A few days ago, I saw the news reporting the weather in the UK, which reached 29.3 degrees Celsius even in May. The Dodgers game in Truist Park was delayed for three hours due to heavy rain. In Japan, some heavy rain warnings have been issued in multiple Kanto regions. Abnormal weather has frequently been seen since this started in May.

Meanwhile, on the first day of Golden Week, I was enjoying my holiday at my family’s house in Chiba after a long time.

Did you go travelling other countries during this Golden Week? I assume there are many people who went to the beaches or leisure since it was good weather.

In the meantime, our institute has started the ‘IISIA Reading Club’ in this financial year.

Since 2005, we have opened ‘Reading Club’ by changing its forms, such as ‘university Terakoya’ for the students of the University of Tokyo, Hitotsubashi University and ICU, and ‘prep-school’.

Now, we have the ‘Reading Club’, in which our institute’s Chairman and Representative, Takeo Harada, teaches the students of the University of Tokyo and Gakushuin Women’s College once or twice a month at our Marunouchi office.

While it was mainly operated by the staff from IISIA in the last financial year, from this year, the students have become the main body to operate this Reading Club.

There will be a total of 8 lectures held in this Spring-Summer term. The passion and attitude towards the pursuit of study by the students are touching us.

The books we have used from the 1st lecture and today are listed below.

・The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, written by Julian Jaynes, translated by Yasushi Shibata

・Kamigami no Sasayaku Sekai ~the Oriental Civilisation’ by Ryoji Motomura

・Chinmokusuru Kamigami no Teikoku ~The Assyrians and Persians’ by Ryoji Motomura

・’Phonosemanticism’ of Atsutane Hirata ~Its historical background and meaning~ by Takeo Harada

Our institute’s Chairman and Representative, Takeo Harada, has repeatedly told the students to ‘read books’.

The reviews from the previous participated students were such as ‘it was really tough to read books with more than 200 pages frequently since I had never read such long books as my daily custom before.’ or ‘since the theme of books changes in each lecture, for example, from physics to history, the cycle which requires to read everything in a short period, summarise it and give a presentation about it was really difficult.’. However, I feel the students talking widen their views have been increased such as ‘as we were given books that I would have never chosen to read by myself, in that sense, I could acquire much new knowledge.’ and ‘I have leant the importance of obtaining the right acknowledgement towards the history to anticipate the future.’.

We will continue to carry out these social contribution projects at our institute, for the sake of the future of the world, and for the sake of our further “progress” (Pax Japonica), a country that is facing high expectations from the global community as a pioneer in facing challenges.

As a social contribution project, we aim to ‘educate’ and ‘develop human resources’ for the young generations who will carry next generations.

Our institute’s social contribution projects are funded by 50 per cent of the profits generated from membership fees for our membership service, “Harada Takeo Gemeinschaft,” and are used to develop and advise talent that brings about brilliant innovation, as well as to conduct research and development and disseminate information literacy.

With the support of all our members, we are able to promote social contribution projects while being active globally. We would like to express our sincerest gratitude.

We hope that you will continue to provide us with your guidance and encouragement.

Register here: https://haradatakeo.com/ec/entry/rank/new

Tomomi Otsubo, Chancellery Unit