, 1985)
GaN buffer (Nakamura, 1991)
InGaN emitting active layer (Nakamura and Mukai, 1992)
p-type GaN activated by thermal annealing. Hydrogen passivation was clarified as the origin of hole compensation (Nakamura at al, 1992)
Shuji Nakamura’s development of hydrogen free annealing of p-type GaN and the development of InGaN heterostructure lead to the breakthrough development of high brightness InGaN LEDs for blue emission
A particularly important discovery by Shuji Nakamura in 1992 was to find out why p-type GaN could not be efficiently produced previous to this invention. Shuji Nakamura found out that previous researchers had all annealed p-type GaN in hydrogen (H+) atmosphere, which passivated the p-GaN, making it useless for electronic devices.
Shuji Nakamura invented the method to anneal p-type GaN in a hydrogen-free atmosphere which for the first time allowed the production of proper p-type GaN layers.
This in 1994, Shuji Nakamura could report the first high brightness InGaN LEDs for blue emission, S. Nakamura et al, Appl. Phys. Lett. 64, (1994) 1687-1689.
It is a misunderstanding to emphasize only Shuji Nakamura’s developments of manufacturing technologies, and to forget about Shuji Nakamura’s many inventions in the field of physics for which he was awarded his share in the Nobel Prize in Physics
Had Shuji Nakamura developed “only” manufacturing techniques, Shuji Nakamura would certainly not have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. Shuji Nakamura was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for a long string of discoveries and developments in the field of physics, in addition to developing a wide range of manufacturing technologies as well, such as the two-flow MOCVD equipment.
What is an LED? How to produce energy efficient white light?
A light emitting diode (LED) produces light of a single color corresponding to the energy difference of electrons and holes recombining across the bandgap in a semiconductor LED device.
By choosing different materials, LEDs emitting light of different colors can be produced. To produce white light, the light emitted by several different LEDs of different color can be combined, e.g. blue + yellow, or blue + yellow + red.
Another option to produce white light is to coat a blue light emitting LED with phosphor, where the phosphor converts part of the blue light into yellow light. The remaining blue light combined with the yellow light emitted by the phosphor appears white to the human eye.
Conventional white LEDs, consisting of blue LEDs covered by phosphor, show strong blue light emission, and disrupt the human circadian cycle and possibly suppresses melatonin (see: Narusawa et al, J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 43 (2010) 354002).
Most PCs, laptop, smartphone and tablet liquid crystal displays use such white LEDs for the background lighting, cause eye fatigue, and thus filters can be used to cut the blue light.
Apple has acknowledged the dangers of strong blue light emission, and has developed methods to reduce blue light emission. The blue “spike” in the white light output from electronic devices can reduced the production of the sleep inducing melatonin hormone, and has been linked to health disorders and even cancer.
What is an LED? How to produce energy efficient white light?
Applications for InGaN based LEDs:
solid state lighting
decorative lighting
automobile lighting
displays (e.g. for PCs, TV, tablets, smartphones
agriculture:
plant factories using blue/red LEDs in a clean room achieves growth rates 2.5 – 5 times higher than in nature
achieve 50%-90% higher yields
water consumption 1% compared to outside
indoor lighting
Energy savings impact: save 60 nuclear power stations globally until 2020
LEDs are 4 times as energy efficient as fluorescent tubes, and about 20 times as efficient as incandescent bulbs:
oil lamp: 0.1 lumen/Watt
incandescent light bulb: 16 lumen/Watt
fluorescent lamp: 70 lumen/Watt
LED lamp: 300 lumen/Watt
Converting traditional lighting to LED lighting, we can reduce global energy consumption corresponding by an amount corresponding to 60 nuclear power stations by 2020:
Japan could save 7 nuclear power plants by converting lighting to LEDs
Germany could save 3 nuclear power plants
USA could save 19 nuclear power plants
China could save 17 nuclear power plants
India could save 9 nuclear power plants
Shuji Nakamura at the 8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum TokyoShuji Nakamura at the 8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum TokyoShuji Nakamura at the 8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum TokyoHer Imperial Highness, Princess Takamado and the Ambassador of Austria, Dr. Bernhard Zimburg
Nichia vs Nakamura lawsuits
Time line:
1993 Nakamura et al: first high efficiency blue InGaN LED was invented, Nobel Prize in Physics
1995 Nakamura et al: first violet InGaN laser diode was invented
1999 Nichia Chemical Industries: first products of violet InGaN laser diode
2000 Shuji Nakamura quits Nichia Chemical Industries and moves to University of California Santa Barbara
2000 Nichia Chemical Industries starts the lawsuit against Nakamura alleging infringements of trade secrets in USA
2001 Nakamura starts the counter lawsuit against Nichia Chemical Industries using the patent law article No. 35
2002 Nakamura wins the lawsuit regarding trade secrets in the USA against Nichia
2004 Nakamura wins wins US$ 200 million against Nichia as a reasonable compensation fee at Tokyo District Court
2005 Nakamura settlement by winning US$ 8 million with Nichia as a reasonable compensation fee at Tokyo High Court
2014 Nakamura wins Nobel Prize in Physics
Japan’s vs US judicial system – Shuji Nakamura’s experiences
No discovery process in Japan: no need to submit documents or evidence, no depositions
No discussions at court hearing; both lawyers submit statements and prepared documents to the judge without discussion
Ruling: ruling determined by how many people could benefit by ruling
Penalties: penalties are determined by precedence and earlier rulings. Punishments and penalties are generally much higher in the USA, thus much higher sanctions for breaking the laws
Judges’ salaries in Japan are determined by superiors, while in the USA the salary of each judge is guaranteed by the constitution
IP lawsuits tend to move to the USA, because USA includes discovery process and higher awards for the winners of lawsuits
No perjury in Japan. Harder to enforce truth of parties statements in Japan.
