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In risky times, we must act: Hiroshima Business Forum
ESG/SDGs
MAIKO MURAOKACONTRIBUTING WRITER

The past few years have been a time whenpeople came to realize that what is normal today may not be tomorrow. The
year 2022 has been a year when people
stopped taking peace for granted. Against
this backdrop, the 2022 Hiroshima Business Forum for Global Peace was heldat the International Conference Center
Hiroshima on Sept. 8, gathering speakers from the public and private sectors
as well as academia. The event also waslivestreamed for a remote audience.
This annual symposium was organizedby the Hiroshima Organization for Global
Peace (HOPe), a network consisting of theHiroshima prefectural government and19 other organizations, supported by theUnited Nations Institute for Training andResearch and the United Nations Information Centre and sponsored by The
Japan Times. The organization, headed
by Hiroshima prefectural Gov. Hidehiko
Yuzaki, has multiple functions — including research, human resource training,communication of information, community-building and resource accumulation— related to global peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Since the first event in 2013, manyof the discussions centered around theimportance of global peace as a premisefor business. But this year was different.
All the speakers shared a sense of crisis,
and many of their statements were basedon what business can or should do when
faced with the hard fact that global peace
is not there to serve as a premise forbusiness.
That is why the theme for this year’s
forum was “Positive peace through business: For world peace and stability.” Itcarried the message that peace needs tobe achieved proactively by every stakeholder, including the business sector, andthat there is a greater need than ever forJapan to be the one to disseminate thismessage to the world.
Two sessions took place, the first one
based on the theme “Stable energy supply
in the era of economic security and theSDGs” and the second one based on thetheme “Human resources development
to secure innovation-based economic
growth and employment in the midst of
global economic instability.”

Roots of risks are deep

The forum’s program began with an opening address by Yuzaki and a special talkby Takashi Mitachi, a professor at theGraduate School of Management, Kyoto
University.
Mitachi pointed out that the recent
pandemic and the war in Ukraine are notthe causes of the current global economic
instability. “Risks had been there for along time. Due to these events, existing
contradictions and peace-threatening factors were uncovered and multiplied,” hesaid, referring to examples such as vulnerable countries suffering more when foodimports from Ukraine stopped.
Yuzaki said the current instability is thekind that has a major impact on people.
“Not only the vulnerable countries but
also advanced countries are becoming
unstable,” he said.
Mitachi said the current situation
exposes the flaws of postwar systems.
Yuzaki agreed and said the world createdvarious risks while pursuing economic
efficiency under capitalism. “You cannot

The speakers at the opening and special discussions: Hidehiko Yuzaki (left), the governor of
Hiroshima Prefecture, and Takashi Mitachi, a professor at the Graduate School of Management,
Kyoto University HOPE

The speakers at session 1, from left: Yoshimitsu Kaji, chairman and chief sustainability development
officer at Cinnamon AI; Go Matsuo, managing director of the Energy Economics and Society ResearchInstitute LLC; Kahori Miyake, co-chair of the Japan Climate Leaders’ Partnership; and Sumiko Takeuchi, director of the International Environment and Economy Institute HOPE

The speakers at session 2, from left: Minako Suematsu, chairperson and publisher, The Japan
Times; Naoko Ishihara, director of ExaWizards Inc.’s Hataraku AI & DX Institute; Makoto
Takashima, president and CEO, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.; and Takashi Inoue, president
and CEO, Lifull Co. Ltd. HOPE

The closing remarks speakers, from left: Kyoto University’s Mitachi; Yoichi Funabashi, chairman of the Global Council at The International House of Japan; and Hiroshima Gov. Hidehiko
Yuzaki HOPE

buy anything if there is nothing to buy.
The pursuit of efficiency did not always
result in the richness of life,” he said. “We
may not be shifting away from capitalism,
but the business sector needs to contribute to addressing risks of capitalism toprotect its own foundation.”
Mitachi also said the conventional idea
is that “the larger the scale is, the betterthe efficiency and productivity is,” adding,“But in some cases — especially in manufacturing, energy and mobility — dispersion can be more efficient.” He said it isa role of business to create an economic
model that can feed the current andfuture global population without destroying the environment. Another keyword
he mentioned is “distribution.” “Insteadof allowing a winner to take all, we needto invest in human capital, so that thefollowing generations of those who are
suffering now will not continue to suffer,” he said. Yuzaki and Mitachi encouraged the speakers at the panel sessions to
exchange thoughts that could be inspiring
to many businesspeople.

