Dennoch!

"Only he has the calling for politics who is sure that he will not crumble when the world from his point of view is too stupid or base for what he wants to offer. Only he who in the face of all this can say ‘In spite of all!' has the calling for politics."

Since I read Max Weber’s "Politics as a Vocation" as a college student studying political science, this has remained my favorite quote. The determination to face reality as it is and the ability to keep hope alive and push forward are, I believe, the most essential requirements for not only political leaders but anyone who assumes a leadership role in the process of social change.

During my career, a good part of which was in the nonprofit field, I have seen many colleagues who possessed one of these qualities, but only a few who were equipped with both. I have experienced times when I was so absorbed in an enthusiastic sense of mission that I lost sight of inconvenient reality, when I was frustrated by selfish donor interests, or obstructive government authorities and angered by dishonest beneficiaries inflating their needs, and when I felt so tired as to be tempted to withdraw to my office and settle for simply fulfilling my functions as circumstances require. In such moments, recalling Weber’s quote spurred me to eagerly understand realities with humility, question them with integrity, and persist in taking responsible action to find a way forward.

大洋州の「島」と「海」

3000万平方キロメートルの広大な地域に陸地が占める面積は２％だけ。「島国根性」という言葉は、視野が狭く閉鎖的といった意味で、普通日本人の国民性の否定的な側面を指して用いられるが、私が2000年から2年間滞在した大洋州地域の島国に住む人々もまた、外部の世界に対してやや複雑ないわく言い難い感情をもっているようだ。とても気さくで親しみやすく、おおらかで朗らかな人が多いのだが、自分たちの地域は世界の他の国々に無視されているといった不満や、外国の影響に対する警戒心または反感は、彼らの内に意外と広く共有されている。

じっくりと話しを聞いてみると、どうもこうした心情の奥底には根深い無力感が横たわっているようだ。概してこの地域の国々は、国土が小さいだけでなく、大小の島々により成り立っているその地理的構成上、国内外との交通、運輸、通信も容易でない。人口も資源も少なく、国際的な発言力も低い。グローバル化の大波の中で、経済的・文化的生存を危ぶむ声があるところに、社会不安や温暖化現象による海面上昇の懸念まで加わっては、彼らが無力感を抱くのもある意味無理からぬことなのかもしれない。

パプア・ニューギニア生まれのトンガ人作家エペリ・ハウオファは、この無力感を克服するためには、まず人々が自分たちの国を島国ではなく海洋国として考え直す認識の転換が必要だという。南太平洋の多くの社会における伝統的な概念では、「土地」は海岸線で終わるものではなく、陸地から沖合いまで続くものだった。大洋に浮かぶ島嶼は、ちょうど砂漠に点在するオアシスのように、人々にやすらぎの場所を与えるが、彼らの活動領域はそこに限られるものではない。広大な大地を駆け巡る遊牧民のように、海洋民族である彼らの先人たちは渺漠たる大海を舞台に互いに交流し、時には争い、果敢に冒険もし、またそこから自然の恵みを得て、独自の文化を育んできた。海は陸地を隔てる障壁ではなく、生活圏の一部であるとする考え方に立ち返ってみれば、彼らが住むこの地域は「海に浮かんだ小さな島々」ではなく、「多くの島々を擁する大海」というように一体感をもって捉えなおされ、大洋州の人々は不要な無力感を捨て自信と積極性を取り戻すことができるはずだ、という主張だ。

この自信と積極性というものは、人々の行動とその結果に驚くほど大きな違いを生む。私が国際赤十字連盟の大洋州代表部で携わった開発事業においても、まず大切なのは、当事者が自分がやらねばという責任感と、やればできるという自信を持つことだった。私たちの役割は、外部の援助への不満と不信を静かに抱えている各赤十字社と率直に話し合い、パートナーとして彼らの信頼を得ることから始まって、彼ら当事者の責任感と自信を促すような刺激を与えることと、実際にそれを行動に移し成果を挙げることができるよう後ろから支援することに尽きるといっても過言ではない。