Libel or defamation are weakly sanctioned, fines/awards are relatively low and on the order of US$ 10,000 in Japan.
Key elements for success
risk taking
innovation and flexibility
team diversity
intellectual freedom – thinking differently
hard work
infrastructure and cultural support for innovation or failure
Michinari Hamaguchi, President of Japan Science and Technology Agency (STA) (previously President of Nagoya University)
keynote talk given at the 8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum at the Embassy of Austria, Thursday 18 February 2016
Michinari Hamaguchi boltzmann.com
by Michinari Hamaguchi, President Japan Science and Technology Agency (STA), President emeritus of Nagoya University
summary written by Gerhard Fasol
About Nagoya (Professor Hamaguchi is emeritus President of Nagoya University)
Nagoya is an industrial powerhouse with more than 100 international enterprises based with their headquarters in Nagoya.
If Nagoya was a country, Nagoya would be ranked 20th globally in terms of GDP
Ranking countries by GDP (source World Economic Outlook Database April 2011):
USA: US$ 14,685 billion
China: US$ 5,878 billion
Japan: US$ 5,459 billion
Germany: US$ 3,316 billion
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Switzerland: US$ 524 billion
Greater Nagoya region: US$ 491 billion
Poland: US$ 469 billion
Nagoya hosts Toyota, and is also a center of Japan’s aerospace industry with Mitsubishi and Kawasaki. 35% of the Boeing 787 body are made in the Nagoya region.
Toyota’s hybrid technology was developed by Nagoya University alumni Mr Uchiyamada, who is currently Chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation.
Nagoya University
Nagoya University researchers and alumni are beginning to achieve a number of Nobel Prizes in recent years:
Nagoya University has a very interesting Academic Charter (名古屋大学学術憲章), which lays out the fundamental objectives and policies.
Nagoya University’s Academic Charter (名古屋大学学術憲章) emphasizes a free and vibrant academic culture (自由闊達な学風), the cultivation of courageous intellectuals endowed with powers of rational thought and creativity (論理的思考力と想像力に富んだ勇気ある知識人).
Interestingly the fundamental objectives emphasize international cooperation – with emphasis on Asian nations (とりわけアジア諸国と).
Nagoya University guarantees freedom of academic research (学問の自由) and aspires to be an accessible University ((開かれた大学).
Question 1: Can we foster a “brave heart” by education? (勇気は教育で生み出すことができるものか?)
Inspired by Nelson Mandela: courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over fear, conquering fear. Education is the most powerful weapon to change the world. (私は学んだ。勇気とは恐怖を知らない事ではなく、それに打ち勝つところにあるのだと。勇者とは怖れを知らない人間ではなく、怖れを克服する人間の事なのだと。)
We want to educate courageous individuals endowed with powers of rational thought and creativity. (論理的思考力と創造力に富んだ勇気ある知識人)
Question 2: Can we foster “innovative talent” by education? (イノベーティブな才能は教育で生み出すことができるものか?)
Entrepreneurship on the other hand is not “natural”, not creative – it is work. Both entrepreneurship and innovation are hard work, can be learned and require effort.
see: Christensen “The Innovator’s DNA”, and Drucker “Innovation and Entrepreneurship”.
