HIROSHIMA — It has been long since hope for the future was lost, and a vague sense of anxiety is now prevailing among us. Yet this feeling of uneasiness should be the beginning of our thinking philosophically. We should rather take it as an unexpected blessing.

Philosophy is not a science. Therefore how far we can go at best may be to get some idea about an issue at hand and then set up a certain boundary beyond which we cannot know any more about the issue. Even so, philosophy can help people grasp the world from a broader and deeper perspective, and find a route that would help better understand problems confronting us. From such a point of view, I have considered some important issues that are causing me concern.

The first issue is China. Every now and then the idea of creating an East Asia Community is broached in China and Japan. Generally speaking, when a new regional community is talked about, the example should be the European Union. The spiritual bond holding EU members together is a respect for human rights. This is discernible from EU's Copenhagen accession criteria.