Sightseeing spots are less crowded: The World Heritage temple complexes are not packed, so you can take photos and look around quietly and at a relaxed pace.
Spectacular sightseeing on the water: The water level of Tonle Sap, the largest lake in Southeast Asia, rises, making boat trips and visits to floating villages truly dynamic.
There are cooler moments: After a squall, the temperature that had been rising drops all at once, and it becomes much more comfortable.
If you ever get the chance, please visit Cambodia in the rainy season!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"Cambodia](\"https:\/\/forum2050.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/newsletter202605-01.jpg\")
The road is flooded. The drains are completely clogged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tuk-tuks keep going, paying no attention to the water!<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the May 2026 newsletter, we share our thoughts on the importance and the difficulty of “dialogue,” and on the difference between “saying” and “doing.” If you have any questions or comments about the newsletter, please let us know by email or other means. Requests like “I’d like to know more about this” are very welcome too!<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. [Our Activities] As our activities become more active, we would like to add that, beyond the above, each of our members has also been carrying out a range of activities, such as an exchange meeting with Georgia, networking at the Cambodia Festival, and preparations for interviews and filming in Bangladesh and Cambodia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dear all,<\/p>\n\n\n\n Recently I came across the term “two seasons.” It seems to be used in place of “four seasons” to describe Japan’s climate these days, in which spring and autumn have disappeared. The refreshing days of spring passed in no time, and already we hear the footsteps of the rainy season . . . Well, there is no point in only longing for the old days, but how are you all doing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n This past month went by in a rush as well. However, since it came right at the start of the fiscal year, it was more of a preparation period. In this report, I would like to focus on some things I noticed along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On May 9, I was finally able to meet a greatly respected senior figure whom I had long wanted to meet. Hiroko Inoue is the founder of the NPO Seichi no Kodomo wo Sasaeru Kai (Association for Supporting the Children of the Holy Land) and, now aged 87, still serves as its Representative. Prompted by a visit to Palestine in 1990, she began supporting Palestinian children. Later, believing it important to address the chain of hatred and the deep-rooted mutual distrust behind the conflict there, she began full-scale support for children from poor families on both the Palestinian and Israeli sides. Since 2005, for more than 20 years, the organization has continued an initiative of inviting young people from both regions to Japan, where they deepen mutual understanding by living together with young Japanese people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The purpose of my visit was to seek advice as Forum2050 develops teaching materials this year for co-creating a peaceful future (though I personally prefer to call them “learning materials”), and to ask the organization to consider cooperation and collaboration, including interviews with young people from both regions. In fact, the idea for Imagine2050 (a platform where children all over the world think about co-creating the future), Forum2050’s ultimate goal, came to me in the late 1990s, when, while working at JICA and involved in research on peacebuilding, I came across several examples of activities that tried to promote dialogue among young people from regions in conflict and confrontation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n People meet. They pour out their hatred for each other. And then, in order for each of them to go on living, they come to realize how important it is to move beyond that hatred. Put into words, it sounds simple, but in reality it is extraordinarily difficult. Yet I learned that there are people all over the world taking this on regardless of the difficulty. What would happen if more people came to know about these courageous efforts, and if, ideally, they could connect with each other and spread?<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the time, I was doing all I could just to handle the “work I was given” in front of me, and the question sat on the shelf for a long while. But after I retired from JICA and was free, when I asked myself what I would use the last chapter of my life for, the feelings I had once held about these attempts at dialogue came back to me. In the 1990s, the internet was still far from convenient, and of course there was no social media, so attempts at dialogue had no choice but to take place by physically sharing time and place. Even today, the importance of sharing time and space has not changed. But over these 30 years, there has been a dramatic change in the technical possibilities for letting more people know about such efforts, getting them interested, and inspiring them to want to take part, however modestly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During our meeting, Hiroko Inoue said several times, “It is only a drop in the ocean.” But to me, having watched her keep running, that drop is clearly something real and concrete, with dense mass and volume. The dialogues with children that Forum2050 has held under the name of the “Awareness Project” have reached more than 12,000 children over these three years, but compared with the more than 2 billion children in the world, this too is only a drop in the ocean. And it may not be a “dense” drop like the one Hiroko Inoue has created, but a “thin” drop that flows away and is forgotten as time passes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In developing the learning materials, which we plan to complete in draft this September, I renewed my resolve to learn from the precious footsteps of Hiroko Inoue and other pioneers and, if permitted, to make the materials something that can introduce at least part of that work to the next generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The “2050” in Forum2050 is meant to help us picture the future of 2050 in concrete terms. 