Governor Yuji Kuroiwa was inaugurated as Governor of Kanagawa Prefecture in 2011 after previously working as a journalist and professor. He has won re-election 3 times. Now in his fourth term, he has made Kanagawa Prefecture a model for healthy aging policy in Japan and around the globe through his Health Care New Frontier policy package. He has strongly promoted the pursuit of cutting-edge medicine, improvement ofME-BYO, and practical use of life-assist robotics for nursing care and medical care. Kanagawa has been selected as the only prefecture among the 47prefectures in Japan for both the “SDGs Future City” and “Local Government SDGsModel Project” initiatives. Governor Kuroiwa is the only local Government executive to be named Healthcare Policy Advisor (2013) and member of the Robot Revolution Realization Council (2014) by the Japanese Cabinet Secretariat. Governor Kuroiwa is a graduate of Waseda University.
Key policies and accomplishments
- Governor Kuroiwa presented to the world his policy package of Health Care New Frontier, which aimed to overcome the issue arising from a super-aged society. Kanagawa became the only prefecture whose whole area was designated as National Strategic Special Zone by the national government. He strongly promoted pursuit of cutting-edge medicine, improvement of ME-BYO, and practical use of life-assist robot for nursing care and medical care.
- Governor Kuroiwa held ME-BYO Summit Kanagawa 2015 in Hakone and adopted the ME-BYO Summit Kanagawa Declaration, which suggested the direction of our future efforts for establishing new social system.
- Governor Kuroiwa launched operation of Life Innovation Center (LIC), the world’s largest-scale base of industrialization in the field of regenerative medicine and cell therapy, in the Tonomachi district, Kawasaki City.
- Governor Kuroiwa had a meeting with Dr. Margaret Chan, Director General of WHO, and signed an agreement on partnership in the field of aging and health.
- Kanagawa was selected as the only prefecture among the 47 prefectures in Japan for both “SDGs Future City” and “Local Government SDGs Model Project”. Kanagawa made “Kanagawa Zero Plastic Waste Declaration” as part of its advanced measures to achieve SDGs.
- The spread of ME-BYO concept has been accelerated. ME-BYO was stated in the MOU concluded between Japanese and Indian governments, for the first time in diplomatic documents.
- Governor Kuroiwa disseminated “Declaration on SDGs JAPAN MODEL” to the world in the High-level Political Forum (HLPF) held at the UN Headquarters. He established the poverty countermeasures headquarters to support children, women, and people in loneliness and isolation, promoted Food Drive activity, etc.
- Governor Kuroiwa promoted measures for the Healthcare New Frontier policy, working on human resource development in School of Health Innovation for medical and healthcare improvement, creation of “ME-BYO Index” to quantify the state of ME-BYO, etc. Governor Kuroiwa also transmitted his concept of “Vibrant Inochi” and Kanagawa Prefectural Government (K.P.G.)’s COVID-19 measures based on the concept to the world in the official session of HLPF.
- Governor Kuroiwa has implemented various measures against COVID-19 since the arrival of Diamond Princess at the Port of Yokohama. He formulated over 40 “Kanagawa Models”, including new medical treatment provision scheme to prevent collapse of healthcare. He won the eighth Platinum Award for the advanced anti-virus measures of K.P.G.
