Message from the Founder

Mind-set needed for the 21st Century

Gazing at the Ocean after the World War II

Whenever I see young people heading for Shonan Ocean carrying surfboards, memories of ocean snap back to me unexpectedly and trigger various other memories.

I truly enjoyed summer in my boyhood. I would hop on to my bicycle and rush to the beach. I was tossed about by strong mid-summer wave. The strong wave would try to carry me off-shore. It was such a wonderful feeling to lie down on the hot sand when I finally reached back to the shore after much struggle with waves.

At the end of the summer, right after the war ended, I sat on the sand dune and stared at the waves lapping the shore. The Sagami Bay was filled blackly with the U.S. battleships. In the postwar times of ruin and hunger, my generation lived and worked feverishly.

Behavior Just Based on Money Value

More than sixty years have passed after the defeat. Today, I see how much economical wealth Japanese have obtained, and I am amazed at this achievement. However, I also feel frustrated that this economical wealth is not directly linked to the spiritual wealth of people and true happiness.

Through my experience of daily life and looking at the behavior of politicians and business people in the news, I feel disgusted more and more by the fact that many people seem to act based on money value and insist on one’s opinion without considering other’s feeling.

Reasonable Behavior with “Omoiyari”

Japanese word “Omoiyari” means to be thoughtful of others. This way of thinking is essential in conservation of nature and maintenance of ecosystem. Humans have been trying to improve the living standard by communicating, utilizing, and changing the nature since time immemorial.

If we keep using the scientific technology without giving any restriction, it is easy to imagine that we would encounter a number of situations which we could only call it as destruction of nature. In order to move forward in the maintenance of irreplaceable nature and conservation of the global environment, humans are asked to act reasonably based on the mind to be thoughtful of others.

Hiroshi OKAZAKI
Founder
Global Environmental Forum

作成日：2017年02月01日 16時43分
更新日：2019年09月22日 08時36分