Grass-roots activities key to development

This year, Japan will play host to major international gatherings, among them the Group of Eight summit in July and the Tokyo International Conference on African Development this week.

These events are being held against a backdrop of waning domestic public interest in international issues. In the face of many difficult problems linked to widening gaps in society and the graying of the population, many people apparently want the government to devote its efforts to solving domestic problems rather than focusing on foreign policy issues.

But it is questionable whether Japan can find fundamental solutions to domestic problems with such an inward-looking mindset alone. If citizens develop new ties with other countries, I believe they can also find ways to break the sense of stagnation looming over Japan.