私が担当していた事業の内の一つにコンテナ型救護倉庫の配備というものがあったが、これにしても、人材育成や組織強化の側面には常に特別な重点を置いていた。倉庫配備と救援物資供給に加え、救援物資の在庫管理や、物資使用状況の報告といった活動を通して各赤十字社本社及び支部の活性化とプロジェクト管理能力の育成に寄与する。災害に関する情報交換のためのネットワーキングや災害教育といった活動については言うに及ばず、各赤十字社の災害対策計画作成・改訂の活動も、その過程で赤十字職員、ボランティア、政府及びNGO関係者や地域住民と対話し、可能な限り広く参画を求めることで、ただ書類を一つ作るということにとどまらず、より広範で持続可能な効果を生む。

ブリ・ガウナの夢

フィジー共和国の東部に、ラウ諸島と呼ばれる57の小さな島々がある。フィジー国内では、ラウ地方の人は「向上心が強く、勤勉」との定評があるのだが、フィジー赤十字社の災害担当主任（2002年当時）のブリ・ガウナも、ラウ出身者としてこの評判に恥じない一人だ。

彼が生まれ育った辺境ともいえる島に、当時降り立つ航空便は無く、たまに遥か上空を通り過ぎていくだけの飛行機を見上げながら、幼いブリ少年は「いつの日か、あれに乗って世界を見るんだ」と心に誓った。「もちろん、今回が初めてというわけじゃないけど、それでもまだ飛行機に乗るときは、あの頃を思い出しながら心が弾む」と、2001年10月にスイスで開かれた国際赤十字の災害対策研修ワークショップに向かう機内で、24歳になる彼は、すこし照れくさそうに、私に語った。

彼がフィジー赤十字社で働き始めた当初は、ボランティアとして、青少年活動の手伝いをするうちに、その精力的な仕事振りがスタッフや仲間たちからの信頼を得て、職員として採用された。フィジー赤十字社の啓蒙活動の重要な一環である人形劇チームのリーダーとしてしばらく活躍した後、几帳面さと行動力の両方が求められる倉庫管理担当係として、3年近くジョン・スコット前事務総長の信任に応えた。

彼が心から尊敬していたジョン・スコット氏が、不慮の死をとげたのは2001年の夏のことだ。2000年のクーデターという未曾有の危機を、事務総長の指導力により団結して乗り切ったフィジー赤十字社にとって、この上無く悲しむべき出来事だった。ジョン・スコット氏の右腕として信頼の厚かったマレタ・トバタ女史が、事務総長臨時代行として、大きく動揺する社の舵取りに必死であたっていた10月、災害対策研修ワークショップへの参加も一つの契機となって、ブリは災害担当主任に昇進した。

スイスでの最後の夕食の後、「ここに来て、大洋州の赤十字社で僕たちがやっている仕事を取り巻く、もっと大きな文脈というものを垣間見ることができた」と、ブリはやや興奮した口調で語り始めた。「これまでは、君がやって来て、報告書だの、計画だのと仕事の話をすると、正直言ってわずらわしく思うこともあった。でも、君が仕事で僕に接する態度には、現在の環境や、やっていることに安住せず、目標を高く持て、というメッセージが常に隠されていたことが今になって分かった」と、ブリは私に言った。そんな大層なことは考えたこともない私は、笑ってごまかした。

ジュネーブの赤十字記念館に展示されていた、国際赤十字運動に贈られたノーベル平和賞のメダルの前で、満面に誇らしげな笑みを浮かべながら記念撮影をした彼だが、将来の話になると、「これから先、赤十字にずっと携わって行くということはないと思う」と言う。じゃあ、他に何をしたいんだい、との私の問いに、彼は、「幼い頃からの憧れは軍人だ。軍に入ってもっと広い世界を見たい」と、答えた。「僕の祖父は英国軍人として、ガダルカナルの戦闘で英雄になった。このあいだソロモン諸島に行った時、日本から来た君が、今も残っている日本軍の監視台を眺めているのを見て、何とも言えない感慨に襲われた」と目を輝かせて語るブリに、私はぼそりと、中国には「良鉄は釘にならず。良人は兵にならず」という言葉があるよ、と水を差してみる。

