社団法人 大阪青年会議所

In the current chaotic society, I believe it is our duty to build safe and livable communities, where we can foster our future generations and ensure that they can enter a bright future.

We will never forget March 11, 2011, the day of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. On that day, we were truly worried about people living in the affected region, although it was far from our city, Osaka. When we saw so many images of devastated towns and villages, many of us pondered what we could do to assist victims, even though we did not know them personally. This feeling, I believe, originated from a solid awareness that we were all living at that moment in the same country. From outside Japan, many rescue teams and volunteers gathered in the devastated region to detect and rescue residents from under collapsed houses, to provide relief supplies, and to assist victims in various other ways. Perceiving their kind activities, we felt a strong bond with those people from abroad. In a sense, the disaster reconfirmed the strong ties between Japan and international society, and among residents of the global community.

In my view, a “bond” among people comprises two axes: a vertical axis linking us with our ancestors, and with our descendants; and a horizontal axis that links us with contemporary generations worldwide. From our ancestors, who built our society, we have inherited both spiritual and materialistic assets. It is our duty to pass down those assets to succeeding generations. At the same time, we are influenced by other people living now, and by events and incidents currently taking place in the world. Locating ourselves in the intersection of these two axes, we become aware of our relationships with other people and events. Awareness of our own position in the axes of coordinate leads us to understand our roles and the meaning of our own lives in this world.

More than a thousand years ago, Osaka was a port town called Naniwazu. From the port, Japanese envoys departed to Sui- and Tang-dynasty China to learn about advancements in civilization. Foreign missions also visited the Japanese capital of the time via Naniwazu port in Osaka. At that time, travelers visiting distant countries had neither a weather forecasting system nor cellular phones, or any other advanced communication tools. Instead, they were fully aware of the vital importance of reading natural phenomena, and the value of face-to-face communication. By contrast, because of advanced technologies, we are losing the keen senses that our ancestors had in observing natural phenomena, or the enthusiasm to gain vital information and to build close relationships with other people. Currently, we can very easily access people and information anytime, anywhere. Because of such great accessibility, most of us try to get in touch with other people only when we need them. In other words, we have become less eager to build a strong bond with others.

In this environment, at Junior Chamber International Osaka (JCI Osaka), we will seek to build a better society, where all community members pay keen attention to various social problems, and mutually support and help, based on deep empathy. To this end, we must first confirm once again our organic bonds with our families, communities, regional society, country, and the world, as well as with past and future generations. On the basis of this recognition, we will even reinforce our existing bonds with the rest of the world.

1. Let Us Make Children Happier
All parents wish for happiness of their children. To make children happy, however, we must first review the relationships between parents and children. When a baby is to be born, most parents hope for nothing more than its good health. As the baby begins to grow, however, parents become increasingly demanding. They begin to desire better educational environment and better living environment for their child. They also begin to hope that their child is talented and achieves good academic performance. This is because parents are so much concerned about their child’s future, and aspire that their child will lead a happy life.

However, even though most parents wish for their children’s happiness, in actuality, there are many problems caused by parents’ excessive expectations of children. Children hope that their parents will watch their growth patiently. They want their parents to be generous about their mistakes and failures. Yet, many parents tend to impose their ideals on children, and in doing so they often ignore their children’s own ideas or feelings. It is particularly serious when parents believe that they understand their children’s feelings, while in actuality they do not.

Here is an old saying: oya no senaka wo mite ko wa sodatsu (children grow up by viewing the backs of their parents). This saying implies that parents should present good role models. Moreover, it implies that parents should try to understand their children’s feelings, and offer to their children guidelines necessary for leading their own lives. Parents should communicate such guidelines through their behaviors and acts, as well as verbal communication, and share their own experiences with children. On the other hand, children are expected to understand that without parental and societal supports they could never lead a safe life. Moreover, children should realize the strong bonds with their parents, as well as with society at large, and work to deepen their bonds with families and communities.

Adult people should never impose their ideals on children. Together with parents, we must first understand various social problems involving and affecting children, try to understand children’s feelings, and think and act together with children. This process, I believe, will help us rebuild deep and dependable bonds with children.

2. Let Us Create Safe and Livable Communities, Featuring Mutual Support and Assistance
Even though many people are not fully aware of this, we are closely connected to municipalities we live in. Local governments, NPOs, and various other parties work together to maintain the safety and security of our living environment, and address various social problems.