2050 will mark a century since the United Nations was founded, and it is also likely to be the target year of the agenda that follows the SDGs. Through collaboration with many generations, I want to build Imagine2050 by that year at the very latest. Of course, a system through which children all over the world can connect safely across borders and exchange their thoughts for co-creating the future, beyond differences in culture, religion and values, cannot be built overnight. But there are at least two things I can say for certain now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first is that we have entered an era in which this vision is possible, at least technically and financially. As I have mentioned before, platforms that involve people on a scale of billions already exist. The problem is that many of them tend to foster division and hostility rather than solidarity and friendship. And while they are becoming indispensable for many young people, they also carry the risk of eating away at their hearts. But almost certainly, in the near future, algorithms that avoid such division and hostility and foster solidarity and friendship (one part of peace technology) will be developed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second is that unless someone keeps moving, this will not be achieved. Of course, there is no guarantee that moving will make it happen, and if a tiny, tiny organization like Forum2050 keeps struggling on its own, probably nothing will happen. But by continuing to make even tiny, tiny ripples, we may connect with someone somewhere in Japan or somewhere in the world, those ripples may resonate together, and a bigger wave may arise. This is exactly why just “saying” is not enough; what is needed is “doing,” and continuing to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I learned the great difference between “saying” and “doing” during my nearly 40 years at JICA. The most important point is that “doing” is never as neat and tidy as words. As I have reported in past newsletters, young people at Forum2050 are now increasingly taking the initiative and showing leadership. When we were first founded, we often listened to the opinions of young people, or set things up for them and had them take an active role there. But from now on, there will gradually be more cases in which they plan things and, above all, “carry them out.” They will probably run into more hassles and time-consuming work than they expect. Through all of this, I strongly hope that, along with the difficulty of “doing,” they will taste the joy of achievement and grow even more than before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second great difference between “saying” and “doing” is that “doing” involves not only outcomes and results but also a process. This was also one of the themes running through the master’s thesis I wrote at the age of 40 at a newly established graduate school at the University of Tokyo (the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences) while working at JICA, and through the doctoral dissertation I wrote at Nagoya University. In academic terms, it seems it is called by a rather complicated term, “side effects as essential requirements” (Hirschman), but put simply, it is the idea that “when you work toward something, things that are indispensable for social change (social solidarity, trust, networks and so on) are born as by-products of the process.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since founding Forum2050, I have felt the importance of this process very strongly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My meeting with Hiroko Inoue, described above, and the possibility of (future) collaboration are also exactly the kind of by-product that arose as we were trying to move toward the goal of our newly launched project, “developing learning materials.” It is not simply that it was good to meet and talk. If the collaboration succeeds, we may receive words that will resonate with people, including young people, from those invited through the organization’s project. And in the future, that could also become part of the content of Imagine2050.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And while I expect to have more happy news to share from next month on, this materials development project is expanding our network. Shota Sekino tried holding dialogues with high school friends, and Miyu Kajita with friends who are international students. At the end of this month, Makoto Kajita, who is also a special needs class teacher, will hold a dialogue with a person who requires intensive medical care. And my longtime, deeply respected friend Ichiro Hatanaka, Representative Director of the Future of Humanity Institute (P-ALS) and a person living with ALS, has also agreed to speak this coming Sunday about what it means to “think about peace as your own issue,” and about hopes for the next generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n From late July to early August, the Forum2050 team will travel not only within Japan but also to Bangladesh, Cambodia and the Philippines for interviews and filming (as I mentioned last month, this will empty the organization’s coffers . . . lol). These trips are not only about filming the videos that will form part of the materials; they will also help more and more diverse people learn about our activities, connect with us, and accelerate the building of a network that walks together toward the future. And through this “doing,” I believe that Forum2050’s young members in particular will grow a great deal, and our older members will gain even more experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We’ll keep going strong in FY2026!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thank you, as always, for reading our newsletter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If any of you use X, please take a look at my personal account when you have a moment (https:\/\/x.com\/forum2050?s=21&t=-jQeTjzOoHjrmEbKJvNwNg<\/a>). It is strictly in a personal capacity, but I post my daily thoughts on peace and on co-creating the future. I am aiming for 10,000 posts and have only just passed 280. I have been slacking lately, but I will do my best again. I hardly ever get any “likes,” and I have only a few followers, but my impressions are gradually increasing. Still, what matters is not those numbers, but that I myself keep thinking about peace and co-creating the future 24 hours a day. I see it as training for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In closing, I hope you all stay well. And we would be grateful for your continued guidance and support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n May 20, 2026 Inquiries and Consultations | Newsletter Registration<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n Forum2050 operates under the concept of ‘Children of the World: Each Child’s Vision for the Future Shapes Humanity’s Destiny,’ collaborating with businesses, schools, educational institutions, and others. Together with children, we create opportunities for them to contemplate peace and development in the future human society, fostering partnerships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Cambodia](\"https:\/\/forum2050.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/newsletter202605-02.jpg\")
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Our Activities<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Recent main activities and events<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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Report from TODA Takao, President, Forum2050<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u25a0 The importance and the difficulty of “dialogue”<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/forum2050.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/newsletter202605-03.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u25a0 The difference between “saying” and “doing”<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Koenji, Suginami City
TODA Takao
Email: toda@forum2050.com<\/a>
Facebook: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/takao.toda.54<\/a>
X: https:\/\/x.com\/forum2050?s=21&t=-jQeTjzOoHjrmEbKJvNwNg<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n