Colleagues, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and gentlemen:
Thank you very much for granting me this wonderful opportunity.

Before I bring your attention to my thoughts about the global environmental protection in the 21st century, I would like to firstly start with an introduction of the significance of the view that “The 21st century is the Age of the Asia Pacific”. From a conclusion viewpoint, the conditions with which the 21st century is said to be “the Age of the Asia Pacific” is the inseparable possibility of a new phase of development for the “Asia Pacific Civilization” in the history of human civilization.

I believe that there is a new movement appearing in the big flow of human civilization today. Since the 1980’s, with the rapid Asian economic development in its background, the existence of the Asia Pacific region has surfaced to the world stage. On the other hand, the European and American type of civilization is reaching a big turning point as we enter into the 21st century. Under these circumstances, it is my thought and belief that the Asia Pacific region is showing possible signs of being the main stage for new developments of human civilization.

In other words, there is a possibility that a huge fusion will be taking place between the two big flows of human civilization created so far in the East and the West on the stage of the Asia Pacific region. On the other hand, we have accumulations of the Asian civilizations that originate from the 5000-year-old traditional Chinese and Indian civilizations. On the other hand, we also have the modern civilizations originating from Europe and America. And just today, these big flows of human civilizations have met and thus, forming the so-called “Fusion of East-West Civilizations”. Therefore, the developments expected from this fusion would be called the “Asia Pacific Civilization”, with new features that have never been created by human civilization so far.

The conditions that qualify the 21st century to be called "the Age of the Asia Pacific" are in real fact, closely connected with the possibility of the new developments in the history of human civilization as the development of "the Asia Pacific Civilization".

In this sense, the point that needs attention is that the “Asia Pacific Civilization” along with “the Age of the Asia Pacific” cannot be realized easily without making hard efforts of the people living within the region. Even more, if we should expect it to gain high evaluation in the history of human civilization from future generations, more creative efforts are required from us.

Then, what kinds of challenges are necessary to be borne for actually gaining high appraisal for “the Asian Pacific Civilization” in the history of human civilizations. From a conclusion viewpoint, the value of "the Asia Pacific Civilization" will primarily depend on the kind of contribution that can be made towards the resolution of the various challenges and issues facing mankind today.

As you all know very well today, we are challenged with the resolution of following issues: Global environmental issues, resources and energy, population and poverty, further sustainable economic growth, world peace order and issues related to the introduction of information technology in social systems. Of course these problems are impossible to be resolved within the range of individual countries or regions, since they require a global level of approach to their resolution. The contribution to the resolution of these global issues is the true challenge for the "the Asia Pacific Civilization."

In any case, the greatest challenge is the global environmental protection issues. Unless an indication is shown for resolution of the complex challenges the modern civilization has created, "the Asia Pacific Civilization" cannot be highly evaluated in history by the future generations as a characteristic civilization.

Regarding the issues of global environmental protection, it is important to note that the Asia Pacific region is the most seriously affected region on the face of this earth. Therefore, it can be said that the indication of an advanced measure for the resolution of these complex issues within the region is of significance as a historical mission.

For the resolutions of these issues, the United Nations with various organizations in the world, private organizations and citizens are putting in tireless efforts.

Progress is being made in the development of technology from various angles to assist in the prevention of the natural environmental pollution and recycling of the resources, the improvement of energy efficiency, and so on. Efforts for a creative lifestyle are being made on the citizen level for resource and energy savings.

However, the reality is such that human society has not caught up with the high speed at which the destruction of the global natural environment is taking place.

Now, how can we stop this?

The ideological conclusion to this global environment protection has already been made clear. Whoever may think about it, the conclusion is the building of a "society for circulation type of resources". The problem now lies in the engagement for a process of proposing a vision until it can truly be realized. With regard to this, we are still the stages of trial and error.

Regarding this point, I think the leading corporations in the world today should take the initiative in proposing positive steps and strategies because they are in such a position to do so. Corporations are organizations, which are located in a significant position because they show their existence by connecting the natural global environment and human consumption through their activities of productions and supplying services. Since the corporations are located in such a position, the society of today is strongly expecting them to play their roles.

I also think that this is an indispensable challenge for corporations to survive the intensified global market competition of the 21st century. Currently, the corporations in the world are being tried for their original strengths over such global environmental protection strategies.

Regarding this point, I wish to focus especially on “production” by introducing you a concrete example. This is the new movement for the development of a “resource circulation-type production system.”

It is already common knowledge now to re-circulate resources as an effort towards the building of a circulation type society. Of course these efforts are quite significant. However, the limit of these efforts is that they concern the treatment of results of consumed goods.

In reflection of such understanding, the recent development of “ inverse manufacturing” system is the current topic of discussion. This is a resource circulation production system whereby the product concept and its sales methods are aimed for resource circulation from its design stage. The managerial realization of the possibility of such a system is an important challenge for corporations in future.

I have so far emphasized on the roles of corporations. However, the global environmental protection issues are not ones that corporations alone can be expected to play an active role in. Along with corporations, governments, non-governmental organizations, consumers and citizens must each play their respective roles. Active environment strategies from the corporations will be forced to collapse without the active support of these organizations, institutions and citizens. For the resolution of the global environmental protection issues, it is indispensable for a joint-engagement of corporations, governments, non-governmental organizations, and citizens.

The global environmental protection issues are pressing for a big conversion of the values of modern people about the relations between human beings and nature. This is a change of values from those of the modern civilization of nature having been seen as a subject for control to that of a fundamental coexistence with nature. In this sense, the coming “Age of the Asia Pacific” has predominance. That is because the traditional Asian values uphold the principle that human beings are a part of nature, and that human beings and nature are one and united. I presume that these Asian values, which have been hiding behind the scenes of the modern ages, should now be highlighted in light of the resolutions for the current global environmental protection issues.

In whatever way it may be said, I suppose that the global environmental protection issues are the greatest challenges put forward before mankind in the 21st century. If the 21st century bears the ‘Asia Pacific Civilization” with its stages in the Asia Pacific region, then the civilization must bear the burden of resolving these complex global environmental protection issues. Hence the historical value of the “Asia Pacific civilization” would depend on the indication of the kind of solutions that would be proposed for these complex issues.

※　Speech delivered at the Second meeting of the Asia-Pacific Network of Universities and Institutions for Conflict Prevention and Peace Building, Beijing, China, May 22 - 23, 2002.