I had an operation for uterine fibroid and polyp removal on March 17. As the operation was simple, it was one-day hospitalization. I put off the operation for a year because I could not care about it because I had a doctoral dissertation. However, I got a surprisingly big bleeding one day before submission of my doctoral dissertation and made a quick re-check and　reservation for an operation.     Hospitalization in Japan was the first for me. I was hospitalized in South Korea ten years ago. So, I would like to compare hospitalization in Japan with that in South Korea in this essay. Korean university hospitals are something like busy complexes, and doctors and nurses seem to have lots to do and give only glances at patients. However, the hospital in the suburbs of Tokyo, where I was hospitalized this time, made me relax. I do not know why. They gave me their maximum attention despite their busy schedules. According to a Korean lady who has lived in Japan for more than twenty years, she was rejected to have an operation in Japanese hospitals and finally changed to a big hospital in Korea to have an operation. It is said that Korean hospitals weigh heavily on operations for the purpose of showing off their careers, and Japanese hospitals tend to avoid operations as much as possible. When we compare the clinical environment in Korea and Japan, we can find out their cultural tendencies: Korean hospitals value operations, while Japanese hospitals value care and nursing.   When I answered a medical questionnaire, I noticed a big difference between the usual medical checkup and ‘the assumed physical condition of the patient’. When I answered a medical questionnaire that asked me about my clinical history, usual pains and prosthesis, if any, I could imagine the daily life of elderly people and their speed a little. How are medical questionnaires used in other areas?   Since I started my study at graduate school in Japan, it has become my habit to observe everything through my ‘cultural comparison lens’ and contemplate the next research theme, though I could not reach any effective thinking. The meaning of ‘difference’ in experience between this time and ten years before was personal, and it may come from differences in disease and operation method. Or my memory might fade away because ten years have already passed. Such experiences as the operation and hospitalization I had as ‘different things’, may become important mental food for my future life. What kind of memory shall I keep? How do you imagine such memories? Such thinking will have ‘the power’ to make my experience.   The most memorable thing is waking up from the anesthetics. Ten years ago, when I woke up from the anesthetic, I was brought to the recovery room and left alone for thirty minutes, and I felt horribleness and the cold in the recovery room. Such feelings might make me hesitate to get an operation. However, I was moved to ‘my’ sickroom (my personal place) after the operation and could be relaxed this time. I had a mysterious and foggy happy feeling, which was confused with a daydream that I wanted to read any books when I sat up. I thought it unnecessary to be afraid of ‘general anesthetics’ hereafter.   Though the operation finished at noon, I did not take a nap, worrying about sleepless nights. I kept reading books or looking video on YouTube in the afternoon. I read a book called ‘Think/Classify Sociology in Daily Life’ (by Georges Perec). In this book, he classifies ‘reading (action)’ in connection with ‘human Body’ and ‘surroundings(circumstances)’ in ‘Reading: A Social and Psychological Sketch’. As to ‘surroundings’, he classifies ‘time (while waiting for something)’, ‘means of transport’ and ‘others (like hospitalization)’. However, I think those factors are connected. It is ‘the time during which we wait for night’ or ‘the long flight time that has physical non-movement’. It is a long flight (from passage to recovery) toward the destination (discharge). I initially mistook it for ‘reading’. I had a feeling very often that I did not like to get off, even when I took a short flight or ride. The expression that processes are more important than purposes is not only an example of metaphor.   When I was in the hospital, I read the book “Wake Up! You, a freshman!” written by the late Kenzaburo Ooe. ‘Mr. H’, who is fighting diseases, said to ‘I’, ‘in the process of our lives, you may hurt others, or you may be hurt by others. And you may try to quit during your lifetime. However, those questions cannot be settled during your lifetime. You will end up being allowed by the others whom you have hurt. Of course, you allow the others. There will be no choice.’   In this novel, ‘I’ who have a handicapped son, read and rely on a poem written by William Blake, an English poet, to overcome the fear of living his life. ‘My’ fear is that my son will live alone after my death. For ‘myself’, not only reading but also writing a novel is an itinerary for ‘overcoming’. Of course, fears for living are not ‘the slate that can be cleaned’. However, when you read ‘words’ which record the appearance of relying on ‘words’, you can step forward in your future with courage and hope.   The hospital ward is very quiet, and I had to refrain from keyboard sounds. At midnight, I could hear the cry of a newborn baby. There is a stone monument in front of the hospital and the words of the Gospel John are engraved: “I am resurrection, and I am life”.      SGRA Kawaraban 741 in Japanese (Original)     AHN Eun-byul/ 2022 Raccoon, Doctoral Course at the University of Tokyo     Translated by Kazuo Kawamura English checked by Sabina Koirala                                                   

