61255 If there is an increase in the activities of Japanese in wide-ranging and diverse sectors of international society, we should expect corresponding changes in the ways the world sees Japan and its people.
61256 However, there is a fundamental problem that must be overcome in order for Japanese to broaden their fields of activity in international society.
61257 It is that among us Japanese an awareness of the need to cooperate with the rest of the world's people for our common survival and prosperity has not yet been adequately cultivated.
61258 I should like to see us have the humility needed to "learn diversity," and the tolerance and magnanimity needed to accept differences and diversity.
61259 We need change of awareness.
61260 It has long been said that "Japanese tend to be 'faceless' and to lack individuality," but from now on in international society we will no doubt be pressed, whether we like it or not, to become more self-assertive.
61261 The most important thing is to be aware of one's own part in things while at the same time joining the people of the world in "taking part in the game."
61262 Maybe it shouldn't even be necessary to think all that hard about this sort of thing.
61263 It should be possible to look at things from other people's perspective and, with a "sharing heart and mind," to associate in a natural manner with the rest of the world's people.
61264 And may we not say that with that alone one will qualify quite well as a kokusaijin?
61265 With the fall of the "Cold War structure" and the ever more interdependent relationships among countries, in addressing the various kinds of problems which we face a global vantage point that transcends "national" frameworks is becoming more and more essential.
61266 Surely what is being required of us is to think about things from a broad, global perspective, and to search for ways of living that are suitable for us as "global citizens."
61267 For this, more than anything else the most important thing is to build a Japan that is truly open to the world.
61268 The Council of CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research with 19 member states, has formally decided to construct the world's largest particle accelerator, which will zero in on the mystery of the birth of the universe and the origin of the mass of matter.