How to change energy supply

The first session, focusing on energy supply, was moderated by Yoshimitsu Kaji,chairman and chief sustainable development officer (CSDO) of Cinnamon AI,
senior principal of Hitachi Ltd.’s Lumada
Innovation Hub and a Kamakura smart
city architect.
Looking at recent global trends surrounding energy, Kahori Miyake, co-chairof the Japan Climate Leaders’ Partnership

Top left: Speakers remotely join session 2. Top right: Miyake, who also is director of the ESG
planning and promotion department at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, Ltd. Bottom left: Ishihara
spoke abut human resources development to secure innovation-based economic growth andemployment. Bottom right: Kaji at the panel on “Stable energy supply in the era of economic
security and the SDGs” HOPE

and director of the ESG Planning and Promotion Department at Sumitomo Mitsui
Trust Bank Ltd., said she sees changes in
the market and consumer behavior aswell as in the investment landscape interms of what energy is used by companies, and how.
Sumiko Takeuchi, director of the International Environment and Economy
Institute, specially appointed visiting
professor at Tohoku University and joint
representative director at U3Innovations
LLC, was in Paris when the U.N.’s COP 21
climate conference in Paris in 2015 ended
with the adoption of the Paris Agreement,a legally binding international treaty on
climate change with the goal of limiting
global warming to well below 2 degrees
Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels,and preferably 1.5 degrees. “The conference venue was filled with feverish excitement, and everyone was hugging eachother as if the world had been saved. Of
course, I was happy about the outcome
too,” she said. “But at the same time, I
thought it would be dangerous to discussmatters that impact human lives in thewhirl of fever.” She pointed out that theenergy issue needs to be discussed fromdiverse perspectives, and climate change
is only one of them.
Takeuchi also noted that a new challenge is taking shape in the context of thegreen transformation. “Investors feel comfortable investing in green energy because
they know that no one would object to it.
But it is impossible to switch completely
to green energy at once, so there is a needto invest also into the technology that
supports the transition period,” she said.
However, the question is how the valueof stable supplies during the transition
period can be assessed. Pointing out that
there are many examples of advancing
target dates and that there is no guaranteethat Japan’s 2050 net-zero target will not
be moved up, Takeuchi said, “‘Here is therisk, but decide for yourself whether toinvest or not’ — we cannot just say that.”
Go Matsuo, managing director of theEnergy Economics and Society ResearchInstitute LLC, talked about the sustainability of society and the economy. Whileaffirming the importance of shifting to
renewable energy, he said: “People’s lives
depend on energy supply. We need tomake a multiple-track scenario taking theloads on the current economy and society
into consideration,” and warned that plans
are just plans and are subject to change.
What if, for some complex reasons in thisunstable world, a scheduled plan werechanged and there suddenly arose theneed to procure fossil fuels to keep everyone’s lives going? What would happen
if investment in fossil fuel power plants

and long-term purchasing contracts forfossil fuels, terminated long ago, became
urgently needed again? He pointed out
the risk of thermal power plants going out
of business due to deterioration because
of inadequate investment in maintenanceeven though renewable energy is notcompletely reliable yet. “We cannot let
power outages happen. We cannot help
but continue a certain amount of investment into fossil fuels and fossil fuel power
supply,” Matsuo said. He also mentioned
the technological advances needed fornuclear power generation as well as
renewable energy.
Takeuchi agreed that renewable energy
is not yet entirely reliable in terms of cost,stability and convenience. She also notedthat there are downsides to no-use policies on nuclear energy even though it isentirely reasonable to say that the useof nuclear energy should be minimized
because of its high potential risks. “Theproblem is that it has not even been a
topic for discussion. We should discussand decide, considering various risks,
keeping in mind that any technology canbe used in good ways and bad ways,” shesaid.
Miyake agreed to the call for a more
active discussion regarding nuclear power.
“Of course we need to pursue the use ofrenewable energy the best we can, andclarify what more needs to be done to
maximize its potential. But we, the corporate sector, which is the demand side, alsoneed to face the issue of nuclear energy.
We have a responsibility as a user,” shesaid.
Miyake also pointed out that eachcountry is putting in place its own policies to promote the use of renewableenergy. “The United States will be accelerating the use of renewable energy underthe Inflation Reduction Act, meaningthat they will promote domestically produced renewable energy. This is a powerful boost,” she said. “On the other hand,
Japan’s offshore wind power technology
is highly evaluated internationally,” sheadded, emphasizing that this is one of theareas that Japan should promote more
extensively.
Matsuo stressed the importance of taking measures that fit the geographical andeconomic conditions of each country.
“For European nations, electricity output
from gas-fired power plants is easy to control because it comes from pipelines that
directly connect to the suppliers,” he said.
In Japan’s case, he said, it is important tocontinue ensuring the economy of Japanese products while handling pressure
from the international community topromote products that do not depend on
fossil fuel energy during the manufactur-

PAGE: 7ing process.
Matsuo then mentioned the issue of
employment related to the closure ofcoal-fired power plants. “The workers
need to change jobs. They know how boilers and turbines work in coal-fired power
plants, but they do not have any technical knowledge about renewable energy
power plants. We need a policy to support
their job-switching,” he said.
All three speakers agreed that the stability of energy is closely related to peace
as well as social and economic stability.
Miyake said that energy self-sufficiency isimportant for peace because historicallywars and conflicts have occurred in many
places where fossil fuels are produced.
Takeuchi agreed and added that all risks,
including those related to international
conflicts, need to be taken into accountin making energy policies. “The Ukraine
crisis will not be the last crisis. We needto keep that in mind when we discussenergy,” she said.

