The Genron NPO's "Morning Forum" was held Jan. 14 at a hotel in Tokyo with some 50 Genron NPO members and supporters attending. Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida was invited as the guest speaker and delivered a speech under the topic of "The Abe Administration's Diplomatic Strategy and Positioning of Asia Diplomacy."

Among the participants were Yasushi Akashi, former undersecretary-general of the United Nations, Yoriko Kawaguchi, former foreign minister, Yuji Miyamoto, former Japanese ambassador to China, and Toshiro Muto, chairman of the Daiwa Research Institute, all members of The Genron NPO's Advisory Board.

　During the discussions, one participant pointed to the situation in which Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been unable to have a summit with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping since Abe's inauguration more than a year ago, and warned that overheated public opinion (against China) is becoming an obstacle in materializing a Japan-China summit.

Another participant proposed that Japan reinforce its diplomatic might so that Prime Minister Abe's controversial visit to the war-related Yasukuni Shrine in December last year would not develop into a diplomatic row between Japan and China.

A third insisted that Japanese society should reflect deeply on the meaning of Japan's defeat in the last war some 70 years ago while another said that the situation could change if the peoples of both countries fully understand the cultural difference in the attitude toward the deceased.

In closing the session, Yasushi Kudo, president of The Genron NPO, said that the atmosphere in East Asia today is comparable to that in 1914 when World War I broke up. Kudo emphasized the importance of the people's mind-set to solve national tasks by embracing what he termed "a stakeholder's attitude," without contributing to the creation of public sentiment that hinders the function of governmental diplomacy. Kudo thus expressed his determination to facilitate "civil diplomacy" from the standpoint of the private sector to help to create an environment for the promotion of governmental diplomacy.

*The Morning Forum is an event limited to members of The Genron NPO and those invited by members. It is held once a month with guest speakers invited from a variety of fields.