FCAJ (Future Center Alliance Japan :Representative Director Noboru  Konno) held a Zoom seminar on May

20, 2021, entitled “Creative Failure Thinking: Building a New World with Compound Eyes”, that gathered

people with the “power to think about the future” of Europe and Japan, and compiled the following

recommendations. There were 230 participants in the seminar, including Japan and Europe.

＜What is the Topos Conference?＞

“The Topos Conference” was established in 2012 with Professor Ikujiro Nonaka and Noboru Konno as the founder of the International Conference (w3i). “Topos” means “place” in Greek, but it is also the etymology of the topic. Until 2019, a total of 13 meeting were held as a meeting for domestic and foreign wise-person together in Japan, set up a “Ba=place” for dialogue, discover important topics in the future, not the most recent issues and gain perspective.

Since then, as the effects of the coronavirus have spread around the world, we have come to see the disconnection among nations and marginalization in society, and we have come to think that “Ba” like Topos is once again necessary. Recognizing the importance of such “Ba”, we have been experimentally resuming online since last year without changing our stance to discuss the topic itself, which seems to be an important topic in the future.

１）Recommendations at the 15th Topos Conference

Even if the current pandemic converges, the world will not be the original. Now that we are in a more complex world from a planned harmonious world, failure is commonplace, and it is important to learn from it and empathize with it while ongoing with innovation. Creative failure is “a well-prepared hypothesis that results in a different outcome than expected”. Therefore, we need to understand patterns of failure and have failure intelligence that can be used in unknown situations. On the other hand, the unique cons of Japan was to make ignore this failure , and to stick only to the success experience. That’s why scientific thinking is more important now. The first step is to visualize "uncertain things", but scientists must be "humble" about all research subjects. Even in the field of social science, it is necessary to balance art and science in a timely manner through direct experience and respond to agile. The era of selfish behavior is over, and the era of empathy based on individual relationships has begun. There, integrity creates new relationships, and by conveying empathy beyond selfishness and altruism, people move and science changes. By shifting from inductive and deductive thinking to hypothetical resorning,we will be possible to respond quickly to social issues.

2） The main debaters who discuss  "Creative failure thinking"

We have been urged to act to avoid "failure" as much as possible, but what became apparent in the wake of the pandemic caused by the new coronavirus was not the "planned harmony”. But the important thing is the creation of new challenges and innovations  overcoming fear of failure. This time, we invited Chief Failure Officer from The Institute of Brilliant Failure in the Netherlands to think about a new society with people from various fields about knowledge creation from failure and society that uses failure as an asset.。

【Keynote Speaker】

Paul Iske

Chief Failure Officer, The Institute of Brilliant Failure, Professor at Maastricht University

A Japanese translation of the book "The Hall of Failure" is published soon by Toyo Keizai Inc.

Professor of Open Innovation and Venture Business at the Faculty of Business and Economics, Maastricht University, where he studies service innovation and social innovation.

He founded the Institute for Brilliant Failures to further the study of innovation and entrepreneurship. He is a lecturer and consultant in the fields of creativity and innovation, intellectual capital, knowledge management and entrepreneurship.

【Video message】

Truls Berg

Founder of Open Innovation Lab of Norway

An ICT executive with over 25 years of experience as a serial entrepreneur, CEO and business developer, he is the founder of Open Innovation Lab of Norway, founding partner of Digital Insight and editor-in-chief of INNOMAG, Norway's leading innovation magazine. He is also the editor-in-chief of INNOMAG, Norway's leading innovation magazine. He was previously chairman of the Norwegian Computer Assosiation from 2001 to 2003.

Shu Yamaguchi

Independent researcher / Public speaker / AuthorAfter working for Dentsu, Boston Consulting Group, Korn Ferry and others in corporate strategy formulation, cultural policy making and organizational development, he is currently working as an active figure as an independent researcher, author and public speaker on the theme of "producing intellectual results at the intersection of the humanities and management sciences".

He is currently President of Leibniz Corporation and a member of the Global Future Council of the World Economic Forum. He is also the author of “The Age of the New Type”, “Why the World's Elite Train Their Aesthetic Sense”, and “The Philosophy as a good armour”.