AI (artificial intelligence) is a word that Professor John McCarthy, a computer scientist and cognitive scientist, suggested in 1956. It is defined as “science and technology that can make intellectual machines, especially intellectual computer programs”. At present, research on AI has progressed, and definitions of AI differ depending on scientists and their fields. Automation and streamlining in various fields are facilitated by AI. For example, autonomous driving of automobiles, inspection of defective products, and detection of unauthorized entries on credit cards. Those technologies are fulfilled by the acquisition and study of large quantities of information through the recognition and reading of pictures and voices by computers. As we can use ChatGPT without any professional knowledge, it is now a worldwide topic. It can generate, summarize, and collect information through natural communication, conversation or sentences with other people automatically.   My research field is organic chemistry. As a new current in the development of chemical reactions, the utilization of machine learning and data science is drawing attention. At present, the development of an asymmetric catalyst that can control the three-dimensional chemistry of data science under the trials and errors of researchers is ranked as a challenge in organic synthesis. I have been working at my doctoral course on building and demonstrating methodologies that adopt machine learning to the system design of stereoscopic branched type asymmetric catalysts that supply complex molecules to green. I succeeded in the efficient development of a complicated but new catalyst system and could realize the convenience of AI.   On the other hand, many people began to worry that the development of AI will take away the work of human beings. At present, AI is specialized in specific issues, like the solution of simulated or mathematically modeled issues. However, when singularity (technical singular point: at the time of new AI, which is at the same level as the brains of human beings) will get near in the near future, AI will alternate what only human beings can do, and it is the big change in the living environment of human beings. It is likely that AI will be applied not only to simple tasks like cleaning and delivery, but also to professional fields like medical and financial services.   Then, in a technologically advanced period, what kind of AI works that cannot be alternated are there? In principle, when we reach ‘singularity’, computers can keep the same or higher-level knowledge with human beings. As computers can reduce work and human errors, we can realize cost reduction and efficiency improvements comparing with human beings. However, there is a possibility that such ‘no-mistake’ perfectness becomes a demerit. For example, take the case of kindergarten teachers. If we set up AI, AI will teach students knowledge or manners, and play with them. However, kindergarten period is important for students’ growth, and it is essential for their formation of characters and sociality that they know emotion and mistake mistakes that ‘human being teachers’ commit unconsciously. If we introduce ‘AI teachers’, it will be difficult for kindergarten students to obtain a suitable lifetime rhythm for their ages.   AI technologies are progressing rapidly. It may take a long time to reach ‘singularity’. But it is an important issue how human beings coexist with AI and complement each other’s.     SGRA Kawaraban 740 in Japanese (Original)     Chen-Hongyu, 2022 Raccoon, Researcher at Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.              Translated by Kazuo Kawamura English checked by Sabina Koirala

