In the traditions of economics, the wealth means always a ‘material wealth’ measured by GNP. This concept of wealth, based on the accumulation of capital and market economy, has caused social and regional gaps together with degradation of the natural environment. This particular type of economic system can be considered as the origin of social conflicts and instability. Based on this reflection,in recent years,there appeared a series of efforts to conceptualize non-material or spiritual wealth as well as methodology to evaluate it. With that in mind, this paper strives to analyze the thoughts of E.F. Schumacher, I. Illich and M.C. Nussbaum / A. Sen. This paper also tries to examine a policy application of the new concept of wealth, including, “Gross National Happiness” in Bhutan and the “Sufficiency Economy” in Thailand, both of which have been appeared in recent years.

These policies based on the new concept of wealth are derived from a “middle path”by Buddhism, putting emphasis on needs, subsistence, and harmony between human beings and nature. The core lies in a direction towards recovering of self-control of human spirituality against material globalization. This direction is also a trial of regaining spirituality in economics. It is high time for academics to raise the importance of ethics, paying due attention to evaluate invisible wealth in a proper manner

Peace has two aspects; one is in human internal tranquility, and the other is in outer world or national security. Many people believe that, concerning with religious spirituality and peace, the internal is more essential than the outer. But does that belief truly reflect the real human situation?

We sometimes need strong desire,courage,will and decision in securing peace even in the outer world. Desire, courage, will and decision are also “spiritual” functions.On the other hand, “Yamato Damashii”, Japanese soul, Piety to ancestor, Royalty to eternal Emperor etc, popularly spread words during the Pacific War, were peculiar expressions of the national spirit or “Volksgeist.”

“Spirituality” can guide the nation to go into the direction of either peace or war. “Spirituality” can act in soteriological religion and in state religion.

In this article, I consider Shigeru Nambara’s State and Religion (1942) from the view point of “spirituality and peace.” This book is an excellent material to contemplate what is going in view of the recent debates in Japan that focus on spirituality, religion, patriotism and peace. My approach is based on recent developments of the Public Philosophy in Japan.

Nambara uses the Neo-Kantian epistemology in his political philosophy, in which a method called “value parallelism” plays an essential role. Although it is a fascinating unique idea,there are some ambiguous points in his arguments. First, “value” is a counter part of “fact” in a framework of the typical dualism of Neo-Kantian approach. Second, this method does not distinguish between the level of epistemology and the level of social institution. Third,the status of civil society is not well-defined compared with the status of the state. Instead of “value parallelism”, I will propose a method of “meaning parallelism” that makes it possible to construct a social reality with the inclusion of spiritual activities in our public life.

How did ethical thought take shape as a mental or emotional approach to life? In this paper I will focus particularly on developments from a few centuries before until shortly after the turn of the axial common era in East Asia, India, and the Middle East. In these regions at that time, the notion of ethics emerged as an aspect of the perception of the cosmos as an organic entity comprising various forms of existence. People came to see love and justice and the quest for harmony and peace as moral norms pertaining to the nature of existence and one’s relationship with others. In contrast to East Asian thought, which tended towards a passive notion of the communal body, Middle Eastern and Christian thought had a more active orientation. Yet, both intellectual spheres developed ideas about harmony and peace within the framework of notions about the relationship between self and other and modes of existence. The modern period saw the birth of theories of evolution concerning the universe and different forms of life, but even within that context there continued to be a strong sense of ethics.

In contrast to the situation in earlier times, however, at present, people have come to regard human beings as entities that move simply according to their own volition, or according to circumstance, or by some system. Ethical action as such has been lost. There is a need to reformulate the human enterprise not only in terms of the relationship between self and others, but also the relationship with the natural environment.

There exist in the world today conflicts among religions, especially those between religious fundamentalisms, lying at the root of the ‘clash of civilizations’ following 9.11. The concept of ‘global spirituality’ would be proposed as one key for the resolution of this problem. It is necessary to cultivate a sense of global identity of individuals as human beings on the Earth by introducing the idea of global spirituality in order to attain the planetary objectives such as global peace, welfare, and environmental sustainability. This article would examine Robert Bellah’s theory of religious evolution and John Hick’s theory of religious pluralism, and try to combine their insights. As a result, the prospect for ‘glocal’ religions or spirituality would be presented from the point of view of a pluralistic theory of civilizations.

