Keynote Address

Abstract

It was towards the end of the Sixties that I first began to think of global problems in terms of the New Problems of Advanced Societies. The 1960s was a golden period of high economic growth for Japan; while in Europe the Rome Treaty was concluded in 1957 and the European Economic Community was officially inaugurated in 1960. The prosperity in Europe continued up to the middle of the Sixties. The United States was increasingly involved in the burdensome Vietnam War and was finding itself in a situation which got out of control. On the economic side, the United States suffered from the deterioration in its balance of payments and the huge deficits in public finance. The American soldiers sent to Vietnam became weary of the war without cause and tended to indulge in momentary pleasures. Narcotic addiction became rampant and the anti-war movement became active. Against such a background, the campus dispute which started at the University of California (Berkeley) in 1968 spread to other developed countries like leaping flames and thus in France the resultant May Revolution forced President De Gaulle out of power.