Press Releases
The 4th Meeting of the Advisory Board for the Promotion of Science and Technology Diplomacy
1. On April 27th, under the participation of Mr. Kentaro SONOURA, State Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Dr. Teruo KISHI, Science and Technology Advisor to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the 4th Meeting of the Advisory Board for the Promotion of the Science and Technology Diplomacy was held.
2. At the beginning, Mr. SONOURA, State Minister, stated that he was expecting to receive the recommendation on science, technology and innovation (STI) to achieve SDGs which is planned to be submitted by Dr. KISHI soon.
3. Dr. KISHI, the Science and Technology Advisor, explained current progress and prospect of preparing the recommendation mentioned above. Dr. KISHI also reported on his activities as the science and technology advisor, such as networking with the counterparts overseas and lectures he gave at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs (MOFA). Furthermore, Dr. KISHI expressed his willingness to make further contribution to solve various diplomatic challenges such as SDGs from scientific and technical perspective.
4. As for ‘STI for SDGs’, Dr. Michiharu NAKAMURA, who chaired the study group for preparing the recommendation on international cooperation, reported on the recent outcomes of the study group. MOFA explained its effort toward the second Multi-stakeholders Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation at the United Nations (STI Forum).
5. Each member actively discussed on SDGs and related messages that the Advisory Board should release from the viewpoint from science and technology diplomacy.
Reference 1: the 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 2015. 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 including Dr. KISHI). Since the inauguration in February 2016 the meeting has been held three times.