Minister Naokazu Takemoto

Naokazu Takemoto serves as Minister of State for Science and Technology of Japan since September 11, 2019. First elected as a Member of the House of Representatives (HR) in 2000, Naokazu Takemoto has since then performed different roles and positions within the Japanese government. Minister Naokazu Takemoto is part of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature) as a member of the Liberal Democratic Party.

Originally from Minamikawachi District, Osaka, Naokazu Takemoto graduated from Osaka Prefectural Tomitabayashi High School, Kyoto University Law School, University of California, Berkeley. Among his various responsibilities, Naokazu Takemoto is responsible for Science and Technology Policy, Intellectual Property Strategy, Cool Japan Strategy, and Space Policy, among others. 

He was born in Minamikawachi District, Osaka. He finished his undergraduate at Kyoto University in Kyoto. After a while working in the construction department for the government, he was sent to the U.S. to study business administration. Then he graduated from Berkeley and went to Columbia University where Ihe spent one more year. After that period of education development, he came back to Tokyo and have been working here for 25 years. He was first elected as a Member of the House of Representatives (HR) in 2000. 

Since 2011, he has been the Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy, and other strategic offices within the Government. Getting the right education was really important for him, that is why he went to the U.S. to complete his studies and learn more about the biggest economy in the world. When he arrived in the U.S, in California, everything was so new for him and compared to society at that time. They were a few steps ahead in business development and innovation. And after that, he went to the east coast. The east coast was very similar to the state of Tokyo at that time, so it gave him an invaluable point of view for the present world and the future. 

After that learning experience, he came back to Japan and decided to join the political circle. 20 years ago, our GDP was 70% behind the world’s top GDP, and now Japan has grown to become the third economy of the world. 

Other countries might overcome us in the next decade, such as India, but anyhow he thinks we will be able to maintain our growth and a healthy economy in the following years. “Even though our country doesn’t have natural resources at all, we have a strong focus on technology development and innovation.” And we know this can only be achieved by training the best scientists and through education. Thus we pay much more attention to make an effort to educate scientists and reach a desired intellectual point. For example, the price to enter university is 10% of what is offered in the U.S. 

And although we know we can lose some talent to the U.S. we know we can hold some of them, and that has worked for us all over these years. One aspect he is really keen on changing is the pharmaceutical industry. As it stands right now, the share of their profits is only based on 1%, so that means that 99% goes to pharmaceutical companies. And this is the reality we have to change. We have to change our business practices and make it the same as in European countries in this regard. This is one of the goals of this government.

His vision can be found in a recent interview conducted by Dinis Guarda. In that interview, he said the following about Japan 5.0, innovation of technology in Japan, COVID-19, and main accomplishments and challenges of Japan. 

Japan 5.0 

“We want to become a leading country in society 5.0. We have to pay much more attention to other advanced countries such as the U.S. and other countries. We have to thus focus and concentrate on being superior in this field. Our government made up the mission program, and within 10 years we are planning to develop and implement every aspect of our roadmap. As of now, we have focused on 6 items of the agenda while expanding overtime to every one of them. From now on, we expect it could take up to 10 years to have everything in place. It is a big undertaking as society 5.0 is based on high-end technology advancements. Most important aspect of Society 5.0 is sustainability, which it has become our main goal.” 

Innovation of technology in Japan 

“As you know our country has been hit with so many casualties and natural disasters over the years. Nonetheless, we have been conquering them. So, we get our technology to communicate with society, without saying anything. We are phenomenal at doing such a thing. However, in terms of technological society, we are lagging behind other countries. This type of society is based on a continuum communication process to any person, business, institution in the world. And now that we are suffering from this new type of coronavirus, it has become a bigger challenge. However I strongly believe we can conquer it: the death rate of covid cases in Japan is only 3% or so, while in Italy and other European countries is much higher (more than 10%). The reason I believe our death rate is lower than in other countries lies in our resilient culture. It’s because of our lifestyle, and because we never give up. Our education and behavior, the policies that the government put into practice, the economic aide, our healthcare system… all of that put together with our strong will as a nation has made us get through the coronavirus pandemic.” 

COVID-19 

“Coronavirus is a virus, but also a good chance for digital transformation. In this case, our government issued so much money, almost 50% of our GDP in financial aide and stimulus. Our GDP is 5 trillion, of which 6 % is consumption. In this case, to this consumption, we added 2,3 trillion to the market. Thus now, most people have money and can begin using it in the markets sooner or later. My guess is within one year, Japan’s economy will become very strong. Economic activity hasn’t stopped at all and big companies are doing their part. Thanks to that, the stock market has not come down, it has maintained its status. Therefore big companies are good and not that damaged. The only ones facing problems are SMEs such as retailers, hospitality companies, etc. People have pessimistic opinions and thoughts, but within one year, we can imbibe such western ideas and show them that our economy will be much better. That is our commitment.” 

Main accomplishments and challenges of Japan 

“What’s more important for us is our people, the talent we train and the talent we can attract. That is the base of Japanese innovation. A good example to picture this statement is that 90 Japanese people have been awarded Nobel prizes since the beginning of this century. This is the highest in the world. Neighboring countries such as China have only 1 person. Korea has none. Therefore, with our strong focus on nurturing the best possible talent, the level of our technology is way superior to our neighboring countries. The question from now is: how do we maintain this situation in the future? We are very uncertain about the future and have to change our society, which respects science and technology. As of today, we are the second country in terms of technological advancement. This shows our society is very advanced. We have to keep doing what we do right for the future. Retaining talent is one of those things, but also attracting new ones. 

Making attractive to come to Japan for foreign scientists by offering high salaries, for example. That’s why this year our budget has increased, offering grants and benefits for innovating scientists who are researching in Universities. He/she can get much more money and budget from their research -hopefully two or three times as much-, then we can keep on producing and obtaining Nobel prizes as we have done in the past.”