Two Years of Firsts
Challenges and changes bring a stronger voice for advocacy
Looking back, 2020 was a year unlike any other. For the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) Healthcare Committee, despite starting the year with a clear seat of priorities, the coronavirus pandemic forced us to shift our focus early on. Our advocacy agenda quickly took on the important challenge of ensuring the stable supply of medicines and medical equipment, and what used to be in-person events went fully virtual—a first for the Healthcare Committee.
In another first, the chamber presented the ACCJ Outstanding Achievement Award to Dr. Tatsuya Kondo, who served as chief executive of Japan’s Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency from 2008 to 2019.
We honored him for his significant contributions to improving the Japanese healthcare system and furthering the US–Japan partnership.
The Healthcare Committee also worked with leaders from the financial services and technology sectors to commission a research report focused on the future of health and retirement. It was our first time collaborating across these industries.
“The Healthcare Committee underwent a lot of change in 2020 that has left us stronger and more engaged as a pillar of Japan’s business community."
All these firsts came at a time when healthcare professionals, government, and industry were coming together to fight Covid-19. For all of us, 2020 was a year that marked a lot of change—changes in the way we work, communicate, and engage with one another. Similarly, the Healthcare Committee underwent a lot of change in 2020 that has left us stronger and more engaged as a pillar of Japan’s business community.
Stronger Leadership
As the day-to-day activities of the Healthcare Committee and its subcommittees evolved over the past few years, our leadership structure had become ineffective in serving the needs of our member companies. So, at the end of the year, we made the decision to dissolve our five subcommittees and welcome active leaders from those groups into the Healthcare Committee leadership. And in an effort to diversify our leadership and support the development of new leaders, Mark Kawai was appointed co-chair. Several other leaders also joined.
This new Healthcare Committee leadership is one of our most diverse yet, with voices from US- and Europe-based pharmaceutical and medical device companies as well as Japanese academia. We are also very proud to have achieved the chamber’s goal of having more than 30 percent of our leadership positions filled by women.
In 2021, we expect this new structure and our new leaders to support us in engaging an even broader base of committee members and member companies.
Looking Forward
The agenda for 2021 will bring us another year of firsts. At the end of 2020, we took the opportunity to solicit the feedback of committee members to help guide our priorities for the coming year. Overwhelmingly, our members said they look to the Healthcare Committee to drive effective advocacy on such issues as:
Digital health
Japan’s aging society
Chronic diseases
To do this, we are committed to driving four key strategic priorities:
Maintaining a robust speaker pipeline.
Releasing our new health policy white paper.
Building on successful efforts to support digital transformation.
Continuing to expand our work under the ACCJ’s Health and Retirement pillar.
A committee’s success is entirely dependent on the engagement of its members, so we are striving this year to broaden our reach inside and outside the chamber. We look forward to working together with member companies to drive an agenda that meets their strategic business needs.
John Carlson
Mark Kawai
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THE JOURNAL
Vol. 58 Issue 2
A flagship publication of The American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ), The ACCJ Journal is a business magazine with a 58-year history.
Christopher Bryan Jones, Publisher & Editor
