Date: Saturday, January 17, 2009
Venue: Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel, Tokyo
Organizer: Health Policy Institute, Japan

Purpose

At the Toyako G8 Summit, Japan as Chair took up global health as a key agenda item. This achievement has been highly evaluated internationally, and Japan is expected to hand over to Italy, the next Chair, its experience on how various business, academic, NGO, and media organizations urged the adoption of global health as an issue by cooperating with the Government.

This conference will begin with presentations from various fields on their representative challenges, followed by an introduction to the activities of the ‘Challenges in Global Health and Japan’s Contributions’ Working Group (known as the Takemi Working Group) which initiated the current global movement toward ‘Health System Strengthening’. After asking guests from Government and government institutions for their comments on the various presentations, a general discussion involving all participants is planned to integrate the key themes into specific conclusions. It is also hoped there will be significant discussion as to how to continue Japan’s commitment toward global health hereafter.

Last year, in order to lead the Toyako G8 Summit to success, organizations from diverse fields devoted themselves to the task under an ‘All-Japan’ banner. They demonstrated a strong will to inherit and expand upon the accomplishments of the 2000 Okinawa Summit, the first G8 Summit to pick up the issue of global health.

At the time of the Toyako Summit, the full impact and seriousness of the economic depression had not yet risen to the surface. Now that the position of Chair has been handed over to Italy and the economic situation has worsened, it is not too much to say that the genuine commitment of Japan toward global health is needed more than ever. In order for Japan to lead this global commitment in 2009 and beyond, it is essential to continue and strengthen the existing efforts of different fields, pushing for further cooperation and expanding understanding and support among citizens. It is high time that such a cycle of cooperation was permanently established, in which the taking of initiatives by organizations from different fields in promoting their activities boosts the global leadership of Japan’s government.

Therefore, at this conference, it is hoped that two issues above all are to be discussed by the leaders from various fields: (1) Lessons that should be passed on to Italy; (2) Obstacles to the continuation of Japan’s commitment.

The Health Policy Institute, Japan plans to present the outcomes of this conference at Global Health Forum, expected to be co-hosted on February 13 with the Aspen Institute Italia to hand over Japan’s knowledge gained from experience to organizations in Italy. Furthermore, based on the founders’ spirit of encouraging discussions through citizen-based initiatives, the Institute hopes to continue to expand understanding and support among citizens in order to back up civil initiatives.

Program

14:00	Opening Remarks	Kiyoshi Kurokawa Chairman, Health Policy Institute, Japan
14:05	"Outcomes of the G8 Toyako Summit and their transfer to Italy."	Shinsuke Sugiyama* Director-General for Global Issues, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan   Shinichi Asazuma (*reading on behalf of Mr. Sugiyama) Senior Coordinator, Global Issues Cooperation Division, International Cooperation Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
14:15	Purpose of the Conference	James Kondo Vice Chairman, Health Policy Institute, Japan
14:25	Presentations on Global Health by Key Japanese Stakeholders Activities of key stakeholders in 2008 Lessons learnt and and their transfer to Italy. Ongoing challenges by key Japanese stakeholders
	1.Business	Hiromasa Yonekura President, Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd
	2.Academia	Ichiro Kanazawa President, Science Council of Japan
	3.NGO	Sumie Ishii Executive Director, JOICFP
	4.Media	Aiko Doden Senior News Commentator, Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK)
	5.Activity Example 1：TABLE FOR TWO	Motohisa Furukawa Member, House of Representatives; Co-Chair of TABLE FOR TWO
	6.Activity Example 2：Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize	Yoshimasa Tominaga Director of Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize Unit, Cabinet Office
15:15	Activities of Working Group on “Challenges in Global Health and Japanese Contributions”	Masamine Jimba Department of International Community Health, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Japan
15:30	Japanese Government in Cooperation with Key Stakeholders Comments from Japanese government officials
16:00	Discussion
16:25	Wrap-up and Closing Remarks	Kiyoshi Kurokawa Chairman, Health Policy Institute, Japan