My research life started in 2008, when I encountered a study on “Aesthetics” in Japan. It is not easy to define “aesthetics” in short. If I would like to explain straight forward how human beings acknowledge ‘beautifulness’, and ‘sensibility’ at that moment. So, every deed done by human beings can be an object, and its scope is infinite. For such reasons, the center of discussion about ‘aesthetics’ would sometimes be ideology or art, depending on the time or country. As the definition of art is being diversified, as mentioned above, it is possible to make research like this essay. As an example, let’s study AI music from an aesthetic viewpoint.   If you put a lot of music into an AI system, it would make similar and new music by analyzing original data. For example, “AI Composer Emily Howell” composed by David Cope, can produce a lot of music in a short time based on the old composing style of Beethoven or Mahler. In the field of popular music, a research team led by Ahn Chang-Wook under the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology in Korea developed “AI Composer EvoM”, and various popular songs including K-pop. Against such AI music, regardless of academic or non-academic field, public opinion has shown its interest in such scientific and technological aspects of AI as its historic, scientific potential and commercial value. Moreover, such controversies have recently extended to the field of ‘post-humanism’ like social and ethical issues, and aesthetic and philosophical fields by environmental philosophers.   We can re-consider, from the relationship between AI music and human beings, “creativity” which is one of the main concepts of “aesthetic”. In the evaluation of AI music in classical music (western artistic music), it is criticized as poor tasting songs that imitate songs by great classical composers simply. When I listen to AI music, I think its quality is much inferior to ‘music by human beings’. However, such criticism may be caused by the creativity of ‘human music’, which has been controversial since the latter half of the18th century. At that time, the concept of ‘genius’ or ‘originality’ rose, and the composition using existing music, which has continued since the Middle Ages, was criticized.   Namely, borrowing behavior itself means no originality. For example, the citation technique of Gustav Mahler, composer of the post-romanticism era, was related to ‘Jewishness’ (negative meaning), and its originality was suspected. Such a tendency lasted until the modernism of the 1950s and 1960s. For composers and critics who asked for novelty, the use of adjusted music means ‘return to the past’, and quoting the behavior of existing music means ‘dirty music’.   Deliberation for ‘creativity’ in AI music may become the start of this issue. Against various aesthetic questions for AI music, like 1) What is creativity? 2) What is the function of a composer? 3) What is work? 4) How do listeners react? The answers would be the following: When you input information into AI, it is ‘human composers’ that select information, and, on the other hand, it is AI that creates new music. As David Cope mentioned above, even if ‘human composers’ collect, select, and input information, AI will produce unexpected results.   From the theory mentioned above, I can say that AI has ‘originality’. According to David Cope, it does not depend on human inspiration alone but arises from another factor like a machine. And ‘originality’ does not come from anything but the context that comes around ‘originality’. ‘Originality’ comes from the composition of works that other people have done. Furthermore, it must rely on the judgement, for or against, of other people who accept or reject the things that are aesthetic. We can find such insistence of Cope in the process of creation, not in the result of works of ‘originality’. Such discussion about the ‘originality’ of AI marks an important beginning for understanding the ‘originality’ of human beings. It gives us the big suggestion that we create something new from nothing, and we can review our attitude toward appreciation, which is bound by modern mythology.     SGRA Kawaraban 739 in Japanese (Original)     CHO You Kyung /2021 Raccoon, Postgraduate student at the University of Tokyo     Translated by Kazuo Kawamura English checked by Sabina Koirala       

I am writing a doctoral thesis now and feel mentally tired quite often. Even if I do not write a doctoral thesis, there are so many dreadful things in the world. There are various ways of healing. It is effective for me to go out to beautiful and calm nature spots that are not so congested. When I go to such places and breathe deeply, I can relax mentally and physically. I feel heartwarming and think “Let us work more and harder!”   I could finish my doctoral thesis because I went to such places once a week last year. So, I would like to introduce such healing spots from my experience.   Firstly, I recommend going to the Institute for Nature Study and the National Museum of Nature and Science in Shirokane (very close to Tokyo METRO station). It is not well known among international students and is different from other parks in Tokyo. It is a real forest, not a garden like Koishikawa Koraku-en Garden or Shinjuku Gyo-en (the National Garden). There are passes and bridges for taking a walk, and various plants are growing like forests. We can forget being in Tokyo because tall trees are standing to hide towns. We cannot enjoy such feelings without going to the mountains, which take three hours to reach. It is just a place where we can enjoy walking, forgetting our daily lives.   