The G20 Interfaith Forum Japan 2019 (10) Dr.Handa’s Concluding Remarks, “Hopes of sharing Shintoism as a basis for religious coexistence”

Finally, Dr.Handa, Chairman of Worldwide Support for Development (WSD), made concluding remarks for G20 Interfaith Forum Japan 2019.

  He said, “It is significant that G20 Interfaith Forum Japan 2019 was held in Japan because the Japanese have the qualifications to become world religious leaders…Japanese should be religious leaders in the world because we are very generous and willing to accept what is good.”



  It was the sixth G20 Interfaith Forum, which offers an annual platform where a network of religiously linked institutions and initiatives engage on global agendas. Since 2014, the forum has been held annually in the country where G20 summits have taken place.



  He hoped the forum in Japan will be an opportunity for the world to learn the uniqueness of Shitoism, the basis of the Japanese trait that allows multiple religions to coexist in Harmony. He said, “Japan divides the sacred and the secular and makes them coexist.”



  He also said that World Faiths development Dialogue Executive Director Katherine Marshall had asked him to co-organize the Japan forum “two or three times, and that he thought he would have to “do it for Japan”. 

Worldwide Support for Development

Chairman Dr.Haruhisa Handa

WSD

(source: THE JAPAN TIMES, July9, 2019）