A Message of the Founders First Chairman Ryuzo SEJIMA   The Japan Forum for Strategic Studies (JFSS) was established to deal with two profound philosophical issues: the need to understand what kind of a country Japan is, and,‐the corollary‐determining how Japan should face the future. 　It was perceived that there was a need for a Japanese institution that would conduct comprehensive research and analysis into politics,economics, military affairs and scientific technology‐their junctions, their interrelations, and their dependencies. The Forum was conceived as a centre of excellence to fulfill this need. 　Our goal is to contribute to the development of an integrated national strategy for a safe and prosperous Japan in the early decades of the 21st Century. We will be proposing revisions to both the present constitution as well as to various pieces of legislation that derive from it. In addition, we will contribute to the formation of both domestic and international policy. 　At the time of its founding, the Forum received valued and much appreciated support from many leading figures in our fields of interest. 　We continue to seek the wise counsel of all who are concerned with the place of Japan in the modern world. 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　March 1, 1999 First Executive Director Shigeto NAGANO                     A Message from the Chairman:                 Toward the Revival of our Country 　As I celebrate another new year’s day, I send you season’s greetings and wish you all a happy New Year. 　There are many people in the cold Tohoku region who grieve like members of a separated family. Farmers are troubled by not so much by the direct damage of radioactivity, but by simple rumors of radioactive contamination. The hard reality is that the political process currently in place is dysfunctional and as a result, appropriate assistance is not reaching those in need. Those of us who were fortunate enough to escape the calamity that swamped the Tohoku region need to count our blessings and not neglect our obligation to help. 　The contemporary international situation continues to change and evolve. 　Several of the long dictatorships in the Middle East and the North Africa have collapsed; the surge of the “Jasmine Revolution” is gradually moving toward the East. The cries of people whose speech had been muzzled and who had been oppressed, were heard in the political world. International society gave them the power of building the way to "freedom".　Although much of their blood was shed, they fought on without a care for their lives in order to realize their dream of a free future. 　70 years ago, before dawn on December 8, 1941, perceiving a threat to our very survival, our country started a war with the United States of America. The Japanese Imperial Navy surprised the U.S. Pacific Fleet at anchorage at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. 　Mr. Terumasa Nakanishi, a professor of Kyoto University, pointed out in the Seiron Journal (December, 2011) that the Roosevelt Administration had the most extreme anti-Japanese policy in the history of the United States. Nakanishi also went so far as to maintain that it was President Roosevelt himself who was the driving force behind the American position. 　The post-war Japanese Constitution was a creature of the values and historical perceptions of the occupying power. Many positive elements of Japanese history, culture and education were ignored in the blanket condemnation that followed in the wake of defeat. Article 9 of the Constitution denied the national right to maintain an army, a navy and an air force; amendment of that article has proven to be difficult in the extreme. The Democratic Party which forms the present government is populist in nature and de-emphasizes national security and foreign policy in favor of reinforcing the alien values foisted upon the Japanese people by the victors. In any case, there is an expression in English, “To the victor go the spoils” and the judgments of the Tokyo International Tribunal have fundamentally converted the nature of the Japanese polity. 　With the issue of national security left to the United States, the people of Japan were subsequently able to enjoy a period of sumptuous lifestyle flowing from the domestic policies of giving priority to economic matters and to extreme liberalism. A corollary of this phenomenon was that a significant portion of the population became politically indifferent to their "state". The management of national affairs was left to professional politicians and bureaucrats. 　President Obama has significantly shifted the center of gravity of American foreign policy from the Middle East and Afghanistan to the East and focused it on the Northeast Asia region and ASEAN. Japan has willingly participated in this Trans-Pacific Partnership through the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement. 　In order to begin to fully understand the significance of Chinese military expansion, especially the Chinese naval build up, a joint international symposium titled "Assuring the Freedom of Navigation in the South China Sea" was held last year. The event was co-sponsored by the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies (JFSS) and the Center for U.S.-Japan Studies and Cooperation of Vanderbilt University. A significant result of this symposium was an increase of a sense of crisis to our national fate. 　In rural areas, the "Osaka Restoration Group" led by Tohru Hashimoto overwhelmed both the Governor and the Mayor of Osaka in a double election and destroyed the alliance and credibility of the existing political parties. Mayor Hashimoto’s clear political policy is that children should be taught reading-and-writing and mathematics and true respect for elders. He maintains that young people brought up in this manner will grow to have a national view backed by the recognition of the true historical background. This new generation will lead a brand-new current to revive this country naturally. We will watch it with much hope and anticipation. 　When the world situation is changing day by day, Japan’s current political style will no longer be able to cope. Both the Democratic Party and the Liberal Democratic Party should recognize this hard reality and be prepared to risk their political survival, if necessary, by instituting true political reform during this coming year.