Participation of Gakurin Daiju, the Kōju University Program, and Lotus Students
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From August 15 to 18, 2025, the International Conference on Cooperative Global Citizenship (ICCGC), co-hosted with the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the UN (CoNGO), was held in Iksan, Korea, under the theme “Transformative Leadership for a Just and Peaceful Future.”
The conference brought together leaders and scholars from around the world—across religion, education, politics, youth, and civil society—to address how ethical and practical leadership can respond to today’s overlapping crises of war, climate emergency, and polarization.
Rev. Kyoichi Sugino, President of Gakurin Seminary, presented his paper, From Fragmentation to Flourishing: Reclaiming Virtue Ethics and Spiritual-Moral Leadership. In it, he drew upon both Western and Asian traditions—Aristotle’s eudaimonia, Confucian ren, yi, li, and the Buddhist Six Paramitas—to propose a three-layered model of virtue ethics: inward formation, relational practice, and institutional embodiment.
He illustrated this model with historical and contemporary cases: King Ashoka’s compassionate governance, interreligious cooperation in postwar Iraq, and Gakurin’s own holistic pedagogy. His presentation argued that virtue is not only a personal quality but a transformative power capable of shaping relationships and institutions, forming a “spiritual–moral infrastructure” essential for peace.
The conference also welcomed participation from Gakurin Daiju, the Kōju University Program, and Lotus Students. Among them, Ms. Iemura, a Lotus Student, contributed in the session “Empowering the Next Generation: Youth Leadership for Peace and Sustainability,” sharing reflections from a youth perspective.
Through this engagement, the significance of Gakurin’s educational model—integrating intellect (chisei), emotional sensitivity (kansei), and moral character (hinsei) into a holistic, spiritually grounded formation—was recognized on an international stage.
Next Steps
This gathering also opened new opportunities for partnership, including with Wonkwang University in Iksan and with educational institutions worldwide. Gakurin will continue to build on such connections, seeking to foster youth leadership that grows through shared learning and collaboration across cultures. While immediate solutions to global challenges may not be easy, nurturing virtue and spirituality in each student remains our mission—trusting that even small steps, taken sincerely, can contribute to peace and coexistence.