We can enjoy its beauty every season, but the time of the autumn leaves is the best. There are many gardens or temples that are famous for their autumn leaves, and the leaves of those trees are pruned so that they do not grow tall. However, the trees in the Institute of Nature Study are not pruned and there are a lot of tall autumn trees. I think it is the only place in Tokyo where we can enjoy tall, red autumn trees. If you would like to enjoy walking, I recommend you go to the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum. You can enjoy modern architecture and history there, and the garden is very beautiful.     I recommend you secondarily to go to Sankeien in Yokohama. Minato-MIRAI and Yamashita-Park, both in Yokohama, are famous. But I will be tired more because those places are popular spots. Sankeien, however, is located in a quiet place, ten minutes by bus from Yamashita Park, and is not crowded. It was released by a businessperson named Hara Sankei in 1906, and it is very big and worth walking. It is very beautiful, especially when plum blossoms are fully bloomed. Harbor views of Tokyo Bay from Sankeien are good also. The most highlighted one is its buildings, which were relocated from Kyoto and Kamakura. All of them are valuable historically, and I recommend them to people who like to know Japanese architecture and history. You can see many luxurious houses around Sankeien and may be interested in modern architecture while taking strolls.   The last place that I recommend is the place where I would like you to go in cherry blossom season. Some people may dislike going to famous spots that are famous for their cherry blossoms because of their crowded conditions. But the cherry blossoms alongside the Shakujii-River is different. Its beauty is just the same as that of the Meguro-River. But the Shakujii-River side is not so crowded. The river is very long, but I recommend you take the course between Otonashi-Shinsui Park (Sound Nothingness Water Park) which is very near Oji-Station (Tokyo Metro), and Naka-Itabashi Station (Tobu-Tojyo Line). The park is strange or peculiar because this river was constructed using the old waterway of the Shakujii River. It is worth going only for this reason. When you walk along the river, you can enjoy cherry blossoms for five kilometers. As there are no Yatai (food stands) and few people like Meguro-River, you can enjoy cherry blossom while being relaxed. You will be healed fantastically if you walk while watching cherry blossoms and listening to your favorite music.      You may feel persistent stress every day. But let’s refresh and heal ourselves yourself by watching beautiful scenery.      SGRA Kawaraban 737 in Japanese (Original)     Oksana KAKIN / 2021 Raccoon     Translated by Kazuo Kawamura English checked by Sabina Koirala

SGRA Sustainable Shared Growth Seminar 37 Report East Asian Dynamics Posted: May 2023 Organized By: College of Public Affairs and Development/University of the Philippines Los Baños; Institute for Northeast Asian Future; and Sekiguchi Global Research Association/Atsumi International Foundation Seminar Report (Lite Version) (HD Version available on request from editor)

We are pleased to share the report based on the Asian Cultural Dialogues session held online as part of the 6th Asia Future Conference. Please click here to download the report.   SGRA Report Special Issue AFC6 Round Table The 4th Asian Cultural Dialogue “Are you okay?”  - Discussions on mental health, trauma, and fatigue in Asia   Date：August 28 (Sunday) 2022 Venue：Online Organizer：Atsumi International Foundation Sekiguchi Global Research Association (SGRA)   Abstract The past two years have been eventful to say the least – a worldwide pandemic that we are still in the midst of natural disasters that have wrecked devastation on local populations, domestic and international conflicts in areas such as Myanmar and the war in Ukraine that have led to the loss of lives and displacement of millions. These events have not only affected the external conditions of how we live, but also permanently affected how we perceive the world and others, as well as left deep emotional imprints. In this roundtable session we try and take stock of what has happened over the last few years and have a frank discussion about the side we often neglect to discuss – the emotional and individual, internal aspects of these issues. With presentations from Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan, this roundtable seeks to understand how recent events have impacted us mentally and emotionally, as well as the support systems and methods in place for people to cope with the reality we are now faced with. Through this discussion we hope to gain an understanding of some of the struggles that individuals in East and Southeast Asia are grappling with, as well as practical advice for dealing with the difficulties we experience in the new every day.   Download report.

