PM360 asked Peter Sonnenreich about the place many people in pharma can’t stop returning to.
Peter Sonnenreich
President & CEO, Kikaku America International
My Odyssey: This past July and August my family and I visited Japan. Something I found particularly exciting was visiting the Yakuso Shrine, which is dedicated to the god of medicine and is located in Fukutoku no Mori, surrounded by the skyscrapers of Nihonbashi. Behind this shrine is Takeda Pharmaceuticals’ main office building. This area of Nihonbashi has been home to many wholesalers dealing in healthcare since the Edo period, and even today is said to be a “medicine town” where the headquarters of pharmaceutical companies are located.
The shrine is not only visited by people in the pharmaceutical industry, but by many worshipers as it’s said to have blessings for health and recovery from illness. Imagine, if you will, you have a Phase III drug and you want to pray it will get approved by the FDA or the Japanese equivalent of the FDA. Then you might want to throw a few Japanese coins into a box at the shrine, clap your hands a few times, and hope for a quick approval.
My Recommendation: You need to spend a few days in Kyoto to see all of the beautiful pagodas, shrines, and gardens from many different centuries. Do not miss visiting the Iwatayama Monkey Park, which is easily accessible by public bus or train. It boasts about 120 snow monkeys, which are also called Japanese Macaque. They are native to Japan, and, yes, these are the type of monkeys seen in iconic photos in which they’re bathing at hot springs in winter.
Across the river from the snow monkeys is Kyoto’s westernmost district of Arashiyama, which has been a local getaway for hundreds of years. Stepping into the Sagano Bamboo Forest, you enter a peaceful landscape for summer retreats due to the cooling effect of the dense ocean of green-hued stalks with a pedestrian path that cuts through to several temples and shrines that rest in the foothills of the surrounding mountains.
Clockwise from the top left: Peter’s son, Justin, with a Japanese snow monkey. Peter in Fukutoku no Mori at the Yakuso Shrine dedicated to the god of medicine. In Nara, deer are considered sacred creatures that many tourists pay worship to by giving them snacks or cookies. Peter and his family in front of Tōdai-ji Temple, which was one of the largest building projects ever on Japanese soil back in the 740s.
Also, take a 45-minute subway ride from Kyoto to visit one of the most historically and culturally significant cities of Japan, Nara. The city is overrun by over a thousand deer, which have been revered in Shinto as sacred beings for centuries. Nara dates back to the early 8th century, staking its claim as the first permanent capital of Japan. Nowadays, tourists mainly flock to Nara to pay worship to these sacred creatures, in the form of giving them nutritious snacks or cookies and then fleeing in terror as a dozen more surround you in search of their own treats. One of Nara’s most iconic landmarks is Tōdai-ji Temple, which dates back to 752 and houses a massive bronze Buddha statue, Daibutsu, which is one of the largest in the world.
