Japan, he said, is home to more Stanford alumni than any other Asian country, and when the university’s doors first opened in 1891, the pioneer class included a Japanese student. Currently, 139 students from Japan are enrolled at Stanford.
Shultz, who knew Abe’s parents, shared recollections of poignant moments between Abe’s politically prominent family and his own.
Abe joined a roundtable discussion after his speech with Michael McFaul, director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; Stanford Board of Trustees Chair Steve Denning; Stanford School of Medicine Dean Lloyd Minor; Stanford political science Professor Emeritus Daniel Okimoto; Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang; and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, among other scholars and dignitaries. He also met with Stanford students before leaving campus.
Afterward, McFaul said in an email, “I think it is fantastic that Prime Minister Abe came to Stanford and Silicon Valley after his very successful visit to Washington. He demonstrated that deepening U.S.-Japanese relations requires not only strong government-to-government ties, but also deepening ties between our societies, including educational institutions like Stanford.”
Abe’s state visit to the United States this week included the first address by a Japanese leader to a joint session of Congress. Abe served as prime minister of Japan in 2006-07 and returned to the position in 2012.
‘Working together’ On Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama said after a meeting with Abe that the two countries had made progress in trade talks on a massive 12-nation trade deal that would open markets around the Pacific Rim to U.S. exports. Both nations face domestic political obstacles to concluding the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.
“This agreement would expand the coverage of the free trade agreements for both Japan and the U.S. substantially,” said Stanford economist Takeo Hoshi, director of the Japan Program at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, in an interview. “The U.S. and Japan have been working together to maintain peace and sustain economic growth in the Pacific Asia.”
Hoshi said that Abe’s visit to the Silicon Valley confirms that Japan is serious about transforming its economy from one based on exports to one focused on innovations.
“Going forward, we can learn a lot from Japanese experience and their reform attempts,” said Hoshi, who is also a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute.
Stanford Biodesign Founded in 2001, Stanford Biodesign has pioneered a new training methodology in which interdisciplinary teams of engineers and physicians go through a rigorous process of carefully characterizing unsolved clinical needs before jumping to technology solutions.
For the Japan Biodesign program, the bulk of the educational activities will take place at the campuses of the partner Japanese universities.