【Guest Speakers】

Hideaki Koizumi

Honorary Fellow, Hitachi, Ltd. and FCAJ Special AdvisorHe joined the Instrumentation Division of Hitachi, Ltd. in 1971. In 1976, he created the polarized Zeeman atomic absorption spectrometry method and received a doctorate of science from the University of Tokyo. More than 10,000 of his instruments are in operation worldwide, mainly for environmental measurements. At the 100th anniversary of the MITI patent system, he was selected as one of the 50 representative patents of Japan, and his initial equipment was selected as a heritage of analytical and scientific instruments. In the field of medical measurement, he has created and commercialised magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) and optical topography.

He is the editor of "The Leading Edge of Environmental Measurements" and co-author of "Encyclopedia of Analytical Chemistry" and many other dictionaries.

Airi Horie

President, Womens' Startup LabBorn in Hiroshima, Japan, she graduated from California State University in 1997. In 2013, she founded Women's Startup Lab, a training camp for women entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, USA. CNN's "10 Visionary Women," Marie Claire's "20 Women Who Are Changing the Ratio," and Entrepreneur Magazine's "100 Powerful Women in Business," the largest entrepreneurial magazine in the U.S. Entrepreneur Magazine's "100 Powerful Women in Business".

Miyuki Onitake

Composer / Arranger / Pianist

After graduating from the Department of Mathematics at the Tokyo University of Science, she worked for Canon Inc. as a software engineer, and began her music career at the age of 27.

She has released 7 original albums, including her latest "FUKUSHIMA". She has participated in many recordings and concerts as an arranger and pianist for artists such as Tokiko Kato, Kazushi Miyazawa and Aoi Teshima. She is also active as a composer. In 2019 she was awarded by NHK Fukushima station for her contribution to the local community.

【Speakers from the organisers】

Ikujiro Nonaka

Professor Emeritus, Hitotsubashi University; Founder, Topos Conference; Special Advisor, FCAJ

He has been a member of the National Academy of Japan since January 2016. He was awarded the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 2002, the Medal with Zuiho Ribbon in 2010, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley in 2017. He is the author of "The Essence of Failure," "The Knowledge-Creating Company," "The Essence of Intellectual Mobility," and many other books.

Noboru Konno

President, ECOSYX LAB; Founder, Topos Conference; President, FCAJProfessor, Tama University Graduate School, from the perspective of knowledge ecology in organizations and society, he has been promoting research and practice on knowledge creation based on design methods, methodologies for creating and utilizing "places", innovation management, and "purpose engineering" for this purpose. As part of this work, he has been involved in the introduction of Future Centres in Japan and launched Future Centre Alliance Japan in 2015.

Kozue Nakayama

External Auditor of Imperial Hotel, External Director of TDK and Isuzu Motors, Board Member of FCAJ

After completing her Master's degree at Keio University's Graduate School of Sociology, she joined Nissan Motor Co. She later became Deputy Devision Head　of the Global Brand Coordination Bureau. She then joined the Yokohama City Government, where she has been Director General of the Yokohama City Culture and Tourism Bureau since 2012. From 2019, she is an external auditor of the Imperial Hotel, and in 2020, an external director of TDK Corporation and Isuzu Motors Limited.

Hiroshi Shima

Research Fellow, Yasuhiro Nakasone Institute for World Peace Research; Board Member of FCAJHe started his career at the Development Bank of Japan, where he was involved in business review and planning and research for regional development and urban development. Since April 2013, he has been involved in the launch and management of the Otemachi Innovation Hub, a financial institution's future centre for promoting open innovation for value creation.

３）About the interviews

If you need more information about this seminar, please contact the below address. Please note that there are some cases where  we cannot issue if the copyright owner would prohibit to issue them.

※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.

https://futurecenteralliance-japan.org/

For more information, please contact

Future Center Alliance Japan (FCAJ) Secretariat (Ba Architect Office）

fcaj_info@futurecenteralliance-japan.org