[Provisional translation]

December 14, 2013, Keidanren Kaikan

I would like to express my heartfelt respect to Mr. Hiromasa Yonekura, Chairman of Keidanren, Mr. Akio Mimura, Chairman of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the many others who worked to prepare such a magnificent luncheon today, for their great efforts.  I relish the good fortune that has accompanied this memorable time in which we celebrate the 40th anniversary of Japan-ASEAN relations.  I very much appreciate your inviting me to this luncheon meeting.

Forty years ago, or even 30, who on earth could have predicted ASEAN’s current degree of prosperity?  ASEAN is flourishing more than just economically.  I wonder how many of us here today had really been able to foresee ASEAN’s current situation of steady steps forward, heading toward the building of democracy and seeking equality under the law.

ASEAN’s steps forward are great marks of its achievements.  From a stage where industrialization had not even gotten underway, it is now an accumulation of the efforts of people who moved forward single-mindedly.  The success of ASEAN is the achievement of innumerable unknown people who have continued to take steps forward as people working diligently in the belief that tomorrow will be better than today.

An economy that sets free people’s unlimited potential will certainly expand.  I have continuously told myself that very thing.  This is true when we set free the power of women, the elderly, and more than anything, young people with their futures still ahead of them.  It is democracy that can best liberate this power of each individual to move forward.  We politicians must to all we can to let the people's potential fully bloom.

With the anonymous men and women living in ASEAN, Japanese businesspeople have always stood shoulder to shoulder.  These are people who, covered with sweat and grease, brought improvements to factory production lines.  They were in high spirits fostering small factories making parts.  And they took ASEAN’s joys as their own.

We Japanese call these nameless heroes without rank or title “the stars that we have on earth,” or “a Pegasus out in the field.”

Let us recall the achievements of these unsung heroes, those thousands or perhaps even tens of thousands of people who lived together with ASEAN.

And, when Japan and ASEAN maintain their ties through a spirit of “wa”--W-A--let us believe that the future of Asia and of the world will be bright indeed.  “Wa”--W-A.  “Wa” in Japanese means “links” but it also means “peace.”  It is the stability and the peace that we build through our linkage with each other.

Over these 40 years, the actual state of ASEAN has constantly demonstrated just how insufficient our imaginations really are.  As we enjoy this luncheon, let us allow our imaginations to run wild for a while, thinking how our imaginations will be betrayed next.

Thank you very much.