The conceptualization of such spirituality philosophically requires a holistic theory of multi-layered pluralism: this enables us to mediate the historical conflicts between monotheism and polytheism. Some theologists argue for ‘one world faith’, but it is almost impossible to realize the dream. It is really important to make an endeavor to achieve the dream, but it is necessary to be conscious of the ultimate impossibility:there can be only the perpetual and unattainable aspiration towards a ‘global religion’ from the perspective of a neo-dialectical philosophy, which takes the finiteness of human being seriously.The concept of religion is not necessarily an appropriate form for a global spirituality because the concept is closely linked to the historical forms, such as Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism, which were born in the Axial age. Thus, the global form might be called a global supra-religion or spirituality, and four requirements will be enumerated for this: the existence of transcendent reality, spiritual growth, global public orientation, and holistic theory of multi-layered pluralism.

After September 11, 2001, there have been many occasions in which people involved in new types of spirituality culture that are different from organized religions gather and pray for peace. It is natural that new questions arise of what kind of people they are and what kind of possibilities they have.

I assume these people belong to, what I collectively call, new spirituality movements and culture or, more simply, new spirituality culture. There are people who also get involved in new spiritual culture, but have little interest in the socio-political activitiesy for peace. In the west,they are often regarded as composing New Age movements. But in reality they are very diverse. It is true that mainly they are oriented to self-improvement and self-actualization. It sometimes means that they are simply accepting the ideology justifying the global market economy system. But there are also others who have critical views against the present global economic and political system as well as neo-liberal ideology.

In this paper, I take up, as examples,some of those who are involved in new spirituality culture in Japan and who at the same time wish to change the present acquisitive political and economical system of the world. Some of them are oriented to ecological issues, whereas others are interested in peaceful child rearing and education. They have many positive possibilities but critical assessment is also necessary. In some sense, they are not very much different from those people engaging in new spirituality culture in a more privatistic or more nationalistic manner. Further study will be required for entangling this complicated situation.

Folk practitioners of the Okinawa Islands pray for peace. In the world view of Okinawa, the dead are now alive in the after world. Such a world is thought to be near to the everyday living world in Okinawa. The activities of folk practitioners make one of the introductions to the new peace studies. Folk practitioners can feel the presence of those fallen from the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. They pray for the world peace from the point of view of the pain experienced by those killed.

We must endeavour to construct wisdom for peace, by way of the idea, that we, humankind, include our own death. The numerous dead along with their pain from the war are vital reminders for us of the importance to perform peace keeping activities and peace studies, now and the future. In this essay, three case studies of folk practitioners and their activities for peace are presented. As a conclusion, this paper insists that we must reconsider the importance of religious prayer in relation to peace, as we try to combine them with common peace keeping activities within our peace studies. Folk practitioners modestly tell us, that if we remove the idea of death, from our wisdom,we cannot truly investigate peace studies anymore. This is a strong philosophical message to all of us.

This article aims to examine as to how the public memory of “Hiroshima and Nagasaki” has been formed in the school education system and disseminated through history and sociology textbooks.

In the immediate postwar era, “Hiroshima and Nagasaki” was articulated as both the symbol of the unprecedented suffering endured by the Japanese people and their final defeat. This perspective, combined with many emotional stories of survival, appeared in numerous textbooks and museum exhibitions, resulting in the typical Japanese view that “Hiroshima and Nagasaki” was the nations’supreme sacrifice to end the war and thereby“making peace”. This view, in turn, brought us the conviction that as the only nation to have experienced a nuclear attack, Japanese people have the obligation and the right to pursue the world peace through the abolition of nuclear weapons.

This view, however, began to change in the 1980’s. The “history textbook issue” revealed their lack of awareness as the aggressor, resulting in fierce criticism from neighbor countries. In response to this criticism, the narrative in textbooks began to change and improved as outlined below.

