New Year's Message 2001 from Mr. Seishiro Eto, President

I wish you a happy New Year. I hope all of you have celebrated the new century in good health. On this occasion, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for your continuous support extended to ISSJ.

I am pleased to announce that with the retirement of Ms Kiyoko Kusakabe due to expiration of her terms, I have taken over the post of President of ISSJ. It is my great pleasure to engage in the improvement of international child and family welfare as President, and I would like to do my best with your guidance and support.

To my recollection, the 20th century has been a century of pursuit of "material wealth", repeating technological innovations with a historical speed and inundating goods to a saturation point. In the meantime, society has been remarkably globalized, and with this globalization, we are obliged to grasp the social welfare on much broader and more international view point. From this observation, it must be true that the international social work which we have continued in the last half-century will be all the more essential in this 21st century. To make the 21st century a "century of spiritual wealth", we would like to contribute to the society with our conviction of "Humanity first", and with constant training and development of our professional activities.

This entity is a Japanese branch of the International Social Service, which has branch offices in 20 countries and correspondents in more than 100 countries. Having such a global network, ISSJ is a non-governmental body and its activities are only possible with your generous financial support and cooperation. We want to "hold out our caring hands accross national boundaries" by respecting life of each individual with the pioneer spirit which started after the war to support children and their families. I would like to ask you for your continuous support and cooperation for this year.

 

 

New Year's Message from Mrs Yaeko Otsuki, General Director

I wish you well at the beginning of a new century.

I am surprised with the drastic change made in the past 100 years - who could imagine the present society 100 years ago?

The 20th century of wars - Russo-Japanese, the 1st and the 2nd World Wars and the examination war - was a century of suffering for children. For the happiness and peace of the 21st century , I will undertake task of helping the intercountry problems involving children and families of more than 2 nations. So this year too, having taken the post of General Director, I hope to face the problems with sincerity as ever. Taking this opportunity, I would like to ask your kind support and cooperation with wisdom and intelligence as offered last year.