Yasuhei Oguchi Chaiperson IATSS

In recent years, we have faced a whirlwind of social change. The Asian economy, for example, has grown at breathtaking speed and Asia is well on its way to becoming one of the most important regions in the world. IATSS Forum, which began in 1985 with a focus on learning from the process of Japanese modernization, has also met the needs of changing times. Recent forum programs have placed greater weight than before on current issues facing ASEAN countries even as we continue to look to Japan as a case study. In this way, the forum provides participants with a field for tackling such issues and for better understanding each other through its unique motto, "Thinking and Learning Together."

At the same time, a rapid and profound shift toward globalization, not only in business and industry but also in terms of politics, economics, the environment and even pandemic disease, has made ours a time when many issues simply cannot be resolved by any single country acting alone. In the academic world, too, such issues spill across the traditional boundaries between disciplines. Since its inception, the IATSS Forum has pursued an extensive, interdisciplinary approach to nurturing human resources capable of contributing to the international community. In the twenty-first century, we continue to move nimbly to respond to the needs of the future, adding training to the curriculum in areas such as how to lead international, interdisciplinary meetings.

Today, about 800 alumni are active in a broad range of business, industrial, political and academic fields. Alumni associations take advantage of this occupational breadth, as well as a generational range developed over more than twenty years, as they grow ever more energetic and more firmly established within each country and across the ASEAN region.

I am especially grateful for the contributions of the lecturers, local volunteers and other parties whose clear understanding of the IATSS Forum spirit does so much to keep our program going and growing.

In closing, I hope participants and alumni alike will continue to utilize the Forum as they go on to pursue their own activities and contribute to society in the nations of Southeast Asia.