Firstly, detailed descriptions of atrocities committed by the Japanese military increased remarkably, weakening the perception that “Hiroshima and Nagasaki” was a unique symbol of Japanese sacrifice. Secondly, vivid descriptions of the Great Tokyo Air Raids and the Battle of Okinawa also increased, further diminishing the tendency to particularize the damage of “Hiroshima and Nagasaki”. Thirdly, as textbooks began to present data quantifying war victims from around the world, the “mega-death” of A-bombs looked less remarkable. Lastly, the practice and theory of“Atomic Diplomacy” and “indiscriminate air raids” brought them the perspective that the A-bomb attack was not a disaster but the result of US wartime strategy.

While these changes in viewpoint came much too slowly and are still largely insufficient, the result is that “Hiroshima and Nagasaki” is now narrated more objectively and relatively in textbooks. These changes, however, while laudable, if taken too far, could cause a gradual decline in its presence and meaning.

Reform or establishment of the security sector in the context of peace operations is a newly developing field. Despite the efforts by the international community, achievements thus far have been limited. The purpose of this paper is to provide lessons for future SSR operations, using the case of Timor-Leste as a negative example by examining its limits in terms of the SSR process.

Firstly, this paper tries to illustrate the significance of SSR to the success of peace-building. The ultimate goal of peace-building is to perpetuate peace and stability in post-conflict societies. From the viewpoint of this concept, it is of foremost importance to construct a democratic and civilian controlled security sector,as the post conflict society must remain stable for the future. Secondly, this paper strives to describe a chronological process of the construction of security sector institutions, especially PNTL (Timor-Leste National Police), F-FDTL (Timor-Leste Defense Force) and the judiciary system in Timor-Leste. Finally, this paper shows a factual analysis of the SSR process in Timor-Leste. In this process, the political opposition structure of pre-independence Timor-Leste was absorbed into the security services. However, their partisanship caused disorder after independence. In conclusion, the practice of SSR adopted in Timor-Leste was inadequate and insufficient:There was the gap between the concept of SSR and the actual implementation and there was no specific strategy especially in establishing the military. Unstable institutions were created by the premature withdrawal of the UN contingent. Inadequate SSR creates instability and can even cause further conflict.

In the traditions of economics, the wealth means always a ‘material wealth’ measured by GNP. This concept of wealth, based on the accumulation of capital and market economy, has caused social and regional gaps together with degradation of the natural environment. This particular type of economic system can be considered as the origin of social conflicts and instability. Based on this reflection,in recent years,there appeared a series of efforts to conceptualize non-material or spiritual wealth as well as methodology to evaluate it. With that in mind, this paper strives to analyze the thoughts of E.F. Schumacher, I. Illich and M.C. Nussbaum / A. Sen. This paper also tries to examine a policy application of the new concept of wealth, including, “Gross National Happiness” in Bhutan and the “Sufficiency Economy” in Thailand, both of which have been appeared in recent years.

These policies based on the new concept of wealth are derived from a “middle path”by Buddhism, putting emphasis on needs, subsistence, and harmony between human beings and nature. The core lies in a direction towards recovering of self-control of human spirituality against material globalization. This direction is also a trial of regaining spirituality in economics. It is high time for academics to raise the importance of ethics, paying due attention to evaluate invisible wealth in a proper manner

Peace has two aspects; one is in human internal tranquility, and the other is in outer world or national security. Many people believe that, concerning with religious spirituality and peace, the internal is more essential than the outer. But does that belief truly reflect the real human situation?

We sometimes need strong desire,courage,will and decision in securing peace even in the outer world. Desire, courage, will and decision are also “spiritual” functions.On the other hand, “Yamato Damashii”, Japanese soul, Piety to ancestor, Royalty to eternal Emperor etc, popularly spread words during the Pacific War, were peculiar expressions of the national spirit or “Volksgeist.”

“Spirituality” can guide the nation to go into the direction of either peace or war. “Spirituality” can act in soteriological religion and in state religion.

In this article, I consider Shigeru Nambara’s State and Religion (1942) from the view point of “spirituality and peace.” This book is an excellent material to contemplate what is going in view of the recent debates in Japan that focus on spirituality, religion, patriotism and peace. My approach is based on recent developments of the Public Philosophy in Japan.

