The 95th Rotary International Annual Meeting (Kansai Region)
May 2004
Masato Mizuno, President-elect
Under the bright blue sky in May, the Rotary International held its 95th annual meeting on May 23-26, 2004; the meeting was mainly hosted in Osaka and other Kansai host districts, such as Kyoto, and Kobe.
It was the third time the convention was hosted in Japan, after the ones in Tokyo in 1961 and 1978. 47,000 Rotarians around the world gathered at this meeting.
Mr. Wakai, President, and 44 members, plus five family members attended from Tokyo Rotary, and Mr. and Mrs. Chris Terrace, President of the Sister Committee, Mr. and Mrs. Gas Gallagher, Ms. Susan O'Neil, and five other members, 54 members in total, came together from the Washington RC. With considerable support from the Sister Committee and Committee for the 100th anniversary, and every member, under the leadership of Mr. Kimura, Chairman of the Ontsu Kansai Committee; the opening ceremony, Tokyo Night at “Semba Kitcho” restaurant in Shinsaibashi, and the follow-up party at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel (used also as guests' accommodation) made for an enjoyable day.
From the Tokyo RC, with its young members as a vanguard unit, ensured the most suitable space in the Osaka Dome. At 1:15 p.m. the main members gathered at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Osaka; then they got on the subway, guided by a JTB tour guide with a special banner hoisted above their heads, and so arrived at the meeting place at the Osaka Dome. After being welcomed by an-old style jazz and children's songs, Mr. Sengenshitsu, Chairman of the meeting, declared the opening by saying, “Today's Rotary has an immensely powerful spirit and the sense of fellowship. The Rotarians have minds and bodies healing the pains and difficulties that are threatening the world”. Subsequently, Ms. Fusae Ota, Governor of Osaka Prefecture, and Mr. Junichii Seki, Mayor of Osaka City welcomed their guests. Colorful flags from over 160 countries representing RI member countries entered the Dome; the national anthems for Japan and Nigeria, and the RI song were performed; former presidents of RI were introduced.
Mr. Jonathan B. Majiyagbe, RI President, delivered his opening speech in a dignified style. “The services by Rotary are like Japan's four seasons changing to be highly productive. The seasons coming each year give us power to challenge new things, targets for our efforts, and re-inspiration for breakthroughs after discarding old ideas. A hand mirror showing what we learn from the four seasons reflects the Rotary's great lessons and perpetual challenges. We must enjoy the current season as Rotarians, and take a great care of the next season,” said Mr. Majiyagbe.
After the opening ceremony, all participants went to Shinsaibashi, where we enjoyed Tokyo Night in warm and welcoming atmosphere. At the “Semba Kitcho”, Mr. Yugi, a Osaka RC member and the manager of the restaurant welcomed us with special Japanese sakes and a variety of traditional, beautiful cuisine reflecting the present season in Japan. (Manager YukiYugi is a cousin of our Tokyo member, Mr. YukiYugi). The participants enjoyed the food very much and spent a very cordial time each other. Members from the Washington RC used chopsticks skillfully. Thanks to the Tokyo Night, warm friendships were made among all participants.
After eating the dinner, by arrangement of Mr. Kuroda, our member, the participants went to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, where the second round (as the follow-up party is called in English) was offered. The guests from Washington also joined this round and improved more cross-cultural exchanges. Japan's traditional ball game between the Giants and the Tigers was occasionally announced in the party; in the see-saw match, the Giants were defeated in the end, so I paid my respect for Mr. Wakai, our member, a faithful fan of the Tigers.
Thanks to many members, the official events for Tokyo Rotary representatives ended in without problems, which were truly worthwhile experiences.
In the 2nd plenary session, on May 24, Mr. Clifford L. Dochterman, chairman of the RI 100th anniversary committee, introduced ten projects (posted on our website) to commemorate the anniversary. In addition, Mr. Charles Keller, a former RI president and the chairman of the committee for compiling the Rotary's 100 year history, explained about an already published book, “A Century of Service: The Story of Rotary International”, both in English and Japanese.
Dr. Paul Rodgers, professor of the Department of Peace Studies in the University of Bradford, which is one of the Rotary Centers to pursue peace and conflict resolution, made a speech. I was truly impressed by what he said, “Rotary's activities help overcome poverty and promote health care, and they are quite useful in the long run for healing difficulties resulting from the wars in the world.”
Mr. Majiyagbe, the last speaker in this session, said; “In this international meeting, the world leaders came together. The theme of this year is ‘Lend Our Hands. Under the slogan, this year would be a good opportunity for us to learn more important things, make fiends, and tighten our relations as Rotary families in the world. As we all know, we will celebrate RI's 100th anniversary next year, but the year could also be a chance to learn from the past years and to plan a future. We should not forget Polio eradication, membership recruitment, clarifying activity plans, and enhancing training, so that we can further promote RI's first strategic plans. This is my personal matter but, my wife, Ade, past away last June but for my great loss, many of you supported me, so I thank you all. Ten months after June, I traveled around the world. I saw that Rotary members gave their helping hands to people in difficulties everywhere, through its activities. When I went to Bangladesh and Manila, people were creating their businesses through the small-lot loan system and lively working by themselves. I also observed humanitarian activities everywhere for the purpose of promoting of health education; especially in South Africa, measures and enlightenment to battle against AIDS, and information exchange each other were encouraged”. His keynote speech was compassionate and wonderful to know that the “Lend Our Hands” was creating numerous activities and achieving a great deal of results worldwide.