In closing the WMU Sasakawa Fellows Forum, I would like to thank you for your cooperation on behalf of the Forum Secretariat.

　

　This Forum would not have been realized without financial backing from the Nippon Foundation, one of whose major activities is the bringing up of capable persons around the world. Please bear this fact in your mind. I would like to join you in expressing our sincerest thanks to the Nippon Foundation.

　

　Mr. Yohei Sasakawa, chairman of the Friends of WMU, Japan, emphasizes that the follow-up of the graduate fellows is important. This Forum is regarded as the beginning of such follow-up work. Nowadays an enormous amount of information is exchanged daily. Nonetheless, it seems to be becoming all the more difficult to obtain truly useful information and cultivate a real friendship. This Forum aimed at thinking about the possibility of exchanging information and creating a network to maintain friendship based on the ties that originated in university life at Malmo. I am convinced that the purpose of the Forum was well achieved, and the results of the Forum have crystallized into the Tokyo Appeal.

　

　However, the Fellows' Network has just started. Much work will await us. We, SOF, would like to proceed step by step to combine local networks together that will be operated independently and voluntarily in respective member countries. It is quite natural that active local networks will draw attention of Mr. Sasakawa and SOF.

　

　After this session, I will immediately deliver the Tokyo Appeal to Mr. Sasakawa.

　

　Lastly, I would like to ask a favor of you. A large number of letters from you have reached Mr. Sasakawa since this spring. Reading all the letters, he allowed our staff members to look at them, too. These letters made us conscious of the importance of the support to WMU, encouraging us to go on with preparations of this Forum. I am looking forward to not only your contributions to the newsletters and the homepage, but also your occasional personal letters to Mr. Sasakawa. We have no other measures than letters from you to learn about your activities. As far as this is concerned, you cannot be too self-assertive.

　

　As part of contribution to this Forum, we asked you to do much preparatory work. Eventually, tight schedule made it impossible to allocate time for presentation of country reports. I have to apologize for this. But I assure you that all the reports be included in the Forum Proceedings.

　

　I declare the Forum is closed, and thank you, the Sasakawa Fellows and WMU staff members, for your cooperation and kind advice, and I also appreciate support from all the Japanese parties concerned.