How to gain new skills

The second session, focusing on the development of human resources, was moderated by Minako Suematsu, chairperson,
publisher and president of The Japan
Times Ltd. She began by saying: “Thepaper titled ‘The Future of Employment,’
published about 10 years ago by Oxford
academics Michael Osborne and Carl
Frey, listed the names of professions thatare likely to disappear in a decade or two.
Ten years have passed, and have we managed to do anything about it?” Then she
encouraged the speakers to share theirefforts in overcoming challenges related
to human resources development.
Naoko Ishihara, director of the Hataraku AI & DX Institute at ExaWizards Inc.,
who has 23 years of experience in corporate human resources management,
has been conducting research on reskilling to find ways to work and gain skillsin the era of digitalization. “Companiesof our time are expected to solve issues
that society is facing through their business activities,” she said. She went on to
say that digital tools are not almighty, butthey can be used in dealing with all kindsof present-day problems. However, one
needs to be equipped with knowledge
and skills to use digital tools, which is why
Ishihara places importance on reskilling. She also noted that the advantage ofdigital transformation is not in the use of
superior technology, but in the difference
it makes for the customer experience. Inthat sense, not only engineers but also
anyone can be a player in digital transformation as long as the training opportunity
is there.
Makoto Takashima, president and CEOof Sumitomo
Mitsui Banking
Corp., shared
what opportunities are offeredat his company.
“We introduced
e-learning in our employee training system in 2017, making training available
from home. During the last fiscal year,
about 31,000 employees used the e-learning system,” Takashima said, adding that
digitalization is key in many of the training programs.
Takashi Inoue, president and CEO of
Lifull Co. Ltd., shared an honest opinion
as an entrepreneur who started fromscratch and developed the company into
one with more than 1,600 employees.
The company has a corporate university
offering its employees about 60 programs,
along with many other training and careerdevelopment opportunities. However,Inoue stressed that government, industry and academia need to come together
to cultivate human resources. He said
it is too much to ask companies to provide everything from human resources
development to diversity at a time whenmany of them cannot afford the extra
time or effort and have no choice but tohire young, active and talented workers
who can contribute from day one. He suggested that academia do more for training
youths and that the government consider
new incentive policies such as tax deductions for companies that hire refugees oraged people.
Takashima said incentives are also
effective for accelerating innovation. “We
incorporated various incentives to ourpersonnel system to help our employees execute new ideas. There will be no
tomorrows if we don’t cooperate witheach other to make changes. Doing what
we have conventionally been doing won’t
get us any closer to solving various social
issues,” he said.
Another important factor in developing human resources that can contributeto society is diversity. “Diversity can pull
you away from all kinds of biases, which isnecessary to nurture imagination. Imagination is what you need when you try
to understand what challenges there arein the world. You need to imagine being
someone other than yourself and imagine
what the reality is for that person to truly
understand his or her problems,” Ishihara
said.
Takashima agreed and said his company is making constant efforts to reachthe same level of diversity as its stakeholders. “For example, if our customers
consist of half men and half women, we
should achieve the same gender ratio
among our workers. More than 40% of
our business activities are conducted inor for foreign countries, so our target is tohave the same ratio of foreign employees,” he said. “Among the 13 outside directors we have, two are women and one
is a foreigner. Seven out of 99 executive
managing officers are women and 11 areforeigners. The ratio of female workers atmanagerial positions in our banking sector is 20%, and 33% at our global offices.
The figures are still far from ideal, but weare working on it.”Ishihara also explained why inclusion
is important: “If a company has a diverse
human resource but is not inclusive
enough, it is just creating a lot of workers
who do not feel safe to be there. Naturally,
they do not concentrate 100% on what
they are doing.”
In the closing session, Hiroshima Gov.
Yuzaki shared a renewed understanding that peace provides the basis for thedevelopment of business and the economy, but he also noted that this basis
can collapse. “Right when everyone was
focused on addressing climate change,
we were suddenly faced with the emergency in Ukraine. What we learned fromthis is that we need to manage all kindsof risks and prepare ourselves for all possibilities,” he said. Mitachi agreed and said
that business leaders need to think how
they can contribute to reducing various
risks through their businesses and act
proactively. Yoichi Funabashi, chairmanof the Global Council at The International
House of Japan, wrapped up the event bysaying Japan should send out a renewed
message of peace, business and economy,
and promote Japan as a country that cancreate new global standards and foster
innovation.
Aiming to highlight issues
related to a sustainable society, The Japan Times gave
its support to this event by
becoming a media sponsor.