Dear all,

Incorporated association Future  Center Alliance Japan proudly delivers the urgent statement towards the future society and leadership after or together COVID-19 pandemic  by Honorary Prof. of Hitotsubashi University, I. Nonaka and Dr. H. Koizumi, the Executive Vice President of The Engineering Academy of Japan who are the special advisors of our association. Please see the attachment in detail. If you have any inquiries, please do not hesitate to contact Mr. Murata, secretarial office chairperson by the return of this e-mail.

Thank you in advance.

NEWS RELEASE

Incorported Association FCAJ-Future Center Alliance Japan：Representative Executive Director Dr.N.Konno proudly delivers "the Joint Declaration" to point out the future society after &during the era of COVID-19 by both Professor Emeritus I.Nonaka, Hitotsubashi University, and Dr. H. Koizumi, The Engineering Academy of Japan, as a special advisor of FCAJ. This content is based on the Zoom Webinar on 21 April and 3 May 2020.

＜Urgent Proposal＞

　We want to express our sincere condolences for the loved ones of those who passed away due to this pandemic. We are concerned that COVID-19 will have a severe impact on not only medical care, medical science, politics,and the economy but also the thoughts and life for the human being. The Leaders of organizations are required to ask themselves, "What is the purpose of our business?" and moreover, "Is our business in an ethical way?".

　We believe that everyone in society must have "the power of conceptual imagination" and should invest their efforts based on "Altruism" and "Sympathy" for a promising future. For that purpose, we declare the importance of building “Plural Sector” to provide “Ba” , a place in Japanese, for open dialog across the sectors: private, academy, public, and people.

1)Need for Wise Leadership and Ethics by Professor Emeritus Ikujiro Nonaka

　The significant impact of COVID-19 will never make our society the same as it was again, as some say there will be a New Normal. In such a chaotic and changing society, leadership with practical wisdom to make judgments based on the “common good” is becoming ever more critical to build a brighter future.

　Wise leadership is based on sympathy with people, things, and surroundings “now and here.” This wise leadership is to find the breakthrough in a real-life place and situation,Gemba in Japanese, with the sympathy and practice what he or she commits to do systematically and autonomously. Leaders should concentrate on building the network of wisdom, involving the power of grass-roots, toward “common good” to overcome self-interest.

　In Japan, there have been many leaders with practical wisdom such as Eiichi Shibusawa, who had advocated to integrate Altruism and Egoism for business and society. We should reconstruct and deliver with scrum, Japan-originated ways such as Three-way-satisfaction for the customer and the community and the company.

Ikujiro Nonaka

Professor Emeritus Professor, Hitotsubashi University, Member of The Japan Academy

He is known as the authority of knowledge management who spread the theory of knowledge creation to the world. In 2002, he was awarded the Medal with Purple Ribbon, and is the first Asian to be elected a Fellow in the American Management Society.He was only one selected from Asia "The most influential business thinkers Top 20" in the Wall Street Journal.

His books include Essence of Failure, Management of Knowledge Creation, Business Model Innovation, Essence of Intellectual Maneuverability and many others. -Photo by Yuko Yamaguchi

2)Shift from Egoism to “Altruism” by Dr. Hideaki Koizumi

　If we approach the pandemic wrongly, it could be a tragic human-made disaster. “Integrity” is the key to preventing a “Failure of Logic.” We have to treat the pandemic as a natural phenomenon and as part of human evolution and the diversity of creatures, with an evidence-based, not arbitrary approach. From the perspective of “Human Security and Well-Being,” a new ecosystem bridging natural science,humanities, social science, and arts, is needed and is triggered by this incident.

　Although egoism is spreading in the world recently, the pandemic would remind us of modesty, gratitude, and nobleness across nations and races. “Altruism,” which we have lost long ago, now becomes glorious, and we recognize that “warm-heartedness” to sympathize with others leads us to happiness.

　The death of an individual is discontinuous in life, but human existence is continuous. Innovation itself follows the logic of “Continuity of Discontinuities.” Each innovation is a transition of discontinuity, but societal innovation emerges “continually,” and it makes human beings affluent. After the pandemic of COVID-19, I heartily wish we would build a better future.

Hideaki Koizumi

Executive Vice president of The Engineering Academy of Japan. Director of International Council of Academies of Engineering and Technological Sciences, Fellow/Board member of the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology of the University of Tokyo, Honorary Fellow of Hitachi,Ltd. and many others. He created many new principes in the fields of environment and medicine and proposed a new field called "science of mind and brain" as a pioneer. Received 3 Okouchi Awards and 2 US R&D 100 Awards.

Major publications; Einstein's Inverse Omega -Thinking about Education from the Evolution of the Brain, History of the Brain-From Freud to Brain Map, MRI, Brain Grows through Encounters and many.

※The Future Center Alliance Japan, FCAJ, is an ecosystem, plural sector, in which industry, academia ,government and the private sector participate and collaborate for open innovation. It provides "Ba", place, meetings and programs to transcend the boundaries of organizations to connect the economy and society. Since 2016, we have been carrying out activities to address social and future issues and to envision new industries.

Zoom seminar on May 3, 2020