Strategic Planning Bureau

I. Office of Government Affairs, Strategic Planning Bureau

Tatsuya Suzuki, Tatsunori Shimoi, Nobuko Ushirozawa, Natsuko Okita, Hirokazu Takahashi, Yuta Amatatsu, Toshio Miyata

The Team and What We Do

 Our team monitors relevant governmental committees and conferences, reporting updates to the board of directors, director’s meeting, and the center-wide management meeting.

Education

 Through secondments to and from central governmental agencies and affiliated organizations, including the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, our staff gain expertise on policy monitoring and advocacy.

Future Prospects

 Working with individual units, we will strengthen the center’s advocacy, responding to policy formation processes on the part of the government, as appropriate.

II. Office of Public Relations, Strategic Planning Bureau

Takaaki Tsuchida, Miyako Horikoshi, Ochi Natsumi, Yumi Kitada, Reiko Uokawa, Toru Kishida, Shin Kobayashi, Reina Kyo, Yuka Takahashi

Introduction

 The Office of Public Relations has been organized as one branch of the Strategic Planning Bureau Director-General, which was assigned as a public section under the supervision of the president of the National Cancer Center (NCC) in April 2013. A full-time staff member was newly assigned to the Office of Public Relations in April 2014. Our work includes management of the NCC website (https://www.ncc.go.jp) and SNS (Facebook, YouTube), publication of reports, coverage and delivery of press conferences and press releases. By sharing the mission and vision between staff members throughout the NCC, we provide information about the NCC’s most outstanding activities in cancer care, research, screening, prevention, and policy making.

Our Team and What We Do

 During weekly meetings of the Office of Public Relations, we perform prompt decision making regarding the public relations policy and share information about our tasks using a TV conference system between the Tsukiji and Kashiwa campuses. We receive information on the publicity work from each department, and draft a publication plan. In addition, through the distribution of the intramural information for staff members in the NCC, we share vital messages via e-mail, bulletin board, and/or information magazine to facilitate communication between the staff and executives. We distribute information promptly by publishing and sharing press releases, press conferences, and seminars about novel treatment, research activity and notable accomplishments within the NCC and elsewhere.

- Website and SNS improvement and updates

- Public information magazine “The National Cancer Center News”: for external hospitals, academia, research institutions, and administrative agencies

- Public information magazine “hibiho”: for patients in the NCC Hospital (NCCH) and the NCC Hospital East (NCCHE)

- Support for events, seminars, and public information

- Media support at press conferences, press releases, and media coverage

 We held 14 press conferences and published 57 press releases. The total number of media coverage was 1,529.

Future Prospects

 It is important to make the NCC website attractive, useful and accessible. It is also important to advance public relations activities. All staff share the NCC mission and move in the same direction.

III. Development, Office of Public Relations, Strategic Planning Bureau

Chie Matsuda, Atsushi Takano, Maiko Tanahashi, Kimiko Oka

What We Do

 We receive limited funding from the Japanese Government, which accounts for below 10% of our total cash inflow. Currently, the NCC’s main sources of cash flow are revenues from medical services, cancer research, and clinical trials. It is vital to diversify revenue sources to make the NCC’s financial position stable over the long term. As one of the alternatives, we look for sustainable growth in donation revenue from the NCC supporters.

What We Achieved in FY2022

 The donation revenue for FY2022 was ¥328 mn, with a total of 1,343 donations. Although it was a slight decrease compared to the previous fiscal year, we achieved over ¥300 mn for the second consecutive year. It has shown an increasing trend generally since FY2015, both in value and numbers, apart from FY2018. In FY2018, a major legacy gift (¥190mn) was received and also one crowdfunding was successfully completed. The main factors for the revenue growth are as follows:

1. Diversification in the donors’ portfolio, from the NCCH/NCCHE patients to other sectors      

2. An increase in legacy gifts

What We will Do - Priorities in FY2023

 We will focus on the following measures:

1. To further diversify the donors’ portfolio, from the NCCH/NCCHE patients to all those who support the NCC’s vision, “Don’t get cancer, not be beaten by cancer, and live with cancer.” We will continue to conduct publicity about the reason why we need funding and how it is spent, with the launch of “The National Cancer Center Foundation” in 2020.

