The 10th International Leadership Seminar

Claire Bowles
July 27 -- Aug. 22, 1982

Forty Japanese students, from top universities of Japan, spent 27 days in and around New York for the 10th International Leadership Seminar this summer. Sponsored by the Unification Church, the students heard lectures, went on sight-seeing tours, and had lots of give and take with the people of America and members of the church in America.

The first ILS was held in 1973 and Europeans as well as Japanese students attended, but since 1975 only Japanese students have attended.

According to Kizashi Takemura, one of the staff of ILS, "The internal goal of ILS is not to make members for our church -- only about one third of the students have the possibility of joining -- but they go into society and become leaders there, maybe executives in society and supporters of our movement."

Most participants were selected through campus advertising or witnessing by our members. The average age is 22 years old and most were in their final year of school.

"Our original plan," said Mr. Takemura, "was to invite only students from Tokyo University, but we extended it to other national universities."

Of course, many students are attracted to ILS by the free trip to the U.S.A. and the sight-seeing, but there were others with a deeper motivation and purpose and they seem to have trust in our movement, Mr. Takemura said.

All participants are required to attend a 2-day workshop and be screened by interview before the seminar.

Good publicity was given to the seminar by the biggest newspaper in Japan and in interviews with past participants it was learned that most of these men, who are now in business, feel very grateful for having gone to the International Leadership Seminar. They said that from the time they attended the ILS, their personal life deepened and they had more awareness of their responsibility to Japan because of the seminar. There were many who said that although they were not directly involved in the Unification Church, they were watching closely and supporting wherever they could. Others said that they had changed from a socialist viewpoint to the Liberal Democratic Party which is more conservative. The newspaper reported that the fact that our movement spent so much on this project is an indication of our power and courage.

Because of bad publicity about our movement in Japan, many students received strong warnings and persecution from their friends. They were told that they would be brainwashed and that they would never come back to Japan. Even though they may have decided to join the seminar in February, the number of students who can endure this kind of propaganda fluctuates a lot, Takemura said.

Among the participants, some ex-members were able to find their way back to the church because of gaining a wider vision of our international church activities. Although internally they were still rather closed and hesitant when they arrived -- they wondered how they would be treated -- as time went on, they began to see that our church has grown through many projects like the newspapers, fishing, conferences, etc.

Through direct contact with Western members, all the students began to see the international dimension of our movement. Most of the students have a strong desire to communicate with Western members, even though their ability is not always very good. They greatly appreciate Western members' patience and care with them.

As many as two thirds of the students don't believe in God, so it is hard for them to feel Divine Principle deeply in the beginning. Through the care of the Western members and the team leaders, the students are more open to the possibility of an invisible God. Many joined in prayer meetings and seriously researched a spiritual way of life. Two people even tried fasting.

When it was time to depart, there were moving moments when tears showed in eyes. Most expressed the desire to come back to the States or to attend next year's seminar. They will all have strong memories of the experience. In Japan, an annual reunion of past ILS participants is held and there is always a lot of exchanging pictures and memories.

"The International Leadership Seminar is a long-term program to save Japan and win support of our movement for the future years. It is very very valuable for that reason," Mr. Takemura concluded.