The core of this website is the record of the Interfaith Dialogue organized by the InterAction Council in March 2014 in Vienna, Austria. It was proposed by former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt of Germany (deceased in November 2015) which former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser of Australia (deceased in March 2015) and I organized. The dialogue was on “universal ethics” between political and religious leaders of the world.
 
Chancellor Schmidt recommended keeping the record of the Dialogue, which Malcolm Fraser and I did in English and published it in 2015. It took no time for the book to be translated into seven other languages. I am glad that the two leaders learned of and were delighted with the project. Now, it is my responsibility to endeavour to have the book read by as many people as possible throughout the world.
 
The central thought of the book is the ethical standard common to the word’s major religions. It is called the Golden Rule “Do not do to others what you do not wish done to yourself.” It is the state of our heart that affects our actions. The one who took this concept into an official diplomacy was my father Takeo Fukuda, the founder of the InterAction Council. The domain address of this site “Heart- to-Heart” comes from that Fukuda Doctrine; hence the section on the Doctrine on this site.
 
I have also uploaded the Universal Declaration of Human Responsibility in 22 languages. It is a document on human responsibilities – the other side of the same coin of human rights.  It was the task my late father pleaded on his deathbed in 1995 with Chancellor Schmidt to articulate, which was completed under the leadership of the late Chancellor in 1997.
 
The world will become increasingly more difficult for us to live in.  But I believe that the more difficult the world will become, the greater the significance of these documents will become.

 

Yasuo Fukuda
May 2016