Nisuke ANDO
(Professor, Faculty of Law, Kyoto University)
I would like to explain briefly about the objective of this forum, but first, let me express my deepest gratitude to the lecturers and panelists of this symposium from abroad and Japan and to all those who cooperated to bring about this forum as well as all those who came here to participate in it. As the 21st century is drawing near, the Asia-Pacific Region is confronted by the great problem of how to cope with the coming century. We already see some active efforts to cope with the new century at the government-to-government level as shown in APEC or ASEAN and so forth. Needless to say, however, at the private level, and at our own level, too, it is important to think about how to cope with the new age. The aim of this symposium is to discuss how to cope with the problem from various aspects. In particular, Japan is in a unique position as it is a member of Asia and yet has very close relations with the Western world. Therefore it is very important for us, the Japanese, to think of how to cope with the pending problems of the 21st century with our fellow Asians, taking into account our unique position. The Osaka International House Foundation started preparation of the symposium two years ago. I was appointed as a chairperson of the preparatory group which held several meetings to prepare for this symposium. It is an extremely important task to establish a system for the exchange of information among Asian peoples and to build specific cooperative relations based on exchanged information.
This task is meaningful not only for the Asian Region but ail for other parts of the world, and even for the future of all of mankind. That is why we decided to hold this international forum, "Asia - Looking to the Future". Please see your programme for the details of the conference. First, we will have two keynote speeches; the first is by Mr. Teofisto Guingona of the Republic of the Philippines. The title of his speech is "Asia - Looking to the Future" and the second is by Professor Masakazu Yamazaki of the University of East Asia. The title of his speech is "Modernization in the 21st Century: Asia as a Member of the Pacific Community". Based on the keynote speeches, we will have four sessions of discussion. First, we will discuss what Asia means. We use the term, "Asia", as if we know everything about Asia, but to look at Asia from a geographical or historical point of view is very important. So, the first theme for discussion is "What is Asia?" Based on that discussion, the next discussion theme is globalization. There we will discuss the influence of globalization in the conventional framework of Asian culture and in the framework of Asian economies which is now a pressing problem. The following theme is how to build future international relations in Asia. Then, after these four sessions, tomorrow afternoon, we discuss what actions Asia should take for future. There is one thing I have to apologize for. When we think of Asia and of the future of mankind, we must not forget our neighbor, China. We tried hard to invite some Chinese people to this symposium through various channels but were not successful for various reasons. However, we will not be able to reach any definite conclusion at this conference.
Its purpose is to give some hints to people when they think of various emerging problems. Sometime we hope to invite participants from China and hold a more comprehensive symposium. We are looking forward to a lively exchange of opinions and suggestions based on the panelists' talks. Thank you very much for your cooperation.
