President Greeting

The Policy of the President of the Junior Chamber International Tokyo for Fiscal Year 2008
Create a Tokyo for the next generation, aiming for vibrant democracy

Walking the high road of democracy

The metropolis of Tokyo was transformed into a desert of scorched earth by Japan’s defeat in World War II. Amidst that total chaos, Tokyo JC's history begins with the belief that “reconstruction of a new Japan is the work of the young”. As we move on into the 21st century, many people in Japan have lost sight of the direction in which we should be heading. Our society exists in an age of uncertainty and can see no clear goals; brutal crimes are frequent, and people are apathetic about politics, lack public spirit and do not even love their own country. From now on Japan, as a democratic nation, must be ruled by the sovereignty and participation of the people themselves. In a healthy society citizens should make full use of their individuality and be motivated to participate in various arenas. The shape of a true democracy can only be one where all the citizens, the sovereigns of the state, voluntarily “choose” society and actively “participate” in it. This is the high road of democracy, which should lead us to a glittering future. Tokyo JC will continue to develop movements encouraging more and more people motivated to actively participate in society.

Maturing into a responsible society

The 1964 Tokyo Olympics were beamed around the world as a symbol of post war reconstruction, and they were a state project supported with wild enthusiasm by the whole country. This truly was a national movement with the country as a whole, the towns and the citizens all devoting themselves to a single objective. The Olympics were an opportunity to construct our current infrastructure, shinkansens, highways and improved essential facilities, things that more than forty years later still provide us with a rich and comfortable lifestyle. However, it is also true that many things have been lost. Environmental degradation from mass consumption, ruined landscapes from large-scale development, too much supremacy given to economics, the loss of beautiful Japan’s dignity, a sense of being trapped now that we have lost our vision. We must make good use of these lessons as we influence the next generation.

The bid for the 2016 Olympics should rather consider how the city should be developed from then on. Tokyo JC, as people who live in this metropolis, will design urban development rooted in issues that impinge closely on our daily lives in order to create again a “Japan that we are proud to show to the world” where, for the next forty years, there will be harmony between the people’s comfortable lifestyle and the environment, where Japan’s beautiful culture will be handed down as well as there being economic growth, and where the people will have dreams for the future and will surely have confidence in themselves.

Tokyo Grand Design

As a vibrant democratic state, a human (how we would like it to be for the people of the future) social (which social structures are needed) area (how the field we inhabit should be) has to be designed directly by the citizens. That is our vision of society. Tokyo JC is trying for a grand design for the “Metropolis of Tokyo” by way of a variety of different opportunities, such as a children’s national sumo tournament that aims to nurture wholesome young people, social experience programs that form an interactive link between society and the classroom, local projects in each ward that consider safe and secure urban development, and public forums and town meetings that develop governance and social rule from the public’s participation in politics.

Tokyo JC will throw open the doors to a dynamic era so that the glittering future will become a firm reality.

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