Wthin
the PARAP group, there is a
widely shared idea about what East Asia is all about from our point
view. southern limit lies from Vietnam through Butan, Nepal to China's
Tibet Autonomous Region and the northern limit includes the Khabarovsk
and Maritime Provinces of the Russian Far East. And, it is based upon
the fact that diverse ethnic groups continued to move to the Japanese
archipelago since the prehistoric times and throughout the ancient
period to constitute what later became known as the Japanese people and
the country called Japan during the latter half of the first
millennium.
This idea originated by Mr. Okamoto
of the Okamoto International Affairs Research Institute with his new
thesis on the origin and emergence of the long susteained Samurai
society and culture that it could not have happened without the
infuence and participation in its formative process by those who
brought the northern tribal cultures with origins in today's
northeastern region of China and the coastal region of the Russian Far
East. In addition to the cultural consideration, the growing
concern is expressed about the regional environmental pollution issues
across national borders, especially in our part of East
Asia.
I was attracted by his view and his
NGO activities, and as a result, helped finance the trip to Nepal in
which I personally participated and installed a solar lighting system
in a remote Nepal Himalayan mountain village.
This time around, I am going to
southern China with him to explore the possibility of offering our
newly patented IT-TEC technology to help ameliorate the severe water
pollution problems in China.
March 2, 2009
Takemi Ichimura
Tokyo Life Science Laboratory
