Discussing that crises are invariably exacerbated by human errors, Mr. Saito also addressed Japan’s continuing lack of crisis preparedness as exemplified by its insufficient response to cyber threats and the recent heavy snow at Yamanashi Prefecture occurred in March. He pointed out that current Japanese education caused fear of failures and emphasized the importance of absorbing failures as shared sets of experience rather than negative mistakes.

Secondly, regarding the establishment of organizational culture and safety culture crucial to the preparation for the unanticipated events and crisis communication, Dr. Jaczko stated “engineers are required to acquire not only specialized techniques but also critical perspectives and approaches”, and Mr. Ito followed that “although scientists tend to be reluctant to make decisions based on uncertain matters, rough and ready is preferable to elaborate perfection in times of crises”. In addition, with regard to human resources development, Dr. Jaczko took NRC as an example in terms of referable organization, addressed the need to encourage individual’s motivation, to possess diversified workers with a variety of skills, and to have flexibility. Mr. Saito also emphasized the importance of “diversity” within the organization to attain response capability of various crises. Furthermore, he emphasized the importance to have a sense of changeability and the “power of   flexibility” so as to modify or fine-tune along the way.
Finally, the facilitator concluded that buildup of framework considering security through technology is essential in order to realize the points that are discussed.

Mr. Niinami first described importance of thoroughly shared cooperate values for leadership and decision-making during crises, stating “it is vital to set a standard which would guide the employees and local stores on decision-making at time of an emergency, and how well the standard is shared among them in advance”.  At the same time, however, he also pointed out that “permeation of such corporate values is not easy” and explained that such efforts for permeation do not yield profits in short-term so that it is difficult to get a consent by employees and stockholders on implementation of those efforts.

He emphasized that permeation of the corporate values in peacetime is the invisible leadership in action.
In regard to the governance, Mr. Niinami argued that the headquarters in Tokyo should never prescribe orders when they are uninformed of local situations, and that decision-making authority must be granted to the locals.

Mr. Howell defined a good leader as an individual who is decisive, sensible and able to observe situations comprehensively. He added that although it is painstaking to find such individual, it is possible to assess quality of leadership by “establishing a holistic personnel evaluation system which allows us to identify leadership quality by how s/he sets the goal and the approach to attain the goal.”

Dr. Funabashi posed a question that whether leaders are cultivated through experiences or born with the quality. In his reply, Mr. Niinami stated that although “innate sense” is important, the culture and the nature of the environment in which one has been brought up determines what kind of a leader one will become, and claimed that “it is important that how early one has trained himself on ‘decision-making on his own’”. He added that “another important criteria for exemplary leadership is that how many life-staking decisions one has made”, emphasizing the essentiality of coaching individuals with decision-making experiences.

During the session, definition of ‘risk’ was discussed proceeded by inability of the Japanese government to deal appropriately with crises due to the inefficient information and Japan’s lack of culture to act decisively on its own. Referring to the recent case of massive snow at Yamanashi prefecture, it was analyzed that Japan’s officials have been unable to perform their possible operations because of these systematic weaknesses. Given such situation, the panelists discussed the pros and cons of the establishment of a “strong and leading government agency such as the U.S. Federation Emergency Management Agency. Furthermore, it was pointed that in order to cultivate leadership during crises, it is crucial to identify priorities as triages by constantly anticipating the ‘worst-case scenarios’. The discussion concluded that for individuals in charge at the local level to maximize their leadership and facilitate communication in the time of crisis, it is essential to conduct regular exercises which prepare for all unexpected events.