Excerpts from Recent Lectures and Guidance

Happy New Year everyone. (Happy New Year.)
I am happy to hear your lively voices. Today’s GLA New Year Gathering will be broadcast live from Osaka to Sapporo and Fukuoka.   The day before yesterday marked 19 years to the day that the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake occurred. Prayers were held at various locations early in the morning.

The image of the devastation has been deeply imprinted in my mind as well. The buildings in the Kobe district collapsed and many people were buried under the rubble. It has been said that as many as 35,000 people buried underneath the rubble were waiting for help. Who do you think rescued those victims? It was in fact the citizens of Kobe.

Public servants from institutions such as the fire and police departments could not be mobilized in time. Nevertheless, the local people nearby heard pleas for help coming from those trapped beneath the rubble as they dug up to rescue them one by one. I saw this with my own eyes, as many people I knew were also buried underneath, including an elderly woman who was buried for three days. Yet, everyone overcame these trials one at a time. These images have been deeply imprinted in our minds as something that we will never forget.
I believe that it is precisely because of these trials that we have a future to which we can head. This applies not only to those who experienced the Hanshin-Awaji Great Earthquake or even the Great Eastern Earthquake; I feel that as Japanese people living in the same time and place there is a future that we need to open up. I wish to open up that future together with you.

Today, many people have gathered who are attending for the first time. At this year’s New Year’s Gathering, I would like to talk about what GLA seeks to accomplish and what takes place at GLA on a day-to-day basis.

New Year Gathering at Osaka International Convention Center on January 19, 2014