Intelligence and age: Fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence
Fluid intelligence (閃きの知性): is the ability to think an reason abstractly and to solve problems. Fluid intelligence is thought to be independent of learning, experience and education.
Crystallized intelligence (結晶化する知性): comes from prior learning and past experience. Crystallized experience typically grows with age.
When we look at the age at which Nobel Prize winners have done their prize winning work, we see a broad distribution, with a peak around 35-39 years age, with outliers in the 20-24 years age group, and above 60 as well.
Mentors are important: at Nagoya University Nobel Prize Winner Osamu Akasaki has educated and influenced five more Nobel Prize Winners.
Question 3: Is there any culture (soil) that makes innovative talent to blossom out? (イノベーティブな才能を開花させる文化(土壌)は存在すか?)
Frans Johansson examined the “Medici Effect”, the explosion of creativity during the Italian Renaissance period: innovative ideas flourished at the intersection of diverse experiences.
IMPACT 10x10x10: 10 Governments x 10 companies x 10 Universities: Nagoya University is one of 10 “University Impact Champions”
Today’s conclusion
Ladies will rescue “the world at risk” and give us hope!
Michinari Hamaguchi, President Japan Science and Technology Agency (STA), President emeritus of Nagoya UniversityMichinari Hamaguchi, President Japan Science and Technology Agency (STA), President emeritus of Nagoya University8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum TokyoMichinari Hamaguchi, President Japan Science and Technology Agency (STA), President emeritus of Nagoya University8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum Tokyo8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum TokyoMichinari Hamaguchi, President Japan Science and Technology Agency (STA), President emeritus of Nagoya University
Kyoko Nomura: Director, Support Center for women physicians and researchers, Associate professor, Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Teikyo University, School of Medicine, Associate professor, Teikyo School of Public Health
by: Kyoko Nomura, MD, MPH, PhD: Director, Support Center for women physicians and researchers, Associate professor, Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Teikyo University, School of Medicine, and Associate professor, Teikyo School of Public Health
In 2016, Japan’s elderly population, aged 65 years or older, comprises 26%, which is one-fourth of total population. By contrast, the younger generation, aged 0-14 years, comprises only 14%. Why so low?
Nowadays, the birth rate in Japan is estimated at 10.3 per 1,000 population, meaning that one woman bears only one child over her lifetime on average. The Japanese Health Ministry estimates that the nation’s total population will fall to 95.2 million by 2050. The aging of Japan is brought about by a combination of low birthrate and longevity.
Now we understand that Japan faces an aging society. Who is going to take care of this quickly growing aging population? Of course, younger people and women! This is the fundamental reason why women are encouraged to work as much as men to support the aging society.
However in Japan, our traditional gender roles that men should work outside and women be good house wives is strongly embedded in our mindset and hard to get rid of.
According to the Gender Gap Index by the World Economic Forum, Japan ranks at 105th near the bottom among 135 countries in terms of gender equality, mainly due to the underrepresentation of women in economic and political leadership.
In the medical area, Japan faces a physician shortage because the number of physicians per 1000 population is 2.2 which is lower than the average of OECD countries, 3.2 per 1000 population. This means, if you reside in a remote area and suppose you have a cancer, it is less likely to find a medical doctor who can treat your cancer in your neighborhood. Hence, Japan needs higher numbers of medical doctors to meet patients’ needs and definitely women medical doctors are expected to work more to take care of patients.
Actually the number of women entering into medicine is increasing and now constitutes 20% of total number of medical doctors. But this value is still low among OECD countries (actually it is lowest) and thus, we need to set up an urgent strategy to improve working conditions for women to work as much as male counterparts and pursue their potentials as well.
Dr. Nomura conducted a surveys of alumnae from 14 medical schools and found that 98% of men worked in full-time positions, but only 70% of women worked in full time positions, and that men work longer hours per week compared to women. In her another survey with colleagues, they also found that many women quit working at the time of life events like marriage and child birth or rearing; the retirement rate from full-time labour was 44% in 5 yrs and rose up to 85% in 10 yrs. To make matters worse, once they switched from full-time to part-time positions, only one third of these people will return to full-time work.
As a consequence, women are underrepresented in medicine. We have 80 medical schools in Japan and each has one dean but there are only 2 women and women constitute only 2.6% of full professors in medicine in Japan, which is far behind of USA (19%) and UK (16%).
Dr. Nomura and her colleagues have recently published an article to the international scientific journal “Surgery” in February 2016 and this epidemiological study based on 8,000 surgeons who are members of the Japan Surgical Society demonstrated that married men earn more than unmarried women after adjusting for covariates including working hours; as the number of children increases, annual income increases only for men but decreases for women.