2. To encourage legacy giving for future cancer research from senior upper-middle class people who are interested in philanthropy, we will continue to seek collaboration with professionals in that field, including NPOs that support legacy giving, lawyers, tax accountants, and trust banks.

Figure 1.

IV. Office of International Affairs, Strategic Planning Bureau

Tomohiro Matsuda, Kay Ohara, Tomoko Shimmura, Mitsuko Otani, Miwa Tokumoto, Asuka Tsuzuki, Natsuki Tanitame, Kyoko Ito

What We Do

 The NCC’s Office of International Affairs promotes the Center’s international activities through:

1. Personnel exchange with leading medical institutions, nurturing cancer researchers / healthcare professionals, and a global network,

2. Participation in international collaborative cancer research projects, and outreach to the international medical community,

3. Sharing our medical expertise and information with overseas colleagues, with a focus on Asia, advancing cancer care and research in the region, and

4. Engagement with the community at large.

 The Office of International Affairs serves as a conduit to, and supports the abovementioned activities.

1. Collaboration with International Agencies and Nurturing Human Resources

 The Center supports the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s contribution at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health Organization (WHO), such as at the Governing Council. Representation was secured at specialist meetings evaluating carcinogenicity and of prevention at IARC, and an online event to celebrate 50 years of Japan as a participating state was organized. Memoranda of understanding for cooperation were renewed.

 Staff represented the Center at a SUCCESS consortium meeting, the initiative against cervical cancer, and also at the UICC annual meeting.

 Webinars on immuno-oncology continued, coorganized with the French National Cancer Institute (INCa) and French embassy in Japan, and with support from the Kiyoko Goto and Paul Bourdarie Cancer Foundation, an immuno-oncology workshop was organized. During INCa leadership’s visit to Japan, the memorandum of understanding for cooperation was renewed.

 The memorandum of understanding was also renewed with the National Cancer Institute, USA, which was welcomed on the joint statement issued upon the US Presidential visit to Japan. The Deputy Director of the Department for Health and Human Services was also welcomed to our Center in December.

 Memoranda of understanding were concluded with the National Taiwan University Hospital, Mahidol University Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, and Bangkok Dusit Medical Services, and renewed with Mahidol University Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital.

 Virtual conferences were held with Peter MacCallum Cancer Center to discuss future exchanges.

 Staff who participated in joint research was seconded to University of Hawaii Cancer Center for four months, and a surgeon was dispatched to visit hospitals in Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines to develop contacts for future collaboration with rare cancer.

2. Collaborative Medical Research

 The NCC continues its participation in multiple international collaborative research programs and international clinical trials, which logistics the Office of International Affairs supports, whilst serving as a conduit of information between the research teams. More details can be found in other sections within this annual report.

3. Medical Contribution, with a focus on Asia

 As entry restrictions into Japan were relaxed in November 2022, we started accepting new arrivals, and welcomed 46 medical staff from overseas institutions on visits to our two campuses during fiscal year 2022.

 Serving as secretariat to Asian National Cancer Centres Alliance (ANCCA), we organized the annual top level virtual meeting, and coordinated joint research towards developing an Asian code for cancer prevention.

 We welcomed the Presidents of National Cancer Centers of Mongolia and of Korea on campus. Visits were made to the diplomatic missions of India and Viet Nam in Tokyo.

 With the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA), another virtual workshop on multi-regional clinical trials was coorganized for regulatory officers from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation framework. Staff made presentations at webinars for doctors in Tianjin, Jiangsu and Anhui Provinces.

 As part of the initiatives by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), we welcomed palliative care specialists from Palestine, and visitors from Tamil Nadu.

4. External Engagement

 We produced slides to introduce cancer control in Japan in English, and continued issuing a monthly internal newsletter to share information on international engagement, encouraging more staff to take part in global activities.