Nambara uses the Neo-Kantian epistemology in his political philosophy, in which a method called “value parallelism” plays an essential role. Although it is a fascinating unique idea,there are some ambiguous points in his arguments. First, “value” is a counter part of “fact” in a framework of the typical dualism of Neo-Kantian approach. Second, this method does not distinguish between the level of epistemology and the level of social institution. Third,the status of civil society is not well-defined compared with the status of the state. Instead of “value parallelism”, I will propose a method of “meaning parallelism” that makes it possible to construct a social reality with the inclusion of spiritual activities in our public life.

How did ethical thought take shape as a mental or emotional approach to life? In this paper I will focus particularly on developments from a few centuries before until shortly after the turn of the axial common era in East Asia, India, and the Middle East. In these regions at that time, the notion of ethics emerged as an aspect of the perception of the cosmos as an organic entity comprising various forms of existence. People came to see love and justice and the quest for harmony and peace as moral norms pertaining to the nature of existence and one’s relationship with others. In contrast to East Asian thought, which tended towards a passive notion of the communal body, Middle Eastern and Christian thought had a more active orientation. Yet, both intellectual spheres developed ideas about harmony and peace within the framework of notions about the relationship between self and other and modes of existence. The modern period saw the birth of theories of evolution concerning the universe and different forms of life, but even within that context there continued to be a strong sense of ethics.

In contrast to the situation in earlier times, however, at present, people have come to regard human beings as entities that move simply according to their own volition, or according to circumstance, or by some system. Ethical action as such has been lost. There is a need to reformulate the human enterprise not only in terms of the relationship between self and others, but also the relationship with the natural environment.

There exist in the world today conflicts among religions, especially those between religious fundamentalisms, lying at the root of the ‘clash of civilizations’ following 9.11. The concept of ‘global spirituality’ would be proposed as one key for the resolution of this problem. It is necessary to cultivate a sense of global identity of individuals as human beings on the Earth by introducing the idea of global spirituality in order to attain the planetary objectives such as global peace, welfare, and environmental sustainability. This article would examine Robert Bellah’s theory of religious evolution and John Hick’s theory of religious pluralism, and try to combine their insights. As a result, the prospect for ‘glocal’ religions or spirituality would be presented from the point of view of a pluralistic theory of civilizations.

The conceptualization of such spirituality philosophically requires a holistic theory of multi-layered pluralism: this enables us to mediate the historical conflicts between monotheism and polytheism. Some theologists argue for ‘one world faith’, but it is almost impossible to realize the dream. It is really important to make an endeavor to achieve the dream, but it is necessary to be conscious of the ultimate impossibility:there can be only the perpetual and unattainable aspiration towards a ‘global religion’ from the perspective of a neo-dialectical philosophy, which takes the finiteness of human being seriously.The concept of religion is not necessarily an appropriate form for a global spirituality because the concept is closely linked to the historical forms, such as Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism, which were born in the Axial age. Thus, the global form might be called a global supra-religion or spirituality, and four requirements will be enumerated for this: the existence of transcendent reality, spiritual growth, global public orientation, and holistic theory of multi-layered pluralism.

After September 11, 2001, there have been many occasions in which people involved in new types of spirituality culture that are different from organized religions gather and pray for peace. It is natural that new questions arise of what kind of people they are and what kind of possibilities they have.

I assume these people belong to, what I collectively call, new spirituality movements and culture or, more simply, new spirituality culture. There are people who also get involved in new spiritual culture, but have little interest in the socio-political activitiesy for peace. In the west,they are often regarded as composing New Age movements. But in reality they are very diverse. It is true that mainly they are oriented to self-improvement and self-actualization. It sometimes means that they are simply accepting the ideology justifying the global market economy system. But there are also others who have critical views against the present global economic and political system as well as neo-liberal ideology.

In this paper, I take up, as examples,some of those who are involved in new spirituality culture in Japan and who at the same time wish to change the present acquisitive political and economical system of the world. Some of them are oriented to ecological issues, whereas others are interested in peaceful child rearing and education. They have many positive possibilities but critical assessment is also necessary. In some sense, they are not very much different from those people engaging in new spirituality culture in a more privatistic or more nationalistic manner. Further study will be required for entangling this complicated situation.