We are connected with the local government through our tax payments. We must learn how our taxes are used to support various programs, and pay keen attention to activities of local governments. We must also participate in various administrative programs. NPOs and other grassroots organizations tackle problems that local governments cannot address due to legal or financial constraints. Yet, despite the enthusiasm for community development on the part of NPOs, many such organizations have problems in raising sufficient funds to sustain their activities. In many overseas countries, private citizens and companies often give donations to such organizations, but in Japan, philanthropic activities are not that common. It is high time that we reviewed our present relationships with other people, and fostered stronger bonds with others so that we can support one another.

The recent earthquake and tsunami convinced us of the vital importance of building a strong bond with families and other people. We also learned that we must always be ready to offer assistance to whomever is in need, and to prepare ourselves for an unexpected disaster through combined efforts of families, companies, communities, and municipalities.

To improve effectiveness of mutual assistance in emergency, we must strengthen our mutual bonds in our day-to-day activities. We must create an environment where we can embrace empathy for others, and offer assistance anytime and continue it for a long time. Further, we need to confirm that our activities truly benefit others. Above all, we must create a community where mutual assistance is not regarded as something extraordinary, but is taken for granted.

JCI Osaka will take the initiative in creating strong bonds between residents, companies, local governments, and other organizations in our respective communities, so that companies and other organizations can continue to participate in community development, and that residents can help each other anytime, anywhere, without considering it anything special or extraordinary.

3. Let Us Initiate in Osaka Efforts to Create a Better Future
None of us is self-sufficient; we all need assistance from others. In this sense we are connected to other people and everything in the world.

Outside Japan, many armed conflicts are taking place, some involving fights for water, food, and other resources, and others stemming from ethnic or religious intolerance. Meanwhile, in Japan, our daily life has been enriched by introduction of various overseas cultures. For instance, many Japanese people enjoy Western food, particularly bread and coffee. The two items I have just mentioned may seem rather irrelevant. However, our daily life is supported by the international community, as we have seen in the aftermath of the recent earthquake and tsunami. Moreover, we depend on products from other countries to sustain our life, and on international diplomacy and security systems to maintain our own safety. Independence of the Republic of South Sudan from the Republic of the Sudan, for instance, seems to have nothing to do with our daily life. In actuality, however, instability of South Sudan, an oil producing country, could lead to imbalance in global oil supply, which in turn may affect our business and daily life. This example shows that any incident in a distant country is likely to impact our daily life. We must be aware of the fact that we are so closely connected.

To maintain favorable and proactive relationships with other countries, we must understand that we are supported by the bonds with other people, including people who have different values from ours. Moreover, we must regard all incidents taking place in the world as vital matters for us, and work to resolve problems involved. To this end, we must work to build good relationships with other people, transcending differences in values. Moreover, it is essential to foster next generations, who have flexible mindsets and who can cooperate with people of different values in addressing various challenges in joint efforts. This is essential to strengthen our bonds with the international community.

At JCI Osaka, based on the full awareness of the bonds among people, we will work to create a better future in joint efforts of young members, the generation that will shoulder the coming age.

4. Let Us Benefit Others, Ourselves, and the Future Generations

“Youth: this is the source of all kinds of value.”
This is a quote from the charter of the JCI Osaka. We are young men and women who are striving to create better communities and better world, fully exploiting the limited time and resources available for us. For the past 62 years, the JCI Osaka has been working to create a better society, passing down its strong ties with governmental bodies, enterprises, other organizations, and individuals, as its invaluable assets. We must hand down these assets, which we have inherited from our predecessors, to our future generations. In addition to the bonds with others, our assets comprise wealth of experience and wisdom. I believe that by combining our efforts to achieve our common goals, we can fulfill far greater tasks than we can do on an individual basis.

The environment of our organization is expected to change significantly. Before we pass down the wisdom we have inherited from our predecessors, we must examine it thoroughly, change it boldly whenever we deem it necessary, and select only what is useful in the future. To fulfill our roles and responsibility in community development, we will remember our objectives for belonging to the JCI Osaka and determine our personal goals.

Based on the recognition that everything is related to us, and everything is our business (we are responsible for everything), we will fulfill our role and work to achieve our common goals in concerted efforts. We do not believe that “All’s well that ends well.” Instead, we will work to ensure that good performances are achieved from the beginning to the end. With this in mind we will relay the batons that we have received from our forerunners to the next runners.

Even though our progress may seem to be slow, we will work to create increasingly better communities, where we can vividly feel the bonds with others.

So, my fellow members of JCI Osaka, let us combine our efforts to build safe and livable communities, where residents maintain strong bonds among themselves and with other community members.

Finally, if you work only for yourself, you will be criticized as being egotistic. On the other hand, if you place priority on benefiting others rather than yourself, you will benefit not only others, but also yourself, because by working for others you can grow yourself.

In this sense, we should place our priority on benefiting others, so that we can benefit ourselves and achieve self-growth.