Japanese Government honours Professor Baron Peter Piot KCMG

On Tuesday 6 November 2018, His Majesty the Emperor bestowed the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun on Professor Peter Piot at the Imperial Palace, in recognition of his significant contribution to promoting Japan’s efforts in the field of global health.
 
Professor Piot is a microbiologist widely known around the world for his research into Ebola and HIV/AIDS. In addition, he served as the first Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under Secretary-General of the United Nations, and has been Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine since 2010. He has received a number of awards in the field of global health, including the 2nd Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize for Medical Research in 2013.
 
The Government of Japan has actively cooperated towards the fight against AIDS. Since UNAIDS was established, Japan has participated in UNAIDS as a member of Programme Coordinating Board, and has regularly provided personnel from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. As part of this, Professor Piot provided strong leadership and worked to promote global fight against AIDS, committed to Japan’s human resource development for health. 
 
In addition, Professor Piot has been a board member of the Global Health Innovative Technology Fund (GHIT), a pharmaceutical research and development fund that is a Japanese government initiative since its founding in 2015. Using his experience and insights he contributed significantly to building the foundations of this Fund. From 2015, as Vice-Chair of the Board, he has played a key role in the decision making for GHIT.  
 
Professor Piot worked as an adviser for an expert advisory group to consider the global health strategy for the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, and he also contributed to the formulation of the proposal to the G7 Summit as well as to the Japan’s agenda setting and increasing its presence for the G7.
 
As Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Professor Piot has promoted research cooperation over many years between LSHTM and Nagasaki University. He has also set up a joint degree programme between the universities, the first for either institution since their formation, helping to drive forward Japan-UK cooperation in research and development in the field of public health.
 

Following the ceremony of conferment in Tokyo, Ambassador Tsuruoka celebrated Professor Piot’s remarkable achievements with a dinner on 19 February 2019, and looked ahead to even greater friendship between Japan and the UK.