In another study, she also demonstrated that the length of weekly domestic working hours is much longer for unmarried women than for married men and men do not work at home even if they have children (the average household working hours for men is only 3 hours per week).
These findings suggest that Japan’s stereotypical gender role, where men should work outside and women should be housewives still prevails even among highly qualified professionals like medical doctors.
One of the top scientific journal “Nature” recently published a special issue called “women in science”. This article states that Science remains institutionally sexist. Despite some progress, women scientists are still paid less, promoted less frequently, win fewer grants and are more likely to leave research than similarly qualified men.
Dr. Nomura has launched a women support center at her University in 2014 and provides various kinds of support to women researchers and physicians including
to provide a nursery for children including sick children
to provide social support like mentorship
to provide various seminars and workshops on research skills
to promote gender equality campaigns
With these efforts, Teikyo University has successfully increased the numbers and percentages of women faculty members. Dr. Nomura concluded by saying “in order to support women, environmental support at the workplace is not enough, but a combination of workplace support with educational intervention and career development works very well.”
Kyoko Nomura: Director, Support Center for women physicians and researchers, Associate professor, Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Teikyo University, School of Medicine, Associate professor, Teikyo School of Public HealthGerhard Fasol, Kyoko Nomura: Director, Support Center for women physicians and researchers, Associate professor, Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Teikyo University, School of Medicine, Associate professor, Teikyo School of Public Health, Eiji Yano, MD, MPH, DMSc, Emeritus Professor Teikyo University (from left to right)8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum, Embassy of Austria in Tokyo, 18 March 20168th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum, Tokyo 18 February 2016
Kyoko Nomura, Teikyo University, Profile
Education:
MD, Teikyo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan, April 1987-March 1993
Master of Public Health: Quantitative Methods, Harvard School of Public Health, MA02115, USA, June 2001-June 2002
PhD: Dep. of Hygiene and Public Health, Teikyo University School of Medicine , April 1999-March 2003
Current position:
Associate professor of Dep. of Hygiene and Public Health and Teikyo University School of Medicine, and Teikyo School of Public Health
Director of Teikyo Support Center for women physicians and researchers
AMED missions start with IRUD: Initiative on Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases – Challenge to overcome Balkanization
Makoto Suematsu
keynote talk given at the 8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum at the Embassy of Austria in Tokyo, Tuesday 18 February 2016
Makoto Suematsu, President, Japan 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”
Makoto Suematsu boltzmann.com
by Makoto Suematsu (President, Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development AMED)
Our goal is to fast-track medical R&D that directly benefits people not only by extending life, but also by improving quality of life.
Supporting research in “three different concepts of life”:
life sciences
daily life
quality of life
AMED works with three Japanese Government Ministries: METI & MEXT & MHLW
AMED total budget in FY2015 is US$ 1.4 billion.
The challenge is to combine the efforts of these three Ministries which all have different rules and requirements. It is our job at AMED to overcome this “balkanization” between Ministries, as pointed out by Denis Normile’s article: “Japan’s ‘NIH’ starts with modest funding but high ambitions”, SCIENCE, 348, Issue 6235, pp 616, DOI: 10.1126/science.348.6235.616
Starting with (1) rare diseases and (2) cancer
We are using a matrix approach and start with (1) rare diseases and (2) cancer to trial our approach to optimize medical R&D.
On one axis of the matrix we have:
Drug research
Regenerative medicine research
Cancer research
Neurological, psychiatric and brain research
Rare/intractable disease research
Emerging research
On the other axis of the matrix we have:
Industrial-academic collaboration: support for practical applications such as industrial-academic collaboration
International affairs: promotion of strategic international research
Genome research and infrastructure: support for accommodating R&D platforms such as BioBank etc
Clinical research and trials: support for high-quality clinical studies/clinical trials
Innovative drug discovery and development: support through the Drug Discovery Support Network for realizing drug discovery in academia
Why did we start from Rare & Undiagnosed Diseases (IRUD) in 2015?