すると、彼はしばらく考えるような顔をしてから、「どうだろう、それは本当かもしれないし、そうではないかもしれない。でも、フィジーでは、軍隊は国際的に一流のキャリアを積める可能性がある数少ない就職先の一つであることは確かだ」と、答えた。オーケー、で、国際的なキャリアを積んでからどうしたいんだい？世界中を渡り歩く生活と言うのは、傍目で見るほど楽しいものでもないと思うけど、と私。スイスでの食事にタロ芋が出てこないことを嘆くこのラウ出身の青年は、ついさっき、赤十字に一生を 捧げたいとは思わない、と話したことなど忘れたかのように、「もちろんフィジーに戻ってくるさ。そして、フィジー赤十字社の事務総長になりたい」と、真顔で言い放った。

Red Cross experience in Fiji

In my first mission with the International Federation of the Red Cross, I had an opportunity to work with Mr. G, a rare breed of nonprofit manager with solid business and financial acumen. As head of the pacific regional delegation, Mr. G managed to make dramatic improvements in the office’s financial position and in its credibility among its partners.

The Federation delegation assisted and advised 12 Red Cross societies in the Pacific Region with various humanitarian activities. International donors often chose to channel their financial support to individual societies through the delegation to ensure a level of accountability and supervision that many small societies lacked capacity to provide. However, due to lax financial management in the past the delegation sometimes failed to control national societies’ overspending and had accumulated a large deficit.

Mr. G immediately made it clear that solving the problem was at the top of his priority list. First, he tackled the unpleasant job of negotiating financial arrangements with international donors to write off the deficit. Pulling off the intricate negotiations involving multiple stakeholders including donors, their “back donors”, national societies, and the Federation’s secretariat in Geneva, and getting prepared necessary financial and narrative reports required strong negotiation skills combining tactful persuasion and tenacity.

Mr. G then made extensive trips across the region to personally understand the situation of each national society and establish relationships with its leaders. He made frequent contact with them to keep them in the loop. His diplomacy was instrumental in dissolving the sense of mistrust they held toward the Federation, and in building a spirit of cooperation. In his affable yet outspoken manner, he got the message across that improving accountability and transparency was of paramount importance for the delegation to bring back donors and thus to provide better support for them. Inspired by him, the delegation members stepped up efforts to enhance accountability by providing continuous support for national societies in program development, financial planning and management, and donor reporting.

By the time Mr. G left for his home country to assume the leadership role at the Red Cross Society in an African nation after less than two years of stay in the Pacific, the delegation cleared all deficit and had programs expanded and fully funded by a more diverse donor base. He demonstrated how an effective manager should lead an international team and work with diverse partners to achieve excellence. In international and cross-cultural environment, clarity is paramount. In order to motivate a team and mobilize supports, a manager needs to define a clear set of basic principles and objectives, and involve everyone concerned through open and proactive communication. Empathy, self-discipline, and a strong commitment to deliver results are the qualities that go a long way to overcome initial disagreements and inevitable misconceptions, and to make allies of stakeholders with disparate value systems and viewpoints. These are the lessons I learned through my experience of working closely with Mr. G, and that I believe have helped me to take a significant step toward becoming a great manager.

日本版の社会起業家育成モデル

『社会起業家』（PHP新書）の著者である町田洋次さんが、そのブログで、アメリカではフォーチュン誌の富豪ランキングの上位にのるようなニューリッチたちが「広く社会に投じて社会を変えることを始めてる」ことにコメントした上で、「日本にはこれがないので社会起業が進まない、真似しようにも真似ができない、別の突破口を見つけなくてはいけません。大口支援ができないなら小口支援なんでしょうか、それとも企業支援なのか、道はまだ見えませんが、自ずから形成されてくるでしょう。」と書かれています。

これについて、極めて未熟な私見としては、二つのモデルが考えられるのではないかと思います。

1. CSRの動きをうまく活用し、「社会起業家の育成への貢献度」、または「社会起業家を通じた社会変革への貢献度」といったものを、可視化・指標化し、ランキング公表をすることで、企業からの資金の流れを促進する

2. コミュニティ通貨によるノンプロフィット資本市場を形成し、social venture capitalまたはventure philanthropyと呼ばれるようなアプローチを飛躍的に進化させる