I have “Problem Based Training Class” at my university. Students raise various social questions in English and try to find solutions. The vacant house situation is one of the issues which were taken up recently and I found this issue is not only for students who live in the provincial area, but mass media has taken up recently very often also.   Financial Times (electronic edition) reports in their “Japan’s Empty Villages Are a Warning for China” (October 30, 2022) that the number of vacant houses in Japan is increasing, and Chinese people are afraid that their real estate bubble would “Japanize”. However, I think there is no similarity in the vacant house situation in Japan and China. Then, how does China study from Japan? I did not have any special awareness of this article at that time. But the vacant house problems in both countries have made me uneasy now.     The reasons why it became vacant in Japan, are: There is no person to live with after old residents passed, away and being almost untouched condition. Now I notice such houses between my house and the nearest station in the same situation. I can say such an area is a vacant zone.   In China, an image of vacant houses is the one that has no residents despite being built for speculative investment purposes in high-rise building areas. There is no difference in the meaning of the words “vacant house” in Japan and China. But the origins of the words “vacant house” are quite different. I have distinguished these the words “vacant house” in Japan and China in this way.    There are so many “no occupancy” high-rise apartments in China and such areas are called “鬼城”(ghost town). Many people in Japan know these words. However, in Japan, the words “ghost town” mean a trace of the place where people have lived, and residents have disappeared. Of course, some residential areas have a few vacant houses, and some areas are called ghost towns when all residents disappear. The number of statics (every five years) by the Ministry of Public Affairs for vacant houses shows 13.6% in 2018 and this figure reached a record high in these 20 years.   I realized now that vacant houses mean just the same for non-Japanese and non-Chinese. A vacant house is a vacant house. According to Financial Times, the Japanese economy are keeping continue without any economic recovery after the collapse of the real estate bubble in the 1980s, and the FT worries about the present excessive investment in housing projects in China. Yes, if we will go back to the Japanese Bubble Period, we might be able to find similarities in the vacant house situations in China.   The FT warns further that if the real estate market in China would continue in such a present situation, they may repeat the same failure as the collapse of the real estate bubble in Japan. The reason why the population of China began to decrease. In Japan, the population has begun to decrease already and there are a lot of elderly. The increase in vacant houses is one of the reasons and there exists an inheritance problem also. If they cannot clean up their inheritance problems, they must keep their houses to be vacant. Such vacant houses cause the deterioration of public security and delay in urban development.   Now real estate problems include a wide range of issues both in China and Japan. Then, what does China learn from Japan? The excessive debt problem of China Evergrande Group (CEG) is still fresh in our minds. And excessive financing to real estate prices and soaring prices of real estate became distinct. Those situations are very similar to the collapse of the real estate bubble in Japan. After the regulation of CEG, we saw a lot of companies suffer from cash flow or are burdened with their debts. People who purchased real estate from CEG began to distrust CEG and cancel their contracts. Social confusion spread among ordinal citizens. Mr. Shin-ichi Seki, Head Researcher of JRI (The Japan Research Institute, Ltd.) says “China has already learned from Japan”. Weekly Magazine “Economist,” says also “China has made interest rate reduction and deregulation of financing to real estate companies already”. (September 13, 2022) I hope matters would not become worse.   Real estate is considered precious property both in Japan and China. (Of course, such thinking is not limited to Japan and China only.) As I feel strongly that people in both countries believe building houses revitalize their economy. In Japan, we see the news about depopulation, declining birthrate, or aging society almost every day. However, in such a situation, houses are being built new every day. It is not an exaggeration. According to the data from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the number of housings starting in 2022 increased by 0.4% from the previous year. We can say China is not an aging society. But the population began to decrease last year for the first time.  I hope both countries should reconsider comprehensively the balance between the population forecast and the supply of new housings.     SGRA Kawaraban 736 in Japanese (Original)     XIE Zhihai / Professor, KYOAI GAKUEN University   Translated by Kazuo Kawamura English checked by Sabina Koirala

