Press Releases
The 2nd Meeting of the Advisory Board for the Promotion of Science and Technology Diplomacy
1. On July 13th, under the participation of Mr. Fumio KISHIDA, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Seiji KIHARA and Dr. Teruo KISHI, Science and Technology Advisor to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the 2nd Meeting of the Advisory Board for the Promotion of Science and Technology Diplomacy was held.
2. At the beginning, Foreign Minister KISHIDA appreciated Dr. KISHI for his significant efforts to prepare the recommendation toward TICAD VI, which is scheduled in August. Foreign Minister KISHIDA also stated that he was keen to hear honest opinion from the attendees during the meeting to make the best use of them for TICAD VI.
3. Considering the problems that African countries currently have, such as the Ebola outbreak, declining international resource prices, terrorist attacks, environmental issues and climate change, science, technology and innovation (STI) has a potential to play a substantial role to tackle them. From this standpoint, Dr. KISHI reported the recent situation of STI in Africa and explained that with the advisory board members Dr. KISHI is preparing the recommendations on how to support Africa from the scientific and technological point of view.
4. Dr. KISHI also reported on his recent activities as the advisor, for instance, the establishment of the networking with science and technology advisers abroad, efforts to prepare for G7 where Japan acts as a chair and holding the symposium on science and technology diplomacy. With respect to the future plan of activities of the science and technology advisor including publicizing the STI in Japan, Dr. KISHI expressed that he would like to make further contribution to affect the policy outcomes by incorporating the elements of science and technology into the process of diplomatic policy making so as to make use of Japan’s science and technology in wide range of diplomatic occasions.
5. Mr. Tateo ARIMOTO, the Advisory Board member, reported on the first Multi-stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the SDGs at the United Nations, so called STI Forum, which he attended to.
6. The attendees actively discussed on future activities of the advisor to achieve SDGs from broad and different standpoints, including prioritizing each goals, identifying the field which Japan has a potential to demonstrate its superiority, utilizing the outcomes of TICAD VI and making use of the network with science and technology advisors abroad.
Reference 1: Science and Technology Advisor to the Minister for Foreign Affairs
Dr. Teruo KISHI, Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo, was appointed as the first advisor in September last year. Science and Technology Advisor supports the activities of the Minister for Foreign Affairs on matters of science and technology, aims at strengthening the collaboration with the advisers and related parties in the science and technology field of other countries, and advises the Minister for Foreign Affairs and related departments on how to incorporate matters of science and technology in the planning and drafting process of its various foreign policy strategies.
Reference 2: Advisory Board for the Promotion of Science and Technology Diplomacy
In December 2015, Fumio KISHIDA, the then Foreign Minister, gathered experts from various fields of science and technology under the Science and Technology Advisor to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and established the ‘Science and Technology Diplomacy Advisory Network’ to utilize their knowledge and experiences in the planning and drafting process of foreign policy strategies including Japan's top diplomacy and high-level international conferences. As part of this attempt, he appointed experts from the related fields to the member of ‘Advisory Board for the Promotion of Science and Technology Diplomacy’ (currently 17 members). The first meeting was held in February 3rd this year.