どちらもあるいは夢物語にきこえるかもしれません。でも、私自身「ノンプロフィットのパラダイムシフト」を可能にする「社会起業インフラの整備」をライフワークとして取り組んでいきたいと考えており、夢物語を具体的な現実に変換していくために奮闘中です。

実はあなたも大富豪

今日、愛読している踏み上げ太郎さんのブログで、"Chosen ones "という記事 を読んで思い出したんですけど、昨年の日経の記事になりますが、『世界の「富」、人口の２％が半分以上所有』というのがありました。

こんな記事を見ると、「自分は世界で上位何％くらいの富裕層に入るんだろう」と思われる方もいらっしゃるんじゃないでしょうか。そんな方にチェックしてみてもらいたいのが、グローバル・リッチ・リストです。（記事の国連調査は資産ベース、こちらは年収ベースという違いはありますが。）

どうですか？「思ったよりも自分はリッチなんだな」と思われたんじゃないでしょうか？世界の富の不均衡について考えて行動するなんて、ビル・ゲイツやウォーレン・バフェット、ジョージ・ソロスといった大富豪たちにでも任せておけば良いなんて言わず、あなたも世界的にみたらものすごい経済力を持っているんだってことを自覚していただければ幸いです。

Undergraduate years

At Waseda University, I was like a kid in a candy store. After studying mandatory subjects in high school with an unwavering focus on the all-important university entrance examinations, the freedom to choose subjects and learn what interested me most liberated my intellectual curiosity.

Determined to make the most of Waseda’s liberal, open-minded atmosphere and the opportunity to debate various subjects with independent thinking friends and faculty, I took my academic exploration well beyond the required coursework. I read and learned about history, philosophy, ethnology, anthropology, evolutionary psychology, and cognitive science as well as political science, international relations and economics. The experience of self-directed interdisciplinary learning and extensive reading enlightened me, providing me with valuable reference points to view issues from multiple angles.

As one seeking to make an impact on the global community, I dabbled in foreign languages including English, German, Korean, Chinese, Spanish and French. I also took English language courses in Australia during the summer break as a freshman and audited classes on international relations at UCLA the following year. These experiences strengthened my international outlook and desire to work in the global arena in the future.

In my junior year I joined Professor Hideki Ohata’s seminar on theories of international politics, where I became one of the most active contributors in weekly discussion sessions. I chose to study Robert_Keohane’s institutional liberalism and John Steinbruner's cybernetic theory of policy making, which together made a profound impact on my thinking. They helped me to see both the forest and the trees in any organization or system: in other words, I learned the importance of attending to both macro and micro perspectives and appreciating the interdependence of relationships between the constituent elements.

Outside of my fundamental coursework, my involvement in the Ten Universities Joint Seminar on International Relations was the most critical contribution I made in my undergraduate academic experience. As chief of the Asian section, which was comprised of 30 students from ten universities in Tokyo, I created study programs, set the agenda, instructed other students on how to prepare presentations, and moderated weekly study sessions. Intensive discussions with other students with different specialty areas, such as development study, peace study, diplomacy, and international security helped to sharpen my interest in the issues of international social development and led me to choose public policy as the focus of my graduate studies.

UNESCO experience in Korea

Launching a new international understanding education program for Korean schoolchildren that had no precedence, that the new Education Minister was taking personal interest in, and that the Ministry of Education was sponsoring but only with less than $10,000 for the initial year – all this sounded to me as interesting challenge worth stepping up to. I got recruited by the Korean National Commission for UNESCO to take charge of the program.

The original concept agreed between UNESCO and the Ministry of Education was to ask foreign staff of diplomatic missions and cultural centers based in Seoul to volunteer to visit schools and talk to students about their country’s culture. While the response was mostly favorable, it soon turned out that these people were either too busy to participate or too formal to make interesting classes for schoolchildren.

