61223    Nakauchi Isao, President and CEO of the Daiei company, has expressed his concern by saying: "It won't do to let deregulation become just a temporary fashion."

61224    Fukukawa Shinji, the new head of the Dentsu Communication Institute Inc. where he succeeds Mr. Amaya, has similarly said: "One should squeeze out the arguments at every level of discussion."

61225    In both cases what is being advocated is caution against having only superficial discussions.

61226    What has the "loosening of regulations" mean for Japan's economy at this juncture which marks a half-century since the end of the war?

61227    Does it not mean looking toward new "leading industries" and the energy to again stand "at the top of the hill"?

61228    Just after the start of the new year Mr. Kuyama Sumihiro took up his post in Geneva as Japan's first United Nations "Inspector."

61229    The job of an UN Inspector is to review the operations and activities of the United Nations Headquarters and various UN bodies and, from a broad perspective, to provide suggestions for changes and reforms.

61230    The 11-member team of UN Inspectors is appointed by the UN General Assembly and is chosen in such a way as to represent diverse regions of the world.

61231    Mr. Kuyama, who has retired from the post of Vice-Director of the UN Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat), first took a job with the United Nations Development Program in 1970 and rose to be its Assistant Vice-Director after serving in the interim as part of the Japanese UN Delegation in New York.

61232    His current appointment was made in recognition of his abundant experience with the United Nations over a quarter of a century.

61233    "Japanese can make more of an international contribution in areas where they are prepared to give wisdom and ideas. We need people who can with self-confidence take leadership in pulling forward international society. We need people who harbor a sense of mission in wanting to be useful to international society and who have a constant interest in what is important in the world. It is necessary to educate and train large numbers of such people."

61234    As Mr. Kuyama points out, Japanese are being asked by the world to play a more active role in international society.

61235    This hope is increasing year by year.

61236    Such hopes are, I think, being well responded to at present by the activities of Mr. Akaishi Yasushi, who as the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina is directing every effort to the task of ending a civil war, and by the activities of Mrs. Ogata Sadako, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, who is taking the lead in coordinating assistance to refugees in Rwanda and other parts of the world.

61237    However, for Japan to play a still wider role in international society as we approach the 21st century, we can't do otherwise hope that there will come to the fore an ever larger number of kokusaijin ("international persons") who like the two will be active in top positions of international organizations.