Folk practitioners of the Okinawa Islands pray for peace. In the world view of Okinawa, the dead are now alive in the after world. Such a world is thought to be near to the everyday living world in Okinawa. The activities of folk practitioners make one of the introductions to the new peace studies. Folk practitioners can feel the presence of those fallen from the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. They pray for the world peace from the point of view of the pain experienced by those killed.

We must endeavour to construct wisdom for peace, by way of the idea, that we, humankind, include our own death. The numerous dead along with their pain from the war are vital reminders for us of the importance to perform peace keeping activities and peace studies, now and the future. In this essay, three case studies of folk practitioners and their activities for peace are presented. As a conclusion, this paper insists that we must reconsider the importance of religious prayer in relation to peace, as we try to combine them with common peace keeping activities within our peace studies. Folk practitioners modestly tell us, that if we remove the idea of death, from our wisdom,we cannot truly investigate peace studies anymore. This is a strong philosophical message to all of us.

This article aims to examine as to how the public memory of “Hiroshima and Nagasaki” has been formed in the school education system and disseminated through history and sociology textbooks.

In the immediate postwar era, “Hiroshima and Nagasaki” was articulated as both the symbol of the unprecedented suffering endured by the Japanese people and their final defeat. This perspective, combined with many emotional stories of survival, appeared in numerous textbooks and museum exhibitions, resulting in the typical Japanese view that “Hiroshima and Nagasaki” was the nations’supreme sacrifice to end the war and thereby“making peace”. This view, in turn, brought us the conviction that as the only nation to have experienced a nuclear attack, Japanese people have the obligation and the right to pursue the world peace through the abolition of nuclear weapons.

This view, however, began to change in the 1980’s. The “history textbook issue” revealed their lack of awareness as the aggressor, resulting in fierce criticism from neighbor countries. In response to this criticism, the narrative in textbooks began to change and improved as outlined below.

Firstly, detailed descriptions of atrocities committed by the Japanese military increased remarkably, weakening the perception that “Hiroshima and Nagasaki” was a unique symbol of Japanese sacrifice. Secondly, vivid descriptions of the Great Tokyo Air Raids and the Battle of Okinawa also increased, further diminishing the tendency to particularize the damage of “Hiroshima and Nagasaki”. Thirdly, as textbooks began to present data quantifying war victims from around the world, the “mega-death” of A-bombs looked less remarkable. Lastly, the practice and theory of“Atomic Diplomacy” and “indiscriminate air raids” brought them the perspective that the A-bomb attack was not a disaster but the result of US wartime strategy.

While these changes in viewpoint came much too slowly and are still largely insufficient, the result is that “Hiroshima and Nagasaki” is now narrated more objectively and relatively in textbooks. These changes, however, while laudable, if taken too far, could cause a gradual decline in its presence and meaning.

Reform or establishment of the security sector in the context of peace operations is a newly developing field. Despite the efforts by the international community, achievements thus far have been limited. The purpose of this paper is to provide lessons for future SSR operations, using the case of Timor-Leste as a negative example by examining its limits in terms of the SSR process.

Firstly, this paper tries to illustrate the significance of SSR to the success of peace-building. The ultimate goal of peace-building is to perpetuate peace and stability in post-conflict societies. From the viewpoint of this concept, it is of foremost importance to construct a democratic and civilian controlled security sector,as the post conflict society must remain stable for the future. Secondly, this paper strives to describe a chronological process of the construction of security sector institutions, especially PNTL (Timor-Leste National Police), F-FDTL (Timor-Leste Defense Force) and the judiciary system in Timor-Leste. Finally, this paper shows a factual analysis of the SSR process in Timor-Leste. In this process, the political opposition structure of pre-independence Timor-Leste was absorbed into the security services. However, their partisanship caused disorder after independence. In conclusion, the practice of SSR adopted in Timor-Leste was inadequate and insufficient:There was the gap between the concept of SSR and the actual implementation and there was no specific strategy especially in establishing the military. Unstable institutions were created by the premature withdrawal of the UN contingent. Inadequate SSR creates instability and can even cause further conflict.