Press Releases
The 8th Meeting of the Advisory Board for the Promotion of Science and Technology Diplomacy
1. On December 19th, under participations of Ms. Toshiko ABE, State Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Dr. Teruo KISHI, Science and Technology Advisor to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the 8th Meeting of the Advisory Board for the Promotion of Science and Technology Diplomacy was held.
2. At the beginning, Ms. ABE, State Minister, stated that she was delighted with active and fruitful discussions by the Advisory Board regarding the fact that G20 and TICAD7 are going to be held in Japan in 2019. Ms. ABE also added that the government of Japan would make the best use of the outcome of this meeting to address global common issues while utilizing the power of STI and take an initiative in the international society
3. Dr. KISHI, Science and Technology Advisor, introduced his past activities since the 7th meeting such as, submitting the ‘Recommendations on Science, Technology and Innovation to Achieve the SDGs and its Guiding Tool, the STI Roadmap’; efforts of publicizing science, technology and innovation (STI) of Japan and networking with science and technology advisors in other countries. Regarding G20 and TICAD7, Dr. KISHI expressed his willingness to actively release messages to the world so as to enhance Japan’s presence from the perspective of STI.
4. Mr. Tateo ARIMOTO, member of the Advisory Board, made a report on the outcome of the meeting of ‘International Network for Government Science Advice (INGSA)’. In addition, Dr. Akihiko TANAKA, member of the Advisory Board and the group leader, presented the recent progress in the African study group, which is preparing recommendations for TICAD7 under the Advisory Board. Furthermore, Dr. Yuichiro ANZAI, Academic Advisor and Professor Emeritus of Keio University; Director of the Center for Science Information Analysis and Advisor of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; who was appointed to be a member of the “High—Level Panel on Digital Cooperation”, gave an explanation on the panel.
5. Participants actively discussed on the issues to be addressed from the perspective of science and technology diplomacy.
Reference 1. Science and Technology Advisor to the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan
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).