Akio Matsumura is a renowned diplomat who has dedicated his life to building bridges between government, business, and spiritual leaders in the cause of world peace. He is the founder and Secretary General of the Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders on Human Survival with conferences held in Oxford, Moscow, Rio de Janeiro, Kyoto, and Konya.
Akio and President Gorbachev
- That we, one and all, are governed by two sets of laws: spiritual/religious law and political/state law. Political lawmakers are able to take action in the short term, but are often curtailed by narrow, short-sighted interest groups. Spiritual/religious laws emphasize long term vision but often lack the ability to make immediate change. Although it is difficult, we must reconcile these two systems of governance in our approach to all of humanity’s major issues: peace, population, hunger, religious/ethnic conflict.
- That the conflict between Islam and the West will be the greatest cause of violence throughout this century, but that it is only one manifestation of ideological clashes. Cultural, national, tribal, and religious borders have always existed but now intersect more frequently, leading to greater levels of violence. One great need is to transcend ideological–cultural, religious, political–barriers by emphasizing commonalities instead of differences.
US Senator Claiborne Pell and Akio
Akio has proven time again that these barriers can be transcended, even in the most unlikely circumstances. Both the power of his ideas and his tremendous organizational ability were first on display in the Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders on Human Survival, which he founded with support from the MacArthur Foundation after several decades of work within the United Nations.
Accomplishments
From the World Business Academy.
In the last two decades of the 20th century, Akio created many of the events that spoke of a higher sense of connectedness between all nations and cultures across the earth:
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1999 |
European Parliamentary steering meeting at Parliament Building, in Berlin |
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1997 |
Secretary-General, Central Asian Parliamentary and Spiritual Conference, at Konya, Turkey |
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1995 |
Organizer, World Assembly on Reconciliation hosted by Prime Minister Rabin and Chairman Arafat, at Jericho |
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1992 |
First Secretary-General, International Green Cross |
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1992 |
Secretary-General, Parliamentary Earth Summit Conference, at Rio de Janeiro |
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1990 |
Secretary-General, Global Forum Conference hosted by President Gorbachev at the Kremlin |
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1982 – 1993 |
Advisor to United Nations Development Program |
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1988 |
Secretary-General, Oxford Global Conference of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders on Human Survival, hosted by Archbishop of Canterbury, at Oxford University |
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1985 |
Founder, Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders on Human Survival |
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1984 |
All-Arab Regional Parliamentary Conference on Population, at Tunis |
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1983-1989 |
An Initiating Member and Advisor of the InterAction Council of Former Heads of Government |
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1981 |
Conference Coordinator, Asian Parliamentary Conference on Population, hosted by the Chinese Government, sponsored by the UNFPA |
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1979 |
Chief Coordinator, World Parliamentary Conference, hosted the Sri Lankan Government, sponsored by the UNFPA |