With such a small budget, short preparation time, and no other staff than myself, nobody might have blamed if the first school term had ended in a mere gesture of trying to start. However, having experienced treatment as “half foreigner” in my own country of citizenship just like in similarly homogeneous Japanese society, I knew the value of the program for Korean society and was committed to make it a success. I managed to convince the Ministry that we should shift the target of our volunteer recruitment to overseas college students and spouses of expatriate businesspeople. At the same time, I added it as a main goal of the program to provide foreign volunteers with opportunities to learn about and participate in Korean society, in order to change the reliance on one-way giving to a more sustainable process of mutual benefit.

Class contents had to be made more interactive and interesting for students. With many colleagues’ help, I produced a handbook with ideas and examples and organized training for both foreign volunteers and Korean interpreters. Happy school teachers and volunteers spread words of mouth and the program was featured by many national media, which significantly helped broaden our volunteer base.

Satisfied with the instant success, the Ministry committed ten times the budget for the second year, and UNESCO assigned two staff under me. Foreseeing a bottle-neck in the process of matching school teachers’ and volunteers’ needs, which was being done manually by telephone and e-mail, I brought in a contractor to develop an internet-based system that could automate a large part of the process. Furthermore, I started preparing for taking the program outside of Seoul where this program would have more value. One experiment organized a caravan of volunteers that toured around rural schools. I also started contacting regional universities that had overseas students and was interested in serving as regional coordinator for the program.

I left Korea after completing the second year, but the Cross-Cultural Awareness Program is still running with basically the same formula and now considered as one of UNESCO’s flagship activities in Korea. This successful experience gave me self-confidence, which has stayed with me ever since.

Red Cross experience in Myanmar

Disasters do not announce themselves. The key to disaster management is therefore preparation and efficient coordination. In May of 2004, a devastating storm hit the Rakhine region of Myanmar and caused widespread damage that severely affected more than twenty-five thousand people. The internationally isolated military government pushed aside its suspicion of humanitarian aid and made an unprecedented decision to request international assistance, and the Red Cross launched the first-ever international appeal for Myanmar. Though I had just left Myanmar and was three thousand miles away at the time, I take great pride in the relief operations that followed because the guidelines, best practices, and information channels developed under my leadership made its success possible.

Two years earlier, just after I arrived in Myanmar, I took responsibility for coordinating another flood relief operation as acting head of a delegation of the International Federation of Red Cross. The serious lack of reliable information and the reluctance of the authorities and the Myanmar Red Cross Society (MRCS) leadership to take timely actions made it a formidable task. During my two-year mission, I addressed these problems from three dimensions – systems, skills, and culture.

First, I collaborated with MRCS leaders to formulate its Disaster Management Policy and develop standard operating procedures to institute the Disaster Assessment and Response Teams (DART) at a branch level. This laid the vital foundation for reliable information gathering and reporting mechanisms between MRCS National Headquarters and its branches.

Second, I developed a training program on essential knowledge and skills in disaster relief by drawing on examples and expertise from other countries. I organized a “training of trainers” workshop to create a pool of branch leaders, who later facilitated the DART workshops across the country. They trained 110 Red Cross staff and volunteers and nine representatives from the local authorities and military medical service in damage and needs assessment, reporting, logistics management, and coordination.

Third, I initiated a strategic planning process to articulate MRCS’s overall missions and directions and conducted an extensive branch survey to reduce communication gaps between the National Headquarters and branches. Concurrently, I organized advocacy events to sensitize key local officials to their humanitarian obligation to assist disaster-affected populations. These initiatives were instrumental in clarifying the MRCS’s roles and responsibilities in disaster management and in generating a shared understanding about ways to coordinate relief operations among MRCS staff and volunteers at all levels of the organization and their counterparts in the authorities and other humanitarian organizations.

My strengths as a leader were vital to realizing the changes that helped thousands of people in need. I was able to visualize the contextual connection between different national, organizational, and individual problems and find common ground between disparate interests of individual Red Cross leaders, the government authorities, and donors. These skills helped me develop a holistic, long-term vision and formulate strategic steps that led the organization in the desired direction based on a broad consensus. This experience taught me that the right combination of empathy, straight talk, perseverance, and a collaborative approach can produce positive results even in a complicated, murky political environment beset with multiple stakeholders and hidden agendas.

