problem in promoting extensive corporate activities and various types of investment. It is quite natural for industrial countries to operate business, seeking higher profits. Understandably, armaments are necessary. Still, everything should he well balanced.
Fundamentally, some untouched situations remain in the world. They have not been addressed at all.
Meanwhile, the environment continues to degrade.
Fujita: These problems cannot be solved by the present generation only. We should narrow the gap between generations. In this context, we should address these problems from a multifaceted approach. Some proposals have been presented regarding measures to be taken to deal with these global issues.
I would like to ask other panelists to discuss these measures later.
Next, I would like to ask Mr. Okazaki to present his views.
Mr. Hisahiko OKAZAKI
Okazaki: I understand the first question relates to "problems in the current global system" and "world situation in a post-sovereign state era," as shown on the panel there.
Talking about the present global system, Europe is surely in the post-sovereign state era. The EU has operated steadily to integrate Europe. Borders have become meaningless. In Europe, the threat of a large-scale war will be gone in the foreseeable future.
When there is a threat of war, the primary responsibility of a state is to protect the state and its people. In such a situation, the state cannot care about environmental issues and the like. If people die in the war, global degradation 50 years ahead will not matter at all. The government should ensure the safety of people first and foremost. In Europe, however, the threat of war has gone far away. During the Cold War era, the largest threat was the Soviet Union. But, the threat went far eastward (across the Vistula River, where Soviet Union bordered on Poland) in 1989, when the Berlin Wall was removed As a result, the throat of the Soviet Union retreated figuratively approximately 150 years. Then two years later, the Soviet Union collapsed and went to the east of the Donieper River. By this, the threat drew back 300 veers. Therefore, the threat of war has almost gone in Europe.
Though the threat of Germany occurred twice in the past, Germany has now become a pacifist nation like Japan. We cannot imagine that Germany would provoke a war. A pacifist nation may be changed by foreign threat. However, there is no threat now of