Our aim is to support medical research considering three different types of life
Life science
Daily life
Quality of life
Stop “research for budgets”, empower “budgets for research”
Global data sharing (overcoming researchers’ “biological behavior”)
Diversity of diseases causes fragmental budgets, centralization of expensive analyzing machines
Microattribution
Establishing new matrices to check the quality of projects
Farewell to “Darth Vader-type research”, patients should be covered by network-type systems
Not only diagnosis, but also drug discovery for R and C (attracting great interest by Megapharma for orphan drugs)
Globally shared “death valley”
University vs Medical School & Hospital
Patients’ need vs physicians’ desire
Sequencer vs physicians
Scientists vs bureaucrats
Bureaucrats vs bureaucrats
University vs industry
University vs university
Medicine vs other sciences
SWAN = Syndrome without a name, leading to a diagnostic odyssey
“You have no idea what the future holds for a child. If you don’t have a diagnosis, you don’t know if they’ll ever walk, or talk, or what their life expectancy might be. You spend your whole life going through this constant emotional rollercoaster of test after test coming back negative and no-one being able to give you any answers. They can have their entire genetic code sequenced, but we still can’t find the root of the problem. It’s mainly because it’s such a tiny change in their genetic code that doesn’t get picked up in the tests.”
AMED has launched the Initiative for Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases (IRUD)
We set up IRUD committees at all hub medical institutions building an all-Japan network for IRUD. These IRUD committees build regional alliances bringing together home doctors, IRUD analysis centers for genetic testing, e.g. exome sequencing.
The IRUD committees interact with the IRUD Data Base System for IRUD.
With regional IRUD committees in combination with a central IRUD data base, we can find patients with similar symptoms which might have the same rare disease.
In order to identify a new disease-causing gene which has been unknown as a disease-causing gene, it is necessary to find out multiple patients who have a combination of similar clinical phenotypes and sequence variants in same gene
To decide on Rare (R) and Undiagnosed (U) diseases, we use a series of filters, including global research on multifactorial genetic disorders, and we use IRUD diagnostic committees including a wide range of specialists, clinical conferences with clinical geneticists, and alliances with home doctors.
Janel Johnson et al in “Exome sequencing reveals riboflavin transporter mutations as a cause of motor neuron disease”, Brain, 2012 Sep; 135(9): 2875–2882, doi:10.1093/brain/aws161 showed that precise genome diagnosis can identify treatable variants of genetic diseases.
On January 11, 2016, a Memorandum of Cooperation was signed between NIH and AMED in the guest all of the US National Academy of Science:
empowering historical collaboration in infectious diseases and surveillance
overcoming dementia through strong basic science and brain initiatives
data sharing in rare and undiagnosed diseases
As an example, it was possible to identify patients with corresponding rare genetic diseases both in the USA and Japan.
AMED: Perspectives for fast-track medical R&D to improve global quality of life
Eliminate obstacles of inflexible funding systems caused by “Balkanism” (conflicts of different funding systems by different agencies). AMED has completed de reform of funding rules on January 13, 2016
Help ARO network to fully utilize a flexibel funding system
“Making a little leak will sink a huge old ship”. Start from IRUD:
Data sharing
Global phenotype coding
Central IRB (pilot)
Collaboration with IRDiRC, UDN (NIH) from FY2015
Global alliance for IRUD data sharing and infection surveillance
Activate basic research to foster young “masters” in Japan through activating global collaboration. AMED global partnership: Gero-sciences, structural biology, mass spectrometry, metabolomics, etc.
improve the quality of big data science to evaluate clinical research (eg NCD, JANIS etc)
ONLINE, and IN ENGLISH for Japanese funding systems
Makoto Suematsu, President, Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development AMEDMakoto Suematsu, President, Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development AMED8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum, Tokyo 18 February 2016, included in the audience: Her Imperial Highness Princess Takamado, Ambassador of Austria to Japan Dr. Bernhard Zimburg, Nobel Prize Winner Shuji Nakamura, Michinari Hamaguchi (President of Japan’s Science and Technology Agency and President Emeritus Nagoya University), Makoto Suematsu (President, Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development AMED), Tetsuhiko Ikegami (former Chairman of Japan’s Space Development Agency, and Board Director and Chief of R&D of NTT), Tetsuomi Sougawa (Chief of NTT Fundamental R&D Labs), Haruo Kawahara (Chairman of JVC-Kenwood)8th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum, Tokyo 18 February 2016, included in the photographs above: Her Imperial Highness Princess Takamado, Ambassador of Austria to Japan Dr. Bernhard Zimburg, Nobel Prize Winner Shuji Nakamura, Michinari Hamaguchi (President of Japan’s Science and Technology Agency and President Emeritus Nagoya University), Makoto Suematsu (President, Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development AMED), Tetsuhiko Ikegami (former Chairman of Japan’s Space Development Agency, and Board Director and Chief of R&D of NTT), Tetsuomi Sougawa (Chief of NTT Fundamental R&D Labs), Haruo Kawahara (Chairman of JVC-Kenwood)