社会起業インフラ

例えば、食欲。人間の、いや生物の、最も基本的な欲求の一つであるだけに、これを満たすための仕組みは高度に発達しています。雑誌やTVなど様々な媒体による広告が、消費者の食欲を刺激します。甘いもの、辛いもの、安いもの、高いもの、ジャンクフード、健康食品、和食から世界中のエスニックまで、実に幅広い種類の食品が、スーパー、コンビニ、レストラン、ファーストフード、デリバリー、屋台に保存食と考えうる限りのフォーマットで提供されており、あらゆる時間のあらゆる場面で消費者のニーズに応えられるようになっています。

しかし、当然これらは数百年前の日本にはありませんでした。市場経済の発展の長い歴史の中で、分業・専門化や新たな試みを支える制度や仕組みができてきて、様々なイノベーションが積み重なった結果です。

「困っている人を助けたい」、「よりよい社会を築くために何かしたい」という欲求が、人々の心の片隅に眠っていたとしても、これを効果的に充足させるための仕組みがなければ、それは眠ったままになります。なぜこうした人々の気持ちが発揮されないまま終わってしまうのか？または部分的に発揮されたとしても完全に充足されないことになるのか？

実際の意思決定過程を丁寧に追い、その理由を探り、convisageを通じてここを訪れてくださる皆さんと一緒に、障害を一つ一つ取り除くための打ち手につなげていきたいと願っています。。

My value system

Throughout my life and career I have proactively eschewed the comfort of the status quo, instead choosing paths that frequently come with steep learning curves. At critical junctures I have been willing to pull up roots and take risks. Seeking new challenges has enriched my life and enhanced my capacity to effect change. I have honed the ability to understand my immediate surroundings, relate them to a broader context, identify clear objectives, find my way forward, and push on. It excites me to reach outside myself, to explore new ideas, to take on new challenges, and to make a difference in something greater than myself.

Many of the qualities and values that I possess – open-mindedness, compassion, industriousness – were learned from my parents. Born into a Korean-Japanese family in Japan, I quickly became aware of explicit and implicit social biases against minorities. I am indebted to my parents for teaching me to understand the nature and outcome of prejudices and discrimination, to be open-minded and fair, yet strong in asserting my rights and those of other disadvantaged people. As I grew up, these seeds eventually developed into my lifetime goal of contributing to the alleviation of worldwide inequality in wealth and opportunity through new social initiatives.

Industriousness is an integral part of my ethic. My parents emphasized the necessity of hard work and encouraged me to always double my efforts to ensure success. When I feel exhausted, remembering their words and how hard they worked re-energizes me. My values come from my past, but I look toward the future.

My Korean heritage nurtured independence and resolution, whereas my Japanese upbringing taught me teamwork and harmony. I have lived, worked and studied in Japan, Korea, the U.S., Fiji, Myanmar, and Switzerland, in addition to traveling to 34 other countries. My professional experience cuts across private, nonprofit, and public boundaries. I have firsthand insight into the virtues and shortcomings of the respective sectors, which will allow me to examine, synthesize, and reinterpret new experience and learning from a unique perspective.

Internet microfinance and venture philanthropy

"Websites let you be banker to world's poor"　- This Reuters' article introduces two organizations: Kiva and Acumen Fund.

Kiva's approach looks more innovative. It aims to be an "eBay for microfinance" by linking small businesses in the developing countries, which need to raise capital, and ordinary people all over the world who can afford to *lend* (not give out) money to them over the Internet.

Most of innovations are not entirely new but combine well-known concepts. Kiva successfully combines the Internet's ability to reduce the cost for ordinary people to participate in the international transactions and the concept of microfinance. Neither of them are quite novel, but Kia created an unique business model by combining the two.

For Kiva's model to grow and increase impact, the organization and its emulators would need not only to ensure low default rate like Dr. Muhammad Yunus' Grameen Bank but also to clear the risk of misuse of the fund. It is critical to establish a rigorous measures to screen, rate and monitor field parnters' repayment reliability and integrity. Only one case in which the funds raised through this model is misused and channeled to criminal/terrorist activities can ruin the whole endeavor.

As it gets bigger, Kiva will also need to be careful about the risk of clouding out the local financial business and creating a new sort of dependency.

