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On September 29, Dr. Muhammad Yunus, Managing Director of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, visited Hokkaido University and received an honorary doctorate from HU President Dr. Saeki. Dr. Yunus was deemed deserving of public commendation by HU for his outstanding contribution to academic and cultural development. Dr. Yunus developed microcredit programs aimed at helping the poor support themselves, and has since promoted activities designed to eradicate poverty both at home and abroad as the Managing Director of the Grameen Bank, which he founded. His worldwide promotion of this novel program and his significant contribution to poverty eradication have earned praise in various fields, and he has received a number of international accolades including the Ramon Magsaysay Award (often dubbed Asia's Nobel Prize), the World Food Prize, the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, the Planetary Consciousness Business Innovation Prize awarded by the Club of Budapest and the Nikkei Asia Prize. In 2006, he was also awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In a lecture meeting after the conferment ceremony, he talked about how he had come to practice support for the impoverished after becoming a university professor, and outlined the recent activities of the Grameen Bank and other related matters. His speech was followed by a lively Q&A session with participants that lasted about an hour. On the same day, a joint symposium on microfinance hosted by Hokkaido University and the Hokkaido Shimbun Press was held at Doshin Hall. The symposium, based on the theme of Striving to Create a Poverty-free Society, welcomed Dr. Yunus as a speaker and was held with an eye to involving the general public in considering the use of microfinance in efforts to eradicate poverty. The event attracted more than 700 people, and exceeded the capacity of the venue. The symposium began with a keynote speech by Dr. Yunus regarding microfinance and social business. He explained, "The causes of poverty lie not with individual people but with economic and social systems and policies. Poverty can be eliminated by changing systems and policies. We should make a world in which poverty exists only in museums." After his speech, a panel discussion took place with Dr. Masahiro Kan, a former professor at HU's Public Policy School (HOPS), as facilitator. Other than Dr. Yunus, local panelists were: the Governor of Hokkaido, Harumi Takahashi, the President of the Federation of the Hokkaido Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Iwao Takamuki, and the Dean of Hokkaido University's Faculty of Public Policy, Dr. Kenichi Nakamura. A Q&A session with the audience followed the panel discussion, and a lively exchange of opinion took place.
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