About WSD

Advances in communication technology and transportation infrastructure have made the world smaller than ever before, bringing about a truly global society. People, capital, and information move across all regional and national borders to give new reality to the notion of the world as a single, interconnected community. Yet we are still far from realizing the ideal of an equally prosperous and happy life for all people of the world. Some regions lag far behind. Children are born and grow up in poverty with little opportunity for a decent education. Infrastructure is lacking or crumbling. Natural disasters, wars, and violence claim lives and destroy hope. Even as we speak, the number of people who cannot enjoy prosperity and happiness is increasing throughout the world. In the late 20th century, Japan made a miraculous recovery from the devastation of war to become one of the wealthiest nations in the world. Our forefathers certainly made extraordinary efforts to rebuild our country, but the support and goodwill of the international community made an enormous difference. We know how much it means to have a helping hand when a nation and its citizens are suffering.

This help does not have to involve large-scale public support. We foresee a world in which the autonomous and ongoing grass-root activities of private organizations will play an ever increasing role in meeting the needs of people everywhere. Private assistance and cooperation, appropriately and sensitively managed, can foster true people-to-people interaction and understanding. We deeply believe that this is the key to building a foundation for peace and prosperity in this modern society, and will play a major role in resolving the global-scale issues that we confront. Private organizations can make headway where governments cannot. They can reach people, for example, in the most remote and hard-to-reach places. Innovative support can show the way to training new generations, and private philanthropy can take risks and creative undertakings that bureaucracies would be reluctant to pursue. New kinds of coalitions transcending all fields are today truly possible.

We have created a not-for-profit organization to carry forward our intentions to contribute along these lines. The first steps will focus on publishing and sharing information with people of different nations and fields, and working together to develop forms of assistance that complement but are also distinct from those of government or corporate-based entities. Our objective, and hope, is to realize a society where everyone in the world can equally enjoy a prosperous and happy life with financial, social and cultural security, the opportunity to develop talents and potential, and the chance to contribute to a global vision.