My life was a stream headed North. I was born in Nantou (南投)County in Taiwan. Nantou County is the only county that has no sea. It locates in the center of Taiwan and has a famous tourist spot “Sun Moon Lake (日月潭)”. Except for such tourist spots, it is not bustling and there is an image of the countryside. I enjoyed my childhood in Caotun (草屯), and moved to Taichung (台中) to go to a prestigious junior high school and high school. I went to an elite university in Taipei (台北). I headed for the North and urbanity. I am now in another further northern island country and living in the international big city Tokyo.   I do not forget a day when I was impressed with snow in Tokyo for the first time in my life. I used a humidifier for the first time because I felt an occurrence strongly of various health problems like skin drying when the temperature becomes low. I was surprised at the length of the night also when the sun sets at 16:30 in winter. When I encounter people who came from many countries, using complicated railway networks which seem to be a labyrinth of a different world, I realized that I am living in a big city.   The subject of my research is a Confucian scholar Ogyu Sorai (荻生徂徠) in Edo Period. He was ejected from Edo (Tokyo) and spent his teens and early twenties living in Nanso Town (midlands of Chiba Prefecture). After returning to Edo in the latter half of twenties, he was enlightened to be in a situation surrounded by “enclosed districts (廓)”. He compared his “Experience in Nanso” with thriving Edo in his front. And he concluded that the influence on  the people by “ customs (風俗) is big. Because their insight comes from the environment in which they are living, and their own experience. As a result, he emphasized the importance of their ability to understand “native customs” relatively apart from their present “enclosed districts”.      As I have changed the living places, I could acknowledge the difference between “native customs” and the limitation of “closed districts”. Though various information is flowing freely and quickly now, people’s ways of living and interests are different. Needless to say, there is a big difference in culture and concept of value once they cross borders.   Before I came to Japan, I had a simple impression of Japan. I shared the Taiwanese common images of Japan like “foods are salty” and “people are polite” etc.  Although these conclusions are not wrong, the complexities of Japanese culture are summarized in a very rough style. “Salty” may be applied to ‘Ramen’ or ‘ton-katsu (pork cutlets). Japanese home cooking is relatively lighter seasoning than that of Taiwan. I think traditional Japanese cuisine does not pursue heavy seasoning. As to Japanese politeness, they keep a certain distance in human relations. Sometimes, I feel the difference between their principles and real intentions.     Through my living in Japan for years associating with a lot of Japanese friends, I understand now that we cannot comprehend “the others” simply. And, at the same time, I feel I could comprehend various phenomena in “ourselves”. For example, when Japanese friends asked me “what are the characteristics of Taiwan foods?”, I noticed the meaning of this question for the first time. My conclusion was “Taiwan foods are sweet”. We can see discourteous behaviors often in Taiwan. But I think it comes from an atmosphere that does not pursue “conformity” with humane societies.   The purpose of comparison of “ourselves” and “the others” is not a judgment of their superiority or inferiority. Based on the understanding of the actual situation of “ourselves and the others”, to understand the others, we speculate “the others” by our features. And, to acknowledge ourselves, we contrast ourselves from the features of others. Through such understanding, we can relativize “the others and ourselves” and release both from “enclosed districts”. As I changed my living places very often, such understanding is very beneficial for me and useful for my comparative study of the history of thoughts also.     SGRA Kawaraban 733 in Japanese (Original)     CHIANG Hsun-yi /2021 Raccoon, Studying at ph. D course in Humanities and Sociology at the University of Tokyo   Translated by Kazuo Kawamura English checked by Sabina Koirala

Registration is now being accepted for the 37th Sustainable Shared Growth Seminar to be held on April 10th, through the collaboration of the Institute for Northeast Asian Future, Cpaf Uplb, and SGRA PH Sekiguchi Global Research Association of Atsumi Zaidan.   Title： East Asia Dynamics  Date and Time： April 10th, 2023（Monday）10:00～13:00 (Japan Time) / 9:00～12:00 (Philippine Time)  Venue： Atsumi Foundation Hall （Tokyo） &   Online （Zoom meeting） Charge： Free Registration： Register from the KKK37 Registration Form *A link for participation will be sent to those who have registered.   Host ： Atsumi International Foundation Sekiguchi Global Research Association （SGRA） Co-hosts： College of Public Affairs and Development (CPAf), University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) Co-hosts： Institute for Northeast Asian Future (INAF)   Inquiry： SGRA Secretariat   [email protected]     【Overview】   The World Bank's "East Asian Miracle Report" (1993), a study of the rapid growth achieved by eight East Asian countries, including Japan, was controversial in every sense of the word, but it should be noted that it focused on the theme of "growth and equity" as early as the report. This theme has recently gained popularity again with Thomas Piketty's "Capital in the 21st Century" (2014) and J.E. Stiglitz's "Price of Inequality" (2013). The unifying theme of this seminar series, inspired by this discussion, is "Shared Growth" (SHARED GROWTH), which refers to the simultaneous distribution of wealth and economic growth. However, this seminar will focus on aspects not covered in the "East Asian Miracle Report," namely "regionalism" and "decentralization," in order to better understand the dynamics of economic development in East Asia from the perspective of "shared growth. The discussion of "regionalism" will focus on the positive aspects of the "Flying Geese Model," which was conceived by the Japanese researcher      Akamatsu Kaname in the 1930s. This seminar will re-evaluate the significance of this theory in the development of the