Below is the provisional translation of the original Japanese seminar: 第100回STIG PoPセミナー
[The objective of the bioeconomy seminar series] Since a bioeconomic report was created by the OECD in 2009, many countries in Europe and the United States have developed policy documents highlighting the bioeconomy and the momentum for the bioeconomy has been growing. It has also been declared in the Bioeconomic Strategy 2019 that Japan will create the world’s leading bioeconomic society by 2030 and update and promote its bioeconomic strategy every year. However, the bioeconomy concept is extremely broad and its specific overview is not sufficiently certain. This seminar therefore aims to invite experts of domestic/international trends and share information about the current status of bioeconomic developments with the participants. Through this interaction, we will consider the significance, strengths, and challenges of bioeconomies.
● Seminar Information
Date and time: January 29, 2021 (Friday) 10:00 AM ~ 12:00 PM
Venue: Online via Zoom
Organizer: Education and Research Unit, Science, Technology, and Innovation Governance (STIG), The University of Tokyo
Co-organizer: SIP’s (Strategic Innovation Promotion Program on Technologies for Smart Bioindustry and Agriculture) consortium for public understanding (Masashi Tachikawa and Makiko Matsuo, in charge of overseas regulatory trends)
Number of participants: 42
● Program
– Explanation of purpose and overview of previous session: Makiko Matsuo, The University of Tokyo
(1) Overview of the government road map for the bioeconomy strategy: Sachiko Mori, counselor to the Director General for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, Cabinet Office
(2) Development of bioeconomies in the healthcare field: Koichi Matsuda, Assistant Director to the Counselor, Office of Healthcare Policy, Cabinet Secretariat
(3) Development of bio-communities to activate the bioeconomies: Wakana Ishii, Director General, Life Science Division, Office for Bioethics and Biosafety, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)
– Discussion
● Session report
In the beginning of this session, the moderator (Makiko Matsuo, The University of Tokyo) shared the purpose of this study session and the overview of the previous session, and then had each speaker present their topic.
First, Sachiko Mori, counselor to the Director General for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, Cabinet Office gave an overview of the finalized version of the market area measures for the bioeconomy strategy developed in January 2021. The Bioeconomy Strategy 2020 consists of two stages: the foundational measures (cross-disciplinary measures) developed in June last year, and the finalized version of these market area measures. This finalized version consists of 2030 market scale target, challenges, and initiatives for the three areas ((1) bio manufacturing; (2) primary industries, etc.; (3) health/medicine). The plan is said to target a total overall market scale of 92 trillion yen by 2030. Next, Hirokazu Matsuda, Office of Healthcare Policy, Cabinet Secretariat explained the position (strengths, weaknesses, and characteristics) of Japan in its pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical markets, which are a prerequisite to discussing about bioeconomies in the healthcare field. He then reported on the healthcare strategy (period 2: five years from 2020 to 2024) and the market targets, etc. of the bioeconomic strategy. Lastly, Wakana Ishii, Director General, Life Science Division, Office for Bioethics and Biosafety, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), gave a report on MEXT’s efforts to form bio-communities. She explained that in the foundational measures of the bioeconomy strategy, it is important to form global and local communities, and that MEXT is promoting programs such as one that supports the formation of co-creative platforms (which is not a program that specializes in biology, but covers various topics including quantum mechanics).