Melbourne’s Town Hall held Discover Osaka’s Life Sciences Seminar, strengthening the foundations of Melbourne and Osaka’s ongoing sister city relationship. While that was one of the seminar’s main focuses, a number of highly esteemed speakers, including Vice Mayor of Osaka, Seigo Tanaka, made various presentations about Osaka’s business environment, upcoming major projects, urban development and the various feats that have been achieved due to Osaka’s strong life science and medical hubs.
The event kicked off with a welcome speech from Vice Mayor Tanaka, and was followed by Ms Katrina McKenzie, Melbourne’s Director of City Economy and Activation and Ms. Keiko Haneda, Consul General at the Melbourne’s Consulate General of Japan. Welcoming the attendees and the guest speakers who were to follow them.
First to make their presentation, Vice Mayor Tanaka, introduced “Discover Osaka” and Osaka’s Business Environment and future major projects and urban development. He touched on matters such as Osaka’s economic capabilities and scales as well as introducing the concentration of areas that focus on the innovation of biomedicine, life sciences and pharmaceutical products as the Kansai area on its own releases the same volume of pharmaceutical products as the Kanto region, despite having different population volumes.
He also showcased the current projections for the second stage of the urban development project “Umekita” in the hopes of regenerating the Kansai region. The first stage was completed three years ago, and focused on increasing office spaces, hotel facilities and apartments. A section of the development labelled the Osaka Innovation Hub, which invites individuals with varies sets of skills and knowledge capabilities, to discuss and share ideas, find any extent of information and observe research exhibitions and try their hand at the activities available in each of the various sections of the hub.
The second stage, however, is still in development and is expected to be completed sometime during 2027. It focuses on “Midori” (greenery) and innovation to create an appeal and competitiveness that will attract people from over the world and lead the way for new ideas and progression.
The addition of “Midori”, in particular, is not only great for the environment, but provides more space for people to gather, be active and enjoy the company.
The next to speak was Tsuneaki Sakata, Ph.D., Vice Chairman of the Life Science Industry Promotion Committee at the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI), who focused on the Medical-Polis Initiative. He introduced the OCCI, its research development and capabilities, and touched on the needs in advancement of Pharmaceuticals and integrated community-based care systems due to the issue regarding Japan’s rapidly ageing population. In addition, he expressed the desire to collaborate with Melbourne colleagues.
Biomedical Research Victoria’s CEO, Jan Tennent spoke next, detailing her experiences with the OCCI and the various conventions and forums she participated in during her time in Osaka, including the Melbourne-Osaka Information Exchange Forum and Medical Japan 2015. She described Osaka as a world leader in biomedicine. She also told stories of personal interactions with the people she met through her work and these events, she also outlined the upcoming events related to biomedicine and life sciences in the near future. Early December will see a visit to Melbourne from Osaka University and from December 2016 to January 2017, two students from Monash University will be undertaking the Osaka University Medical Frontier Program, while January to February will see two students come down to Monash University to undertake a program of their own.
Last to speak was Associate Director of the Life Science Industry Division, Yutaka Kono, who gave an overview of Life Science Industries in Osaka. He introduced the status of life science industries in Osaka and the types of research that researchers in the Kansai area have delved into. These researchers had focused their studies on regenerative medicine and biotechnologies.
Another point he made was explaining one of the reasons why the Kansai area has such a strong life science development background, this being that their procedures for drug discovery, development, all the way to commercialisation are very well supported, in order for people experiencing certain medical conditions that haven’t been able to receive easy treatment or relief up until a drug’s release to be able to acquire those sooner.
Kono finished off his presentation discussing the Life Science Industry Divisions methods, such as working with businesses, academia and the government to further develop and promote Osaka’s life science sector.
The presentations were followed by a brief Q&A session and a networking event which the Deputy Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Susan Riley opened and greeted the guests who had traveled from Japan.
Deputy Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Susan Riley
During the networking event, we managed to get a brief interview with Vice Mayor Tanaka, who described Melbourne as being a beautiful city that is worthy of being considered the most liveable city in the world, but of course agreed that Japan was a wonderful place to live too. Vice Mayor Tanaka likened Melbourne’s Swanston Street to the beautiful Midosuji Street in Osaka, which was an honour. He was a really nice guy.
It was a great opportunity to speak with Japanese guests from various companies and fields of study and work. Each speech was as inspiring as it was insightful into Osaka’s strong connection and developments in life sciences and biomedicine.
Makoto Nishie (Osaka City Planning Bureau), Yoshitaka Saga (Osaka Gas), Junichi Azuma (Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry)
Hiroyuki Tahara (JETRO), Isao Oshima (Naniwa Rubber CO., Ltd), Ryoichi Nakano (Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry)
Yu Liang (Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry), Associate Director of the Life Science Industry Division, Yutaka Kono
