The Kyoto Post-COVID Manifesto For Global Economics - Confronting Our Shattered Society

This book, The Kyoto Post-COVID Manifesto for Global Economics (KM-PC), is a sequel to our 2018 book, The Kyoto Manifesto for Global Economics (KM-I, 2018). It further exposes the failures of a global economic regime that, based on self-interest, has led to the enormously unequal and fragmented society of today and our decreased ability to respond and recover from the critical worldwide consequences of such a regime over time - notably, climate change. At stake is our very survival beyond the twenty-first century.
 
The fundamental tenet of this book is that our power to heal our currently fractured society lies in the depth of our humanity - in our shared human spirit and spirituality. What is sacred or of imperishable supreme value is what we can be as a human race: empowered, fulfilled individuals, living in harmony, deeply sharing and caring for one another and the environment that sustains us across our distinct cultures and worlds in which we live. Thus, the norms in our economic relations do not have to be those of self-interest that separates us, the ever-watchful distrust represented by 'the deal' and immediate economic advantage for me. Instead, we can build an economic frame for our society based on mindfulness, care, mutual human benefit, and trust - on our shared humanity.
 

Our argument was complete and we were ready to publish. But then, suddenly, from the dawning of 2020, everything changed. COVID-19 invaded and the world as we knew it simply stopped. No one saw it coming. As authors, we waited to watch and seek to understand. The result is that the book captures the COVID trauma and, against the fractures based on self-interest already visible in today's society, assesses the impact of COVID-19 now and for the future. Focusing on a humanity-based economics is even more important now, and this book shows why.
Chapter 15  is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.



Stephen Hill (AM, FRSN, FTSE, FWIF, PhD) is Emeritus Professor, University of Wollongong, Australia and a prominent Australian scientist and diplomat. He has degrees and has written extensively in multiple disciplines. Originally a research chemist (Sydney University and Unilever), he also was awarded Australia's first Business Administration PhD (Melbourne University) and after academic positions in Chicago, Sussex and Sydney, was appointed as Foundation Professor of Sociology at the University of Wollongong at age 30. He has lived and worked in the US, Europe and Asia, been policy consultant to most relevant International Agencies and several Asian countries, and founded three research centers including a Center of Excellence of the Australian Research Council. From 1995 to 2006 he was Asia-Pacific Regional Director for Science for the UN Agency UNESCO, and Representative (Ambassador), based in Indonesia. He was responsible for major UN science, education, media freedom, culture, world heritage and peace initiatives and reforms in the region, as well as being commissioned by the Director-General to reform and decentralize the UN Agency globally. Now retired, an Emeritus Professor of the University of Wollongong, he has been awarded several State Awards including Member, Order of Australia, and continues to write, speak publicly, and be involved in community empowerment and human rights initiatives.
 
Tadashi Yagi is a Professor of the Faculty of Economics at Doshisha University.  He holds a Ph.D. in Economics, awarded by Nagoya University in 1996.  His research areas are wide-ranging, including public economics, human resources management, income distribution, welfare economics and cultural economics.  He has written many papers in refereed academic journals and chapters in edited volumes. The important papers are 'Economic Growth and the Riskiness of Investment in Firm-Specific Skills' (with Taichi Maki and Koichi Yotsuya) European Economic Review (2005), 'Income Redistribution through the Tax System:A Simulation Analysis of Tax Reform' (with Toshiaki Tachibanaki) Review of Income and Wealth (1998), 'Public Investment and Interregional Output--Income Inequalities' (with Nobuhiro Okuno) Regional Science and Urban Economics (1990). Recent works include 'Moral, Trust and Happiness-Why does trust improves happiness?-' Journal of Organizational Psychology (2017)',  'Happiness and Self-Determination - An Empirical Study in Japan' (with Kazuo Nishimura) Review of Behavioral Economics (2019).
 
Stomu Yamash'ta is creator for modern percussion's music. He was born in Kyoto, and studied music at Kyoto Horikawa Senior High School of Music, The Juilliard School, Interlochen Arts Academy, and Berklee College of Music, and has also lectured in music. His innovation and acrobatic drumming style earned him many accolades. In the 1960s he performed with Seiji Ozawa music by Toru Takemitsu, and Hans Werner Henze amongst others and became a great master of percussion at a young age. At the turn of the 1970s he formed the rock supergroup 'GO', which made an incredible impact in the world by taking its lead in fusion/music going beyond the different genres of music. In the 1980's he began pursuing Buddhism music at Toji Temple in Kyoto and established a new style of music. From his encounter with a stone instrument 'sanukite' which has a wide range far more than any other instruments, he is currently the art director of 'On Zen Ceremony' which is a ceremony incorporating Shinto, Zen, and world of spiritual music.