The model adopted by Acumen Fund is somewhat less novel, but no less ambitious and probably more reliable. Like Kiva, it emphasizes on the market-oriented approach to solve the problems of global poverty. However, their main funding source are big foundations like Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the size of their investment is much bigger than Kiva. It identifies and supports social innovators, and seeks "to prove that small amounts of philanthropic capital, combined with large doses of business acumen, can build thriving enterprises that serve vast numbers of the poor."

I believe money is important but it alone cannot solve the problems of global poverty. New, efficient mechanisms to transfer charitable money globally is just starting to emerge. It will be much more difficult but equally crucial to develop such a mechanism to mobilize skills and expertise across the world and link them to the needs in developing nations.

善意という資源

人間は皆、利己的です。その利己的な欲求を、「神の見えざる手」により社会全体の効用増大につなげる仕組みが市場であり、これが効率的に機能していれば、新たなイノベーションも生まれやすい環境になります。食欲、物欲、性欲、支配欲－これらの利己的な欲求こそが、実は社会の発展の最大の原動力であり、資源であるといえます。

ただ、人間は社会的な動物でもあります。生理的な欲求以外にも、社会とのつながりの中で自己実現を求める社会的な欲求を持っています。利己的な欲求の充足をひたすら追い求めるだけではなく、家族を愛し、隣人を助け、よりよい社会をつくることに貢献したいとも考えています。こうした欲求は誰の心の中にも、多かれ少なかれ存在するはずです。

私は、こうした向社会的な欲求こそが、人類が未だ効果的に活用し切れていない最大の資源であると考えています。市場の仕組みももちろん完璧ではないけど、利己的な欲求という動力を、社会の発展に変換するエンジンとして絶大な力を発揮しています。一方、人々の向社会的な欲求を刺激し、惹きだし、需要と供給をマッチさせ、さらに強化していく循環の中で社会の発展につなげていくような仕組みは、極めて未発達の段階にあります。

convisageが目指すのは、こうした仕組みを作り出すための議論と実践のフォーラムを提供することです。資本主義経済がここまで高度に発展するためには、貨幣制度から始まって、銀行制度、債券市場、株式市場、会計基準、監査制度、経済メディアといった網目のようなインフラの整備が不可欠だったように、今まさに生まれつつあるグローバル市民社会の健全な発展のためには「社会起業インフラ」とでもいうべき土台を丹念に編み上げていく必要があると考えています。

My career vision

My career vision is to build institutional infrastructures that will transform the way global social development functions. I plan to create a consulting firm specializing in nonprofit management and social enterprise, and develop it as an agent of global change to promote the development of an international standard for social enterprises’ performance evaluation and the formation of financial and human resource markets, complete with information clearinghouses, auditors and self-regulatory bodies, which can collectively drive efficiency in the social sector.

I will first launch the firm in Japan and promote it as a catalyst to match the needs of innovative nonprofits with those of private companies. The Japanese social sector lacks strong foundations that can provide leadership and fund professional consulting services. My initial strategy will be to tap into the desire for corporate social responsibility and offer companies a packaged solution including development of CSR strategy, consultancy for partner nonprofits, and performance evaluation.

I am not solely driven by altruism, but by the fact that this career path is what holds the greatest interest, meaning, and excitement for me. If the worth of a life is in the lasting difference our life makes, then it seems clear to me that I should aim for the maximum positive impact. I want to alleviate international inequality in wealth and opportunity because I believe this is the gravest social injustice and the greatest threat to sustainable prosperity in today’s world.

This is a colossal and complex issue and making major advances requires attacks on multiple fronts. To maximize my impact, however, I will leave the beaten track to others and focus on exploring an original approach that can make a real difference. I am convinced that the key is to capitalize on a vastly underutilized resource: the power of humanity resting in each individual. The institutional infrastructure to moderate and facilitate efficient functioning of nonprofits and social entrepreneurs is still at a rudimentary stage of development compared to market infrastructures or political systems. Development of such social infrastructures can unleash the potential of social enterprises, enabling ordinary people worldwide to participate effectively in the process of international social development. If I can make a difference by realizing this vision, mine will be a life well-lived.