region, which in the 1980s gained renewed attention as an explanatory theory for the remarkable economic development of East Asia. Another trend that took place in East Asia in the 1990s was "decentralization”. Economic growth is supported by a society that sustains decentralization, which      can be thought of as a mechanism for supporting and diffusing growth. ※KKK stands for Kahusayan (Efficiency), Katarungan (Equity), and Kalikasan (Environment), which represents the socio-economic goals of sustainable shared growth. It is also the name of the revolutionary organization that fought for the independence of the Philippines from Spain. For the Philippines, therefore, KKK stands for what is most noble in her traditions, and is very much against repression, albeit peacefully. We feel that the Philippines is in dire need of sustainable shared growth, and requires nothing short of a revolution in our ways of thinking and acting.     【Program】   Presentation1: “Regionalization in East Asia” by Dr. Hitoshi Hirakawa ……………...…..(INAF, SGRA/AISF, Nagoya University)   In today’s presentation, the presenter uses the term "regionalization" as a comprehensive concept that indicates regionalism, regional cooperation, regional integration, and their institutionalization in East Asia (Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia) in a broad sense. Regionalism had two origins. One is Northeast Asia (mainly Japan) and the other is Southeast Asia. Both coexisted before the Asian currency crisis, and since then the ASEAN+3 framework, born out of it, has paved the way for multilayered institutionalization and economic integration. However, regional economic integration through the leadership rivalry of major countries has become the driving force, and it is facing new challenges. This presentation provides an overview of regionalization in East Asia over the past century and attempts to draw lessons for today's issues.     Presentation2:  “Decentralization in East Asia” by Dr. Max Maquito ………………………………...(CPAf/UPLB, SGRA/AISF)   We look at decentralization within nations as another force that defines the dynamics of East Asia. In my presentation, I will discuss whether decentralization is a substitute or complement to regionalization, another force that we think defines the dynamics of East Asia. I touch on two conditions whereby the two forces could be mutually complementary. The first condition pertains to the appropriate empowerment of the state. The state finds itself at the vortex of two conflicting forces, where it must find a suitable equilibrium. The second condition pertains to the existence of a common principle in these two forces that could feed on each other. One such common principle is that of shared growth.     Discussion: Seminar Chair: Dr. Max Maquito………………….(CPAf/UPLB, SGRA/AISF)   “ Possible Future Research Directions: Mutually Constitutive Regionalization and Decentralization, ASEAN and Citizen Positioning” by Atty. Damcelle Cortes ………………………………………..(CPAf/UPLB)   Regionalization and decentralization offer promising pathways for achieving shared growth. I offer another perspective for understanding their interface, that is that they are not just complementary but mutually constitutive. I further raise some insights and questions prompted by the presentations. One involves locating shared growth, ASEAN values and the citizen in the regionalization discourse. Another focuses on the nuanced and complex nature of decentralization.     “Regionalism by Local Governments and NGOs: Experiences in the Northeast Asia Region” by Gangzhe Li ………………………………………(INAF, SGRA/AISF)   With the collapse of the Cold War, regionalism began to gain momentum in the 1990s in the Northeast Asian region, where the socialist and capitalist camps used to be in conflict. Although decentralization processes varied, international regional development projects that transcended national borders were launched and moves toward the formation of sub-regional economic zones (SREZ) gained momentum. I believe that these international regional development projects are contributing to shared growth, as some progress has been made in decentralization along with the formation of SREZ.Dr.     “Case study of decentralization in Indonesia" by Dr. Jakfar Idrus …………………………(Kokushikan University, SGRA/AISF)   Although at first glance regionalism/regional integration and decentralization appear to be conflicting concepts, this study provides an innovative and new theoretical framework and argues that both concepts are mutually influential. It is necessary to clarify that decentralization as a mechanism for shared growth is a multifaceted issue. In Indonesia, decentralization at the local level has resulted in the concentration of power, wealth, and resources. Therefore, we must look at aspects of its implementation, not just administrative and fiscal decentralization. While state empowerment is certainly an important factor, community empowerment is also a core and critical issue for shared growth to be achieved.     Closing Remarks: Dr. Max Maquito…………………………………(CPAf/UPLB, SGRA/AISF)   See programme for more details. Programme in English Programme in Japanese Website in Japanese We hope to see you and your friends at the seminar!

SGRA Sustainable Shared Growth Seminar 36 Report SGRA Sustainable Shared Growth Seminar 36 Report In Search of Community Currency: A Study in Community Innovations Posted: March 2023 Organized By: Faculty of Management and Development Studies/University of the Philippines Open University; College of Public Affairs and Development/University of the Philippines Los Baños; Sekiguchi Global Research Association/Atsumi International Foundation Seminar Report (Lite Version) (HD Version available on request from editor)