Special Lecture Series for I-House Members
Starting from 2019, the International House of Japan (I-House) is holding special lecture series exclusively for our members, inviting world-renowned individuals as guest speakers. Following each talk, there will be a reception for all participants to deepen friendships among one another.
【Special Lecture Series for Members】Look: How to Pay Attention in a Distracted World
- Speaker: Christian Madsbjerg
- Moderator: Ryoji Noritake
- Date: Wednesday, March 5, 2025, 6:30-8:40 pm (including reception)
- Venue: Iwasaki Koyata Memorial Hall
- Language: Japanese and English (with simultaneous interpretation)
- Audience: I-House members and members of related organizations. *related organizations: Asia society, Health and Global Policy Institute(HGPI), The Value Creation Forum for the 21st Century *Members may be accompanied by their guests.
- Admission: 5,000 yen/person (registration required, drinks and light meal will be provided.)
Christian Madsbjerg
Christian Madsbjerg is an author, entrepreneur, and academic who works on the practical and commercial application of the human sciences.
He is the co-founder of the anthropology-based global consulting firm ReD Associates, where he was an advisor to executive teams in some of the world’s largest companies on strategy questions based on empirical, organized observation of the human world. Madsbjerg was a professor of applied humanities at the New School in New York City and focused his teaching on twentieth-century continental philosophy.
His books Look: How to Pay Attention in a Distracted World, Sensemaking: The Power of the Humanities in the Age of the Algorithm, and The Moment of Clarity (with Mikkel Rasmussen) have been translated into 15 languages, including Japanese. Sensemaking was a bestseller in Japan. He is the chairman of the board at the world-class architectural firm Bjarke Ingels Group, non-executive director at Fritz Hansen A/S, independent director and chair of the Nomination and Governance Committee at the Metals Company (Nasdaq: TMC), and a member of the US board of Kvadrat A/S. He also serves as a director of the Revs Institute, a design museum and research institute in Florida.
Madsbjerg’s work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Washington Post, Der Spiegel, Atlantic, and Economist, among many other publications.
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Ryoji Noritake
Ryoji Noritake is chair of the Health and Global Policy Institute (HGPI), a Tokyo-based independent and nonprofit health policy think tank established in 2004.
He also served as the Asia-Pacific lead for Project HOPE, a US-based medical humanitarian aid organization. Through HOPE and HGPI, he has led health system strengthening projects in the Asia-Pacific region and engaged in the US Navy’s medical humanitarian projects. His focus is on using a multi-sectoral approach to address health issues, such as through public-private partnerships and civil-military coordination.
He was a member of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s Policy Discussion Roundtable for Super Ageing Society (2018) and served as a visiting scholar at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (2016–20). He is currently serving as a member of the World Dementia Council (WDC) and the Salzburg Global Seminar’s Advisory Council, an Advisory Board member of Elsevier Atlas, and is engaged in the Dementia Innovation Alliance of the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), Japan.
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He was awarded the 32nd Takemi Incentive Award in 2022. He is a graduate of Keio University’s Faculty of Policy Management and holds an MSc in medical anthropology from the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands.
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