The Institute of Global Safety Promotion (IGSAP) and NIKKEI BP Intelligence Group held the ITpro EXPO 2017 associated project “The ‘Safety Revolution’ in the IoT/AI Era — Thinking about the Future of Safety in Japan with Global Leading Companies as the Benchmark,” on October 13, 2017. The symposium took place in the Conference Tower Reception Hall at Tokyo Big Sight, where NIKKEI BP Intelligence Group holds its great event “ITpro EXPO 2017.” A variety of visitors attend “ITpro EXPO,” a general enterprise ICT event, from corporate top management and information system department personnel, to key persons from system using departments (sales, planning, general affairs department etc.), system integrators and consultants. The project began by attracting nearly 150 attendants who were especially interested in safety.
First, Mr. Yoshiyuki Tanaka, the president of DuPont K.K. Japan, which is known as a global benchmark company for safety, took the podium and shared the secret to implementing the safe management systems that the company has continuously built.
Next, two panel discussions were held.
The first theme was “Why the British Construction Industry has the World’s Best Safety Record.” The number of annual fatalities per 100,000 people in Britain’s construction industry is less than 2, which is about one-third that of Japan. What makes their safety record so superior? Mr. Nic Rigby, HM Principal Inspector, International Unit, Health and Safety Executive (HSE), was invited from the U.K., and the reason behind it was uncovered with the help of Mr. Isao Adachi, Director of the Institute of Global Safety Promotion, accompanied by Mr. Takashi Kawata, a member of IGSAP Safety Executive Committee, and executive officer, Civil Engineering Technology, Shimizu Corporation, and Mr. Toru Sugimoto, Associate Executive Officer Manager, QSE Office, JGC Corporation.
Mr. Nic Rigby / Mr. Takashi Kawata / Mr. Toru Sugimoto
Mr. Nic Rigby / Dr. Masao Mukaidono / Dr. Hiroyuki Takaoka / Mr. Shoken Shimizu
The theme of the second panel discussion was “Thinking about the Future of Safety.” The discussion was moderated by Dr. Toshihiro Fujita, Director of the Institute of Global Safety Promotion, and Mr. Rigby, Dr. Masao Mukaidono, Chairman of the Institute of Global Safety Promotion, Dr. Hiroyuki Takaoka, Official Expert, Management System Audit Center, Japan Industrial Safety & Health Association (JISHA), and Mr. Shoken Shimizu, Senior Researcher, Mechanical System Safety Research Group, National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Japan (JNIOSH) participated in it. The discussion introduced Vision Zero and the Zero Accident Forum, and the latest approaches in Europe, the continuous overseas research conducted by IGSAP, and safety problems Japanese companies have and how safety ought to be, were also discussed.
This half-day symposium was short but it brought about in-depth discussions looking ahead to the new era of safety.