The World Agenda Council, established by The Genron NPO, invited representatives of the seven leading think tanks in the United States, France, Germany, Canada, India, Indonesia and China to an international forum in Tokyo on March 27 on "Addressing the Destabilization of the International Order and the World Economy."

The world today faces diverse challenges to the established order, coupled with mounting geopolitical and market-related risks. As typified by the problems of some politically or economically fragile countries, the national governance in these countries is being destabilized. Terrorist attacks are spreading beyond national borders. While a U.N.-brokered peace process has just begun in Syria, massive outflows of refugees and migrants show no signs of abating. In Asia, there are unilateral attempts to change the established order.

Our particular concern is the absence of champions that have the courage to uphold and enforce our most important ideals, including democracy and market economy, at a time when the world's major advanced countries are required to strengthen unity, and address the risks of the destabilizing international order and the world economy. In many advanced countries, inward-looking isolationist tendencies or populist trends are emerging, making it increasingly difficult to facilitate policy coordination.

We have decided to issue an emergency appeal to the G-7 summit in Japan out of our common recognition that the major advanced countries, which share such universal values as democracy, market economy and the rule of law, should deliver a strong and effective message to the world, and collaborate with each other for the solution of the pressing issues that the world faces today.

Needless to say, it is not sufficient to depend on government actions alone to solve these serious global issues. It is time that independent think tanks, media organizations and more important, citizens, should proactively take part in debate and take concerted action.

From such a standpoint, we have agreed to submit to the Japanese government, the host of this year's G-7 summit, the five-point emergency appeal by taking into account the results of the discussions by the representatives of the world's leading think tanks at today's international forum.

First, the G-7 member states should reconfirm the contemporary importance of democracy, market economy and other universal basic values, and strive further to make these fundamentals function well. These values could have diverse modalities and therefore, they should be upheld broadly by civil society.

Second, the G-7 leaders should collaborate further in combating terrorism while cooperating with each other in earnest to cope with the problem of refugees and migrants so that many people can lead safe and peaceful lives in these areas. While being cognizant of each country's position, the G-7 member countries should assume a central role in the G-20 regime in addressing the challenges related to development, climate change and other global issues the world faces today.

Third, the communique of the meeting of the G-20 financial ministers and central bank governors, held in February in Shanghai, China, is insufficient, although the participants at that meeting shared the recognition of the risks and agreed on a set of policy measures, including fiscal ones.

In order for the G-20 to demonstrate its solidarity in restoring stability to the world economy, the G-7 member countries must develop their own fiscal policy measures and improve international collaboration in order to promote structural reforms in unison, along with deadline-sensitive action plans to implement structural reform of their economies, so that the G-7 will be able to display its political will to stabilize the world economy.

Fourth, the G-7 should promote the free-trade system and oppose protectionist moves of any kind, and it must avoid a "currency depreciation war" while strengthening the functions of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and other regional and bilateral free-trade arrangements.

Fifth and finally, the G-7 must strive to provide more infrastructure support and technological cooperation to developing and other countries, and to create a framework of private and public joint financing for projects related to global warming, medical care, the environment and insurance, for the sake of attaining the common goal of sharing affluence by creating more stable living standards and sustainable world economic growth.

By all the members of the World Agenda Council

March 27, 2016

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