The defeat of the Pacific War brought about fundamental and drastic changes to our country.
Negating most of our traditional values, we called Japan “the fourth class country.
” However, Japan has now regained the responsible position in the international community.

Nevertheless, we still have the two big problems as stated below.

First, we Japanese, especially some of the leaders of the circles of politics, intellectuals,
the mass media are possessed by some kind of ‘infantile psychology’ and would not r
ealize the real power of Japan. They are indifferent to our due responsibilities
for the international community. If we should leave the situation as it is now,
the fall of Japan would be just as clear as daylight.

Second, the spirits and the material products of the Western civilization which
we have accepted without any questions after the 2nd World War such as
‘freedom,’ ‘equality,’ ‘democracy,’ ‘human rights,’ ‘social welfare,’ ‘U.N.’ etc.
are now rapidly losing their convincing charm. As a result, we are no longer so
sure if the ideas and principles of the Western civilization are truth or myths.

It does not follow, however, we should easily declare the “fall of Western civilization.
　　Rather, we should try to reevaluate its values with its limitations and the long-time
neglected the values of Eastern civilization. It is our duty to rediscover the East
and revalue the Eastern spirits in our efforts to harmonize the two civilizations to
create the authentic world civilization. Leaders of both business and academic
circles who are closely related to the present situations of Japan should join
their efforts to achieve this goal.

Having the goal in mind, we declare now the establishment of New Civilization Club.


Founding Members:
Rokuro Ishikawa： Vice president of Kashima Construction Co., Ltd.
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New Civilization Club is an organization established by the joint efforts of leading
businessmen and scholars in Japan. The club meets once a month regularly
to discuss how to cope with all kinds of problems we face from the viewpoint
of civilization theories. The summaries of the discussions are compiled at the
secretariat and some of the achievement have been published.