Strategic Planning Bureau
I. Office of Government Affairs, Strategic Planning Bureau
Tatsunori Shimoi, Munehiro Ito, Yayoi Ando, Toshio Miyata, Nobuko Ushirozawa, Tatsuya Suzuki
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, Tatsuya Honda, 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 managing 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.
The Team and What We Do
During weekly Office of Public Relations meetings, we make prompt decisions regarding public relations policies and share information about our tasks via 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, by distributing intramural information for staff members in the NCC, we share vital messages via e-mail, bulletin board, and 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 treatments, research activities, and notable accomplishments within the NCC and elsewhere.
The classification was reorganized regarding the information provided to the media, and a system was established to provide more valuable information. As a result, the information supplied to the press totaled 81 cases, an increase of 1.4 times from 57 in the previous year.
In particular, we have strengthened the link between YouTube and our website. In addition, 48 videos on diseases, examination/diagnosis, treatment, and recovery were produced for six types of cancer (testicular, oral, lymphoma, multiple myeloma, liver, and esophageal cancer) and were linked to the official website. Leaflets guiding the videos and the website have also been created to help provide information to patients and promote the use of the website in hospital outpatient clinics.
Since FY2023, hawse have been promoting the use of the YouTube community to strengthen interactive communication. As a result of these efforts, the number of subscribers to the channel has increased 1.6-fold, and the total play time has increased 1.8-fold.
The 60th-anniversary commemorative magazine was completed, and members of the Office of Public Relations were involved in its editing as key members of the secretariat; a roundtable discussion was organized with young staff from various NCC departments, and a special 60th-anniversary issue of "National Cancer Center News" was published.
"Hibiho," a public relations magazine for patients, and "National Cancer Center News" for medical professionals are produced. In fiscal year 2023, the National Cancer Center began publishing "OUR RESEARCH FOCUS," in which researchers themselves report the latest research topics at the institute.
Future Prospects
The Japanese-language website has undergone a series of renovations and is highly regarded. It is desirable to continue to renovate it every few years to meet the needs and changes in society.
In addition, multilingual support should also be considered.
Regarding providing information to society, we would like to establish a system for the Office of Public Relations to provide information to those who need it at the right time.
III. Development, Office of Public Relations, Strategic Planning Bureau
Takaaki Tsuchida, 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 FY2023
The donation revenue for FY2023 was 684 million yen, with a total of 1,493 donations. We achieved our largest ever amount of 600 million yen. 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 FY2024
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.
IV. Office of International Affairs, Strategic Planning Bureau
Tomohiro Matsuda, Kay Ohara, Tomoko Shimmura, Shuichi Tsukijihara, Mitsuko Otani, Miwa Tokumoto, Asuka Tsuzuki, Natsuki Tanitame
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. A memorandum of understanding on collaboration on the Asian Code Against Cancer was also concluded with the IARC, and the WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific visited our Center. The Center also became a founding member of the G7 Cancer initiative.
The Center’s collaboration with the United States and Korea was highlighted on the fact sheet accompanying the joint statement by the three nations’ leaders during the trilateral Japan-US-Korea summit at Camp David. Trilateral discussions on collaboration followed.
We hosted representatives from the National Health Commission of China, as well as the Minister Counsellor of the PRC embassy in Japan. Leadership from Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan, and a mission led by the Health Ministry of Indonesia, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital also visited for good exchanges. A memorandum of understanding was concluded with Chulalongkorn University Faculty of Medicine, memoranda of understanding renewed with National Cancer Hospital of Viet Nam and with National Cancer Institute of Thailand. A number of exchange visits took place with Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.
Staff participating in joint research were seconded to Viet Nam, the United States and France. The European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, the Czech Deputy Prime Minister, Health Minister of Lithuania, Deputy Health Minister of Saudi Arabia, and leadership from the USA Food and Drug Administration of USA visited.
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
We hosted 254 medical staff at our two campuses during fiscal year 2023.
Serving as secretariat to Asian National Cancer Centres Alliance (ANCCA), we organized the annual top level virtual meeting in November and coorganized a multi-regional clinical trial workshop for regulatory officers with the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA) under the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation framework, as well as hosted a visit from the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) of China.
4. External Engagement
We continued editing material on cancer control in Japan, and internally, issued monthly newsletters to share information on international engagement, encouraging more staff to take part in global activities.
Table 1. fy2023 Observership Visits