IIASA and Japan

Japan is a founding member of IIASA with forty-five years of highly productive research collaborations. Since 2008, research collaborations between IIASA and Japan have involved more than 30 organizations and led to over 250 publications. Joint studies have focused on areas from advancing energy and integrated assessment modeling to projecting demographic change and reducing disaster risk in Japan.

Joining Kabat on the visit were Nebojsa Nakicenovic, Deputy Director General/Deputy CEO; Markus Amann, Program Director, Air Quality and Greenhouse Gases; Arnulf Grubler, Senior Research Scholar and Acting Program Director, Transitions to New Technologies Program; and Kim Montgomery, International Relations Officer.

During the visit, the IIASA delegation participated in a symposium on the TWI2050 project, organized by the IIASA Japan Committee and the Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability of the United Nations University. TWI2050 aims to address the full spectrum of transformational challenges related to achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in an integrated manner, through science-policy coordination between policy experts and modelling analysis teams. The symposium was free and open to the public - click here for more information.

The IIASA delegation also participated in an expert workshop and a meeting of the IIASA Japan Committee, to strengthen research collaborations between Japan and IIASA. 

High-Level Meetings

The visit included high-level meetings with the following Japanese stakeholders to continue the strong relationship between IIASA and Japan. Many play key strategic roles in the growing portfolio of joint IIASA-Japan activities as noted below:

• Shigemoto Kajihara, Vice-Minister for Global Affairs, Ministry of Environment. The Ministry funds IIASA's annual membership contribution and the activities of the National Member Organization (NMO) for IIASA, the Japan Commitee for IIASA.
  
• Kazuhiko Takemoto, Director, United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS), Japanese Council Member for IIASA, and Program Committee Chair of the IIASA Governing Council.
  
• Jun Takashina, Deputy Director General, Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI)
• Teruo Kishi, Chief Science Advisor, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Professor Kishi recently visited IIASA to speak at an international dialog on integrating science and technology advice into foreign ministries.
  
• Ambassador Hubert Heiss, Austrian Embassy Tokyo
  
• Dr. Hamazaki, Director General, Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) which is one of the core organizations responsible for implementing science and technology policy in Japan.
  
• Yoichi Kaya, Chair of the IIASA Japan Committee; President, Research Institute of innovative Technology for the Earth (RITE) which has collaborated with IIASA since the 1990s on energy, climate change and integrated assessment modeling research.
  
• Mits Yamaguchi (RITE)
• Koji Omi, Founder and Chair, Science and Technology in Society Forum. The STS Forum is a major annual science event in Japan at which IIASA often participates.  
  
• Taikan Oki, Senior Vice-Rector, United Nations University
• Hironori Hamanaka, Chair of the Board of Directors, Institute for Global Environment Strategies (IGES). IIASA has been a long-term collaborator with IGES jointly investigating how to simultaneously reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in Japan and Asia.
  
• Hideyuki Mori, President, IGES

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Last edited: 03 February 2017