Based on the network known as “The Harmony of Shining Women Foundation” launched in Hiroshima, Japan, in 1998 we established a non-profit organization (501c3/Charitable Foundation) in New York City and Hawaii the goal of which was to promote our activities in the United States. We have been conducting regular lectures on the topic “Be Myself” for 8 years in New York City. For natives of Japan such as us, there are times when our lives here are burdened with various problems and complications due to the language barrier, the differences in culture and customs, and so on.

We have reached the point where we can continue to live while believing in our own potential and expressing our notion of the self in a dignified manner in the United States, the great country that possesses the concepts of freedom and equality, and moreover independence. Precisely because we are living here, we want to find a sense of values whereby we can survive by placing the highest importance on our true selves and firmly establishing the freedom of our inner souls and our spiritual self-reliance. Based on the idea that there exists within each of us something that influences our lives, we have gathered together large numbers of people in Japan and Europe as well.

The person who created the opportunity 16 years ago was not a woman but a man.

A certain doctor of medicine in Hiroshima initiated things with the following appeal:

One should be true to oneself and unique individually. We are supposed to live alight with our own dreams, hopes, strong will and zeal for our own future. This is what we call a spirit that is alive as a human being. Every human being has inside a true self that is already shining like a hero or heroine. Let us give full play to such individuality as a hero or heroine during our whole lifetime on earth.

Amid the welter of standpoints and environments, people that possess a will to move further ahead towers the future are willingly planning and carrying out events and volunteer activities as a challenge to their respective lives. Our foundation has been constituted by the cooperation of people that agree with the desire to contribute to their surroundings and to local society through such activities. We have held 16 charity concerts nationwide in Japan, and all of them were blessed with success.  In New York City, we held a charity concert by Anna Saeki, Japanese tango singer, on December 2001, and the proceeds of this concert were donated to the World Trade Center Disaster Relief Fund.

By placing the highest importance on human relationships that are pervaded by warmth in daily life, above and beyond considerations or age, gender, position, and the like, and by enabling people to manifest the individuality and the inner spirit that each person respectively has, we are offering an existence that provides courage and hope to everyone. We continue to cooperate in the creation of an environment wherein it is possible for many people to wish to engage in activities in every field.  In this environment, it is also possible for them to realize the potential that they possess individually.  We take as our objective the provision of the spiritual and economic support required in order to confront a future with an ever-broader mental horizon.